Digital Solution Enhances Teaching, Clinical Care, and Research at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Technology Category
- Cybersecurity & Privacy - Security Compliance
Applicable Industries
- Education
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Leasing Finance Automation
- Smart Campus
Services
- System Integration
- Training
About The Customer
The customer in this case study is the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, a renowned institution in the United States. The school is committed to training future doctors, delivering life-saving clinical care, and making the discoveries and innovations that will enable people to live longer and healthier lives. To achieve these goals, the school has to manage numerous programs and plans. One of the key administrative tasks is the faculty evaluation process, which was previously managed manually, consuming significant time and resources. The school sought a solution that would streamline this process, save time, and provide valuable insights for improvement.
The Challenge
The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine was grappling with an outdated, manual, paper-based faculty evaluation system. This system was not only cumbersome but also lacked an efficient way to track forms, conduct audits, or extract data insights from the evaluations. The process required a full-time employee to manage 2,000 annual evaluations captured on 10-page paper forms. The system had no mechanism to track incomplete and missing forms, no overall audit process, and no data insights into trends arising from the evaluations. This inefficient system was costing faculty members hundreds of thousands of hours annually, which could have been better utilized for teaching, clinical care, and research.
The Solution
The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine adopted a digital solution using Nintex Workflow, Nintex Forms, and Nintex Sign® powered by Adobe Sign. This sophisticated, automated evaluation process was integrated with the SharePoint software the school was already using. The new digital evaluation process eliminated the need for manual management, freeing up the full-time employee for higher-value tasks. The solution guides evaluators to complete the forms fully and accurately, and identifies where forms are stalled in the process. Its audit capability provides insights into evaluation trends that can be used to expand or revise training programs, and eliminates the need for manual audit certification. The solution handles more than 200 rules and logic along with complex workflows and digital signature capture. The evaluation process begins with an automated email to the faculty member to be evaluated, with a link to the SharePoint portal on the medical school’s website. There, the faculty member can access an evaluation form custom-generated to reflect the faculty member’s roles and responsibilities.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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