August 2011 Newsletter
Life on the Road - The 2011 Quadax UCOT
The first ever Quadax EDI Services User Conference on Tour (UCOT) is in the history books, and by all accounts it was a resounding success!
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Henry Curtis, Regional Account Manager, EDI Services, smiling away at the Dayton area UCOT. |
This year Quadax took the User Conference to our clients, traveling to all six geographical user regions. The new format afforded a more reasonable commute time for attendees (UCOTs were intended to be no more than 120 miles—a two hour drive—for the majority of our clients), which resulted in larger audiences and permitted users who would not ordinarily be able to attend to participate in this informative event. Witness Krystal Howard’s (Charles Cole Memorial Hospital) feedback: “Quadax is great! I love the booklet, packed with useful info. We really appreciate the ‘road show’ [because] four of us were able to attend [instead of] only one or two…when we traveled to Ohio.”
All told, the number of attendees was more than double that of our annual Cleveland-based User Conference, with 271 individuals in attendance.
Another benefit of this format was the reduction of client costs associated with attending the conference. Because of feedback garnered by our Account Reps from their weekly reporting after making on-site service calls, Quadax is keenly aware that there is a concern among our clients about a general lack of monies in budgets for meetings, restrictions on travel, as well as increasing pressures due to attrition and downsizing. That’s why we took great pains to ensure that client costs were kept to a minimum. For the majority of our clients, the only expense incurred was the travel costs associated with getting to the conference.
The conference itself consisted of two separate, but equally important, presentations. The morning session (led by Jennifer Spencer – Workflow Leader, Xpeditor Implementation Team, and Tom Klemens – Manager, EDI Edits & Documentation Group) addressed the impending transition to the ANSI 5010 format. We felt it was important to focus on this topic because there is a certain amount of anxiety about it shared across our client base. We’ve received many e-mails and calls about testing, our readiness, and how we are going to accommodate those who can’t provide a 5010 claim file. That’s why we made it our goal to address the direct impact this changeover will have on our clients and their business processes (from admissions to follow-up staff), along with solutions on how to best prepare for it.
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Left to right: Patty Monack – EDI Account Representative, Joel Varchol from Conemaugh Health System, and Tony Petras, Executive Vice President, COO of EDI Services. All smiles—clients and Quadax staff enjoying time together after the Altoona, PA UCOT. |
“Thank you for a very informative session on 5010,” wrote Linda Allen of the Ohio Valley Medical Center. “[The conference was] very helpful to a lay person.” Beth Strittmatter from Indiana Regional Medical Center also spoke about how the conference helped her: “Coming into the conference [I was] very confused with what we need to do for 5010…I know nothing was set up with my office, but this conference made it clear (about) what I needed to do to get ready. ”
Based on client comments like this, along with feedback gathered from the client survey given at the end of the conference, we achieved our goal. In fact, a whopping 99% of those who responded reacted positively to the statement, “I feel confident that Quadax is prepared and will be helpful to us through the 5010 transition.”
The second portion of the conference, led by Pat Blech – Manager, EDI Product Management, appealed not only to the PFS staffs, but also to our clients’ IT staffs. His presentation proved to be very beneficial for both parties, as the IT members learned about the entire claim management process and their role in its maintenance. “From our IT perspective, this was a very good conference. I appreciate the education,” wrote Michael Patterson from Morrow County Hospital. Rebekah Spivey of Premier Health Partners agrees: “I really enjoyed the session on Systems Integration. I’m somewhat new to Xpeditor, and it helped me understand how the systems work together.”
Of course, some things remained the same about this year’s User Conference, like the appetizing free lunch (complete with dessert) and the important networking opportunities—relationships established not only between Quadax representatives and our clients and their IT staffs, but also between clients themselves. Ideas were shared, questions were asked, and 5010 preparation strategies were discussed during break times and long after the presentations were over in a relaxed atmosphere.
Perhaps Donna Farmer from Fisher-Titus Medical Center summed up the entire experience best: “[It’s] nice to know Quadax is ahead of the game!”
Diana Wickham of South Haven Community Hospital is caught having fun talking
to Patrick Blech, Product Manager, EDI Services, about Xpeditor.