Nebraska Co-Funds Research with PHYND Technologies to Show Cost Savings that Hospitals Gain from Provider Information Management

Kearney, NE, April 28, 2014 -- PHYND Technologies has been awarded a grant from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development to compare and analyze how much hospitals currently spend on managing health care provider information versus using the PHYND provider information management (PIM) platform.

The State of Nebraska previously, through a private nonprofit corporation, invested $500,000 in PHYND Technologies as part of its economic development efforts aimed at boosting the state's technology industry. The additional funds will support further product development efforts. PHYND is based in Kearney.

“PHYND Technologies is bringing new high-paying jobs to Kearney,” said Gov. Dave Heineman. “These are the jobs we want to continue to attract to Nebraska. These positions will help launch our young people on their own career paths to success.”

A PHYND customer, the large and respected Yale New Haven Health System in Connecticut, expects to save several million dollars annually by using the PHYND provider information management platform, according to PHYND founder and CEO Thomas White.

The research project will be directed by Kathryn Zuckweiler, Ph.D, associate dean, Graduate Studies & Research and associate professor, Management, University of Nebraska-Kearney. The research findings are expected to be available to the public by the end of 2015.

"The grant from Nebraska's Economic Development Department will enable us to provide objective third-party analysis of our system versus the manual process," White said. "We think the research will validate the anecdotal reports and provide compelling proof that hospitals can save a million dollars or more annually by using the PHYND platform."

White said that health care IT systems (EMR, ancillary systems, third-party systems) have redundant entries for each provider, are managed independently of each other, and have no single, easily managed repository for provider information. PHYND solves that problem and complements these systems, he said.

Hospitals manage provider information (referring and credentialed physicians, nurses and mid-levels) in departmental "silos" across clinical and financial systems, which creates unnecessary costs.

Each department manages its own provider information and each system manages the information slightly differently -- two addresses versus one, no way to add custom fields (EMR IDs, others) and more. As a result, users do weird things with the data that renders it unusable in other systems -- average cost $500,000 annually.

Hospitals also interface the EMR provider data with other systems, pushing bad data around. Example: hospitals frequently create "dummy" profiles on first-time referring providers (or if they can't find the providers name) so they can admit or treat a patient. This creates significant delays in billing -- average cost $750,000 annually.

Departments send data changes to the EMR security team or the medical staff office. Average annual cost of $500,000 to simply change phone, fax, and addresses (usually doesn't include the referral base).

By avoiding multiple entries and duplication of effort, the PHYND system can save hospitals and large provider groups much money and help improve the quality of patient care, White said.

For hospitals and large provider groups, White said, PHYND is the only software that provides the tools needed to manage provider data that goes way beyond the basics.

An additional optional service, PHYNDER Verification Service, ensures that hospitals have validated information on all providers whenever it is needed.

Since PHYND is cloud-based, there is no software to install or hardware to buy. It is available via the web on a subscription basis and provides an integrated flow of information for any hospital IT system.

About PHYND Technologies

PHYND Technologies, founded in 2013, is the maker of PHYND, the health care industry’s first Provider Information Management (PIM) solution for hospitals, large provider groups and Accountable Care Organizations (ACO). PHYND is a global platform that includes work-flow tools to capture provider profile information across the health care enterprise, administer quality control, and customize sections for unique departmental use. It is cloud-based and interoperable with all IT systems. PHYND enables hospitals to save at least $1 million annually by eliminating duplication of effort and billing delays associated with manual provider information management processes. In addition, PHYND enhances patient care by enabling faster communications and a tighter relationship between providers and health care organizations. Visit http://www.PHYND.com.