CCS Expanded It's Footprint And Turned To Concord Cloud Fax To Ensure Reliable Data Transmission Within And Outside Of The Agency
When Oregon’s Community Counseling Solutions (CCS) expanded its service footprint into a new county, the agency also gained a big challenge: It had to align staff, databases, back-office operations and more very quickly so there would be no interruptions in patient care. High on that list was examining how data was being sent and received within and outside the agency, says Mike Snyder, IT Administrator.
“At that time, we were serving four counties and a population of about 24,000 people,” Snyder says. “When we moved into the fifth county, we acquired staff working in multiple programs from two agencies,” Snyder says. “We had a lot of accounts to clean up and merge, as well as combining services such as phone systems — at one point we had four different phone solutions.”
This wasn’t a small task. CCS provides a wide and growing array of services, including family and group therapy, alcohol and drug treatment, 24/7 crisis intervention services, psychiatric consultations, medication management and case management for individuals with developmental disabilities. It also has cooperative agreements with other local and regional organizations, including residential and acute psychiatric service providers and school programs.
Too Much Paper, Not Enough Reliability and Consistency Around Data Delivery
Despite that large and growing service roster, much of the agency’s data, especially that around patient care and operational procedures, was being transmitted via paper fax. That was a big problem. To ensure effective service delivery and care, CCS relies on a constant stream of data from caregivers, other agencies, payors and more. Delayed, missed or incomplete forms can mean care interruptions or slow reimbursements.
“We were stuck doing a lot of old-school faxing with machines over analog phone lines,” Snyder says. “Even so, we were reluctant to use digital fax because of the headaches we were having with our e-faxing vendor.”
That meant multiple fax machines, with the associated paper and toner costs, alongside phone system and other expenses. Snyder, who is the IT Administrator and whose team provides support to more than 300 people, says he focused on fax early on because data delivery is essential to all other clinical operations.
“We were looking at all the vendors we had and trying to merge multiple phone systems and a lot of other technology,” Snyder recalls. “We needed to be up and running as a combined entity quickly. That meant a lot of calls, and a lot of demos. When it came to our fax options, one company, Concord Technologies, stood out far and above the others. They were super friendly; the pricing was better and there were so many fewer issues around onboarding and operations compared to what I was hearing from everyone else. The Concord team came in, looked at what we needed, and told us what they could do. There was no implementation charge, and the fee structure was transparent and simple. Concord really studied what our problems and issues were and came up with the right solution. It was nothing like the experience we’d been having with our e-fax provider up to that point.”
An Affordable, Reliable Solution for Multiple Locations, Staff and Service Lines
With Concord Technologies’ suite of digital fax solutions, CCS is moving towards leaving behind its complex network of physical fax machines and the related headaches. Concord’s tiered training means that different teams were trained right away on the easy-to-use features and more have been added over time on a schedule that CCS controls. Even better, with Concord, the agency is only paying for what it uses. CCS also can integrate its fax services into its Credible EHR platform, creating additional opportunities to streamline workflows and speed operations.
An easy-to-decipher contract with no built-in additional fees for even minor service changes was a pleasant surprise, Snyder noted, pointing out that CCS’ prior vendor had been difficult to work with around costs and billing.
“We were sold the idea of moving to a different platform that was supposed to save us money, and then the first month’s bill was more than four times what I expected because of changeover fees,” Snyder says. “I made a lot of calls and never got any help and wound up going to our state attorney general to file a complaint. We had a lot of services we didn’t need, and I felt like we’d been misled. I don’t have time to fight a vendor every month, and that has certainly not been my experience with Concord. I knew right up front what my fees would be, and how I could track what we were using.”
“I don’t like being transferred and having to explain myself 15 times if we’re having an issue,” he continues. “We have a lot of moving parts, and Concord has helped us get our fax problem under control. I don’t have to do any legwork and Concord saves me money. I have not had one person complain about Concord, and I don’t know that I have ever had another application where I could say that.”
Company
Community Counseling Solutions
Industry
Behavioral Health
Headquarters
Oregon
Website
www.communitycounselingsolutions.org
The Problem
CCS has offices spread over five counties, and needed an affordable, scalable digital fax solution that could be deployed across all locations and support multiple service lines.
The Solution
- Faxes are sent and received through Concord Email2Fax and Fax2Email solution.
- A general domain address was established to manage all fax users.
- A scalable solution means CCS can add other outside-platform integrations when needed, as well as additional features for data extraction and processing.