Bozeman Health manages the credentials of more than 1,000 practitioners in southwestern Montana. This includes active medical staff, telehealth, locums, advanced practice physicians, and independent providers.
THE PROBLEM
The healthcare system’s previous credentialing process was inefficient and cumbersome because it relied on manual workflows, physical forms, and personal signatures from healthcare providers. This created a logistical burden for both medical and administrative staff.
“As a result, we saw slow application turnaround times,” said Heather Holmquist, RN, systems manager of medical staff services and peer review at Bozeman Health. “Leaders had little visibility into the status of accreditation applications, making it difficult to adequately prepare for certification committee meetings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we also experienced staff shortages and struggled to onboard new providers in time to meet expectations. growing demand for care.
“We were further concerned that our manual identification system allowed for a greater risk of human error,” she continued. “All of these challenges ultimately placed a financial burden on the organization, impacting patient access and therefore the patient experience.”
PROPOSAL
Vendor RLDatix promised Bozeman Health that its technology would bring the health care system’s credentials online and make it easier for everyone involved. A streamlined identification system would help Bozeman achieve true compliance and align with industry best practices by creating a comprehensive, electronic database of supplier records, the supplier said.
“This would enable greater visibility of processes while maximizing workforce resources, dramatically reducing credentialing turnaround time and improving recruitment efforts,” Holmquist said. “A centralized repository of digital data facilitates access to information quickly and efficiently. The system would allow suppliers and staff to upload information from anywhere.
“By using dedicated queues and hard-coded timestamps for assigned work, credentialing teams were able to monitor progress and maintain strict quality controls for patient safety and the overall experience,” she added.
The technology would also allow committee members to gain early access to vendor records, allowing for comprehensive committee review and preparation, she said.
MEETING THE CHALLENGE
By working with the provider, Bozeman Health was able to effect significant changes in the healthcare system. The credentialing teams use the platform to manage applications and reapplications without the need for physical paperwork, personal signatures or faxed documents. Everything is digitized and resides in a centralized database for easy access.
“The technology integrates with our other RLDatix peer review, patient safety and patient relations software, as well as our Epic and Premier systems,” Holmquist said. “This was especially critical for us when choosing the right technology to implement. We wanted something that would fit seamlessly into our existing tech stack so that we didn’t create additional administrative burdens for staff.
“The RLDatix infrastructure has enabled greater efficiencies in managing provider classifications and large-scale initiatives – for example, the rapid collection of COVID-19 vaccination data from providers – greater flexibility after hours and during emergencies, more proactive and productive verification meetings, and improved patient and provider experience,” she continued.
Holmquist provides an example of the impact the accreditation system has had on the health care system.
“I was at a conference and got a call from our CEO about an urgent credential issue,” she recalls. “Instead of having to call my team to have them manually retrieve the correct files and fax them, I was able to log into the identification system directly on my phone and retrieve the correct file in minutes.
“Credentialing is essentially the first line of security within a healthcare system, and with technology we have added an extra layer of security controls to our processes,” she continued. “Our new process allowed us to identify providers early in the credentialing process that did not meet our high credentialing standards.”
RESULTS
With the technology, Bozeman Health has achieved much faster turnaround times for credentialing applications, increasing patient access. An additional advantage is that organizational revenues are regained more quickly, which also benefits healthcare providers and patient populations.
“Specifically, Bozeman Health’s turnaround times are now 40-45 days to completion, up from 90-120,” Holmquist said. “RLDatix’s software streamlines the process by tracking applicants and guiding them every step of the way. In July 2021, before implementation, our team was credentialing an average of eight applicants per month.”
Three years after implementation, the team processes approximately 35 applications per month, which more than quadruples the capacity for processing applications and re-applications.
“The easy-to-use system has also been a selling point in our efforts to recruit new providers,” Holmquist said. “Our white glove program has received positive responses across the board, and we have even had locums come on as permanent staff because the qualification and onboarding experience was so easy and positive for them.
“The increased automation of the software-provided credentialing has significantly reduced the administrative burden on staff, freeing up FTEs and leading to a reallocation of staff,” she continued. “We previously had 3.5 FTEs who dealt exclusively with identification.”
With the system in place, Bozeman reduced that number to 1.5 FTEs. Instead of manually completing the entire credentialing process from start to finish, FTEs focus their time on performing the tasks that are not automated by the system, such as setting agendas and conducting orientation programs. The team created a monthly Grand Rounds Lunch and Learn for physicians, completely rebuilt and streamlined the onboarding process, and built a new web page for providers.
“We also now have access to certified accreditation specialists through RLDatix, who have helped us implement best practices and improve the services of our medical staff overall,” said Holmquist.
“One of the key benefits we have seen is the improvement in our audit readiness,” she added. “As a DNV hospital, we are surveyed several times a year, and these surveys require reviewing all of our credential files. We are on our eighth or ninth survey audit since implementation, and we typically pass audits within 15 minutes .We do this routinely receive compliments for ‘notable efforts’ for extended files.
Finally, Bozeman Health has seen strong financial upside. In the first full year of using the software, annual expenses were reduced by 25%, allowing the healthcare system to invest money in other high-priority areas.
ADVICE FOR OTHERS
“I would advise healthcare organizations considering implementing new credentialing technology to focus on change management,” said Holmquist. “Our team was deeply involved in obtaining buy-in from our senior leaders and more than 700 key vendors prior to implementation. We scheduled multiple sessions with vendors and other staff to familiarize them with the software and ensure they felt at ease.
“Change is easier when it happens gradually,” she noted. “We started implementing the new process with initial applicants only. Then, seven months later, we started using the process for reappointments. This staggered approach helped staff get used to the process and gave our qualifications committee time to learning with a smaller group of applicants.”