Paperwork forms were often misplaced, damaged, illegible, inaccurate, or incomplete.
PurAir turned to GoFormz to digitize their form collection and centralize and streamline their data collection and processing. By integrating GoFormz with SharePoint, OneDrive, and QuickBooks, PurAir can automatically route completed forms to the appropriate destinations, streamline their billing processes, and easily access data as soon as it is needed.
Production Log
Packing Slip
Equipment Repair Forms
THE FULL STORY
PurAir is a medical oxygen supply company that provides equipment for home care companies, hospitals, and nursing homes. With 95% of their business model focused on oxygen-related equipment, PurAir also offers additional complementary gases and therapy equipment for the convenience of their customers. “From transfilling vessels containing compressed oxygen and cryogenically contained liquid oxygen to the testing and repair of oxygen equipment, PurAir provides everything you need when it comes to medical oxygen.”
Similar to pharmaceutical drug companies, PurAir is held accountable by the Food and Drug Administration, making the accurate, detailed recording of their oxygen fill production process critical – a process made difficult by paper forms and manual data capture. “Because we are so stringently regulated, you can’t just erase something from a form, or scratch it out. You have to document what you do and then rewrite the entire form,” explained Brandon Medlock, Director of Quality for PurAir. “So if you made a mistake on line three, column seven of a production form, you would then have to rewrite the entire form and write a report on what you messed up.” This process of rewriting information added costly administrative demands to production, ultimately resulting in PurAir seeking out a digital solution to replace their paper-based process.
“We were forced to go out and seek something digital,” recalled Medlock. “We knew digitally you would be able to note when a field was changed at the exact time to remedy a specific error, without having to rewrite the entire document.” To make the transition from paper to digital, PurAir needed to digitize specific paper forms while still adhering to the standards of the FDA. To meet these standards and achieve their efficiency goals, PurAir turned to GoFormz to digitize their forms and processing.
GoFormz’s patented solution enables users to upload their existing paper forms and create identical, digital versions – allowing users to easily maintain mandated formatting. With the help of the GoFormz team, PurAir replicated and digitized their paper-based production form, allowing FDA officials the ability to easily approve the compliance of PurAir’s new digital solution. “The FDA loves that we use GoFormz!”
“The FDA loves that we use GoFormz!”
– Brandon Medlock, Director of Quality, PurAir
From start to finish, PurAir’s legacy process of documenting and recording critical data was extremely manual, creating opportunities for human error and costly administrative burdens. Prior to GoFormz, it routinely took an hour and a half for the production team to manually record each oxygen fill on their grid production form. When errors would occur, rewriting this extensive amount of critical data only added to costly production delays. With no means of restricting inaccurate data input, these errors were inevitable when relying on paper.
By digitizing its production form, PurAir was able to eliminate opportunities for inaccurate data and ensure data accuracy and completeness. Digital forms can be easily equipped with logic to guide data entry and protect data integrity. “A lot of the conditional logic that is present in GoFormz would have been impossible on a paper form. It has saved us countless times,” Medlock explained. “The advantage lies with the fact that we can restrict what people fill out in GoFormz. They can’t use the wrong letter on a test or leave a field blank…all of that is restricted.”
This process is further strengthened by PurAir’s post submission approval workflow. “Upon completion, the form is transferred to a Quality Control Unit (QCU) and that person exists at each of our locations,” explained Medlock. “If there are errors, they note it and send it back to the team with corrections. If there are no errors, the QCU signs off on each column and then hits complete.”
With the help of GoFormz, PurAir’s previously manual process is now fully automated, increasing efficiency and resulting in significant time savings. “Prior to GoFormz you would see laziness come out in people,” explained Medlock. “The production station is a decent walk away from the main office, so personnel would hold all the mess-ups till the end of the day and then tell people they wouldn’t be able to leave until their forms were all corrected.”
“A lot of conditional logic that is present in GoFormz would have been impossible on a paper form. It has saved us countless times.”
– Brandon Medlock, Director of Quality, PurAir
After implementing digital production logs, PurAir digitized its packing, billing, and repair processes. “We added a digital packing slip to our repertoire and essentially that’s a record of a delivery we’ve made specifically for the oxygen cylinders,” explained Medlock. The data collected on these digital packing slips are vital information. “The main thing we are recording is the lot number, which is super important,” explained Medlock. “If you’ve ever experienced a food or medicine recall, what we do is similar. That lot number is how you let people know if something has gone wrong with the product. So we record the lot numbers and the quantities of the cylinders that we’re dropping off for people that are relevant to the packing slip.”
Additionally, PurAir digitized their equipment repair form. “With our equipment repairs, it was the same story – coffee-stained pieces of paper shoved into a filing cabinet, not organized whatsoever, and not easily searchable. Should we need to find a specific serial number, you would have to go through all of them,” explained Medlock. “Now that they are digitized, we are recording the date that we serviced the equipment, what we did exactly, and how many hours are on the machine, which acts as like the odometer on a car in a way.”
PurAir leverages the SharePoint integration for document hosting. “Having that connection has been really nice because GoFormz can automatically upload a copy of all of these forms into SharePoint and can even reference certain fields and then sort them that way,” explained Medlock. “In the past, we could scan a stack of documents and upload them, which was helpful. But we still had to manually sort through everything, labeling each one as June, July, and so on. Now, the workflows handle all of that automatically, which is incredibly powerful. Not only are the documents uploaded and backed up, but they’re also automatically organized.”
Additionally, PurAir leverages the Quickbooks integration to streamline billing. Before GoFormz, this process was extremely time-consuming and archaic. “For example, with the packing slips, those used to be printed out and we would hand them to our drivers, give them their route for the day, and then see them ten hours later,” explained Medlock. “Now they all have tablets. So the driver manager routes everything, assigns certain stops to certain people, and then transfers those forms to those employees. They record the information and once they are done, they complete the form, and it is automatically transferred to our form library and put into the queue for billing.” By leveraging Automated Workflows and integrating their existing software with GoFormz, PurAir has experienced substantial time savings. “Prior, it could take days before you get around to actually putting information into our accounting system,” explained Medlock. “But with the Quickbooks integration and our automatic pricing in place, everything is automatically uploaded so we’re essentially ready to bill the moment the form is completed.”
“Prior, it could take days before you get around to actually putting information into our accounting system. But with the Quickbooks integration and our automatic pricing in place, everything is automatically uploaded so we’re essentially ready to bill the moment the form is completed.”
– Brandon Medlock, Director of Quality, PurAir
Since implementing GoFormz, PurAir has achieved significant budget savings. “We’ve probably saved tens of thousands, if not, hundreds of thousands just from a labor standpoint,” explained Medlock. In addition, PurAir has gained a renewed sense of professionalism through their digital transformation journey. “I feel like most places we deal with that do any sort of delivery is all tracked via tablet,” explained Medlock. “So prior to this, we were looking like we were in the stone age when we pulled up with a clipboard and paper.” This digital transformation has helped them become more organized. “Knowing that we have all of our records in one place and we’re not worried about a piece of paper that may be under somebody's desk or lost in the wind has brought us peace of mind.”
“Knowing that we have all of our records in one place and we’re not worried about a piece of paper that may be under somebody's desk or lost in the wind has brought us peace of mind.”
– Brandon Medlock, Director of Quality, PurAir
After implementing GoFormz, PurAir has collaborated with the GoFormz Professional Services team to bring their digital form processes to life. “Our relationship with ProServices started for us whenever we got into the packing slips and that was a project I was given that we didn’t even know if it was possible at the time.” After coming to a solution that brought their digital packing slips to life, PurAir is now consistently communicating with the Professional Services team. “I have been working with the Professional Services team for a while now and it’s always been people that are super respectful, responsive, and incredibly smart,” explained Medlock. “A lot of what we do is boots-on-the-ground, warehouse-type work so we can be a little messy by nature and they were extremely understanding of how we operated. Sometimes I didn’t always know what we were entirely looking for but they would help us find our way.”
“I have been working with the Professional Services team for a while now and it’s always been people that are super respectful, responsive, and incredibly smart.”
– Brandon Medlock, Director of Quality, PurAir
PurAir has also been taking advantage of another valuable resource: the GoFormz feature request portal, where customers can suggest new features and functionality they'd like to see added to the platform. “The fact that the customer feature request portal exists is really nice and I feel as if it shows a level of care from GoFormz,” explained Medlock. “I’m sure the product team is chronically busy and always has things to work on, but it’s nice to see they are still open to receiving feature requests that people might want – I’ve seen a lot of them happen, even some I wanted to happen, so it’s nice to see.”