Performance Health Partners
How did a rural Ohio health center turn its biggest challenge into its greatest asset? By harnessing the power of incident management automation, Family Health Services of Darke County transitioned from outdated paper processes to a cutting-edge digital platform.
This case study explores their journey with Performance Health Partners’ automated reporting system, showcasing significant improvements in efficiency, compliance, and patient safety.
Introduction/Organization Summary
Family Health Services of Darke County, a federally qualified health center (FQHC) in rural southwest Ohio, provides a comprehensive range of medical, behavioral health, dental, and vision services to nearly 28,000 patients annually. As the organization expanded its service lines, it faced growing challenges in managing incident and event reporting and compliance tracking, namely due to their outdated paper processes.
To address these issues, Family Health Services transitioned from a paper-based system to Performance Health Partners’ (PHP) automated event management platform, significantly improving reporting efficiency, oversight, and staff engagement.
The Challenge
Before implementing PHP’s solution, Family Health Services relied on a manual, paper-based incident reporting system. This approach presented multiple challenges, including:
- Delays in tracking and resolving incidents
- Difficulty in compiling reports
- Inability to identify patterns and trends
- Inefficiencies in communicating findings across departments
Paper reports were often misplaced or lost, requiring extensive administrative effort to organize data and making it difficult to identify trends or areas needing improvement. Additionally, the lack of automation hindered timely follow-up on incidents, contributing to prolonged resolution times.
“As a growing organization expanding our service lines, we were looking for something that was a little more automated than our previous paper process. We wanted a solution that would make it easier for staff to report, but also easier for collecting that information and being able to have automated reports that we could capture and take a look at,” said Charlene Wright, Senior Director of Quality & Risk Management.
The Solution: Incident Management Automation with Performance Health Partners
After researching various solutions and receiving recommendations from the Ohio Association of Community Health Centers (OACHC), Family Health Services selected PHP for its user-friendly interface, automation capabilities, and strong customer support.
The implementation process was seamless, with PHP providing a pre-structured framework that allowed for easy customization. The system’s automated workflows, structured data entry forms, and intuitive dashboards enabled staff to efficiently report events, incidents, and near misses, and track resolutions. The automated routing based on location ensured that incidents were directed to the appropriate department supervisors for immediate attention.
Charlene said of the implementation process, “It was very smooth, the team was great to work with, and very helpful. PHP set up the initial structure for us, so we didn’t have to do it all from scratch. We still had the ability to make revisions, which was very important to us.”
Transformative Results
Since implementing PHP’s incident reporting software, Family Health Services has experienced significant improvements in efficiency and data transparency. Thanks to incident management automation, the number of reported incidents rose substantially, indicating improved staff buy-in and trust in the system.
“Having the capability to drill down into the various types of incident reports, from patient relations to clinical issues, has provided tremendous insight. We can now get an in-depth look into each department to determine if there are any trends, patterns, or specific events that occurred in a particular month. For example, we can ask, 'Why were there so many medication or vaccine errors?' This level of visibility into the data is something we simply did not have before,” said Charlene.
The organization gained enhanced oversight of incidents by department, location, and event type, allowing for better trend analysis and response strategies. Additionally, incident management automation and incident follow up has saved approximately two days of administrative time per month, previously spent on compiling and communicating reports manually.
The time required to resolve incidents has also significantly decreased, as automated workflows facilitate faster collaboration among relevant stakeholders, reducing resolution times from weeks to just a few days.
Moreover, with improved compliance and structured data collection, Family Health Services can now conduct more effective root cause analyses, taking the data they’ve collected and analyzing it to implement meaningful solutions. For example, after using PHP’s software to track trends of near misses in pharmacy, Family Health Services was able to implement additional training within their pharmacy department to address specific issues and reduce risk.
The structured nature of the system also has ensured that incident documentation is thorough and standardized, eliminating inconsistencies that previously existed in the paper process, and highlighting areas for improvement.
Charlene also praised the automated incident management system for the insights it provided into overlooked areas, “Before PHP, we lacked a reporting mechanism for our nursing home. Now, with the Incident Management System, we’ve established a designated reporting category for this area. This update has prompted necessary revisions and heightened our awareness of specific incidents that occur there.”
Final Thoughts
By transitioning to PHP’s automated incident reporting system, Family Health Services of Darke County has significantly streamlined its compliance and risk management processes. Their transformation underscores the impact of event management automation in driving efficiency and continuous growth within healthcare organizations. The ability to efficiently track incidents, automate workflows, and generate real-time insights has empowered them to enhance operational excellence, all for the improved safety of the patients they serve each day.
“I highly recommend Performance Health Partners’ platform. Implementation and the support staff have been extremely helpful in putting together an incident reporting system that is easy to use for the staff as well as for follow-up. Being able to have that structured data that we need for follow-up, tracking, and monitoring has been just amazing,” said Charlene.
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