Saint Luke’s Health System, HCTec Share 2017 CHIME Collaboration Award

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Nov. 2, 2017 – About three years ago, the IT department at Saint Luke’s Health System (SLHS) in Kansas City, Mo., was stretched at the seams. SLHS was implementing a new electronic medical record (EMR) and a revenue cycle management system that added to the workload and required frequent switching between tasks. Staff were required to manage projects that didn’t always suit their capabilities and interests, and turnover began to increase.

Deborah Gash, CIO, Saint Luke’s Health System

Deborah Gash, CIO at SLHS, weighed her options. She could make new hires, but it would take six months and cost approximately $170,000 per employee to make them productive. She could outsource, but that also was costly. Instead, she turned to HCTec, a company based in Brentwood, Tenn., that provides healthcare workforce solutions.

Working together, they developed and implemented a strategy that cut staff turnover from 15 percent to 3 percent, increased morale and overall productivity, and to date has saved SLHS $9.2 million. HCTec is using the model to serve healthcare networks across the country.

The success of their partnership also has earned them the 2017 CHIME Collaboration Award. The honor was announced today at the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives’ CHIME17 Fall CIO Forum in San Antonio, Texas. The award recognizes a collaborative effort between a CIO who is a CHIME member and a CHIME Foundation firm who together author a paper that details their innovative collaboration and its outcomes.

“HCTec worked with us to identify the root cause of problems and develop a solution that allowed the IT staff to focus on tasks suitable to their skills and expertise,” said Gash. “The time our staff spends on maintenance and errors has decreased by almost half, giving them more time to devote to new, professional development. They are more productive, and importantly, more satisfied, which is reflected in the dramatic drop in our turnover rate.”

The bi-modal strategy splits tasks into two categories: general operation and growth and business transformation. SLHS and HCTec then created two workforce teams, with HCTec’s remote managed services team offering support in general operations. That freed up the SLHS IT staff for strategic planning initiatives. SLHS also saw a boost in its customer satisfaction scores after the implementation.

“We are honored to be a part of this award and to deliver these tangible cost and efficiency results to Saint Luke’s,” said HCTec Founder William Bartholomew. “Our Managed Services business delivers similar results for healthcare organizations across the country and we believe this is the optimal way to support EMRs going forward.”

“This is a great example of how CIOs and industry can work together to better serve their healthcare organizations and their patients,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell. “The collaboration allows the IT staff to concentrate on rewarding projects that can raise quality and improve the bottom line. It’s a win for everyone.”   

To learn more about the CHIME Collaboration Award, click here.

About CHIME

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 2,400 CIO members and over 150 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.

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