Scott Magers

For all the push for providers to move to electronic health records, the process of hiring and onboarding employees still often requires paper.

Many vendors are trying to change that to help providers save both time and money.

Vikus says it thinks that about 45% of post-acute providers are still using paper within human resources processes, said Chief Operating Officer Trey Mullins.

“One of the things with HR is that many are trying to put the human back in it,” he told McKnight’s. “By getting rid of the paper, especially in the pre-hiring paperwork, they can focus on process rather than writing a name 100 times.”

Employees who start often face a mountain of forms to fill out on their first day, noted Martha Abercrombie, Vikus vice president of strategy.

“With all the paper, it’s conservatively an hour to do that. The pre-boarding process can be done before they come in. Human Resources departments are not the largest in long-term care, so they have to be efficient,” she says.

Ohio-based Hyland, which works across many industry segments, wants to help providers “move away from the cabinets and decrease the paper trail,” said Scott Magers, Hyland account manager for post-acute care. Its system OnBase acts as a single enterprise information platform for managing content, processes and cases.

The advantage of OnBase is that it “connects the entire continuum,” said Mike Bernard, Hyland manager of healthcare solutions. That includes pre-admission referrals, accounts payable and revenue cycles. The company wants to “leverage what the customer has” through an integrated approach, he says.

Other companies working to decrease paper in human resources include OnShift, whose OnShift Engage offers new hire tracking. SmartLinx Solutions LLC also debuted its ApplicantTracker in March.