How North Kansas City Hospital and Meritas Health automated 80 open roles
For over 60 years, North Kansas City Hospital (NKCH) has been the Northland’s preferred healthcare provider, and now with its subsidiary, Meritas Health (MH), it provides the largest network of provider practices in the Northland region.
“We were looking to be more efficient throughout the health system. Whether we couldn’t find people to fill positions, or we didn’t want to spend 20 minutes doing a task that we could automate, we seek to deliver the best experience for our staff and our patients.”
reduction in check-in time per patient
open roles that didn't need to be filled
of staff would recommend Notable
decrease in no shows
The challenge
Like many health systems, NKCH & MH has struggled with persistent staffing shortages in both clinical and non-clinical roles. In early 2021, NKCH & MH had 43–45 open job requisitions. These resource limitations meant the hospital could only pre-register 40% of patients for scheduled appointments. As a result, they faced frequent denials or write-offs.
The system also found there were gaps in its registration capabilities. These gaps created more manual work for staff and reduced efficiency. “We knew that we were slow,” said Dr. Todd Beardman, CMIO of NKCH & MH. “We were slow checking patients in, we were slow getting them through the MA intake, and the efficiency in the clinic was not where we wanted it to be.”
The solution
NKCH & MH partnered with Notable for the first time in 2021, and have expanded across the platform since. The partnership initially began with vaccine scheduling. “It was a great learning experience for us in terms of what we can do in the face of adversity and how quickly we can get there,” said Beardman.
Since then, NKCH & MH have gone live on Registration and Intake, Scheduling, Authorizations, Population Health, and Assistant. This platform-wide use of automation has increased the efficiency of their workforce and allowed for better resource utilization. According to MGMA staffing benchmarks, the health system would otherwise need to hire 80 additional FTEs — about 10–15% of their administrative workforce.
Patients experience a more than 90% reduction in check-in time and as a result, have to spend less time waiting. In 2021, check-in took approximately 4 minutes. Today, when patients complete pre-registration using Notable, check-in takes about 10 seconds. And because completing the intake experience before the visit also serves as a visit reminder, no shows have gone down by 34%. The hospital is now pre-registering 80% of its patients, up from 40%.
These changes have met with widespread approval from patients and staff, with 70% of staff agreeing they would recommend Notable to a healthcare colleague at another organization.
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