Read their story (pdf) - NTT DATA Long Term Care Solutions

Client Story: Long-Term CareAlpine Fireside Health CenterTaking a proactive approach to an Electronic Medical RecordClientWith a philosophy of “Family TakingCare of Family” Alpine Fireside HealthCenter provides skilled nursing,assisted living, restorative nursing, andrehabilitation therapy to its long-termcare residents in Rockford, Illinois.Founded in 1973, each member ofthe health center’s interdisciplinaryteam bring their professionalknowledge and experience to developpersonalized care, services, andprograms to meet the needs of eachresident.“We chose Keane NetSolutionsbecause we want an ElectronicMedical Record and KeaneNetSolutions is a great way to get it.”Gordon OksnevadAdministratorAlpine Fireside Health CenterChallengeAlpine Fireside’s family-style care iscombined with a progressive approachto health information technology.“We are going forward with our plansfor an electronic medical record sowe will be ready when the countrycarries out the President’s ExecutiveOrder for a national electronic healthinformation infrastructure by 2014,”said Gordon Oksnevad, Administrator.Alpine Fireside uses these KeaneNetSolutions software applicationsfor resident care and assessment:Care Plan, Progress Notes, ResidentAssessment (MDS), Physician Orders,and eCharting.For Accounts Receivable andbilling, Alpine Fireside uses KeaneNetSolutions ADT and ResidentAccount Management. Keane Care’sGeneral Ledger, Accounts Payableand Payroll modules assist with theirfinancial management. CareTrackerfrom Resource Systems is also part oftheir system, used to collect data fromdirect caregivers and reporting.Solution“We are following a step-by-stepplan and process to adopt an EMR,rather than waiting until the lastminute,” continued Mr. Oksnevad. “Animportant early step was migrating oursoftware from Keane Care’s VistaKEANEwindows-based system to the KeaneNetSolutions browser-based system.”“That transition went smoothlybecause our staff were proficientwith VistaKEANE and KeaneNetSolutions was built using thesame logic, features, and functions asVistaKEANE.”“I was eager to take the next steptowards an electronic medical recordby installing Keane NetSolutionseCharting with eMAR/eTAR.I’m pleased to report that theimplementation has gone really well.“I knew we’d need wireless capabilityfor point-of-care charting, so when wehad a computer consultant come in“Eliminating the end-of-monthturnover alone is saving our staffabout eight hours a month.”Gordon OksnevadAdministratorAlpine Fireside Health Centerearlier to help with a new telephonesystem, he also helped us install awireless network. Because we had thenetwork in place, when it was time toinstall eCharting all we needed in theway of hardware was the tablet PCs toconnect to the network.“For point-of-care charting our nurseshad a choice of typing or using thestylus with tablet PC touchscreens.They found that using the stylus wasquicker and now all are using thatmethod to document when theyadminister medications and to enternotes and record vitals.Benefits“The nurses say eMAR saves themtime and increases their confidencethat they’re delivering the rightmedication at the right time,” continuedMr. Oksnevad. “During themedication pass they are not rifflingthrough paper MARs—everything isright there. They aren’t looking atother shifts to be sure they’re notmissing a medication. For instance, ifa medication is ordered for every 72hours, with eMAR it won’t appear ondays in between – only when it’s due.continuedKeane Care 800-426-2675 . info.ltc@keane.com www.keanecare.com

“Eliminating the end-of-monthturnover alone is saving our staffabout eight hours a month. With ourprevious process, when nurses receivedMARs from the pharmacy it usuallytook two to three days for them to gothrough every chart, comparing datawith the new and old MAR to makesure the new MAR was accurate,”continued Mr. Oksnevad“Now when they receive a new orderor change, they put it in the computerand the resident’s list of medicationsis updated and ready for the nextmedication pass.“With paper charts, pages can be filedin the wrong location. What if a chartis dropped? It’s hard to get everythingback correctly.“Our nurses like the eMAR, it makesthe process a lot quicker and makesthe job easier and less stressful. At firstthere were some complaints but afterusing it for a while, the complaintshave stopped. One nurse told me thatIt’s going to be a whole lot harder tomake a medication error.“When we had an unscheduledoutage and had to go back to usingpaper MARs, even staff memberswho were resistant at first wantedtheir eCharting tool. We discoveredit took twice as long to conduct themedication pass using the old papersystem.”“This happened over a weekendand I was resigned to the outagelasting until Monday morning, I wasvery happy that Keane Care Supportstaff acted on my requests over theweekend and we were up and runningin no time.”Next StepsNext for Alpine Fireside’s electronicmedication management system isKeane NetSolutions Drug Interactionsand Patient Education module.Mr. Oksnevad is looking forwardto installing the module when it’savailable in 2009. “Our pharmacychecks our medications now, buthaving this tool on our system wouldhelp with medication changes duringthe month and be an extra layer ofprotection against medication errors.”Keane Care is part of Keane, a global services firm that specializes in enabling transformation of its clients’ business and IT functions.Keane Care 800-426-2675 . info.ltc@keane.com . www.keanecare.com February 2009