An expensive and critical concern
for hospital

In the following story you will find out about an organization that was able to save $685,000 after the first two years of outsourcing their non-core areas to the Facilities Management Group, OMG, LLC. Staff reductions resulting in consolidation of services and focusing upon core business functions resulted in nearly $200,000 in annual savings while significantly improving service levels and the quality of service.

A large healthcare system in New England was experiencing significant delays and failures in distribution of both internal and external correspondences and documents. This organization consisted of three hospitals at separate locations, remote HIM (Health Information Management) Records storage and numerous satellite locations requiring mail and document distribution. Radiology reports and critical patient information was being misdirected and handled multiple times, potentially impacting the quality of patient care and putting the organization at risk. Misdirected mail was filling up mail bins requiring extensive time to be reviewed and redirected, often to the wrong location, repeatedly. Mailrooms were unorganized, cluttered and hard to manage as accumulation of mail occurred and misdirected mail had to be re-processed along with daily volumes which continued to be received. These items represented a challenge in that addressing information was often vague or inaccurate to determine the recipient and their location.

The mail operations were significantly impacted by processing all outgoing mail, which included: printing, folding and inserting all of the billing statements and hospital correspondences. Another portion of this process was to presort the outgoing mail to achieve postal discounts. To achieve these discounts there was a heavy investment in equipment that required a significant amount of space. It also became necessary to solicit mail for processing from external businesses in order to justify the expense of the equipment, space and manpower. This added to the drain of resources and facilities for a non-core business function.

This organization also relied heavily upon a team of couriers to move documents from the various hospitals, satellite locations and HIM sites, often requiring use of 3rd party couriers to complete routes and handle additional courier requests. The fleet of vehicles were in disrepair due to lack of maintenance which often kept vehicles out of service for significant periods of time and resulted in higher repair costs. Documentation and accountability for gas, vehicle whereabouts and other necessary information was non-existent or incomplete.

This organization determined that there was a need to solicit assistance from a company that could evaluate their processes, determine a solution to eliminate the problems in distributing information and regain valuable resources for core functions while maintaining postal discounts. Onsite Management Group (OMG, LLC) evaluated the entire process through a detailed due diligence, focusing on the workflow, staffing, areas of operation, scope of the distribution channels, equipment and level of training and industry knowledge. Certainly, cost savings and cost avoidance were underlying goals of the review as well. Upon completion of the review and recommendations conducted by OMG they were contracted to manage the on-site mail service. This allowed them to establish an industry proven mode of operation to the organization that would supply long term stability and structure to meet the challenges that occur within the United States Postal Services and related industries. With a national presence, OMG offers over 21 years of service in on-site facilities management within the healthcare, insurance, manufacturing and legal industries among others.

The results of this process identified key areas that needed to be addressed that were preventing the timely distribution of mail, documents and packages throughout the organization.

• Staff reductions

• Outsource the mail for postal discounts

• Liquidate equipment – Equipment and maintenance cost reduction

• Consolidate mail services to a smaller, well-designed Mail Center

• Utilize software to establish a chargeback system for all departments – Improvement in area of tracking and compliance

• Courier Consolidation - The redesigning of existing routes for better efficiency

• Fleet and vehicle improvements with a better maintenance program

• Creation of a central record for mail recipients and their locations (Payroll and Human Resource departments became valuable partners in utilizing the new codes on all correspondences)

• Adding the mail recipient contact database on the organizations intranet for quick and consistent reference – Significant improvement of service levels

• Lab Reports - New system and process put in place. Significant improvement in delivery times and accuracy were achieved through these efforts

• Budgetary improvements through cost savings and cost avoidance

Deron Jett, President, OMG, LLC

OMG’s experience in the healthcare industry provides a foundation for establishing expectations for meeting compliance expectations such as HIPAA, Hazardous Mail procedures and Disaster Recovery. These items are reviewed regularly with all associates to maintain consistency.

Many additional services were implemented upon OMG’s installation as the on-site management for mail services. Foremost of all services was the intricate and complicated documentation of all mail recipients associated with the organization. This resource has proven invaluable to numerous areas including Payroll and Human Resources. OMG brought an electronic tool to track accountable mail and time sensitive, critical items that did not previously exist. Detailed reporting and real-time data became available for review with this implementation.