Greater Rochester Orthopaedics, Rochester, NY
Health Care is Big Business. It's Also Small Business.
According to a recent study, radiology represents nearly 90 percent of the imaging volume in healthcare today—with levels growing faster than in any other specialty. That's just one reason why David Grandchamp and his IT team at Robert D. Russo, MD and Associates Radiology have been early adopters of cuttingedge information technology applications.
When people think of health care, most think of big- often enormous-business. But health care is also small business-thousands of physician-owned practices are just like any other small business looking to grow, better serve their patients, and cut costs.
Greater Rochester Orthopaedics (GRO) is a physician-owned group of board-certified orthopaedic surgeons providing service from two office locations in the greater Rochester, New York area. Like any small business, they struggle with traditional business issues. And like any small business, they are always looking for a more effective way to operate.
Moving to a better way of doing business.
When GRO moved to a new location, they saw it as an opportunity not only to upgrade their facilities, but to change the way they worked as well. Partially due to bandwidth issues, GRO had been stuck in a paper workflow that cost them in productivity, customer service, and profit.
"Before we moved, we had an outdated practice management system which basically just allowed us to store financial records, schedule appointments, submit claims, and house progress notes electronically. We were basically still paper driven," explains Al Campagna, GRO's Business Manager. The entire staff spent a great deal of time locating patient records, moving patient records, filing patient records, and, despite their most conscientious efforts, occasionally losing patient records.
But things were about to change.
Helping GRO grow.
Campagna realized that their network could play a key role in achieving growth and providing the highest levels of care and exemplary customer service. So when the previous provider's contract expired, GRO brought in a consultant and asked, "How do we get better value?"
The answer was Fibertech.
"When we went to Fibertech, it allowed us to have a broadband, true 3 MB pipeline to carry images from the radiology office up to our office. That completely revamped our workflow, which used to be manually driven."
The move to a fiber network allowed a move to a new workflow-one that used electronic charts, gave physicians access to patient information from any secure port, and dramatically reduced the time and effort it took to prepare for a patient's visit.
The results for GRO have been extraordinary. Staff members are no longer chasing down films or relying on patients to bring their records with them. This impressive improvement all came with a 25% savings over what they previously paid for network services.
And that kind of savings is a big deal for a small business like GRO.
"Since we have the Fibertech connection available, we basically place an electronic call for the medical images and the physician just logs on and 'Voila', there is the study."
Al Campagna, Business Manager at Greater Rochester Orthopaedics