TPIRC Automates Business Processes to Treat Patients With Orphan Diseases

The Translational Pulmonary & Immunology Research Center (TPIRC) deployed process automation and data analytics to develop new treatment protocols for patients suffering from rare and orphan diseases, and used document management technology to scale its practice.

TPIRC founder and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Inderpal Randhawa spent the early part of his career working in intensive care units where he saw enough children die from anaphylactic reactions to food allergens that he began to question conventional treatment protocols. He decided to dedicate his career to changing how healthcare operates. To help the medical team continue to innovate on behalf of patients, TPIRC and its second division, the Southern California Food Allergy Institute, employed Laserfiche to automate treatment plans, reduce the time practitioners spend on paperwork, and share information between clinical and research divisions.

In addition to regular treatments, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic the clinic rapidly rolled out a key Laserfiche form and automated business process, which were used to schedule COVID-19 testing for high-risk patients, ensuring continuity of care.

Innovation Fueled by Data Analytics

Healthcare is one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. economy, yet it’s one of the slowest moving in regards to innovation. TPIRC’s mission is to close that innovation gap by developing new treatment protocols for conditions other physicians no longer try to treat or cure, a category known as orphan diseases. To advance its mission, TPIRC relies on complex clinical processes and huge amounts of data which must be shared efficiently between practitioners.

“What separates us from other physicians who are attempting to do any type of food allergy treatment is data analytics,” said Herman Sandhu, medical liaison at TPIRC. TPIRC physicians compare the results of lab tests to over 1 trillion data points TPIRC has gathered over the years.

Previously, TPIRC managed data for each patient manually, using a spreadsheet program. The laborious process led to employee overtime and made it difficult to identify data or process bottlenecks. The center connected with Laserfiche to implement a Laserfiche enterprise content management (ECM) system, then began eliminating siloed programs and automating patient data tracking.

“Document sharing, document storage, and the ability to automate processes are important for us as we expand our program,” said Sandhu. “Finding a way to operate in an efficient manner, with processes as automated as possible, was what led us down the road to adopting an ECM solution. … Once we saw how Laserfiche improved efficiency and gave us access to specific data points, we decided that we would like for each department to start to operate within Laserfiche, using the program for any tasks that could be automated or would benefit from some type of workflow.”

TPIRC implemented a pair of Laserfiche solutions to communicate the results of lab analyses and automate the development of treatment plans for food allergy patients.

Sandhu built the Lab Analysis Workflow, an automated workflow in Laserfiche that routes patients’ lab results to multiple physicians who can provide an assessment or extract information from the results. This allows the team to smoothly communicate their medical and data analysis, and track when each portion of medical analysis is complete.

“Before, I would’ve had to manually check all the dates, whereas Laserfiche gives me the kind of time stamp data that allows me to understand how long processes are taking,” said Sandhu. “Laserfiche allowed me to understand where bottlenecks were occurring and how I could improve the process. And then, the amount of time being spent on each patient did speed up.”

After the Lab Workflow Process is complete, TPIRC practitioners are able to predict the level of allergens that will cause a reaction in a particular patient and develop a course of treatment that will desensitize the patient over approximately 18 months.

Before implementing Laserfiche, Sandhu and Dr. Randhawa manually typed treatment plans to distribute to practitioners as well as to the food lab, which produced the food-based “doses” patients received during each appointment. Not only was the process time consuming for the practitioners, the food lab couldn’t easily export data to understand how many doses of each food they needed to prepare for each day or each appointment.

To digitally transform this process, Sandhu used Laserfiche to create a custom form that included the patient’s identifying number, the type of food they would consume during each visit, the amount of each food dose, and the number of doses need. “Now when our food lab production team needs to know the number of doses to produce, they can just pull a report,” said Sandhu.

The form also allows TPIRC to add to their growing data set, and further increase the effectiveness of their treatments.

Laboratory worker in protective mask using digital tablet

Testing Patients for COVID-19

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the TPIRC team knew they couldn’t interrupt their essential health services. In order to maintain continuity of care while preventing the spread of the disease, TPIRC began testing patients for COVID-19, assisted by a Laserfiche automated business process.

Over two days, Sandhu quickly built a business process in Laserfiche to receive COVID test requests. The process begins with patients filling out a Laserfiche form, providing information including their exposure history, their distance from the TPIRC clinic, and their age.

“With everyone scared and unsure what was going on, everyone wanted to get tested, but certain patients needed to be tested sooner than others,” said Sandhu. “Laserfiche helped us to prioritize patients and keep track of them.”

Through a Laserfiche automated process, TPIRC emailed patients consent forms and invoices prior to testing. Following the test, results were uploaded and routed to the diagnostic manager, who performed a medical analysis then marked the test results as either positive, negative, or invalid. The process then branched off into multiple flows depending on the results: Patients who received negative tests were sent an email, while results that were marked positive received a second look from one of TPIRC’s main providers. If the provider confirmed a positive result, the Laserfiche process prompted a member of the provider team to reach out to the effected family to offer guidance. All results were saved to the repository.

“Our biggest win from Laserfiche came when COVID hit. We’ve tested over 500 patients now,” said Sandhu. “Our patients needed to feel like when they were showing up to a clinic, they were in a safe environment. If we don’t have trust, we can’t offer them treatment.”

Maximizing Efficiency to Provide Care for More Patients

After implementing Laserfiche, TPIRC immediately saw a reduction in the amount of practitioner overtime. Rather than spending two to three hours of overtime per week manually completing essential documentation, providers were able to regain some work-life balance.

At the same time, TPIRC has seen an improvement in the flow of information and data between the center’s divisions. In the healthcare industry, clinical practitioners, medical researchers, and patient advocates generally operate independently of one another, even though their work influences each other’s results. In an effort to realign this disjointed system, TPIRC houses not only clinical providers, but their own research and diagnostic lab, as well as an advocacy center.

“We can push all of our patient data to the researchers, and start to discover new bio-markers that we can use to test patients,” Sandhu said. “This increases our efficiency rate and the scope we’re operating within.”

As the footprint of the organization expands, so will the number of orphan and rare diseases that TPIRC treats as well as the efficacy of the treatments already in place. Dr. Randhawa’s research has already increased the life expectancy of patients suffering from cystic fibrosis from about 15 years to about 25-30. The organization considers this to be a good starting point — and positive progress toward its ultimate goal of leaving no disease behind.

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Nature Coast Women’s Care & Family Medicine Accelerates Patient Processing with Laserfiche Cloud

Nature Coast Women’s Care & Family Medicine developed an automated patient intake process using Laserfiche Cloud. As a tech-forward, comprehensive family healthcare center that offers a wide range of services — including obstetrics, gynecology, preventative services, aesthetic medicine and family medicine — Nature Coast modernized its patient experience using digital forms, and shortened patient wait times by 75%. Accelerating patient processing proved to be an especially significant benefit as COVID-19 arrived in the U.S. and it became more important to lessen the amount of time patients were in the waiting room.

A Faster, Modern Patient Experience

Located in Tallahassee, Florida, Nature Coast Women’s Care & Family Medicine was started by Dr. Chukwuma M. Okoroji to advocate for patients’ health throughout all stages of their life. The practice prides itself on combining technology innovation with a proactive approach to patient care. The practice’s strategic planning led to the implementation of Laserfiche Cloud as a means to reimagine the patient intake process.

“Before using Laserfiche, our patients were instructed to come into the office early to fill out their new patient packet, and bring their license, insurance card — just all these pieces of paper,” said Tamearia Williams, practice administrator at Nature Coast Women’s Care & Family Medicine. “They’re filling out demographic information, financial information, etc. They would sit out in the lobby for about 10 to 15 minutes, sometimes longer, to fill out that paperwork.”

Once the front desk staff receives the paperwork, they check to make sure everything is complete and accurate before scanning the packet into the patient chart in the electronic medical record system. While the legacy process was similar to many other clinics’ patient intake process, the Nature Coast team saw opportunities for improvement. By digitizing the intake form, the clinic could reduce errors that may occur when patients fill the form out with a pen and paper, and ensure all necessary information is captured without having to return the form to the patient. Additionally, offering the ability to submit the form online would reduce wait times for all patients and streamline work for the practice.

The Nature Coast team worked with Business Automation Pros, a Laserfiche solution provider, to implement Laserfiche Cloud content management and realize their vision for a digital patient intake process.

“Nature Coast Women’s Care & Family Medicine is one of the few healthcare facilities in the region that has a digital patient intake process, which is a testament to the organization’s forward-thinking approach, and commitment to providing the best possible experience for patients,” said Ja’Baree Allen, president of Business Automation Pros. “We worked with the Nature Coast team to digitize the process just before COVID-19 arrived in the U.S. and stay-at-home orders began to take effect, enabling the clinic to continue caring for patients without missing a beat.”

Using Laserfiche, Nature Coast Women’s Care & Family Medicine replaced the in-person, manual process with an online form that patients can submit before even setting foot in the office.

Once the patient submits the intake packet online, the information is sent to the front desk team, who receive an email notification of the new patient. The information is pushed over to eClinicalWorks, the electronic health records system.

“Our front desk staff just needs to press a button and all the patient’s information is put into eClinicalWorks, which sets up the initial appointment,” Williams said. “There’s no wait time once they arrive. Laserfiche frees up a lot of time for staff and reduces the amount of time patients are in the office.”

The Cloud Advantage

For the team at Nature Coast, selecting a cloud-based content management system aligned well with the practice’s approach to technology. “We’re very tech driven here, so we like cloud-based everything,” Williams said. “We are in this office to treat our patients. So we need our technology to be top-of-the-line, all across the board. We need the ability to be remote, now more than ever. And no matter where we are, we need access to our files and our electronic medical records.”

The need to protect patient information also played a large role in the decision to implement Laserfiche Cloud.

“Being a healthcare organization, data security, HIPPAA and regulatory compliance plays a large role in our decision-making process,” Williams added. “Protecting patient information is just something that we know we must do on a day-to-day basis. Laserfiche offers the ability to see who can see what in what folders on a granular level, which is a big benefit. And Laserfiche records management is DoD-certified, which makes us feel very secure using the system and protecting the information that we are putting into the system.”

Female Doctor Wearing Scrubs In Hospital Corridor Using Digital Tablet

A Prescription for Digital Transformation

Since implementation, Nature Coast has received positive feedback from patients and staff about the new digital intake process. “Patients aren’t sitting out in the waiting room filling out paperwork, and there’s no longer the issue of forgotten driver’s licenses or insurance cards — they’ve already sent us the information we need,” Williams said. “Nothing is missed. They get here and check in, they’re seen, and then they’re on their way.” She estimates that they have shortened wait times for new patients by 75%.

Nature Coast Women’s Care & Family Medicine continues to build on the success of the new patient intake process. Human resources and financial are the next departments that will digitize records and processes, with plans to put the clinic’s job application online using Laserfiche Forms. As Nature Coast automates more of the clinic’s repetitive tasks, Williams also plans to take advantage of Laserfiche’s process analytics to help grow the practice.

“We’re hoping to increase our new patient volume,” Williams said. “Once we get more data, and more of the organization starts using Laserfiche, those analytics will be key.”

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Bubblelab Laundry Strengthens Digital Project Management Capabilities to Optimize Costs and Service Quality

Bubblelab Laundry Sdn Bhd builds, operates and maintains 24-hour self-service laundry chains throughout Malaysia. The company started with three outlet locations in 2013, and has since expanded to more than 200 facilities. This expansion has resulted in day-to-day operations growing increasingly complex due to increased customer demand and routine maintenance. In 2018, the laundry chain implemented Laserfiche to digitally transform its maintenance management processes, enhancing communication between the company’s employees, boosting productivity and supporting Bubblelab Laundry’s continued growth.

“Within a few weeks of our system going live, Laserfiche helped us achieve continuous improvements in our work environment, performance and productivity — impacting day-to-day business and aligning with our company values,” said Bubblelab Managing Director Kenny Wong.

Since working with solution provider, Ricoh (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, to implement Laserfiche at the core of its digital maintenance management system across all store locations, Bubblelab has undergone a true digital transformation, improving employee productivity, streamlining project management and reducing costs organization-wide. These results included shortening staff response times to 1.5 days, exceeding the organization’s original target by 70% and contributing to cost savings that would enable Bubblelab to reinvest in staff and equipment.

Bubblelab storefront.

Simplifying the Project Management Laundry List

Bubblelab Laundry differentiates itself by providing an exceptional customer experience — prioritizing quality, speed and value. The company’s commitment to service, coupled with its franchising strategy, has led to steady growth throughout the country. The Bubblelab leadership team understood that the ability to scale maintenance processes would be key to expansion while maintaining the customer experience that was signature of the Bubblelab brand.

The organization traditionally relied on manual processes to support machine and store maintenance, which would not be sustainable as Bubblelab grew. In order to automate and optimize these processes, Bubblelab used Laserfiche enterprise content management to develop a digital maintenance management system.

The company selected Laserfiche for the ability to create custom electronic forms with an intuitive interface, recognizing the value in using various electronic forms and automated processes to replace paper and manual tasks. The Bubblelab team also saw potential in having access to Laserfiche’s Business Process Library, a collection of prebuilt processes that provide the downloadable tools necessary for rapid business process automation and deployment. Another important consideration for Bubblelab’s digital maintenance system was that it would be able to automatically route all important information to appropriate departments and employees for approvals, while also maintaining data security — something not possible with the company’s legacy ad-hoc processes and manual tasks.

Within a project timeline of just six weeks, the team was able to implement Laserfiche, train employees on the new system, and identify five workflows to digitize. The organization also identified key performance indicators for each process based on metrics including: entries in the defect logbook, corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance, material requisition and field staff clocking.

Empowering Remote Digital Collaboration Company-Wide

Today, Bubblelab outlet locations record all maintenance issues in their defect logbook integrated with dedicated Laserfiche workflows, through which service teams are automatically issued a corrective maintenance ticket containing project location, task information and deadlines. In the event a spare or replacement part is needed, rather than relying on emails and text messages to request materials, service teams can initiate a material requisition workflow through a Laserfiche Form to indicate the items needed, as well as the quantity and collection date. The information is automatically routed to stock managers for preparation, and team leads are then required to submit electronic documentation before and after the repair work to generate a service report, which includes maintenance descriptions, photographs, employee check-in/check-out times and overall project timeline. The service supervisor is able to run reports in Laserfiche that help schedule and distribute service tickets more effectively. As a result, a works schedule briefing that formerly took a half-hour daily has been eliminated.

Additionally, Laserfiche automatically sends employee hours to the human resources department for payroll calculations. The information also helps give managers a view of staff schedules and what service tickets are outstanding.

These digital workflows have helped maximize service team resources, including travel costs and time dedicated to scheduling and communication. Bubblelab’s digital maintenance management system also takes advantage of Laserfiche’s robust document management features including granular access controls and audit trail, enabling the leadership team to maintain information governance while improving efficiency and transparency for service teams.

Bubblelab store interior

A Fresh Start for Digital Transformation

Bubblelab realized increased productivity and reports of a more positive work environment within just seven weeks of deploying the new digital maintenance management system. Since the project’s launch, the company’s Laserfiche implementation represents a cost savings of more than US$44,000, a figure projected to grow.

“The ease-of-use and level of detail possible through Laserfiche gave us the confidence that these solutions could handle any of our growing requirements,” said Wong. “We have really enjoyed designing forms and processes while identifying what other departments we could digitally transform. Laserfiche truly exceeded our expectations, improving company-wide project management in ways we did not originally anticipate.”

Bubblelab management is also now able to make more data-driven decisions, which positions the company for further growth. The organization is now seeing response times that are 73.8% faster than the original target of four days, and management now has the tools and information needed to continue optimizing processes. Beyond the initial digital workflows, collected information has also been used to manage inventory through the accounting system, reducing time spent on daily data entry. These extensive benefits have contributed to improved employee morale as a major driving factor for day-to-day operations, allowing greater control over operations to match with long-term expansion goals.

Learn more about how to use ECM and process automation to improve response times, increase employee bandwidth and foster an innovative workplace with The Business Process Automation Buyer’s Guide.