Executive Summary

Wellstar MCG Health implemented Exo Works®, Exo’s point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) workflow solution, to accelerate patient care and streamline exam documentation, quality assurance (QA), regulatory compliance, and revenue capture at the medical facility.

• 203% rate of return within 9 months | breakeven in 3 months
• 47% increase in revenue capture
• Raised QA percentage from 10% to 100% for all POCUS exams (including those conducted by residents and medical students)

Challenges with the Status Quo

Wellstar MCG Health recognized the need to transform its workflow for more efficient imaging, documentation and QA processes to accommodate the rigorous demands of its emergency and internal medicine departments. They were facing a workflow system with incomplete billing capture and documentation siloes related to POCUS exams. As a Level 1 academic training center for residencies, they sought an ultrasound solution that was both connected to the larger hospital infrastructure and was flexible enough to accommodate teaching novice ultrasound users. The options available on the market were just not directly addressing their needs — then they heard of Exo Works.

Exo Works is an intuitive workflow solution that makes it easy for physicians to document, review, perform QA, and bill ultrasound exams in seconds, from anywhere.

Wellstar MCG Health found Exo Works to be, at last, the ideal solution to easily integrate with its existing healthcare IT infrastructure, scale across all departments, and facilitate proficiency tracking for early POCUS users. Plus, they would receive implementation and support services from Exo to ensure success.

Benefits of Adopting Exo Works

Working with Exo, Wellstar MCG Health has since transformed its workflow to align with the dynamic needs of its emergency and internal medicine departments. The organization has been able to break even on the investment in Exo Works a mere three months following its implementation. After nine months, they had realized an impressive 203% rate of return.

“Getting Exo Works implemented has been an outstanding experience,” said Lee LaRavia, DO, FACEP, Director of Emergency and Clinical Ultrasound at Wellstar MCG Health. “The Exo team has been eager to solve our challenges at the drop of a hat. After we implemented Exo Works, we immediately saw results.”

The benefits of Exo Works extend beyond those in medical roles. Wellstar MCG Health was able to raise the QA percentage from 10% to 100% for POCUS exams. For a healthcare institution with residents and medical students, this is incredibly important since it means that every exam is getting screened to ensure consistent image and documentation quality, which translates to improved patient care.

Before Exo Works, Wellstar MCG Health was only capturing a marginal percentage of billing for ultrasound exams; now they are up to an average of 58%.

In addition to the emergency and internal medicine departments, the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University has started to implement Exo Works as a solution for medical student ultrasound training and feedback.

“Exo Works has made my life easier by simplifying the process of ultrasound order entry and image capture. Rather than spending my time teaching EM residents how to do data entry correctly, I can focus on reviewing images and giving meaningful feedback. We are capturing a much larger percentage of the images obtained in the ED which creates better ultrasound users and translates to better patient care,” said Daniel A. Kaminstein, MD, MSEd, DTM&H, FACEP, the Assistant Dean of Ultrasound Education & Director of Global Health at the Medical College of Georgia. “With Exo Works, the barriers to POCUS are significantly reduced, making this learning tool available to a greater number of our students and residents.”

Exo Works comprises just one component of Exo’s growing medical imaging ecosystem, which emphasizes a holistic approach to expanding ultrasound use at the point of care. Exo’s ecosystem to date includes Exo Iris™, a revolutionary handheld ultrasound device, a fast-growing suite of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, and Exo Works POCUS workflow software.

See Exo Works in action.

About the Organization

Wellstar MCG Health is Georgia’s only public academic health center, where world-class clinicians are bringing the medicine of tomorrow to patient care today. As the primary teaching affiliate of the Medical College of Georgia, Wellstar MCG Health provides the most comprehensive routine-to-complex care at Wellstar MCG Health Medical Center, which houses the region’s only Level 1 trauma center, as well as Children’s Hospital of Georgia, Georgia Cancer Center, historic Roosevelt Rehabilitation and Specialty Hospitals at Warm Springs, Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home, and an extensive network of primary and specialty care clinics across the state.