Client Story

Over the past decade, Georgia Tech has increasingly invested in automating a resource-heavy process: student immunization compliance. Recognizing the increasing demands and inefficiencies of their homegrown systems, Georgia Tech turned to Medicat to further streamline the way their team verifies immunization records.

Georgia Institute of Technology

Initially, Georgia Tech used a homegrown system that required students and staff to upload and verify records manually. This process was labor-intensive and could not keep up with a growing student body. Twelve years ago, they implemented Medicat’s Immunization Compliance Manager to alleviate some of this administrative burden. Fast forward to 2024 – they needed additional tools to increase efficiency and accuracy.

“There is always a seasonal aspect to immunization compliance workflow, which makes it particularly challenging to manage. Training new staff annually became a burden, and the increasing number of incoming students made it clear that even our existing workflow was insufficient.

Our primary staff member handling immunization compliance is nearing retirement. To account for this significant change, we knew we needed additional tools to help automate this process. We wanted to make this process easier for students, and of course, our staff as well.”

~ Theron Stancil, Assistant Director of Health Systems

Georgia Tech implemented two additional tools to bolster their compliance workflow, including a state immunization registry interface (GRITS) and VeriVax, a tool that allows students to enter their address to retrieve immunization records that are automatically marked as verified within our EHR software.

Key features of Medicat’s solution included:

• GRITS Interface: Georgia Tech has a large in-state student population. Through this state immunization registry interface, in-state student records are pulled into the EHR software automatically, drastically improving efficiency and accuracy of the compliance process. 
• VeriVax: Conversely, out-of-state students are now also able to request for their records to be pulled directly into the EHR software, as well. Students from nearly every state in the U.S. can use VeriVax with ease.
• Secure Messaging: This tool enables Georgia Tech to send targeted campaigns to reach students who were not yet compliant with certain immunization requirements.
• Online Forms: Georgia Tech leverages online forms to screen students for TB, amongst other health screens for incoming students and new patients.

Since implementing Medicat, Georgia Tech has seen material improvements in their immunization compliance process:

• Increased Efficiency: So far in 2024 (as of August 1st),  they processed 8,993 documents, compared to 12,103 documents in 2023. This represents a 26% reduction in documents manually reviewed by staff in the first year of this tool being implemented!
• Compliance Rates: As of August 1st, the number of students who were partially compliant increased by 64% after implementing the GRITS interface and VeriVax. Additionally, the number of students who were fully compliant increased by 21% within the same timeframe.
• Student Experience: Now that most students no longer need to manually upload their documents to the student portal, immunization compliance is much less of a headache, especially for incoming students.

Client Story

When the Mendocino Lake Community College District brought on its first full-time mental health provider in early 2023, there were many challenges to overcome. The school knew it needed a secure, easy-to-use EHR to document in-person and teletherapy visits, track referrals to community providers, reduce clinical liability, and measure the impact of vital outreach programs. Across four campuses, the college’s thriving mental health support program is setting the foundation to expand student support services in years to come.

Mendocino was faced with a big challenge – finding an EHR system that fit the needs of their clinic both in the current moment, and for years to come. They were looking for a tool that could support all four campuses across two counties. Their wish list included: SSO capabilities, a granular permission structure, built-in reporting, and an intuitive interface.

“Coming from a background in county mental health services, my first challenge was bringing much-needed structure to the clinic. My goal was to introduce a modern standard of care for our students and reduce clinical liability for the institution.

We had the foundations for a great mental health support program, but we needed the tools to fit our unique workflow that still left room for flexibility and growth.

I provide short-term teletherapy and in-person counseling services at all four campuses across Mendocino and Lake Counties. I was looking for an EHR that would support my clinical workflow and allow me to track referrals to other providers in our rural community.”

~ Lisa Larimer Burtis, LMFT, Mental Health Counselor and Coordinator of Health and Wellness

Setting up granular permission structures for staff and clinicians, increased security through SSO protocols, self-scheduling capabilities, and templatized intake forms and notes have helped bring Mendocino up-to-speed with the latest standards of care in mental health support.

Medicat’s intuitive interface allowed the Mendocino team to quickly get up-to-speed on how to best leverage the tool. Student Support staff were trained on how to schedule students for therapy appointments. 

Clinicians needed to be able to access clinical notes within the EHR, while support staff reduced administrative burden by owning provider calendars and scheduling student appointments at each campus location. The granularity introduced to user permissions reduced security concerns, a major win for college administrators and IT.

Then, clinicians were trained on how to build forms and efficiently document visits. Plus, clinicians could now create and track the impact of outreach events, such as harm reduction workshops.

Implementing Medicat One Counseling has helped Mendocino lay critical foundations for student support services to grow and thrive.

By introducing an EHR tool that meets the unique needs of this school, a new level of modernity, security, and efficiency are now cornerstones of counseling services.

Additionally, new opportunities are on the horizon. The structure and tools in place now mean that Mendocino can apply for additional funding and grants to support students across every aspect of their health and well-being.

Case Study

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) faces unique challenges at its Student Health & Wellness Center, serving a predominantly commuting and international student population. The center, managing both insured and uninsured (self-pay) students, operated for many years using paper charts and outdated billing processes.

“When I arrived at UTEP, an internal audit of the clinic’s operations revealed 22 critical issues. I knew there was a lot of work to be done to get our ducks in a row.  

We needed a practice management and billing solution that could streamline our processes and bring us into the 21st century.” 

~ David Porras Jr., Assistant Director of Business and Clinical Operations

UTEP adopted Medicat 13 years ago, with a full transition to electronic health records (EHR) and electronic billing within six months. This newfound control over billing processes brought the clinic back to a financially healthy state.

“Medicat’s appeal went beyond EHR; it offered robust practice management features, such as electronic claims processing, an integration with Waystar, automatic adjustments, and an easier way to issue refunds.

The implementation also allowed us to roll out electronic consent forms that students love, plus an easy-to-use appointment calendar that keeps our clinic on track throughout the day.

I also can’t overstate Medicat’s exceptional customer support. Their commitment to swift issue resolution and the implementation of new tools to enhance both staff and student experiences is unmatched.”

~ David Porras Jr., Assistant Director of Business and Clinical Operations

Claim processing time dropped from 45 minutes to 1 minute!

UTEP achieved significant operational efficiency and cost savings through staff reduction and streamlined processes. Billing and administrative tasks were optimized, reducing the staff to one front office person and one student employee.

Achieving a remarkable 98% clean record for claims, UTEP established financial transparency and predictability. The team now spends far less time working on painstaking appeals.

Additionally, the time to process claims was drastically reduced from 45 minutes to just under 1 minute, a stark improvement. Payments to the clinic now flow directly into the clinic’s account, instead of taking 30-45 days.

Finally, implementing Medicat positively impacted the student experience, with students expressing satisfaction in navigating consent forms and gaining a better understanding of insurance claims and billing processes.

Case Study

Wesleyan University upgraded from paper records to Medicat’s advanced EHR system, streamlining charting, immunization compliance management, and billing.

Medicat helped to address the limitations they faced previously by improving efficiency across their clinic. Features like secure messaging, note templates, SSO, and advanced reporting have allowed Wesleyan to adapt to evolving industry standards.

For nearly 20 years, Wesleyan solely used a scheduling system to manage their clinical operations. This meant that patient records were all stored on paper, creating confusion, inefficiencies, and frustration for staff, providers, and students alike.

Staff and providers encountered several limitations with their mostly paper-based system. Miscommunications frequently occurred when provider notes were hard to read. Prescriptions were provided to students via paper form or were called into pharmacies by staff. Students called the clinic to see if their lab results were ready. All of this took time and energy away from caring for students, and was subject to human error. 

Clinical leadership realized they needed to switch to an EHR system to stay up-to-date with industry standards and enhance the quality of care they provide to students.

To address the limitations they faced, Wesleyan sought recommendations for EHR systems from other NESCAC schools. They came across Medicat, and quickly realized that the Medical EHR and Immunizations Compliance Management (ICM) solutions would allow their health clinic to streamline their everyday workflow.

Medicat’s Immunization Compliance solution now allows students to upload records to an online portal. Then, staff can quickly review records and mark them as verified. Or, student records available through Connecticut’s Immunization Registry, CT WiZ, are automatically imported to the EHR and verified.

Additionally, Medicat’s secure messaging system replaced unsecure email communication, ensuring more efficient and confidential communication between staff and students.

Medicat also helped Wesleyan build templates for commonly used clinical notes, implement single sign-on (SSO), and optimize the Student Portal to ensure an intuitive experience for both incoming and existing students.

Wesleyan was due for an upgrade.
And they sure got one!

• Reducing Paper: Staff and providers at Wesleyan initially had reservations about transitioning from paper charts to an EHR system. However, having easy access to patient information in one online file facilitates quick charting and secure communication.
• Enhanced Immunization Compliance Management: Tedious manual verification is no longer necessary.  Plus, providers now have a clear overview of compliance status, and administrators can report on campus-wide compliance with ease.
• Time Savings: Medicat significantly reduced administrative tasks for office staff. They no longer needed to handle paper charts, print, and scan SOAP notes, or perform end-of-day filing. The integration of all tasks within the EHR improved collaboration, eliminated manual workflows, and enhanced overall efficiency and clinic morale.
• Streamlined Billing: Medicat’s billing features simplified the process for Wesleyan University, providing transparency in documenting services and facilitating accurate billing to student accounts.

Case Study

The College of Coastal Georgia struggled to integrate Disability Services and Counseling data with Student Health records, hindering their ability to provide comprehensive care. The shift to Medicat streamlined collaboration between departments, allowing for holistic student care, efficient case load tracking, and proactive identification of support needs. The implementation resulted in time savings, improved reporting capabilities, and going 100% paperless.

Data was scattered, and in the case of Disability Services, records were still kept on paper. Collaboration between Counseling, Disability Services, and the Health Center was disjointed. Manual data manipulation for reporting was becoming increasingly burdensome.

“Not having a solution to track Disability Services was  hindering my workflow. I felt it was impacting my ability to serve our students to the best of my abilities.

Paper files related to disability accommodations were piling up on my desk, and I was unable to report on the types of accommodations we were granting on a campus-wide scale. 

Plus, our Counselors were using an outdated EHR to track their sessions. This system did not provide the integrated reporting we needed to demonstrate the impact we were having on students.”

~ Tashania Garner, M.Ed., Director of Student Well-Being & Support

Medicat’s tools allowed each clinic to reach their full potential, improving student care and outcomes. Features such as advanced reporting, granular data permissions structure, and the ability to seamlessly share data between clinics proved most impactful.

A single, unified portal for Counseling, Disability Services, and Student Health brought CCG’s quality of care to the next level. Students can now schedule appointments and message their providers at all three clinics through one simple platform.

Other features like secure messaging, automated reminders for accommodation-related tasks and deadlines, as well as a comprehensive view of a student’s well-being, made for a much better provider and student experience.

For Disability Services in particular, they are now able to report on accommodations granted based on transaction codes, making end of year reporting a breeze.

Plus, after an accommodation is granted, students now receive a Memo of Accommodation Summary, which arms students with the information they need to advocate for their needs across campus.

Disability Services, Counseling, and Student Health are fully integrated!

Time Savings: Now that CCG has access to online scheduling, secure messaging, and other time-saving tools, time spent on administrative tasks has been nearly eliminated, saving the Counseling & Disability Services clinics hours each week.

Going 100% Paperless: Gone are the piles of files on Director Gardner’s desk! A paperless system means files are no longer misplaced. Plus, aggregated disability accommodations data is easy to report on.

Full Integration: Now that the Disability Services and Counseling clinics have a system that integrates directly with the Student Health Clinic, student care quality has improved. The teams have always worked together closely, so this formal integration of data and workflow feels like a natural evolution of the campus’ growth.

Case Study

The University of Florida’s Health Compliance Office was drowning in insurance waiver and immunization records to review manually. They either needed to hire more staff to manage the workload or find another solution. Medicat’s Compliance Solutions allowed Florida to manage these records with ease and efficiency, reducing staff burnout, increasing productivity, and improving the student experience.

Florida manually processed thousands of student records, including insurance waiver requests and immunization records, throughout the summer. This caused acute stress for the Health Compliance Office, resulting in the processing time for immunizations skyrocketing to three weeks.

“The biggest challenge we faced was a lack of automation. We were using our own insurance waiver verification system, but we experienced consistent outages that slowed down the verification process even more! Verification of insurance waivers was taking up to a week, which was just no longer tenable.

Plus, students were emailing us, sometimes every day, asking about their immunization compliance status. We couldn’t keep up with manually verifying immunization records and responding to students and parents. It was particularly bad right around immunization and registration deadlines, when students were scrambling to ensure they were compliant.”

~ Jennifer Kieslich, Health Compliance Manager at the UF Health Compliance Office

Implementing Medicat allowed Florida to streamline insurance waiver and immunization record upload and processing, both from the student and staff perspective.

Students can now log on to view their insurance waiver and immunization compliance status at any time, instead of calling and emailing the Health Compliance Office. Plus, Jennifer has been able to update settings and upload directions on the Student Portal to continuously improve the insurance waiver and immunization record upload process.

Additionally, the system now integrates directly with Florida Shots to import thousands of in-state students’ immunization records, saving precious time and resources.

Finally, staff can view real-time eligibility of insurance waiver requests, vastly reducing the need for manual verification by staff.

Immunization processing time has dropped from 3 weeks to 1 week!

Leveraging the Florida Shots interface and Medicat’s automated screening tools has vastly increased the team’s productivity.

In fact, the number of immunization records that need to be manually reviewed has decreased by nearly 75%!

Additionally, staff completed 8,200 insurance verifications during Summer 2022. Of those, only one third required manual intervention from staff. Staff previously had to manually review every waiver that did not pass batch verification the first time.

Florida also enabled automatic renewal for many insurance policies, so students and staff no longer need to reupload and rereview insurance information year after year – a win across the board.

This increased efficiency allows staff to spend more time focusing on students who may be struggling with submitting their information or getting verified, improving the student experience.

Case Study

Saint Xavier was growing tired of straddling their outdated EHR system and a growing pile of paper records. When they were searching for a new EHR, they knew they needed a cloud-based solution that could better integrate with the Medical Clinic and reduce the burden on their IT Department.

The interconnectivity of their current EHR system just wasn’t there. Each day, staff and providers printed paper records and scanned them into other campus systems, wasting precious resources. Plus, the security risk, time, and budget associated with managing an on-premise EHR solution was acutely felt by the IT Department.

“The functionality of our previous EHR system no longer met the needs of our clinic. The time and resources we were wasting trying to make it work was no longer tenable.

When I assumed the role of Director, I knew we needed to find a new solution. While staff were used to the interface and quirks of our previous vendor, they were itching to try out a new system that would better fit their workflow and needs.

Plus, I was communicating frequently with members of our IT Department. They increasingly stressed the need to transition away from our current ‘on-premise’ solution, to one that was cloud-based. Managing the on-premise solution was eating up hours of their time each week, plus the hosting of the data itself was costing the university money, and posed a real security risk that the IT Department no longer had appetite for.”

~ Dr. Keiana Winters, Director of Counseling

Implementing Medicat One Counseling allowed Saint Xavier to streamline record keeping, send secure messages and forms, connect to their SIS seamlessly, and reduce the burden on their IT team.

Under Dr. Winter’s leadership, Saint Xavier’s Counseling Center can now integrate with their student information system (SIS) and communicate securely with students to optimize the student experience and clinical operations.

Staff find the software interface incredibly intuitive. Providers specifically love that they can see check-in status, chart visit information, and access student medical history all from a single calendar view.

Dr. Winters says the Supervision Dashboard is one of her favorite features. Whereas in the past, Dr. Winters had to print out provider schedules to get a pulse on the clinic’s operations, she’s now able to access a bird’s eye view of any roadblocks, scheduling issues, or at-risk students, all in one dashboard.

Saint Xavier has gone 100% paperless!

Medicat One Counseling has allowed Saint Xavier to become a modern clinic that continues to provide an exceptional level of student care.

Dr. Winters estimates that since transitioning to Medicat One Counseling, she has saved about 4 hours per week of time, just through solving operational inefficiencies. This has allowed her to expand educational programming and provide more supervision to counseling trainees.

Plus, time savings across the clinic has allowed providers to see more clients, despite an increase in counseling demand since 2020. In fact, during the 22-23 school year, Saint Xavier saw over 300 unique students across 1,000 appointments.

As a cherry on top, the clinic has gone 100% paperless, making their workflow more organized and less prone to human error.

Case Study

Wofford College’s Counseling Services transitioned from Medicat’s Legacy Counseling product to Medicat One Counseling. The clinic has realized time savings that add up to truly make a difference in their clinical operations. Plus, onboarding new providers is streamlined, meaning new providers can start doing what they do best quicker – supporting students’ mental health and well-being.

As a small but mighty clinic, resources and time are precious. After leaving paper records in the past and adopting Medicat’s Counseling EHR in 2017, clinic leaders knew they had gained many efficiencies. However, they knew they had the possibility to take their clinic’s operations to the next level.

“Even in just the last four years, our clinic has expanded a lot. We brought on a Counseling Director, additional providers, and I knew we needed a solution that could fit our growing clinic’s needs.

As Assistant Director of the clinic, I’m responsible for training our team on using our EHR. So when I saw how modern, intuitive, and easy-to-use Medicat One Counseling was, I knew I needed to take a deeper look.”

~ Kellie Nakatsu Buckner, Ed.S., LMFT, Assistant Director of Counseling

Transitioning to Medicat One Counseling was the catalyst behind further streamlining Wofford’s clinical workflows. Improvements to provider schedules, student waitlists, customized forms, and templatized clinical notes became a reality.

“Writing notes and collecting student data is never something that counselors love doing. A goal of mine as Assistant Director is always to make charting as easy as possible for our providers.

We’ve built out a suite of customized forms that we’re able to tweak as we go. Plus, our note types and treatment plans are highly templatized, saving providers precious time between appointments or at the end of the day when they’re focused on charting student progress.

Just the fact that Medicat One Counseling is web-based saves providers time throughout the day, which adds up to be pretty significant. We’re no longer spending time opening a desktop application on our computers – we just open our browser and we’re good to go!”

~ Kellie Nakatsu Buckner, Ed.S., LMFT, Assistant Director of Counseling

Medicat One Counseling saves the clinic about 10 hours per week of time!

By the end of the first year that Wofford implemented Medicat One Counseling, the clinic saved an average of 10 hours per week on administrative tasks. This created the opportunity to use this time to see more students and carve out time for professional development.

Through the transition process, Wofford’s mental health providers have enjoyed continuous support from the Medicat team, optimizing their use of the software to fit their campus’ exact needs.

Finally, getting new providers up-to-speed on their new EHR software has been a breeze.

In fact, on average, new provider training decreased from two weeks to two days!

Case Study

ACU is a small, private university in western Texas. Their health and counseling clinics are co-located and work together closely. However, issues surfaced when each clinic’s EHR system could not communicate with the other, impeding operations and care quality. When Medicat One Counseling became available, ACU took the opportunity to integrate with the Health Center (which already leveraged Medicat) to improve the student experience.

“Our front office staff were doing a lot of redundant work. For example, we have a psychiatrist who works for our Counseling Center, but we scheduled his appointments within the Health Clinic’s EHR. Our admins had to run over to the Medical Clinic, print out files, then scan records into our old EHR software.

Plus, redundancies in billing and other processes were putting our staff under a significant amount of stress. Frankly, we needed to address these issues as quickly as possible.”

Tyson Alexander – Director of the Medical and Counseling Care Center

Medicat One Counseling: “We were looking for a web-based solution that could integrate with the Health Center, so that was a huge selling point. With some staff on Macs and others on PCs, using a web-based application made things so much easier.”

Under the leadership of Director Tyson Alexander, ACU’s Counseling Center now shares some student data with the Health Center using a role-based permissions structure. This has transformed the shared goal of caring for the “whole student” a reality.

Additionally, features like automated messaging allow staff to send key communications, just like the Health Center. This eliminated the tedious task of manually sending reminders and resources to each student, allowing providers to stay on schedule.

ACU also integrated Medicat One Counseling with CCAPS. Instead of having students fill out forms on an iPad before their session, forms are automatically emailed. ACU expected there to be a learning curve with students completing these forms. However, because students were used to completing forms online before any Health Center appointment, adoption of this new process was painless.

A single platform that helps staff care for student mental and physical health

Staff are now able to point students, parents, faculty, and other campus partners to a single online portal that empowers students to take care of their physical and mental health.

This has improved the referral process and allowed more students to be seen at the clinic. In fact, the Counseling Clinic saw 20% more students last year, more individuals than ever before. This figure makes up almost 25% of the student body!

Finally, the efficiency gained by automating appointment reminders allowed the clinic to reduce their “no show” rate by 12% last year. Students even remarked that they loved receiving the reminders via text message, citing a better student experience.