Providing Exceptional Healthcare for the Local Community

January 4, 2023
January 4, 2023

About the Customer

With three hospital campuses, Garnet Health serves a population of 450,000 throughout Orange, and Sullivan counties and a portion of Ulster county. Headquarters is located in Middletown, NY. There are a total of 419 beds system wide, including 383 beds in Middletown, NY; 154 beds in Harris, NY; and 15 beds in Callicoon, NY which is a Critical Access hospital, two MECs, two Credentials Committees, and two sets of bylaws. Garnet Health has a total of 3,300 employees, 900 of which are medical staff.

garnet health customer storyOverview

Garnet Health is a New York State, not-for-profit organization headquartered in Middletown. The organization is dedicated to improving the health of their community by providing exceptional healthcare. As such, they strive to go above and beyond in providing an excellent patient experience. When Garnet Health made the decision to sunset their credentialing software, they launched a search to find a solution that was more cutting-edge and could provide more robust automation.

"We were drawn to a solution like CredentialStream because we wanted to avoid unnecessary errors, potential data loss, and wasted time. We wanted a cloud-based system that allowed us to view everything in real-time."

Fred Conklin, Director of Medical Staff Services, Garnet Health

Address Future Challenges_PKey Challenge

Clunky medical staff processes
While Garnet Health’s initial application process was mostly electronic via an external, contracted vendor, the reappointment, approval, and appointment processes were handled manually, via paper. This meant applications were received from different portals and in different formats, leading to confusion and wasted time.

Long processing times
Due to their hybrid model, utilizing both electronic and paper processes, the application process took approximately 6 months from start to finish.

Limited access to database information
Garnet Health’s documentation was stored within their internal database, not on the cloud. Any information received, via email or fax, had to be saved on the shared drive and added to the database, another time-consuming task allowing room for errors.

Competency_YSolution Selection Process

Garnet Health knew if they were going to change their processes, that it would have to be done with full support from the entire medical staff. Why? Because they would be the ones utilizing the solution day in and day out. They wanted to ensure every role and workflow was accounted for. They chose CredentialStream for its:

Streamlined initial and reappointment applications
This provided Garnet Health with the simplicity of having all initial and reappointment applications processed through a single system.

Ability to combine application configurations
Previously, all three medical campuses had separate applications, but with CredentialStream, Garnet Health could combine them. This significantly diminished the burden to providers as they only have to complete a single application.

Ability to standardize documents and release forms
CredentialStream’s continuously updated best-practice content libraries and industry-leading data sets allowed the standardization of documents across all campuses to be easier and seamless.

The provider Hub
With a centralized portal, Garnet Health could offer providers and clinical leaders a direct connection to key credentialing processes and information, and the ability to maintain their own profiles, preferences, and much more.

Competency_YImplementation

Garnet Health took a phased approach towards implementation and had participation from every role within its medical system that would be utilizing CredentialStream workflows to help with the rollout. Their implementation was completed entirely via remote work, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Improve_CResults Thus Far

Standardized Privileges
Garnet Health was able to fully standardize its privileges with CredentialStream’s library of best-practice privilege forms. Providers can now request and track privileges granted online via one source.

Easier Provider Document Management
Providers can complete applications and request privileges online, giving them more time to spend with patients and less time on paperwork.

Increased Staff Productivity Levels
With less time spent working through a hybrid system and working manual processes, medical staff is able to accomplish more in a shorter amount of time.

Faster Processing
With CredentialStream in place, Garnet Health spent less time on data entry and management, and less time manually retrieving verifications. This led to a reduction in appointment turnaround.
 

"CredentialStream is constantly being updated, which means you have the ability to continuously optimize and make use of the solution in a powerful way that is best suited to your needs."

Jennifer Trujillo, MSS Operational Manager, Garnet Health

Improve_CLooking Ahead

Garnet Health is dedicated to improving the health of their community by providing exceptional healthcare. The flexibility provided by CredentialStream will allow it to streamline its processes further by:

  • Maximizing its use of automation
  • Capitalizing on the power of workflows
  • Strengthening reporting skills through Bolt

They also plan to use its privileges and the data housed within the system to obtain quality metrics, and also to deploy electronic decision process functionality they have not yet had a chance to explore.
 

"We were all able to have input, see what works, and what doesn’t, and make sure that everyone is putting in the information accordingly to work well with our department. It was a great exercise for us to familiarize ourselves with the system and ensure that we’re all on the same page as a department."

Fred Conklin, Director of Medical Staff Services, Garnet Health