T-System announces today the addition of two new client facilities in Puerto Rico. Aibonito and Cayey hospitals, both part of Puerto Rico's Mennonite General Hospital, recently implemented The
T System® For Emergency Physicians as their documentation solution.
Enrique Vazquez, M.D., MBA, Corporate Director for Quality Improvement at Mennonite, approached
T-System with a need to improve many problems affecting each facility's emergency department (ED). "In an effort to provide better patient care, their main goals were to increase compliance levels and find a comprehensive documentation method that would produce a more thorough medical record," said Molly Golson, RN, a
T-System regional sales consultant who helped implement
T System at both sites.
Prior to
T System, CMS and JCAHO compliance was a serious issue. Puerto Rican hospitals are subject to U.S compliance and coding guidelines. Given its proven track record in over 40 percent of U.S. hospitals,
T System was deemed the appropriate solution. "We identified their needs and believed
T System could help. Based on where they were and where they are now [with compliance], it's like night and day," said Linda Denton, VP of Paper Products Customer Care at
T-System. By increasing compliance, both facilities have experienced more accurate coding.
Aibonito and Cayey previously relied solely on handwritten notes, resulting in records that were sometimes illegible or incomplete. Inadequate documentation also made reimbursement a major concern, with nearly 20 percent of Aibonito and Cayey's patients covered by Medicare. Since the integration of
T System, physicians efficiently capture legible and thorough patient information, providing a significant opportunity for increased reimbursement. "
T System has produced a marked turnaround related to our ER physician documentation. We have always provided quality care, we just needed to have it documented. Also, the incremental revenue potential for our institution will be substantial based on this improved documentation," Vazquez said.
"As far as creating a complete, defendable and clear patient record,
T System has definitely met their goals and expectations," Denton added. Both sites also have separate pediatric EDs that document with
T System, further optimizing patient care and workflow throughout each facility.
These sites represent the first implementations for
T-System in Puerto Rico.
T-System hopes to deepen its client base in the country and views its relationship with Mennonite as a positive step in that direction. "We are proud to have made such a constructive impact at Aibonito and Cayey with regard to documentation, compliance and reimbursement. That is always the essential goal of
T-System, to provide emergency departments with the best tools to support the delivery of efficient and high quality medical care," said Joe Lastinger, VP Product Management and Marketing at T-System.
Mennonite General Hospital, Inc is one of Puerto Rico's 13 non-profit community hospital systems and is the only one providing service to the island's central-mountain region. Together, Aibonito and Cayey average 100,000 patient visits a year. For more information, visit their website,
http://www.hospitalmenonita.com/english/html/historia_eng.html
T-System Inc. and
T-System Technologies, Ltd., headquartered in Dallas, Texas, provide innovative medical documentation solutions designed to enhance documentation quality and clinical efficiency. Nationwide, more than 1,700 hospitals use
T-System products and services including 100 installations of The
T SystemEV® (emergency department information system),
T System for Emergency Physicians,
T System for Emergency Nurses and
T System for Urgent Care. For more information, please visit
www.tsystem.com, or contact Joe Lastinger at (800) 667-2482.
