Effective Use of Mobile Technology from CellTrak® Improves End-of-Life Care for Patients at Grace Hospice

Apr 29, 2015 11:48:07 AM

Integrated Dashboard Gives Actionable Insight into Care Plans in Real-Time

Schaumburg, IL – April 29th Grace Hospice of Oklahoma has been providing superior care to patients and families in Northeastern Oklahoma for over a decade. Traditional health care focuses on the illness, but at the team at Grace understands that providing care is really about people. With the implementation of smart phones and a mobile health care and services solution from CellTrak, Grace now sees new operational insights they could not see before. Grace simply added iPhones with an easy-to-use app from CellTrak to help deliver better care. The application, which interfaces with their Electronic Medical Record (EMR) provided by Cerner, removes paper, extends workforce management to all disciplines and enables improved care delivery.

Kim Effiong, EMR Liaison from Grace Hospice of Oklahoma, commented, “Through the real time clinical alerting features, we were able to make a recommendation for change on conditional information which improves a patient’s care. This includes a care plan task list that was captured previously on paper and is now captured real-time at the point of care. Utilizing CellTrak portal and alerting features we were able to gain visibility and determine any needed changes in care delivery. CellTrak enables us to make sure clients are not over- or under-served for care with electronically verified visits in real time.”

Ava Hancock, Executive Director of Grace commented, “From an operational stand point, it helped us with efficiencies and time management, as well as cost containment. We were able to ensure that our staff was making the best use of time and travel and minimize cost to the company with excess mileage.”

Grace Hospice strives to provide levels care that exceeds industry standards in every category. In most cases, client visits by nurses, certified nurse aides, social workers, volunteers and chaplains are more frequent than national, state or local averages. Each patient has an individualized plan of care, tailor-made to meet all of his or her medical, psychosocial and spiritual needs. Because caregivers are able to deliver more attention, patients experience a higher quality of life – the entire hospice team becomes like a part of the patient’s family.

Effiong added, “This use of technology is big for us as an organization as we can now operate knowing when and where care is made. This dashboard has been a blessing to dispatch and find care that is close by. Family or others responsible for care giving can call our office and we can view a map in CellTrak to get care immediate delivered. We had a little push back from staff initially, but now we are rolled out to all of our disciplines. Our nurses, aides, chaplains and marketing staff are using CellTrak in their daily routines.”

As a locally owned and operated hospice agency, Grace Hospice serves a 50-mile radius from their office in Tulsa. The staff lives in the areas they serve; they are their patients’, and their patients’ families, neighbors, have a unique knowledge and understanding of the local support and service agencies available to assist people in the area.

Mark Battaglia, CEO of CellTrak Technologies added, “Grace Hospice better addresses the complexities of efficiently delivering high quality, patient-centric health care by using CellTrak’s mobile health solution. The entire team has been a pleasure to work with; they now use the solution every day to improve patient care. Battaglia added, “The combination of the technology, the people and their local focus distinguishes Grace as a hospice in the Tulsa area.”

CellTrak will be featuring its solution for hospice and home care at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Association on April

About Grace Hospice of Oklahoma

We concentrate all of our efforts and expertise strictly on hospice services and palliative care. We do not dilute the quality of our services by expanding into other endeavors, such as home health care. We are dedicated to one purpose only: we are dedicated to you. We are a family of professionals who are passionate believers in the hospice concept. The caring, experienced professionals who join our team stay over the long term and add their experience to the rich pool of talent and skills we make available to you. We use a broad spectrum of specialists, including physicians, nurses, aides and counselors specially trained in hospice care. With such a diversity of experience, you will receive the very best care in the hospice industry. For more information please visit: http://www.gracehospice.com/

About Grace Hospice Foundation

Grace Hospice Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization created to promote the principles of hospice care, educate our community about hospice, subsidize care for patients & families that cannot afford hospice and grant the special wishes of hospice patients. The Grace Hospice Foundation was created because we believe that more people need to know about the benefits of hospice care. Why would anyone choose to spend the balance of their life in a hospital when they can receive exceptional care from specially trained professionals and spend quality time with the people they love? The Grace Hospice Foundation was born from this principle and from the strong commitment we have to our community. For more information please visit: http://gracehospicefoundation.org/

Topics: CellTrak News

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