Henderson Behavioral Health workflow automation

Henderson Behavioral Health (HBH) is among Florida's oldest, largest, and most successful mental health and addiction recovery providers, offering healthcare, housing, and hope to over 30,000 people each year. In addition to world-class clinical services, healthcare IT plays a critical role in delivering HBH's caring mental health services to the residents of South Florida.

Tony Cox, Henderson Behavioral Health's CIO, feels the weight of this responsibility, particularly in an area where nearly 800,000 adults and children have severe mental illness. So the pressure is on him, his staff, and the contractors he brings in to keep the information infrastructure running smoothly and patient information safe and secure. Cox explains, "It's how I sleep at night, knowing I'm doing everything necessary to protect patient data and remain compliant with HIPAA." 

Challenge

The healthcare industry is under siege by cyberattacks. One hundred and thirty-five million healthcare data records, or about 40% of the U.S. population, were stolen by hackers in 2021, according to the 2022 Healthcare Cyber Trend Research Report. The IT team at HBH, led by Tony Cox, knows this modern reality and how critical it is to stay a step ahead of cybercriminals to protect patient health information. 

"Often IT puts things in place, and it's hard to pivot or make a change. It's hard to justify the cost and impact, especially when we're responsible for what's in place. But the cybersecurity and healthcare IT landscape is constantly shifting, and if you don’t change with it, you’re a sitting duck."

In addition to hackers, the mounting pressures of the current healthcare labor shortage create two problems that Cox wants to avoid: burnout, which leads to careless user error, and employee turnover. 

"I want to avoid staff members spending more time outside normal office hours to finish their work, including listening to work-related voicemail messages," Cox says, thinking about protecting staff from the impact of labor shortage woes. “Managing the constant stream of voicemail messages, whether on the phone or as an audio attachment, is tedious and time-consuming. Some important messages are buried among voicemails from vendors, sales reps, or automated accounts, but each one must be accessed to identify what calls need to be returned.”

Cox continues, "If those messages, which often contain protected health information, are overheard in public places, they can violate HIPAA or pose a security risk as well."

Solution

"It just made sense to bring Paubox in to help us with workflow automation using AI to keep voicemail transcriptions secure and HIPAA compliant," Cox tells us. "We've been a Paubox customer for about three years now. They've always delivered and go above and beyond for us. When we looked for a solution to remove the time burden and security risk of voicemail, Paubox had the answer.”

Cox explains, "Implementations and tech support are unbelievably great. Paubox advertised their system would be up and running in just minutes when we installed Paubox Email Suite. I'm like, ‘Okay, well, we'll see about that!’ And it was just minutes. There's never been a performance issue, lag, or lost emails in three years. When it came to the customized voicemail transcription, the whole project was seamless and took two weeks from development to implementation."

Now when emails containing voicemail audio files pass through the Paubox system, the new workflow automation process leverages natural language processing to transcribe the audio file with 99% accuracy and delivers the content in the body of an encrypted email, making it much easier for staff to assess and then act upon or ignore a given message. This method also eliminates the risk of audio messages being overheard in public places, since many staff members do at least some of their work remotely in order to provide timely, efficient care.

Results

"It was important to me that our voicemails kept our patient records private. But think about it, if a case manager listens to a voicemail containing PHI in a public place like a Starbucks, that could violate HIPAA. So, our organization is staying ahead of the curve and minimizing the risk of costly HIPAA violations, which would cause enormous strains on staff and finances," Cox adds. 

Paubox used its newly patented and novel approach to workflow automation for HIPAA compliant voicemail transcription to deliver the solution at HBH. The cutting-edge tech delivers the transcribed voicemail in a HIPAA compliant and HITRUST CSF certified email to staff members. The original audio file is still intact and in place. The result for the HBH team? Simplicity, convenience, and secure messaging.  

The CIO of Henderson Behavioral Health is a cyber defender working diligently every day behind the scenes to make work life and patient care better.

"The Paubox team listened to us and delivered a great solution. Their team has become an integral partner in improving our patient and employee experience around email and communications. Now I get through my voicemail within seconds. As a busy CIO with many daily meetings, that’s incredibly appreciated. We are already saving 500 minutes a week in labor right after rolling it out. That's equivalent to 468 hours across the organization and $9,360 in wages saved. This bot makes life easier for everyone and keeps our PHI secure."