MedCenter One Home Health and Hospice and Applegate HomeCare & Hospice
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Medcenter One Home Health and Hospice and Applegate HomeCare & Hospice Boost Staff Efficiency with Mobile Technology Case Study At a Glance Organizations Medcenter One Home Health and Hospice Bismarck, N.D. – Serving patients in 23 communities in western and central North Dakota – Integrated health system including 232-bed hospital, multispecialty and primary care clinics, kidney dialysis centers and four long-term care facilities Applegate HomeCare & Hospice Ogden, Utah – Eight locations in Utah and Idaho – Provides skilled nursing, social services and infusion therapy Solution Spotlight – Horizon Homecare MobileCare TM Critical Issues – Inefficient paper-based documentation system – Slow communication of changes in care plans – Inability to accurately measure visit times for aides – Lack of documentation for payroll Results – Eliminated paper-based visit documentation – Improved payroll processing – Reduced staff time devoted to data entry Using a paper-based record keeping system, Applegate confronted time consuming delays and inefficiencies in collecting time cards and other records. As a result, payroll deadlines were frequently not met. They also found modifications to care plans were often delayed as they were transferred from clinician to office staff and finally to home health aide. Answers Both organizations wanted to drive greater efficiency in their day-to-day activities. For Medcenter One, switching to the new solution would mean no downtime for staff because Medcenter One already used BlackBerry ® smartphones — the same devices supported by McKesson. According to Jill Becker, home health aide manager, “I was not willing to go backwards to paper or telephony or anything other than what we were using. We had already seen how much more efficient we could be with the aides doing their documentation on BlackBerry.” Medcenter One decided to implement the Horizon Homecare MobileCare solution in conjunction with the hospital’s roll out of McKesson’s electronic medical record. The initial training session for its 15 users required about two hours in a test environment. Most of the training was conducted by a “super user” who demonstrated Medcenter One Home Health and Hospice in Bismarck, N.D., and Applegate HomeCare & Hospice of Ogden, Utah, followed different paths in their adoption of technology to help paraprofessionals deliver and document care to homebound patients. One was using an entirely paper-based system of scheduling and recordkeeping, while the other wanted to adopt a different smartphone application that integrated with its parent hospital. Although they had been on different paths, both organizations wanted to become more efficient and selected McKesson’s Horizon Homecare MobileCare™ solution to automate and streamline their services. Challenges As part of a nonprofit, integrated health system that includes a hospital and network of primary care clinics and long-term care facilities, Medcenter One serves patients throughout western and central North Dakota. The agency’s home health aides were already using a smartphone-based scheduling and recordkeeping solution, but found they were still tied to paper care plans. Recordkeeping tasks such as logging travel and hours for payroll were performed manually during daily trips to the central office.
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Read more about two unique paths to the adoption of technology to hlep paraprofessionals deliver adn document care to homebound patients using MobileCare from McKesson.
Transcript of MedCenter One Home Health and Hospice and Applegate HomeCare & Hospice
Medcenter One Home Health andHospice and Applegate HomeCare& HospiceBoost Staff Efficiency with Mobile Technology
Case Study
At a Glance
Organizations
Medcenter One Home Health and HospiceBismarck, N.D.
– Serving patients in 23 communities in western andcentral North Dakota
– Integrated health system including 232-bed hospital, multispecialty and primary careclinics, kidney dialysis centersand four long-term care facilities
Applegate HomeCare & HospiceOgden, Utah
– Eight locations in Utah andIdaho
– Provides skilled nursing, socialservices and infusion therapy
Solution Spotlight
– Horizon Homecare MobileCareTM
Critical Issues
– Inefficient paper-based documentation system
– Slow communication of changesin care plans
– Inability to accurately measurevisit times for aides
– Lack of documentation for payroll
Results
– Eliminated paper-based visitdocumentation
– Improved payroll processing
– Reduced staff time devoted todata entry
Using a paper-based record keepingsystem, Applegate confronted timeconsuming delays and inefficienciesin collecting time cards and otherrecords. As a result, payroll deadlineswere frequently not met. They alsofound modifications to care planswere often delayed as they weretransferred from clinician to officestaff and finally to home health aide.
Answers
Both organizations wanted to drivegreater efficiency in their day-to-dayactivities. For Medcenter One,switching to the new solution wouldmean no downtime for staffbecause Medcenter One alreadyused BlackBerry® smartphones — the same devices supported byMcKesson. According to Jill Becker,home health aide manager, “I wasnot willing to go backwards topaper or telephony or anythingother than what we were using. We had already seen how muchmore efficient we could be with theaides doing their documentation onBlackBerry.”
Medcenter One decided to implement the Horizon HomecareMobileCare solution in conjunctionwith the hospital’s roll out ofMcKesson’s electronic medicalrecord. The initial training sessionfor its 15 users required about twohours in a test environment. Most of the training was conducted by a“super user” who demonstrated
Medcenter One Home Health and Hospice in Bismarck, N.D., and Applegate HomeCare &Hospice of Ogden, Utah, followeddifferent paths in their adoptionof technology to help paraprofessionals deliver and document care to homeboundpatients. One was using an entirely paper-based system ofscheduling and recordkeeping,while the other wanted to adopt adifferent smartphone applicationthat integrated with its parenthospital. Although they had been on different paths, bothorganizations wanted to becomemore efficient and selectedMcKesson’s Horizon HomecareMobileCare™ solution to automate and streamline theirservices.
Challenges
As part of a nonprofit, integratedhealth system that includes a hospital and network of primarycare clinics and long-term carefacilities, Medcenter One servespatients throughout western andcentral North Dakota. The agency’shome health aides were alreadyusing a smartphone-based scheduling and recordkeepingsolution, but found they were still tied to paper care plans.Recordkeeping tasks such as logging travel and hours for payroll were performed manuallyduring daily trips to the centraloffice.
Copyright © 2011 McKesson Corporation and/or one of its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Horizon HomecareMobileCare is a trademark of McKesson Corporation and/or one of its subsidiaries. BlackBerry is a trademark ofResearch in Motion Limited. All other product or company names mentioned may be trademarks, service marksor registered trademarks of their respective companies. PRT468-07/11
“Horizon Homecare
MobileCare directly joins nurse
care plan management to the
home health aides by ensuring
that a current plan is put in
place on day of admission
because the aide is not able to
chart without one. It puts
more pressure on the nurses
to manage cases in a timely
manner — which in turn
provides better care for the
patient.”
Jeff Schmitt
Chief Information Officer
Applegate HomeCare &
Hospice
McKesson Provider Technologies
5995 Windward ParkwayAlpharetta, GA 30005
http://www.mckesson.com
Case Study
how to document patient visitsusing the smartphone. “The nicething about the solution is that thecare plans are all on one screen,where you just hit ‘complete’ or ‘notcomplete’ [for each care plan task],”explains Lindsey Kessler, MedcenterOne’s home health aide scheduler.
Applegate HomeCare & Hospice hadconsidered a telephony system, butdecided to wait until HorizonHomecare MobileCare was available.“A lot of our managers didn’t likethe idea of the aides using a patienttelephone,” says Emily Puusalu, theagency’s implementation specialist.
The solution was rolled out toApplegate HomeCare & Hospice’sfirst branch in August 2010. Toensure that the nine aides were ableto adopt the system quickly, theagency put phones in their handsprior to training so they couldbecome familiar with their workings. Once in operation, thecompany eliminated paper timesheets along with other forms thatslowed efficiency, according to JeffSchmitt, Applegate HomeCare &Hospice chief information officer.
The system provided managers withinsight into the length of timerequired for aides to move from oneappointment to the next. Thatknowledge made it easier to evaluate whether staff memberswere keeping accurate time sheets.
It has also improved the care theyare able to provide patients.“Horizon Homecare MobileCaredirectly joins nurse care plan management to the home healthaides by ensuring that a currentplan is put in place on day of admission because the aide is notable to chart without one,” explainsSchmitt. “It puts more pressure onthe nurses to manage cases in atimely manner — which in turn provides better care for thepatient.”
Results
Both agencies have realized substantial improvements in efficiency. Aides no longer carrylarge amounts of paper to appointments, and they avoid daily trips into the office to filepaperwork. In addition, data andtime sheets are downloaded directlyinto electronic health records, andpayroll is completed faster and moreefficiently. Medcenter One was ableto eliminate one position that hadbeen dedicated to data entry. “Itmakes the aides more efficient interms of being able to chart rightaway,” says Lori Nissen, MedCenterOne informatics and education manager. “It helps on the billingend too because they’re not havingto wait to process or verify they’rehere.”
