RHC: Mercy Health System (South Eastern Pennsylvania)
One Bala Plaza, Suite 402
Bala Cynwyd

Contact: Steve Czapla
Title:
E-mail:
Fax:
Phone: (610) 617-4289

Implementation
A task force of multi-disciplinary representatives was formed to identify the major project tasks required to meet the stated product objective. This team consisted of laboratory personnel responsible for defining and establishing the expanded internal lab business and procedures needed to accommodate the increased number of clients and testing volume. The lab was also responsible for establishing a courier service for routine and "stat" specimen pickups and for establishing the phlebotomy services available to nursing home clients. A newly formed marketing team was responsible for defining our target market territories and prospective clients, identifying customer needs and service requirements for our lab and customer service functions, preparing marketing materials, and initiating a large scale sales and marketing effort. Information technology was charged with identifying technical requirements and alternatives for providing the remote connectivity between client sites and our centralized laboratory, implementing the required technical components and training clients on the new systems. A customer service unit was also established to serve as the single point of contact for all client inquiries and service requests for items such as hardware/software failure, stat courier pickups, supplies, etc.

This effort began in mid-February 1995, with the goal to have all services ready and operational by the year end 1995 so that contracts with existing party services could be terminated. The project team faced some significant challenges. Among them were the remarketing of the new services to ensure retention of existing clients and the conversion of those new clients to new information systems. Due to limited, quality third-party technical solutions, an internally developed information system needed to be defined, built, tested, and operational prior to data conversion efforts. Conversion of the 30 existing physician offices and nursing home clients began in October 1995 and were successfully operational with Mercy Advantage by mid-December 1995.

Since that time, efforts have focused on expanding the client database, improving our service offerings, and enhancing the technology components to continue to make Mercy Advantage the best laboratory service in our market territory.

Time Frame
By integrating our existing hospital registration, billing, and laboratory information systems with off-the-shelf communications software tools, and leveraging the creativity of the information technology staff, the implementation costs were significantly less than acquiring less functional third-party systems and interfaces. The existing technology platform provides remote modem access via personal computers to our hospital ADT where client staff can register patients and submit orders. Lab results are available for online viewing through these same systems. A fax server is used to automatically route paper results to the client locations at times convenient to each client.

Additional staff were required in the lab, marketing, and customer services areas to provide services to the clients. Daily phlebotomy service is provided to acquire specimens from nursing home clients and courier services are provided on a routine and stat basis to pick up specimens from physician offices. We have also entered into a partnership with a third-party phlebotomy service to establish a conveniently located draw station for those physicians that do not draw specimens at their offices. Profitability analyses are routinely performed by the Finance Department to measure the financial effectiveness.

Outcome
Since Mercy Advantage became fully operational in December 1995, the number of clients has grown significantly from 21 physician offices and 9 nursing homes to over 160 physician offices and 26 nursing homes. Mercy Advantage is now one of the largest hospital-based reference laboratory services in the Greater Philadelphia region. It continues to be the only system that provides direct online order processing and results viewing connectivity to its remote clients.

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