Case Study: Zepf Center


User

Zepf Center (USA)

Version

Office Server Document Converter V7.0

License Type

Windows 64bit Standard version

Operation start date

March 25, 2019

 

About Zepf Center


zepf-logoMission Statement: Creating hope & recovery through integrated person-centered services.

Zepf Center first started in 1974 by Elizabeth A. Zepf, who was very active in local Mental Health Services development. In 1977, the center added a second location and has been expanding ever since with over 500 doctors, nurses, social workers, AOD counselors, and other support staff. Today, Zepf Center continues to operate as a non-profit in Northwest Ohio.

Zepf Center offers a very wide range of services including, mental health, addiction services, job coaching and vocational, medical assisted treatments, and other services for youth and adults. The center’s success lies in their continuum of care and ability to refer patients across their agency. Their strength comes from the expertise of Zepf Center’s employees and the innovation of the treatments they provide.

Migrating Data from an Electronic Health Record


In 2011, Zepf Center implemented an Electronic Health Record (EHR) that was not built for Behavioral Health. As such, the agency learned to adapt their programs to fit the EHR, but those programs weren’t always fully supported. Because of this, many of their operations were forced to develop processes inside and outside the system. Finally, they made the decision to transition away from the original EHR to a platform geared more towards the range of services that Zepf Center provides.

One of the challenges with migrating to the new platform was extracting data from Microsoft Word files stored in the original system. Zepf Center’s data migration focus was on cleaning up existing data and making use of only the most important, non-discrete data available. This includes the standalone files associated with patient records such as lab results, referral documents, etc. The requirements were based on age of the record, the current patient status, and the type of data that would live in the new EHR. Extracting such data from Word files from the original EHR and properly associating it with the patient record proved to be a very difficult task.

OSDC Converts Over 1 Million Patient Files to PDF


OSDC solved this problem by allowing Zepf Center to manage the export, conversion, and patient association for over 1 million files. Their data team would identify a block of Word files, convert those files to PDF using OSDC, launch a script that renamed the files to match the patient record, and upload the converted files into a “holding tank” from them to be incorporated in the new system.

“The conversion tool was instrumental to our effort because it was relatively simple to use, it allowed for flexibility with error checking, naming, and export jobs. We couldn’t have done this process without the use of Office Server Document Converter. Without OSDC, when we go live on the new platform, our staff would have been required to log into the old system and look up data should that information not have been converted. Combining the data on the new system will allow our staff to maintain one record system, thereby eliminating the access costs and complexities of two systems.” – Pete Areddy, Zepf Center