Forms on Demand Relieves Paper Overload at Canadian Healthcare Organization
Forms on Demand Relieves Paper Overload at Canadian Healthcare Organization
We are proud to announce that we have been featured in Canadian Healthcare Technology, a source of information for decision-makers in hospitals, continuing care facilities and home care organizations. The story highlights our partnership with our valued customer, Halton Healthcare in Canada. We began working with this award-winning Canadian healthcare organization —three community hospitals and numerous community-based services serving more than 400,000 people—a few years ago. We helped them implement a Forms on Demand solution that consolidated all their forms into a single, central repository, automating their registration packages and reducing their overall paper burden. The solution also enabled a significant streamlining of their registration process.
View the full story below as posted on Canadian Healthcare Technology.
On-demand forms printing at Halton Healthcare reduces use of paper
OAKVILLE, ONT. – Halton Healthcare, a group of three hospitals just west of Toronto, has been able to eliminate its print shop through the use of on-demand forms printing. This has resulted in a significant reduction in costs, primarily through the decreased use of paper and labels – much of which was wasted. Now, hospital staff and professionals print what’s needed as they need it.
Before the print-on-demand solution, provided by Interlace Health, Halton Healthcare employees would order large quantities of forms and labels.
“They’d request 3,000 to 4,000 forms at a time,” said Leovee Reyes, applications analyst, information and communications technology, at Halton Health-care. “Often, they wouldn’t use a lot of them – or any.”
That’s because once the forms had been printed, the Ministry of Health may have requested a change to the form, making it obsolete. When that occurred, “They would all be thrown out,” said Reyes.
Moreover, printing and attaching labels was an expensive and laborious task. Patient labels were often needed, and manual labour was required to attach them. If a change to the form was demanded, and the labels had already been attached, the team would have to start over again.
Revisions from the health ministry were only one type of change that could throw things out of whack. Human error could also occur, with mistakes appearing on a form. These forms would also need to be reprinted.
Finally, there was also a propensity to simply print more forms and labels than needed at any one time. “We have other hospital customers who have printed boxes and boxes of forms, only to throw them all out before using even 10 percent of them,” commented Dessiree Paoli, director of product marketing at Interlace Health.
Interlace Health and Halton Healthcare held a webinar in May in which they outlined how the Forms on Demand Solution has improved forms management at the hospital.
The change to the computerized solution occurred several years ago with the construction of a new Halton Healthcare facility in Oakville, Ontario. At that time, the decision was made to reduce stockpiling of paper as much as possible.
The solution from Interlace was introduced, enabling a centralized system of managing forms. The database made updating forms much easier and printing out the forms, as needed, meant that the most recent ones were being used.
Using the system from Interlace Health, Halton’s staff can print forms and labels in smaller quantities, as needed.
“There were fewer old versions floating around,” said Reyes. Moreover, the forms could be directed to a printer at the unit at which the user was working. So, if a staff member or clinician was located at a different area of the hospital or different unit, the forms could be printed right on the clinic floor. It became much faster to obtain up-to-date forms, without the need for delivery.
In addition, patient labels could be automatically included in the forms, eliminating the need to manually attach them.
Paoli commented that in other hospitals using Interlace, physicians have appreciated the ability to auto-populate forms, so they don’t have to fill them in. “Patient, too, don’t like to fill out forms,” she noted.
The forms database is used at Halton Healthcare for a wide range of documents, including things like COVID-19 packages, patient instructions and order sets, all of which may be regularly updated. Users can also note their favorites, so they can quickly access and print the forms they use the most.
As well, the system can be integrated into the electronic patient records system used by the hospital. At Halton Healthcare, for example, MEDITECH is used. When working with a patient, an administrator or clinician can pull up the patient’s record and print out the appropriate form – with the patient’s information embedded in the form.
Reyes said the automated forms solution has made a definite difference at the hospital: “Forms are more accurate and up to date – and we’re using far less paper.”
We look forward to continuing to help more healthcare providers, such as Halton Healthcare, take the stress out of their paperwork. By changing to streamlined systems and paperless solutions, it can take the load off staff members and provide a stress-free transition.
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