Grit, Grace & Vision Defending Healthcare for 20 Years
Ohio Pen/10296354

CLEVELAND - OhioPen -- "That's what she said!" is a phrase television audiences recognize as a recurring, inappropriate statement made popular by the character, Michael Scott (Steve Carrel), in 2005's breakout series "The Office."

"That's what she did," is what occurred, equally notable, in the same year, to revolutionize the medical/legal analysis sector: Excelas was launched by Jean Bourgeois from a kitchen table in Northeast Ohio.

Excelas could have easily been a customer of The Office's fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, as documents and work products were primarily in paper format. But Jean recognized these mountains of paper were not enabling clients to have information at their fingertips.

What they did: More than a decade ago, Jean realized that technology could solve the "paper" problem. A visionary, not a techie, she invested in her team's development of a proprietary software tool, ZAXAS®. It digitized hand-written, and then electronic, medical records to quickly organize, sort, and document (Bates stamp) patient data. Excelas' medical and legal analysts reviewed the records for accuracy and completeness, and generated reports to help build winning defense strategies for healthcare organizations, long-term care systems, and the insurance industry.

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ZAXAS® was cutting edge and Excelas' competitive edge: it created chronologies, visual charts, and other reports useful for internal/external audits, demonstrating compliance, answering challenges.

One of the rockiest periods in Excelas' twenty year journey is one that was felt around the world: COVID-19. Theirs, as well as client partners', is a people-oriented business. Suddenly, everyone was forced to isolate, while still finding ways to work together - safely.

Federal, state, and local health guidelines were changing almost daily, as new information was emerging about the mysterious and devastating disease. Meanwhile, Excelas was quietly and diligently collecting and documenting these changes. It understood the confusion and concerns in the ever-shifting environment would make the task of compliance complicated and challenging.

Additionally, Excelas was compiling and updating a list of PREP Act cases before the courts throughout the United States, from October 2021 through May 2023. Monthly updates were posted on the Excelas website to keep industry professionals informed on decisions that might impact their interests and worries.

Excelas' foresight was a game-changer, resulting in the development of Excelas' COVID-19 Comprehensive Integrated Timeline Tool (CITT, pronounced "kit"). Instrumental in defending COVID-19 claims brought against long-term care facilities and other healthcare institutions, the layered timeline tool clearly and effectively demonstrated an organization's compliance according to guidance published at a given time.

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After we moved on from the immediate covid threat, it was found that layering timelines (chronologies) could be applied in many situations, including

• combining a mother's and baby's medical chronologies to illustrate the medical situation when birth resulted in an adverse event,
• evaluating two patients' or residents' medical histories when an altercation between them resulted in an injury, or when
• comparing the facts contained in a medical record to comments made about an event during a deposition or testimony.

Excelas clients found infinite ways to utilize the CITT tools, developed by Excelas for covid, to solve problems that existed before the pandemic, but for which there had not yet been a solution.

Much has changed since those debuts. Fans followed the ups and downs of the fictional Dunder Mifflin for nine TV seasons, yet real-life Excelas is still going strong twenty years later. This milestone provides an opportunity for reflection on the attributes that contributed to Excelas' longevity.

A recurring theme in conversations about Excelas with staff, partners, and clients is resilience.

The team depicted in The Office dealt with external challenges, such as dwindling paper demand and heightened competition from "big box" retailers, all while under the guidance of an awkward but well-meaning manager.

Similarly, the Excelas team has contended with rapidly changing technologies, shifting regulatory standards, and the impact of a global pandemic. Fortunately for Excelas, Jean Bourgeois' leadership bears no resemblance to that of Michael Scott. Through her strong guidance, Excelas has been able to adapt and flourish. https://excelas1.com