Viewer Gets Center Out from Under Paperwork - Maimonides Medical Center - Company Business and Marketing

Health Management Technology, April, 2000

Web-based solution can be accessed through existing intranet.

Advances in information technology have given us access to more information than ever before. Many industries are being overrun by paper--despite our efforts to become a "paperless" society. For Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, too much paper meant too many lost or late reports, and too much wasted staff time.

PROBLEM

Our computer mainframe generates vast amounts of paper reports that are copied and distributed to various departments and offsite clinics. Storage of these reports required considerable space and filing time, and having reports on paper makes them easier to lose. Time spent filing papers prevented the staff from doing more productive work.

Paper usage and printer ribbons to print these reports cost $120,000 a year. Two expensive high-speed printers in the data center required continuous maintenance. Mailroom staff were tied up delivering large quantities of paper reports throughout the hospital and offsite clinics.

Aside from the real costs, delayed access to information cost staff in efficiency and productivity by preventing timely action and response to needed information.

SOLUTION

We already had a server-based paperless report viewing system, but the cost of upgrading all PCs and buying software licenses for all users, especially those who only occasionally needed access to reports, was prohibitive. Webmaster Ed Lane researched inexpensive Web-based solutions that could be accessed through our existing intranet.

Lane reviewed three products before deciding on Report.Web by Network Software Associates, Inc. He attended seminars on paperless host printing and ran vendor demos. The decision was based upon ease of use for administration as well as users, functionality, cost, low software and hardware requirements, and the commitment of the vendor to support the product. The selection process took three months.

Report.Web, a paperless report viewer, gave users Web-enabled access to reports in electronic format from their desktops on demand. Users can now select and print only those reports or pages they need. Additionally, data can be extracted from reports directly into spreadsheets for analysis, instead of rekeying the information from paper.

Necessary information now reaches desktops throughout the enterprise in a timely manner, eliminating lost or late reports, greatly reducing the amount of paper used, and enabling our staff to more productively utilize time spent filing papers.

INSTALLATION/COMPONENTS

Hardware: Compaq 5500 with 512 Mb RAM, 29Gb mirrored drives, dual 400 Mhz processors

Software: MS Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 5; Network Software Associates Inc., Report. Web

Training: The initial group of 70 users was given 104 hours of classroom training.

Cost: $120,000.

RESULTS

In the five years since we've used the software, we saved $304,000. We've also increased productivity by having immediate, online access to vast amounts information, rather than having to sift through paper reports. Also, not having to copy, distribute, and file those reports further improved productivity.

For more information on Network Software Associates Inc., circle 178