HCS INTERACTANT recently installed a clinical and financial information system for diverse facility providing the following services:

• Behavioral Medicine Center for inpatient and outpatient treatment for adolescents, adults and older adults who face chemical dependency, mental health concerns and other personal issues.
• Medical Rehabilitation Center providing occupational, physical, speech and recreational therapies.
• Extended Care Center, providing continued treatment for those who must leave acute care hospitals but are not ready to return home. Extended Care is also designed for residents of various ages who are no longer able to care for themselves at home and/or who need long-term care assistance.

The facility used a legacy-based system as the main processor for close to 20 years. They supported the system in-house, and modified it based on years of user requests. This in-house support structure created a user base that claimed ownership of the system, and who were uncomfortable changing to a new system. However, faced with the impossible task of making the legacy application year 2000 compliant, the organization had to make a change.

The company began their search for a replacement by speaking with over 100 application providers. However, they found that most vendors only concentrated in one area and few could provide an integrated solution. HCS was one of the only vendors able to address their continuum and willing to customize the system based on the facility's unique requirements. Based upon extensive demonstrations and analysis, the organization chose to implement HCS INTERACTANT.

The organization appreciated the unique release methodology of HCS. Their experience with traditional updates or version releases created more problems than solutions. For example, every time they updated the physician billing system, they experienced several weeks of anguish during which the system was almost totally unusable. In almost every case, the update provided no help or corrections for any problems they were having. They appreciated the fact that HCS provided continued assistance to maintain the system and required changes when necessary.

HCS provided a clinical and financial solution that enabled them to conduct business as usual and increase user satisfaction.