CarePoint Health – Case Study – Healthcare
Updating and centralizing legacy communication systems for hospitals and physician’s practices
CarePoint Health provides patients in Hudson County, New Jersey with “360-degree-coordinated patient care”. Combining the resources of three area hospitals — Bayonne Medical Center, Christ Hospital in Jersey City, and Hoboken University Medical Center — and a wide network of physicians through the CarePoint Medical Group, the company’s roots go back over 140 years.
The Situation
Joel Taylor, SVP & Chief Information Officer for CarePoint Health System, joined the company in 2013 with the Medical Group. His immediate challenge was addressing the fragmented phone systems and network services across the numerous practices. When Mr. Taylor was promoted to oversee the three hospitals in addition to the Medical Group, he faced a new set of challenges. The legacy communications had a patchwork of add–ons over the past 40 years, resulting in a myriad of systems, services, and providers.
Core challenges:
- Multi location, no centralized billing
- No central inventory of equipment, network services, and agreements
- Needed a trusted partner in communications technology to inventory existing services, evaluate equipment, assist with changes, negotiate rates, review/audit billing for compliance and a more effective payments process on an ongoing basis
- Assistance with RFP specifications and vendor selection to update and streamline communications networks
The Solution
Phase 1: Medical Group
Mr. Taylor reached out to Kentucky–based Tellennium, based on his prior experience with them at two other large physician groups.
- Audit and optimization of charges and services
- Inventory of services, devices, and equipment
- Consulting for system design & implementation
- Training
- RFP preparation and vendor selection
- Tracking and reporting via MoT® software
- Complete AP processing, including payments
- Staff augmentation for technical support as needed
The benefits speak for themselves. We’ve saved hundreds of thousands of dollars – and thousands of labor hours. The people at Tellennium care a lot about our business, and go above and beyond.
– Joel Taylor, SVP & Chief Information Officer
“I knew Tellennium’s capabilities from previous experience. So when I joined the CarePoint Medical Group, I immediately saw the need to bring them in
to inventory and audit the billing and contracts to get a grasp on what was in place.” Said Mr. Taylor. “We also had such fragmented processes that circuits would go down from slow payment, creating downtime for physicians and patient losses.”
The Tellennium team met with Mr. Taylor to assess the scope and desired outcomes for the Medical Group. The first step was a complete inventory and audit of existing invoice charges, network services, and equipment throughout the entire Medical Group enterprise. This step identified unused circuits, overcharges, and less than favorable rate structures.
The team then integrated everything into Tellennium’s Integrated Management System (MoT®), a SaaS based solution to manage ongoing communications technology. This allows Mr. Taylor and his team access to view enterprise-wide all circuit inventory, features in place, and charges in real time, for every location.
Phase 2: Hospitals
When Mr. Taylor absorbed responsibility for the three hospitals in the CarePoint Health system, he was faced with additional challenges. Some of the hospitals dated to the 1920’s. Cabling was an issue and since the hospitals had previously competed with each other, not of the same healthcare system network, no two had the same communications system.
In addition, for the past 40 years all three locations had patched on a stream of additions, changes, and equipment that resulted in a disjointed array of equipment, network services, support providers, and invoices. Again, Tellennium assisted with a full inventory and audit of all services and contracts. But the communications systems clearly required updating.
Tellennium worked with Mr. Taylor and his team to design new system architecture, develop RFPs, and secure quotes. Tellennium is not affiliated with any specific vendor, which assured CarePoint an unbiased selection. Tellennium also negotiated rates and secured agreements for the basic infrastructure across the enterprise and help manage the implementations. Additionally, they continue to augment Carepoint’s existing staff helping provide ongoing support for changes and service related issues as needed.
CarePoint Health relies on Tellennium’s Integrated Management System (MoT®), their SaaS based solution, to better manage ongoing communications technology for the complete enterprise of hospitals and medical group practices.
With the MoT® platform, managing their telecom network is now efficient, consistent and accurate. “From having worked with them in the past, I knew Tellennium was our best choice. They consistently deliver and are pro-active flagging any potential problems. Their people are a joy to work with.” Said Mr. Taylor.
The Results
CarePoint’s communications network is now centralized across hospitals and physician practices. Tellennium handles the billing, payables, audit and inventory management on an ongoing basis, for all of Carepoint’s hospitals and the CarePoint Medical Group. “The benefits speak for themselves. We’ve saved hundreds of thousands of dollars – well over a half million – and thousands of labor hours. The people at Tellennium care a lot about our business, and go above and beyond.”