Cayuga Medical Center Drives Efficiency System-wide,
Frees More Time for Patient Care

Imagine having to rely on a stand-alone system in the main registration area and a pneumatic tube to distribute vital patient documentation to every department throughout your health system.  It’s a recipe for delays, frustration and errors, and it certainly does not facilitate responsive patient care.

That’s what the dedicated staff of Cayuga Medical Center felt.  Committed to providing high quality healthcare to residents of Ithaca and the Finger Lakes region of New York, this 204-bed acute care facility sought an enterprise solution that would enable its clinical floors and offsite locations to print wristbands, forms and bar-coded labels on demand anytime, anywhere they were needed.

Cayuga’s Information Systems Manager Polly Parsons and Director of Admissions Diane Sidle teamed with Standard Register to devise and implement a solution that included --- two key components of SR’s SMARTworks® Clinical Enterprise – Patient LinkUp® Enterprise (PLUE) and the Forms On Demand (FOD) library.

Right Form, Accurate Patient Data
Together, these applications allow users to print individual forms or a complete kit of patient-specific documents from a network printer of their choice.  No longer do other departments or remote registration areas rely on preprinted forms or handwritten patient information produced by the central registration staff.  Users simply go to the FOD library and select needed forms. Integrated with Cayuga’s existing MEDITECH database, PLUE automatically populates the admissions forms with patient data and prints them at whichever printer the user selects.  It’s that simple and accurate, reducing the opportunity for manual errors and helping to assure the most current forms are being used. 

Immediate Access to Needed Documents
This integrated document management solution has enabled Cayuga’s on-site and off-site departments to function independently, instead of waiting for patient documentation to be transferred via the pneumatic tube. What’s more, the registration staff no longer needs to spend time printing and tubing extra labels for the nursing units or ancillary departments such as Pain and Oncology.  With the SMARTworks Clinical Enterprise, the admissions packet can be printed and handed to the patient.  Other labels and forms can printed on the clinical floor, in the lab, in the pharmacy -- wherever the patient is located as they are needed.

More Time to Focus on Patients
As a result, Cayuga’s staff saves two hours a day printing and transporting forms.  That translates to a more efficient admissions process and a better experience for the incoming patient.  In the ER or on the clinical floor, it means no time is wasted waiting for patient records. The staff can concentrate on patient care.

A Smart, Smooth Transition
It’s been a smart move for Cayuga that’s also brought a 10 percent reduction in forms-related costs and provided the medical center with the ability to accommodate continued growth and process improvements.

And the transformation has come about smoothly, with the help of Standard Register’s project management expertise.  Each floor was brought live on the system, followed by the off-site locations. Using a “Train the Trainer” approach, the SR team familiarized key staff members with the system until they were comfortable using it and training others. Considered very intuitive, this automated admissions solution helped ease the transition for Cayuga’s staff and it continues to shorten the learning curve for its new hires.

Cayuga Medical Center’s Vice President and CIO Tony Votaw said, “We will not implement another software package without a project plan similar to what Standard Register produced.”

For more information about improving access to patient data, enhancing patient safety, addressing compliance issues or deterring fraud, contact one of our Healthcare Applications Specialists.