Pathways, Inc. sees huge gains after moving away from paper charts

Records management reimagined: Success story for human services

About Pathways, Inc.

Since 1966, Pathways, Inc., has proudly served as a community-based center for behavioral health care in northeastern Kentucky. Services also include the prevention and treatment of alcohol and other addictions, and aid for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. Together, these services provide a network to promote the emotional health and well-being of Kentucky citizens and communities. Pathways operates more than 30 facilities in a 10-county region and continues to grow, with more than 500 employees currently providing behavioral health care.

The challenge

Pathways needed to make some big decisions about how to accommodate its growing client base. The volume of paper was overwhelming, and employees were literally running out of room to store paper charts.

For every new consumer, a separate paper chart was created to manage the clinically relevant content that lived outside of the electronic health record (EHR). This included placing multiple forms inside the file folder, managing dividers and storing each folder in file cabinets. In many cases, these files were massive. Since the agency supports intellectual and developmental disability services (IDD), some client charts dated back to the individual’s birth.

The process was tedious, time-consuming, and frustrating for staff, not to mention the nasty papercuts from filing paperwork all day. The paper charts made information sharing extremely difficult between the organization’s 30 facilities that span 10 counties. For example, staff would often transport paper charts in a locked bag, via car, to share files with other locations.

Pathways knew it needed to do three things:

• Stop creating new paper charts
• Stop putting paper into existing charts
• Start scanning everything into the EHR to digitally share information

The solution

Document Capture powered by Hyland Perceptive, was implemented to make capturing, storing, and retrieving information in the Netsmart EHR easy and paperless for Pathways staff, freeing them to focus on providing the best possible care and service to their clients. The digital solution allowed them to use their physical space to serve more clients rather than store paper.

“Our ability to retrieve and share information at our fingertips has changed everything,” said medical records administrator, Marie Sublett.

What used to take me three weeks to complete a 60-chart audit now takes me one week.

Marie Sublett, Medical Records Administrator

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The results

“Moving away from paper has been awesome,” said Lisa Evans, customer support services director. “Our workflows are much more efficient; we don’t spend time searching for information or tracking down the right person to get the information. It’s all right there in the Netsmart record, available to the people who need access to it.”

Since partnering with Netsmart to integrate Document Capture into the EHR, Pathways has vastly improved its workflow and data accessibility, increased staff satisfaction, and solved physical storage constraints. On top of all that, employees are using the time saved from managing paper charts to focusing on supporting telehealth services for clients.

Additionally, audits have become much easier. Pathways has seen a 66% reduction in time to complete audits. “What used to take me three weeks or more to complete a 60-chart audit now takes me one week,” said Sublett.

“We no longer make paper charts for our new clients. It’s all electronic, which allows us to scan directly into the EHR,” Sublett said. Regarding staff satisfaction with the new solution, “Scanning has become my new best friend – and a process that I now rely on to be more efficient,” said Tiffany Lisle, customer service manager.

Scanning has become my new best friend – and a process that I now rely on to be more efficient.

Tiffany Lisle, Customer Service Manager

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Document Capture impact:

• Supports better care with the ability to quickly locate labs, test results and discharge summaries electronically
• Reduced time to complete audits by 66% because all information is accessible in one searchable, digital repository
• Improved staff satisfaction by eliminating the need to dig through paper charts or contact other employees to find information
• Removed three, 4-drawer cabinets in the front office, creating space for an extra desk
• Increased productivity to the equivalent of 1.0 FTE (full-time employee) by reducing time spent filing documents
• Created 4,189 completely digital client charts in the first nine months of use

Our ability to retrieve and share information at our fingertips has changed everything.

Marie Sublett, Medical Records Administrator

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Advice for others

When asked what Sublett would say to others experiencing similar challenges, she responded:

• Make the investment – the efficiencies you gain with electronic document storage will help advance the mission of your organization.
• When evaluating cost, think about the greater good. What is right for your consumers is more important than just looking at numbers or dollar figures.
• Consider the costs of HIPAA violations, security concerns and inaccurate client records without electronic document storage.
• It’s much easier to lock a computer than it is to lock file cabinets and doors.