GlobalNews - Spring 2007

Sutter Connect Profile
Based in Sacramento, California, Sutter Connect, formed in 1999, integrates managed care administrative services and physician practice management to support community-based healthcare serving more than 100 Northern California communities. Sutter Connect's billing, accounts receivable and managed care administration services reach over 410,000 members from more than 30 health care organizations. The enterprise is focused on being recognized as a national leader among administrative services organizations.

Sutter Connect: Commitment to Service, Quality and Value
Sutter Connect's commitment to service, quality and value for its clients is built into every level of the organization; from employment and training to individual, department and organizational goals. The decision to implement GE Healthcare Centricity Business Advanced Web with Enterprise Wide Scheduling and Enterprise Task Management was part of a long-term strategic goal to streamline patient access workflow processes for improved patient satisfaction, and automate revenue cycle processes. "It has been a lengthy process to get to this point," said Director of IT Operations, Gregg Smith-McCurdy. Advanced Web offers tremendous flexibility for users as well as robust capabilities to improve revenue cycle management.

"Our clients had been requesting a more user friendly product that would be easier to train on with more initiatives in terms of best-practice and workflows. And, there were client installs on the horizon which entailed the use of Advanced Web in conjunction with another product. We required Global Works Services in order to accelerate the project," he explained.

Sutter Connect uses the GE Healthcare Centricity Business as its foundation system. The organization is one of the largest GE Healthcare Centricity users in the nation. Advanced Web integrates applications for financial management, managed care, and practice management. The set of applications offered by Sutter Connect to support Managed Care Administration (MCA) and Billing and Accounts Receivable (BAR) services include member enrollment, benefit management, provider network management, referral and authorization processing, case management, claims, capitation, billing and accounts receivable, practice management, appointment scheduling, and customer service.

"Advanced Web is a comprehensive IT solution that offers robust financial and administrative capabilities to improve revenue cycle management," said Greg Smith-McCurdy. "It allows physician organizations, hospitals and IDNs to share clinical and billing information seamlessly across the enterprise," he added. This results in greater efficiency and data integrity from the back office to the front desk, leading to higher patient satisfaction and regulatory compliance.

"Our clients had been requesting a more user friendly product that would be easier to train on with more initiatives in terms of best-practice and workflows. And, there were client installs on the horizon which entailed the use of Advanced Web in conjunction with another product. We required Global Works Services in order to accelerate the project."
--Greg Smith-McCurdy

Global Works: Supplementing the Sutter Connect Team
"We knew at the onset we would need help with this implementation," said Manager of Applications Support, Amy Goulston. "We brought Global Works Systems in to supplement our team because we all have demanding day-to-day responsibilities and the scope of the implementation was tremendous," she continued. Sutter Connect has a long standing relationship with Global Works and uses their software for systems integration and data warehouse ETL. The Global Works consultants worked closely with the Sutter Connect implementation team guiding them through the install design session and completing analysis, system set up, testing and troubleshooting of the Advanced Web and Enterprise Wide Scheduling applications.

"Our experience has taught us to address certain key points for a successful install," said Global Works Management Consultant, Shely O'Laughlin. "Dealing with these key points during the implementation helped us all," she stated.

Because Sutter Connect services a wide-ranging multi-specialty client base, "it was a challenge trying to set up a system that had to accommodate this kind of range," said Global Works Senior Consultant, Anneliese Duncan. "It was a totally new scenario, kind of fun, and we were quite proud that we finished the system a week and a half before the deadline," she added.

"The Global Works Consultants had the experience to help us determine what might be best," said Supervisor, IT Support Application, Kathy Enos. "They gave us options and described what had been done in other places, which made it easier for us to make a decision," she stated.

"We knew at the onset we would need help with this implementation. We brought Global Works Systems in to supplement our team because we all have demanding day-to-day responsibilities and the scope of the implementation was tremendous."
--Amy Goulston

Key Points for a Successful Install
Global Works and the Sutter Connect Implementation team offer the following points for use in planning a successful Advanced Web upgrade.

Analyze Security Plus Set Up - Start with a review of your security set-up. Do changes need to be made? If they do, get the clean up done prior to starting a build. "We had to identify the roles and rights, said Kathy Enos. "Who the users are, who we were allowing to have access, and things like whether we were going to use profiles or individual tag words," she added.

Design is Key - Take the time to really map out what you want the end result to be. The build will be more organized and multiple people can work on it, if everyone knows the game plan. "We used work sessions to create what we wanted to do," said Amy Goulston. "We really needed to know what users need to see and what types of workplaces they were coming from. It took several sessions," she stated.

Set Standards - Naming conventions are the key to success when building menus, roles, rights. Set a standard and stick with it. The importance of this will be realized when you are searching through the long lists and trying to troubleshoot issues. "Having the naming conventions be the same helped us quite a bit," said Kathy Enos.

Use Automation - Use automated tools such as Global Works Enterprise Security View or Global Works User Upload Utility when possible. This cuts out the busy work and allows you to spend more time focused on the build and decision making required. Automating security intelligence helped tremendously, especially in determining appropriate rights for those that were not assigned to a profile in Security Plus. "We found it was an advantage using the Global Works tool," said Amy Goulston. "The bottom line for us was that we would have spent three times as long to manually create a user account."

Testing - Have the users who work in the application everyday do the testing. It's okay to spend some time doing initial testing to ensure that your scripts work appropriately. However, let the people who will be using it tell you if it is working well for them. Have a test plan and include at least one integrated test. Have a test day with specific scenarios that need to be tested. Have those users report their results and sign off on the appropriate portions. "We had two separate testing days," said Kathy Enos. "It's important that you have people to hit different areas and report back to you."

Mini Demos - Build a little and then show it off. This allows people to be involved in the project. Take their input and comments and use them to make the system better. Little things can make a difference to users - make it theirs as much as possible. These demos also allow you to determine if there are things you might have forgotten before the entire build is complete. It is much easier to incorporate as you learn about it, then having to undo and redo at the end. The other benefit is that it creates a sense of anticipation and excitement - generating that type of enthusiasm is priceless when it comes to go-live. "We did different demos for different groups of people with specific demos for feedback," said Greg Smith McCurdy. "We found the demos helped build both excitement and buy-in."

Document Now, Not Later - Global Works has created the training documents, user manuals and policies and procedures manuals for Sutter Connect. "Document as you are building and do not wait until the end to do your documentation," said Anneliese Duncan. "There are a lot of pieces that can overwhelm you if you wait until the end." Use templates for documenting whenever possible so that the information that is being documented is consistent from one builder to another.

"Global Works was fantastic. They were focused and willing to do anything that would help us. We couldn't have done it without them."
--Kathy Enos

Sutter Connect and Global Works Project Results
The Sutter Connect Implementation team credits the Global Works consultants for their involvement in the project. "Global Works was fantastic," said Kathy Enos. "They were focused and willing to do anything that would help us. We couldn't have done it without them."

Sutter Connects' advanced technology solutions, sophisticated reporting and analysis services provide a foundation for its commitment to customer service and quality performance. With the successful installation of the GE Healthcare Centricity Business Solutions that foundation has been strengthened and the commitment enhanced.

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EMR Services Solution Highlight Global Works Allscripts-trained interface experts are helping clients with TouchWorks Connect-R and integration needs Global Works is helping our clients achieve success with their TouchWorks implementations: Technical resources during implementation Clinical systems integration post-go-live
Our technical consultants have experience integrating the enterprise and they communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical individuals within the organization. Synch your clinical and practice management systems Inbound Result interfaces from labs and diagnostics Outbound Order interfaces to your common vendors Transfer patient/schedule data from your practice management system or voice and text communication for dictation and transcription To learn more about our full spectrum of professional and technical services for Allscripts sites, contact Erin Waters at 802-846-2550, x515, or email: . back to top
Partnership News Phytel Partners with Global Works to Provide GE Healthcare Business Services Integration "I have been very pleased with the results of the Phytel Disease Management recall for my patients. We have a 40% booking rate for patients who are contacted to schedule their overdue follow up visit. This is a tremendous help in keeping clinical compliance, and the increased number of appointments has also kept my schedule smoother." --Tim Malone, DO Eastlake Primary Care Medical Edge Health Group Phytel provides automated solutions that increase physician practice revenue and improve quality of care. The company was founded in 1996 and today provides services to over 10,000 users in 25 states. As an Application Service Provider (ASP), Phytel's primary solutions notify non-compliant patients of disease management and preventative care services using evidence-based protocols. Phytel then tracks these patients against quality/P4P guidelines and booking activity to ensure compliance. This proven process is known as Proactive Patient Outreach and is backed by a 300% ROI guarantee. Phytel interfaces with both practice management and electronic medical record systems to automate Patient Outreach and other patient communications including appointment confirmations, delivery of lab and test results, prescription management, point of care quality alerts/flagging reports, HIPAA compliant bi-directional patient messaging, electronic documentation for clinical-communications and online forms for lab/test orders & referrals. Global Works Interface Framework^TM for Phytel provides a rapid, cost-effective means of sending Scheduling and Patient demographic data from the GE Centricity Database to the Phytel Patient Registry. This is a high performance application capable of transferring large volumes of data utilizing HL7 segments and routing the segments via TCP/IP. Phytel is a GE Certified Partner and active member of the MGMA and AMGA. For more information regarding Phytel and the Global Works Interface Framework, please contact Erin Waters: or go to Global Works Interface Framework or Phytel: Proactive Patient-Care Solutions. back to top

Company News

Global Works Welcomes New Employees

Global Works clinical, technical and business services continue to experience strong growth. We've expanded our professional services and client management teams and we're happy to welcome:

Jim Vlazny joined Global Works Systems in February 2007. His 30 years of Healthcare IT experience include working with some of the first PCs (128K memory, dual floppy drives) and serving as a systems administrator on a hospital patient bedside charting system (Eclipsys). Jim's impressive 18 year career at Aurora Health Care included spending the last 9 years as technical coordinator responsible for the IDX rollout at 80 newly acquired clinics. He also served as the Oracle DBA for their Cerner project and implemented Touchworks Charge, Dictate and RX+ on iPAQs, PCs and laptops. Jim has 3 grown sons and he and his wife love to travel throughout the US and Europe.

Dori Simard joins the Global Works Professional Services team as the Business Services Manager. Her 16 years of healthcare industry experience spanning implementations, support, sales and development in the provider and IT vendor markets. Before joining Global Works, Dori spent 13 years with GE Healthcare (formerly IDX). Prior to GE, Dori had experience in managing Claims Systems Development and Training at Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound and in project management at Digital Equipment Corp. in Seattle, WA. Outside of work, Dori enjoys spending time with her family, visiting the local beaches of San Clemente, cooking and wine tasting.

Brenda DePalma joined the Global Works Clinical Services team in March 2007, bringing with her a total of 23 years of healthcare and software experience - hospital, EMS, health insurance, Medicaid and training environments. Before joining Global Works, Brenda spent two years on Memorial Health System's implementation and support team for their new integrated inpatient electronic medical record (EMR)/clinical processing system. Additionally, Brenda has provided both healthcare and software training and consulting services to a variety of industries. When not working, Brenda enjoys spending time hiking near her home in the Rocky Mountains, traveling and enjoying international foods.

Gail Vogt joins Global Works with 27 years in healthcare, the last 19 of which were at GE Healthcare (formerly IDX) in management, client management and project management positions. Gail joined Global Works in January 2007 as a Client Manager working with named accounts in the Eastern Region. Outside of Global Works Gail likes to spend time with her family (including 2 year old granddaughter) and friends, enjoying life in Vermont and traveling to new places whenever she can.

Global Works is Hiring!

Global Works is seeking talented, team-oriented professionals to help our clients achieve their goals. In addition to offering a challenging and satisfying working environment, we provide our employees with a competitive salary and benefits package.

We're currently seeking qualified candidates for the following positions:

Clinical Services Consultant - Leverage your knowledge of EMR/EHR systems, assuring clients successful implementations and deployments

Flowcast Services Consultant - Help our clients maximize their investment in their practice management system

Global Works Launches Website for Eastern Region Users Group (ERUG)

Global Works is proud to support the Allscripts TouchWorks EHR user community by designing and hosting the ERUG Website.

ERUG was formed so that clients could collaborate and share ideas with one another with regard to implementation, education, configuration and utilization of the product.

For information on membership or how you can become involved, please visit their website: www.erugweb.org.

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Training Highlight

EDI Training in an Interactive Environment with Bill Duncan

Bill Duncan
EDI Expert and Trainer

Global Works EDI Training presents hands-on learning in an interactive environment. The goal is to provide the knowledge needed to set up and maintain GE MCA and BAR EDI Toolkit Transactions in-house, as well as offer an EDI Industry Overview and an understanding of how to read EDI files. Training curriculums can be tailored toward programmers or analysts. Subjects include MCA EDI 837 Outbound Encounters, MCA EDI 837 Inbound Claims, MCA EDI 835 Outbound Remittance Advice, BAR 837 Claims and BAR 835 Remittance. This can be done as part of a new project or to train your staff to take responsibility for currently used transactions.

Global Works has experience with GE EDI Toolkit project management, implementation, customization, documentation and documentation.

As an example, our EDI MCA Claim Training Agenda includes these topics:

Set up and maintain EDI claim screens

Set up and maintain custom claim interface mapping

Understand member matching

Identify claim fields in an EDI file

Communicate data issues with your trading partners

For more information on Global Works EDI programming and training, contact Erin Waters at 802-846-2550, x515, or email .

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Partnership News

Practical Data Solutions (PDS) and Global Works Offer Fully Integrated Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence Solution

PDS and Global Works Systems deliver the latest technology in a proven and reliable solution. Global Works Data Exchange and PDS PRISM offer the most powerful integrated, automated data warehouse and business intelligence solution available to GE Healthcare sites.

Key Features

Seamless integration from practice management system to BI solution

Supports SQL Server and Oracle database platforms

Ability to handle and report from custom data fields and non-GEHC (IDX) data

Optimized data warehouse model with the most comprehensive data model available

Benefits

PDS/Global Works Rapid Installation methodology - 90 Days to Go-Live

Over 20 live client sites successfully using
Global Works and PDS

System independent, enterprise wide, ETL and Business Intelligence

Proven solution for measuring, benchmarking and delivering physician dashboards

The Global Works/PDS solution is seamless and efficient. Read a case study!

To learn more about our full spectrum of Business Intelligence solutions, contact Erin Waters at 802-846-2550, x515, or email .

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Software Solution Highlights Form Letter System: External Data Framework (EDF)
	Global Works Form Letter System^TM enables clients to seamlessly integrate their practice management system with Microsoft Word while providing invaluable workflow tools to automate the forms creation process, improve end user experience as well as patient communications. The newly developed External Data Framework (EDF) provides a method to get external data into FLS and to use that data to generate letters in batch mode. This is accomplished by leveraging the existing FLS query structure. Currently, the EDF is being used by one client to send monthly benefit summary notices to Medicare Part D members.
Data in these notices include claims data from the Prescription Drug Plan as well as demographic and enrollment data from the GEHC Managed Care Application. The letters are stored in the Global Works Form Letter System letter history and are available for review and reprint by MCA users. Call or email for more information on the new EDF module for Global Works Form Letter System. Other modules available are: MCA Enrollment, Claims, and Referrals, Scheduling, and soon to be released BAR. back to top Form Letter System for BAR, In Beta at Two Client Sites! Global Works' highly successful Form Letter System is in beta with the Billing and Accounts Receivable Module and is due for general release in December 2007. Correspondence is an important part of the billing and collection process. Business office staff members must send letters and forms to patients, insurers and various other external entities in order to resolve the receivables for medical services rendered by the organization. The Form Letter System for BAR will improve workflows such as: Requests for registration and insurance billing information Follow up on unpaid insurance claims Appeal/review requests to insurances Collection of patient balances The addition of the BAR module to FLS will provide the following benefits to the GE BAR site: Formatting - MS Word formatting to improve look and readability of documents Flexibility - Ability to use link and expanding variable functionality to allow flexibility with minimized letter maintenance Workflow - Letter filtering based on users rights and activity requested � reduces errors and increases efficiency Automation - Standardized automation of letters and forms based on standard activities within the BAR module eliminates manual processes Call or email for more information on the new BAR module for Global Works Form Letter System. Other modules available are: MCA Enrollment, Claims and Referrals, and Scheduling. back to top One Look New Features
	This spring, Global Works One Look^TM rolls out with a few new features that further improve and simplify the lives of the physicians: Non-clinic Time Configuration Option - Non-clinic time from the GE Centricity� system can be included or excluded on an individual provider basis and will appear in and amongst other One Look scheduled patient appointments. When non-clinic time is selected to be included, it will allow providers the opportunity to view meetings, hospital rounds, or any other non-clinic time included in the provider�s GE Centricity� scheduling calendar.
Clinic Time Calendar View - For providers that would simply like to know when they have clinic time, and aren�t concerned with patient appointment specifics, there is now an option that will simply send clinic time in a blocked format to the provider�s Outlook calendar. Clinic Time, with Patient Appointments and optional Non-Clinic Time - Clinic time that is allocated, but does not yet have booked appointments, will appear along with patient appointments. In addition, non-clinic time can be included to cover the full day�s schedule. Filtering of Patient Appointments by Appointment Type or Appointment Location - One Look now offers the option to filter the type of patient appointments that appear on the individual provider�s MS Outlook calendar. Patient appointments can be filtered by appointment type, or by appointment location. This filter feature of patient appointments can be used in combination with the blocked clinic time and non-clinic time as well. Click here for a case study on One Look or contact Erin Waters: for more information. back to top Global Works Patient Statement System now integrated with Web Framework for view and demand within GE Centricity Web Screens Global Works Patient Statement System^TM Web Integration enables web based demand statements and viewing from within GE Centricity web screens. Seamless integration with GE Healthcare reduces effort for business office staff and provides patients with easy to read statements that clearly identify patient obligation. Individual statements can be printed or viewed within the GE Flowcast Web Screens by users and are exactly the same as the statement sent to the patient. Flexible Formats: Highly flexible statements enabling design and implementation within MS Word. GE Mailing Services Partnership for the production of statements and forms. Outsourced printing with premier print vendor. Address correction and zip code sort functions available with this solution. Postal Savings PSS facilitates postal savings for high volume production through transmission of an output file to your print vendor of choice, including GE Mailing Services. To learn more about Global Works and GE Mailing Services, contact Erin Waters at 802-846-2550, x515, or email . back to top Enterprise Security View (ESV) Adds an Enhancement for Flowcast to Web Migrations Global Works Enterprise Security View^TM enables effective analysis of user access rights and use of patient data. ESV goes beyond Security Plus and Patient Confidentiality to enable HIPAA compliance. ESV is a component of Global Works Data Exchange and leverages its existing ETL framework to consolidate data from the practice management system and other enterprise applications (including server access software, network access software, building security system software, etc.) into a single data model for security analysis and user management. The latest enhancement to ESV is a combined software and service offering called the User Upload Utility. As part of a migration to Flowcast for the Web, Global Works offers clients the User Upload Utility. This tool is used in conjunction with ESV to reduce the time and labor required to load Security Plus data into the Web Framework. The Upload Utility enables an organization to map profiles, functions and activities to roles and rights within the Web Framework and have that information automatically uploaded. Clients using this tool have saved many hours of effort and improved accuracy through data mapping and automation. To learn more about ESV or the Upload Utility, contact Erin Waters at 802-846-2550, x515, or email . back to top