API Installs Automated Time and Attendance and Human Resource Management Systems At Advocate Health System.

Health & Medical Editors

HARTFORD, Wis.--(BW HealthWire)--Aug. 2, 2000

One of Country's Top 10 Health Systems Looks to Streamline Time

and Attendance Data Collection Across Multiple Organizations

Automating Peripherals Inc. (API) announced today that Advocate Health System, based in Oakbrook, Illinois, has begun implementing the company's Payrollmation(R) Series time and attendance system for 23,000 employees over eight sites. Advocate is the largest fully integrated health care delivery system in metropolitan Chicago and is recognized as one of the top 10 systems in the country.

As Advocate continued to grow, it was getting more and more difficult to collect employee time and pay them accurately. The organization had a combination of antiquated systems, as well as sites that were still using manual time cards.

"We selected API because the product they demonstrate is the product they deliver," said Jim Doheny, director of accounting for Advocate Health System. "The fact that their product was developed exclusively for healthcare was a big plus, but what really sold us was the satisfaction of the people who used it. We did extensive site visits and user interviews, and they unanimously felt API was a great company with great technology."

With healthcare's complex pay policies, including multiple shifts and the need for 24-hour coverage, Payrollmation helps apply rules and policies consistently throughout the enterprise. Parameters, indicators and tables within the application allow users the flexibility to prescribe the rules that fit the institution or as changes occur. Carefully designed reporting strategies help manage the routing, retrieval and analysis of large volumes of data and support the manger's need to adjust staffing based on business requirements. Additionally, reporting to outside agencies, such as year-end audit, Joint Commission and Medicare/Medicaid reporting will be much easier and less time intensive because all the data is easily accessible and Advocate can trust the accuracy of the information.

With the manual systems, Advocate was issuing 200 replacement checks each pay period, and 80 percent of the errors were attributed to the time collection process. Additionally, it was estimated that some managers were spending as much as 25 percent of their time on payroll issues. With Payrollmation, time and attendance data is automatically captured and processed, so there will be a substantial drop in the number of manual checks that need to be cut as a result of time and attendance error. Departmental managers can now review and approve employee time cards from their desktop, usually in 30 minutes or less.

"Recognized as the leading integrated health care delivery network in the United States, Advocate is increasing it's leadership position by implementing consistent pay policies and an automated time and attendance system across its multiple facilities," said Luis Garcia, CEO and president of API. "API's healthcare-specific expertise and two decades of successful implementations at over 350 sites nationwide is helping Advocate reach their automated time and attendance system goals of employee satisfaction, improved bottom line and return on investment."

Three facilities have gone live already, including Trinity, Good Samaritan and Bethany. Twenty percent of the healthcare system's employees are currently using the automated time and attendance system. Advocate will be implementing five more facilities in nine phases by 2001.

About Advocate Health Care

Advocate Health Care, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, has been ranked as one of the nation's top health care systems for the past three years. It has more than 21,500 employees, 4,100 physicians and 200 sites of care in metropolitan Chicago, including three affiliated medical groups totaling 550 physicians, 33 Advocate Health Centers, eight acute care hospitals and two children's hospitals, a home health care company, and a continuing care retirement community. Its managed care contracting organization, Advocate Health Partners, represents 2,265 physicians and covers more than 387,000 lives. Advocate has a long-term academic and teaching affiliation with the University of Illinois at Chicago Health Sciences Center and is related to both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ. Their web site address is www.advocatehealth.com.

About API

API is a leading provider of payroll, human resource, time and attendance, education tracking, scheduling/staffing, and access control software for healthcare organizations. Founded in 1982, API has more than 350 installations in the United States, with customers ranging in size from 500 employees to more than 15,000 employees. The company has a strategic alliance with Microsoft Corporation and is a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider. The company's website address is www.api-wi.com.