OBS designed Epworth HealthCare an automated doctor credentialing solution using extended Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It captures parts of the SoCP process across three tiers & improves its credentialing reporting.

1. Dynamics CRM
Epworth HealthCare
VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA
HEALTHCARE | HOSPITALS
4000 EMPLOYEES
“By harnessing the power of
information and the latest
technology Epworth is building a
better health service.”
OVERVIEW
Epworth HealthCare (Epworth), is Victoria’s largest not-for-profit
private healthcare group, renowned for excellence in diagnosis,
treatment, care and rehabilitation. Epworth is considered an
innovator in Australia’s health system, embracing the latest in
evidence-based medicine to pioneer treatments and services for
patients. As a not-for-profit hospital, Epworth reinvests all surplus
revenue in improved patient care. It invests generously in training
staff, developing facilities and implementing the latest technology to
remain at the forefront of medical treatment and patient safety.
OBJECTIVE
Epworth had three primary solution requirements:
1. to improve efficiency in its accreditation and reference checking
processes;
2. to have the ability to electronically capture and automate parts
of the Scope of Clinical Practice (SoCP) process across three
tiers; and
3. to improve the speed and flexibility of its credentialing
reporting.
Meeting these requirements would save valuable time, achieve
productivity gains through automation of data entry, enable
auditability and improved governance over medical credentialing
and mitigate the risk by ensuring compliance with credentialing
against the ACHS Scope of Clinical Practice (SoCP) Standard.
Prior to implementing the OBS solution Epworth’s accreditation and
reference checking process was Excel-, email- and paper-based,
meaning it was time consuming and relied heavily on people
remembering to check statuses, send reminders, post forms and retype data.
It also meant that Epworth had minimal reporting functionality and
was reliant on manual processes to validate the professional
registration status of an individual doctor at any point in time.
The need for an improved SoCP process was brought about by
regulatory changes in national accreditation standards. The changes
reflect developments in technology which have resulted in a rapid
increase in the availability of new and complex clinical services,
procedures or other interventions which medical practitioners are
now able to deliver in their professional practice. The new SoCP
standards involve delineating the extent of an individual medical
practitioner’s clinical practice within the organisation, based on the
individual’s credentials, competence, performance and professional
suitability, and the needs and the capability of the organisation to
support the scope of clinical practice. In preparation for this change,
Epworth needed the ability to capture and validate information
regarding an individual’s practice, down to the level of competency
to perform individual procedures, through more formal and robust
processes.
SOLUTION
Epworth conducted a formal evaluation process for suitable solution
providers and selected OBS for this project. The OBS offering of a
Dynamics CRM 2011, ASP .NET and SQL Server Reporting Services
(SSRS)-based solution offered Epworth the scalability, flexibility and
auditability to ensure improved governance.
OBS used Microsoft Dynamics CRM to automate the accreditation
process, and enabled doctors to enter information through an
online form hosted on the OBS-built SharePoint website.
OBS CUSTOMER CASE STUDY | HEALTHCARE

2. Enhancing and accelerating Epworth’s
credentialing process has raised the bar
for quality and boosted confidence levels
across the organisation.”
Liz Morton | Group Manager - Medical Services | Epworth
RESULT
Accreditation and re-accreditation reminder emails and status
reports are emailed to doctors. Epworth now receives electronic
notification within 24 hours if any Epworth doctor’s national
registration is terminated, suspended, or has had conditions
applied, due to web services integration with AHPRA’s Practitioner
Register. Epworth was the first organisation to take advantage of
this electronic interface to the Practitioner Register.
Epworth’s SoCP process is able to record a doctor’s competence and
skill in their practice area and each procedure that a doctor is
accredited to perform. It has an attached workflow that takes a
medical practitioner’s SoCP application through objective, peer
clinical review before ratification by the Board of Management. The
doctor receives a letter of appointment (an OBS-built report)
detailing their specific, approved SoCP.
The reference-checking process has also become more efficient with
turnaround times significantly reduced and referee details, requests
and the detail of responses tracked back into the CRM
electronically.
OBS built CRM dashboards to graphically represent achievement
against key performance indicators. The CRM solution also allows
Epworth to author bespoke reports enabling real-time audits on
compliance, analysis of data and workflow efficiency and make
accurate predictions of workflow peaks and credentialing effort. An
important result of the dashboards is that Epworth can be proactive
in its credentialing process. For example, the Medical Services
Department is able to view the re-credentialing Dashboard and
identify the period in which more accreditations expire than any
other month, and can adjust staffing in advance of this period to
ensure all applications for re-credentialing are able to be processed
in a timely manner.
Epworth’s
accreditation
and referencechecking is
much more
efficient and the
average time for
reference checks and
onboarding has gone from
weeks to days. The online forms
and automation have also led to improved
employee productivity. Epworth has measured that it has saved
time and money, which can now be used on the core business
activities of improving healthcare. Its medical accreditation system
is now paperless, more accurate because there are fewer points of
failure and the need for manual, double entering of data has been
eliminated.
Epworth now has one of the first doctor-credentialing solutions in
Australia that records three levels of SoCP. This has ensured that the
medical credentialing process is consistently meeting both national
and organisational standards of clinical/professional governance
and safe practice.
Epworth’s Group Manager Medical Services, Liz Morton, said: “This
was the best IT project I’ve been involved in. Epworth is rapidly
realising the benefits of the newly-deployed solution. The quality of
Epworth’s accreditation-related data has been greatly improved via
the electronic and automated solution. Reference checks can now
be performed in minutes rather than days. We have also
significantly improved our risk management and the system
supports a high standard of clinical/professional governance.
One automated report, presenting all the information relevant to a
doctor’s accreditation application, is now able to be produced in a
matter of minutes rather than days, and provides a professional and
comprehensive information set for Epworth’s Credentialing
Committees.
“Enhancing and accelerating Epworth’s credentialing process has
raised the bar for quality and boosted confidence levels across the
organisation. It has decentralised the system and allows doctors to
take control of their own accreditation. The effect has been so
positive that Epworth would be happy to talk to other customers
about the OBS solution.”
The Dynamics CRM credentialing solution supports Epworth in
maintaining the confidence that its medical practitioners are
appropriately qualified and competent to provide a high quality of
patient care. The project to implement the solution has met all of
Epworth’s initial objectives.
By harnessing the power of information and the latest technology
Epworth is building a better health service. The solution developed
for Epworth has significant potential to be replicated at other health
organisations in Australia and New Zealand.