The Customer
Caregiver Inc. provides services to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities by supporting clients with the design, delivery, and management of personalized treatment plans. Caregiver strives to help clients lead their lives with dignity, independence, and inclusion. Throughout locations in Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Indiana, and Ohio, Caregiver Inc. offers intermediate, home, and community-based care services to thousands of individuals.
The Challenge
Caregiver faced challenges related to efficiency, accuracy, and manual processes throughout its 70 locations. The traditional method of handling documentation was cumbersome, time-consuming, and prone to errors. In the highly regulated healthcare industry, compliance is critical. Caregiver must ensure all forms are complete, accurate, accessible, and securely stored to protect clients’ personal, healthcare, and financial information.
Manual processes, storage issues, form errors
Caregiver’s manual workflow processes lacked coordination between siloed teams, resulting in delays or duplicative work. Because each state has its own laws and regulations, customized workflows and forms are required. Workflows also needed to factor in the tremendous volume of forms needed per client—up to 60, in some cases.
Storage for their extensive files and the associated cost were another issue. John Beauchamp, Director of Information Technology at Caregiver, says many documents were paper, making them hard to retrieve quickly, which is essential for audits. “You keep documents for seven to 10 years. We have storage facilities—you can imagine all the places,” Beauchamp says, “and we have closets,” he jokes.
Improper storage for paper and electronic documents was another issue. For example, Robert Riley, IT Technician at Caregiver, says problems occurred, when staff members left the company and had not stored electronic files correctly. “For whatever reason, [the document] wasn’t backed up, or they stored it on SharePoint or their OneDrive,” Riley says, rendering the document inaccessible. Locating a missing document could take hours in some cases.
Caregiver also needed an efficient way to process forms, including guardians’ approvals on time-sensitive forms. “It’s a challenge to process documentation and process it quickly,” Beauchamp says. For example, a delayed approval on an expenditure request form can affect a client’s personal expenses, preventing them from enjoying a night out with friends. A reliance on manual data entry and the need for a physical signature added complexity to the request process and slowed turnaround times.
It’s a challenge to process documentation and process it quickly.
—John Beauchamp, Director of Information Technology
Any errors on paper forms required restarting the data capture process from the beginning in order to make corrections. And if a file was stored with the error, for example with a client’s name misspelled, locating the information would prove challenging if not impossible. Beauchamp knew that maintaining accuracy would be critical to meeting both compliance and the needs of Caregiver clients.
The Solution
Caregiver originally planned to automate only the manual processes in its accounts payable department. “As we got into it,” Beauchamp describes, “we realized the power of Vasion Automate Pro, and the project quickly changed direction.” Caregiver refocused their digital transformation strategy, starting with digitizing paper forms, creating workflows, and gathering digital signatures for immediate sign-off and consent.
The transformation also included incorporating feedback from several teams to create more efficient digital workflows that addressed delays and missed opportunities for collaboration. “We’re able to track the process from start to finish anywhere it’s held up,” Beauchamp says. “We can find it [the document] quickly and reach out to that specific staff member to get it turned around.”
We’re able to track the process from start to finish anywhere it’s held up. We can find it [the document] quickly and reach out to that specific staff member to get it turned around.
—John Beauchamp, Director of Information Technology
The Results
The three biggest benefits of working with Vasion, according to Beauchamp, include:
1. Customer support you can depend on
2. Increased efficiency in daily processes
3. Ease of use for his team and clients
Beauchamp describes the Vasion team’s mentality as “Let’s look at it together and find a solution.” He goes on to say that Caregiver had many demands for the team, including a few requests he referred to as “a little bit out in left field.” He adds, “The [Vasion] team really stepped up and moved mountains for us.”
Since digitizing nearly 60 separate forms, processing time has dropped drastically, especially for one form in particular that greatly impacts clients. “Clients may need a haircut, or want to go out to dinner, so they turn in a request for a dollar amount to cover their expenses,” Beauchamp says. Guardians can now authorize these time-sensitive requests for funds via a digital form versus paper. With Vasion Automate, Beauchamp says they went from an approval process that could take a minimum of one week to turning the form around in a couple of hours. He noted that all parties, including guardians, are happy with the faster processes.
Caregiver went from an approval process that could take a minimum of one week to turning the form around in a couple of hours using Vasion.
Not only has digitizing Caregiver forms reduced processing time, but now, all digital forms are housed in one database and accessible to approved staff, making it easy to access a form anytime from anywhere. “Having that documentation at hand, all in one place, that’s critical for our business,” Beauchamp says. “Saves so much time.” It also lowers storage costs since digitization reduces the need for physical storage space.
Because forms are in one database, staff can pull them by unique identifiers, like client name, birth date, city, or the home’s name. If a word is misspelled, they can easily search by another unique identifier, so form retrieval is simple. Errors are now corrected in just seconds on the spot, which wasn’t possible with paper forms.
Overall, Caregiver’s digital transformation improved operational efficiency, lowered costs, and improved accuracy. “Of course it reduces cost, but the efficiency…we never expected it to be this high,” says Beauchamp. The higher efficiency also enhances the customer experience for the families and clients Caregiver serves, which is the heart of their mission.
Of course it reduces cost, but the efficiency…we never expected it to be this high.
—John Beauchamp, Director of Information Technology
What’s next for Caregiver?
When looking to the future, Beauchamp says, “Every form that we’ll have in the company will be electronic when it’s all complete.” Their team has already started planning workflows to implement in their Human Resources department. “There’s a lot of potential with Vasion, but the best part is that once it’s implemented, it just works,” says Beauchamp.
There’s a lot of potential with Vasion, but the best part is that once it’s implemented, it just works.
—John Beauchamp, Director of Information Technology