“Time Is Money”
Benjamin Franklin probably didn’t have the manual testing of EHR records on his mind when he uttered his famous quote, but he was prophetic, nonetheless.
Manual EHR, third-party, and enterprise application testing is an undeniable burden on hospitals and health systems, consuming hundreds, if not thousands of employee hours annually.
This is time that internal IT analysts and staff could be spending on more meaningful work for their organizations, work that allows them to take better advantage of their expertise and, quite frankly, that enables them to feel like their skills are being utilized properly.
However, the constant buzz of EHR script changes and system upgrades requires countless hours to keep up. And even then, the sheer volume of testing demands can create a “ticket logjam” that makes getting ahead nearly impossible. The opportunity cost for all these hours of trying to catch up and keep up is immeasurable, and the dents in team morale are difficult to avoid.
To compound the issue, manual testing introduces the potential for human error in the process. Again, just due to sheer volume, it’s virtually impossible to guarantee a 100% success rate when it comes to manual testing. And one small error can have serious implications for an entire hospital, impacting everything from patient care to revenue cycle outcomes.
To say that EHR, third-party, and enterprise application testing is an imperfect system is like saying the Grand Canyon is a large hole in the ground. As hospitals and health systems – like Children’s Health System in Texas, which will be discussed in greater detail below – strive to become more efficient and make more consequential use of their IT teams, test automation is emerging as a transformative solution that makes both objectives more realistic. Children’s Health and other multi-location systems are taking notice and taking advantage.
By partnering with SureTest, clients can significantly reduce the time and effort spent on manual testing, ultimately saving both time and money. SureTest provides SureManage™, a full-service managed solution that automates testing, frees up thousands of employee hours, and enables healthcare organizations to improve the speed and integrity of their operations.
As Benjamin Franklin alluded to in his famous quote, time is most definitely a form of currency, and that is particularly true in healthcare. SureTest is giving invaluable time back to healthcare organizations, which gives them the impetus to do more meaningful work that moves them forward.
In Search of More Efficiency
Children’s Health System is headquartered in Dallas and is comprised of two full-service hospitals, an inpatient specialty hospital, and multiple specialty centers. Like most health systems, Children’s Health dedicates thousands of hours each year to manual testing, which is time they want their analysts to spend elsewhere. Children’s Health approached SureTest to pursue an automated testing solution to drive team efficiency. Children’s Health also wanted to improve the quality of their testing with a consistent, repeatable approach that eliminated the potential for human error. They recognized the opportunity that SureTest’s turnkey solution provides:
“We do a lot of integrated tests, every time we introduce something, so there’s hundreds, if not thousands, of hours throughout the year that we have the opportunity to (automate), and we did that. We’re starting to see some of the benefits now. The other major part of this really comes to quality. It’s a consistent approach to testing versus the human approach of testing.”
– Chris Akeroyd
Executive VP, Chief Information Officer
Children’s Health
More efficiency and higher quality testing were just two benefits that prompted Children’s Health to seek SureTest’s managed automation services. A more comprehensive list includes the following:
- Optimize Existing Staff – SureTest manages the entire testing function – we build it, maintain it, and consistently update it – which frees up thousands of employee hours. Without the burden of testing, analysts and other internal employees can focus on more high-value activities.
- Increase Accuracy – As you would expect, an automated testing solution delivers a level of consistency that is simply unattainable by a human workforce. When you consider that even one testing miscue can upend multiple hospital workflows, the ability to implement the same measured testing approach every time at scale is invaluable.
- Improve Team Morale – Not only is manual testing an inefficient use of employee hours, but it’s also tedious, monotonous work. Without the burden of testing, internal staff can be repurposed to focus on more challenging and rewarding production activities, which elevates employee satisfaction and retention.
- Access to a Global Library of Workflows—SureTest’s solution provides hospitals and health systems with our SureWorks® Library, a vast library of thousands of automated workflows that can be easily customized to fit the needs of a specific organization. The library includes a wide range of pre-built test scenarios and scripts for various EHR, third-party, and enterprise applications. Having access to this wealth of proven workflows accelerates implementation and ensures seamless integration.
- ROI – By eliminating manual testing and using that time to redirect staff to more complex production issues, hospitals and health systems can improve internal processes and become far more efficient. The automated solution’s ability to reduce testing errors translates into time and money saved and an overall stronger financial performance.
Adding Immediate Value
Although SureTest’s partnership with Children’s Health is still in its early stages, SureTest has already identified an area that was being manually tested incorrectly, which resulted in certain infusion charges being omitted from patient bills in the production environment. After SureTest’s discovery, the error was rectified. This fix had a significant impact in the validation that all appropriate charges were included on future patient bills.
Conclusion
At its core, SureTest’s SureManage solution gives healthcare organizations and their employees the invaluable gift of more time, a rare and precious commodity in the healthcare space. As Benjamin Franklin wisely noted, ‘time is money,’ and with SureTest, hospitals and health systems can optimize their operations and better leverage existing staff without the need for additional headcount. This not only helps minimize costs, but also improves revenue, positioning them for long-lasting success by using their time more strategically and efficiently. Learn more about how SureTest can help you to maximize productivity, realize phenomenal speed to value and achieve solid ROI in the first year here.