Major Medical Center Uses AutoMate to Streamline Meditech's Data Repository

Memorial Medical Center of West Michigan Deborah Garcia, Systems Application Analyst

Background

Memorial Medical Center of West Michigan utilizes Meditech Client/Server as its healthcare information system. Important information is also pulled from Meditech's Data Repository, stored in a Microsoft SQL Server database, using reports generated via Crystal Reports.

The Challenge

For Deborah Garcia, Systems Application Analyst at Memorial Medical Center of West Michigan, Meditech dictionary changes and charge master updates were a major headache. For example, a single charge master update can result in two solid weeks of manual data entry.

Moreover, running reports based on data from the SQL Server using Crystal Reports was time-consuming. There was also no easy way to run reports directly out of Meditech on a routine basis.

The Solution

Deborah employed AutoMate to streamline all activities associated with these tasks. She has developed dozens of tasks to eliminate a litany of manual activities. Deborah especially likes the Microsoft Excel integration that AutoMate 6 provides, as at least 30 of her AutoMate tasks execute Meditech dictionary updates using the enhanced Excel functionality. In any one day, she has up to 10 tasks run automatically that required significant manual effort in the past.

The Benefits

Since using AutoMate to automate and streamline processes, Deborah estimates a timesavings of approximately 20 hours a month for routine, daily tasks.

Since originally purchasing AutoMate, Memorial Medical Center has invested in a workstation dedicated to running AutoMate scripts. The workstation paid for itself within a week when Deborah scripted a major Meditech dictionary update that would have taken weeks to enter manually. Additionally, Memorial Medical Center is able to update its web site and intranet with critical files automatically, all with the help of AutoMate.