Client storyEveryone else moved off something. Wisteria opened already running.
A freestanding imaging center that went from nothing to fully equipped in six months, and was live on the platform the first day it saw a patient. No legacy system, no migration, and no paper, which is exactly what a new business cannot afford.
Wisteria Health
“At my previous center, we used another EMR system that they didn’t have fully integrated with our billing system. They didn’t have electronic faxes. There was no internal way to communicate with patients. So it made everything obviously 10 times harder, because you have to use several different avenues to get one thing completed.”
“It’s like going from a really old, scaled back system to such an advanced system is like night and day. It saves so much time and energy and you’re not worried about missing one patient. If you’re getting pulled away from the front, I know it’s automatically being done.”
“Being paperless, obviously, it cuts back on overhead costs, which as a business starting out is huge. Patients seem to really enjoy it, because when you go to any other doctor’s office it’s pretty much paperless. Even the older generation of patients are getting more on board with it.”
“A lot of other offices deal with people having phone anxiety, calling patients and having them talk over the phone, or patients not wanting to call your doctor’s office because of long hold times. Being able to just send the message in that thread is most convenient for the patients, not only our office but more importantly them as well.”
“It was really smooth. There was a lot of education that happened prior with the trainings. We were a little different of a case because our go-live, we weren’t seeing patients at the time, but it was nice being able to have a representative on site to mock trial with it.”
Five parts of the day, from the manager who opened the place.
Cassie Quinn runs the center. She had come from a practice where none of this was joined up, which is why she is precise about what changed.
“We used another EMR system that they didn’t have fully integrated with our billing system. They didn’t have electronic faxes. There was no internal way to communicate with patients. So it made everything obviously 10 times harder.”
“We have a fully paperless process. I don’t have to copy IDs manually… It takes away the human error part on my end, because sometimes you have a bunch of different patients checking in at one time and it just goes straight into their chart.”
“We’re a freestanding facility, so we have lower contracted rates than the hospitals in the area. Not only can I see the estimate when a patient walks in, but a patient can also see it on their end in the portal. It builds that trust between provider’s office and patient.”
“Our self-pay rates are also integrated. Once it’s a self-pay patient and I hit the estimation, they see it in black and white: that that’s what they’re paying, and that’s all that they’re paying when they come in here.”
“A lot of other offices deal with people having phone anxiety… patients not wanting to call your doctor’s office because of long hold times. Being able to just send the message in that thread is most convenient for the patients.”
A building that was empty six months earlier.
Cassie Quinn walks the center she opened: paperless check-in on a tablet, the estimate a patient sees before the exam, and the suites (X-ray, CT, ultrasound, mammography and DEXA) where the worklist is already filled in before the technologist arrives.
“They see it in black and white: that that’s what they’re paying, and that’s all that they’re paying.”Cassie Quinn, on self-pay estimates
to a working center
from opening
overhead is survival
What Cassie came from
Most imaging centers meet a new platform carrying something old. Cassie Quinn had just left one. At her previous center the EMR was not integrated with billing, there were no electronic faxes, and there was no way to message a patient from inside the system at all. Every task needed several different tools to finish, and her word for it is precise: ten times harder.
- An EMR that did not talk to the billing system
- No electronic faxes, so orders arrived on paper
- No way to contact a patient from inside the record
- Several separate tools to complete a single task
Six months from an empty unit
Wisteria took six months to go from nothing to fully equipped, and it was live on the platform the first day it saw a patient. Because there were no patients yet during go-live, the whole thing could be rehearsed: training first, then a mock run on site before anyone real walked in. Paperless was not a project to be phased in later; it was how the doors opened, which for a new business is a question of overhead, not of preference.
- Fully equipped in six months
- Live on CareFlow from the first day of opening
- Go-live rehearsed with a mock run, before any patients existed
- Paperless from the first day, to keep overhead down
“I don’t have to worry about someone not getting their results or not getting an answer back, because it’s automatically done.”
Wisteria Health
The patient knows the number before the exam
Freestanding centers win on price, and Wisteria’s contracted rates are lower than the hospitals around it. That only helps if the patient believes it, so the estimate is not something quoted at the desk: eligibility is checked against the insurer, the cost estimate appears in the patient’s own portal before the visit, and self-pay rates are in the system too, so a self-pay patient sees the whole number in advance. Appointments are confirmed by text, paperwork goes out ahead of the visit, and a text goes back when the report reaches the referring office.
- Lower contracted rates than the hospitals nearby
- Eligibility checked in one place instead of hundreds of insurer sites
- Cost estimate visible in the patient portal before the exam
- Self-pay rates in the same system, quoted in full up front
- Text at scheduling, paperwork ahead, and a text when results are sent
What changed at Wisteria
paperless, from
day one
Opening something
new?
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