Boynton Health Service Gets Help From Koozala

Over the past few months, the University of Minnesota's Boynton Health Service has benefited from the use of Koozala, a new online database for storing and updating personal medical records. With a need for a better way to collect immunization data for 8,000 incoming students each year, BHS began directing students to the online database in October 2009.

Prior to the use of Koozala, BHS relied on a manual paper-based process for recording students' medical information.  The older process involved an interim period between  the submittal and approval of students' medical records, causing a hold to be placed on many of the students' academic records and not allowing them to register for classes.

After approximately 4,600 students were placed on immunization-related registration holds in October, BHS directed them to an embedded Koozala link on the BHS Web site to submit their required immunization data.  By the first week in November, more than 4,200 students registered and used Koozala to provide the required data, allowing Boynton's staff to more quickly resolve registration holds so that students could register for next semester's courses.

"Koozala revolutionized the registration process for Boynton Health Service," says Dave Golden, Director of Public Health and Communications at Boynton Health Service.  "The service has saved us hundreds of hours, thousands of dollars, and eliminated quite a bit of stress for the students."

Historical analysis by BHS showed that more than one-third of immunization paperwork was incomplete or had errors (e.g., student immunization dates prior to student birth date).  Student holds caused by immunization errors resulted in approximately 700 calls per day to BHS over a two to three week period to clear these holds.  In order to handle this call volume, resources were redistributed and temporary staff  employed to manage the call volume and manually process the corrections for each student's unique situation by finding the student's paper-based record and then working with the individual to resolve the issue to clear the hold.

The use of Koozala has allowed BHS to become more efficient and user friendly.  The database allows for immediate data validation, the ability for staff to access records from any computer and the ability to pull reports on demand for specified date ranges. According to a case study done by Koozala, there has been a 90-percent reduction in phone calls to BHS, eliminating more than 1,000 staff hours.