Improving Visibility Across Urology

Central Ohio Urology Surgery Center is a single-specialty urology ASC in Gahanna, Ohio, offering clinic, CT, dispensary, local procedure, and surgical services in one connected facility. To support better documentation, visibility, inventory planning, and scheduling workflows, the center uses HST to move away from paper-heavy processes and bring teams into a shared system.

With HST, staff can document more accurately, access the information they need across care settings, use reports to forecast supply needs, and identify operational bottlenecks that impact efficiency and patient care.

Central Ohio Urology Surgery Center had outgrown paper-heavy processes. Documentation that once lived on a single sheet of paper created accountability, legibility, and reliability concerns, especially when preparing for CMS, Quad A, or other accreditation requirements. Charges also required physical stickers from supplies, creating pages of paperwork that needed to be tracked and stored.

In the OR, paper-based laser documentation limited consistency, while anesthesia workflows depended on information being transcribed accurately and vitals being captured without gaps. The broader challenge was visibility: different parts of the organization did not always share the same system, making allergies, medication lists, and prior encounters harder to access when patients moved between clinic, local procedures, and surgery.

With HST, the center moved from paper documentation to tablet-based eCharting, creating a more consistent, accountable record across the patient journey. Customizable documentation blocks allow teams to remove what they do not need and tailor workflows to the facility.

Even staff members with focused responsibilities, like laser documentation in the OR, can access broader chart information and provide a second set of eyes on items such as consent status or allergies. HST also supports charge capture by allowing staff to take pictures and keep documentation in the system instead of maintaining stacks of sticker sheets.

For materials management, reporting in HST Pathways helps break down the schedule by procedure type and forecast supply needs.

The impact has been felt in daily usability, visibility, and operational decision-making.

Tiffany described HST as easy for staff and providers to use, including anesthesia, and said the transition was not difficult. Instead of deciphering handwriting or facility-specific abbreviations, teams can rely on cleaner, more accurate documentation.

The center can also use HST reporting to track quality improvement markers, such as late surgeons, delayed starts, and where workflow hangups occur. For inventory, schedule reporting helps anticipate the number of ureteroscopies and other cases coming up in a week, so supplies can be aligned to demand rather than sitting unused on shelves.

Across departments, more people can see what has been done and what needs attention.

Looking ahead, the center sees forecasting as a major opportunity to improve scheduling, block utilization, and coordination across teams.

Tiffany noted that scheduling can be challenging when staff do not fully understand how a CPT code translates into case length or resource needs, which can lead to overbooked or underbooked time. With improved forecasting, the center expects to refine surgery scheduling, better fill block time, and bring schedulers, clinical teams, and ancillary staff into closer alignment.

As Tiffany takes on more leadership responsibility, she continues to find additional HST capabilities that can support improvement. The future focus is not just maintaining the system, but using it to keep refining operations and getting better.