Dedicated to the Work of Health and Healing at Sanford Health

November 11, 2021
November 11, 2021

About the Customer

Sanford Health is a large health system dedicated to the integrated delivery of health care, genomic medicine, senior care and services, global clinics, research and affordable insurance. They chose CredentialStream for its breadth of functionality, data integrity, flexible reporting features, and high level of security.

sanford customer storyOverview

Sanford Health is dedicated to the integrated delivery of health care, genomic medicine, senior care and services, global clinics, research and affordable insurance. When the organization learned that their credentialing software was being sunsetted, they didn’t stress. Sanford Health knew it was a great opportunity to rethink their practices and needs as a growing enterprise.

Address Future Challenges_PKey Challenges

Manage a growing enterprise:
When Sanford Health selected their original credentialing software, they were a single facility. Today they have operations spread across 5 different states. The organization needed a solution that would enable them to standardize their processes across the network and enable their providers to move seamlessly from region to region servicing patients.

Offer an affordable health plan:
Sanford Health has joined the increasing number of health systems that provides affordable health insurance to health plan members. This shift meant they needed a solution that could help them develop and manage their own physician network and payer credentialing process.

Put an end to time consuming work arounds:
Sanford Health’s former credentialing software didn’t have the comprehensive functionality or automation required to cover the complete provider lifecycle. They often had to design time consuming workarounds to fill the gaps.

"The automation is really encouraging. We are especially excited about the reporting capabilities. We no longer have to build Excel spreadsheets and manually filter things out or change things. We leverage the out-of-the-box reports."

Mel Bolkema, Sanford’s Senior Director of Professional Practice, Sanford Health

Competency_YSolution Selection Process

Sanford Health fully vetted three solutions. They chose CredentialStream for its:

Breadth of functionality:
Previously Sanford Health used multiple systems to manage credentialing, enrollment, privileging, and evaluation functions. With CredentialStream they can manage all these tasks with a single solution.

Data integrity:
CredentialStream’s continuously updated, comprehensive, and standardized database of U.S. physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, allied health professionals, and registered nurses assures data accuracy.

Flexible reporting features:
CredentialStream’s sophisticated engine and reporting tool, Bolt, comes with out-of-the box reports to simplify and automate reporting.

Security:
The ability to deliver tiered access ensures everyone has the information they need and nothing more.

Competency_YImplementation

The Sanford team included IT, those responsible for enrollment, credentialing, and health plan administration. Sanford also took a phased approach to their go-live versus launching everything at once, which eased the transition between their previous software and CredentialStream.

"We assembled a team to partner with VerityStream to configure CredentialStream’s out-of-the box content and workflows to ensure its optimized for all of our stakeholders."

Mel Bolkema, Sanford’s Senior Director of Professional Practice

Improve_CResults

Increased Revenue
By eliminating manual processes and spreadsheets from the enrollment process, Sanford Health can enroll providers with payers faster. They expect to write off a lot less bills going forward.

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

Improved Patient & Provider Experiences
Now that providers can complete applications and request privileges online, they can spend more time with patients and less time on paperwork.

"An improved provider experience has been one of the top benefits we have noticed since making the switch to CredentialStream. Providers have expressed that having a one-stop-shop for credentialing makes their lives easier."

Mel Bolkema, Sanford’s Senior Director of Professional Practice, Sanford Health

Improve_CLooking Ahead

Sanford Health is dedicated to the work of health, healing, and comfort. The flexibility provided by CredentialStream will allow them to continue to expand their network of care. To support their growth, they will continue to adapt CredentialStream’s functionality. Next up, they plan to:

  • Utilize the system to pick up credentialing responsibilities for their skilled nursing facilities.
  • Take advantage of additional privileging functionality, including Case Review, to ensure regulatory compliance by evaluating privilege volumes against granted privileges, identifying low volume and non-granted scenarios, and facilitating evaluations.
  • Take advantage of Insights to see how their credentialing, enrollment and privileging processes stack up against industry averages and identify opportunities for improvement.

"Sanford Health is dedicated to the work of health and healing. The Medical Staff Office is the first line of defense when it comes to patient care. It’s our job to make sure that we are credentialing and privileging qualified providers to care for our patients. CredentialStream helps us do that."

Mel Bolkema, Sanford’s Senior Director of Professional Practice, Sanford Health