Home Healthcare Uses Technology to Allow for Better Patient Experience
Schaumburg, IL & Oakville, ON (April 18, 2013) - For more than 80 years, Acclaim Health has been providing client-based care to individuals in their community. Acclaim Health Nursing professionals offer an array of services that provide quality care and support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Their approach to healthcare puts clients first by ensuring their staff has access to client health information, medical orders and clinical best practices at the point of care, the client’s home.
Acclaim nurses needed to easily review and manage their daily workload, quickly review the most recent client health information and accurately capture treatment data, progress notes and other clinical charting information, while in the community. Existing paper-based processes were inefficient and provided limited real-time access to important client information. Staff previously drove to the office to pick up referrals and medicals orders, faxed client health information to and from the office and relied on the telephone and voice mail to manage their caseload assignments. By providing staff access to real-time client information records documentation is now found at their fingertips, they save time searching for records, are equipped to make informed decisions, increase direct client care time and improve the quality of client care.
Acclaim Health made a strategic decision to provide nursing staff with the full access to a comprehensive client health record while in the community. Their ambitious goal required the implementation of two significant technologies, an electronic health record for each client, and a mobile application that could access client health information, care documentation and decision support tools while travelling in the community. By providing client information and records at their fingertips, Nurses save time searching for records, are equipped to make informed decisions, increase direct client care time and improve the quality of client care.
To address this need Acclaim Health selected the CellTrak CareManager™ solution. Immediately the staff at Acclaim Health began scanning and storing digital copies of all paper-based client health information into the Care Manager EHR server. Client’s now have a longitudinal record that includes all paper-based documentation and electronic clinical documentation completed by the nurse at the point of care. Care Manager provides consent-based access to the EHR to ensure the client’s privacy.
Each of Acclaim Health’s 70 visiting nurses was provided with a tablet computer running the Care Manager application. The Nurse’s active caseload is pulled from the EHR server and stored in a local and encrypted database on the tablet. This secured store-and-forward design ensures that client information is always available, regardless of connectivity.
The CareManager application supports the full record of intake documentation including health summary, medical orders and referral documentation. The nurse is able to complete electronic assessments, develop care plans and document care using standardized on-screen flow-sheets.
Joanne Baxby, Director of Nursing comments, “CareManager was the only solution that allowed our nurses to electronically document the complete episode of care. We have been able to implement Wound Care, Post-Acute, Palliative and Infusion Therapy programs using the Care Manager solution”. Because the clinical documentation is consistent and available at your fingertips, the solution makes training incoming nurses more effective. Documentation is now completed at the point of care increasing accuracy and improving client care. “Additionally, all of our forms are electronically stored and automatically delivered to nursing staff when updated on the server”.
After the system was launched, Michelle Gregory-Brooks, RN stated “I recently had to do a new admission for a palliative client that came in the middle of my shift in the community. I was able to get the information immediately on my tablet which was great because I didn’t have time to go anywhere to pick up information. The admission on Care Manager went really, really easily and worked well even with this complex client who required specialized documentation.”
Angela Brewer, CEO at Acclaim Health commented, “We are very happy with our implementation and execution in the field with Care Manager. We had close to 60 pieces of paper documentation before implementation and now we can better utilize our time with only 6 easy to use electronic forms and use this time for client care.” Ms. Brewer added, “Data is accessible 24 hours a day in real-time, exactly when we need it. Documenting at the point of care is error proof and produces more efficient visits. We feel we can provide a better client experience while empowered with this point of care solution.”
The CellTrak team developed the CareManager solution to provide a comprehensive clinical documentation and decision support tool for mobile health care workers. Unlike disease-specific solutions that are used for only one clinical condition, like wound care, Care Manager allows an agency to support all programs with a single software application and deliver all the client health information back to the central Electronic Health Record. Barry Billings, VP at CellTrak Canada shared, “This project has fundamentally changed the way Acclaim Health’s nurses deliver care. The vision and support from Acclaim Health management staff was unwavering and the open and positive attitude of the nursing staff was essential to making this implementation successful. I am very impressed with the Acclaim Health team and the results they have achieved.”
The new CareManager solution is part of the CellTrak’s patented mobile application platform for home and community care. The application supports the full record of intake documentation including health summary, medical orders and referral documentation. The nurse is able to complete electronic assessments, develop care plans and document care using standardized on-screen flow-sheets.
About Acclaim Health
Acclaim Health is a charitable organization providing high quality, client-based community health and support services for over 80 years.
We improve quality of life, wellbeing and independence for individuals and families by offering a variety of home health and community support services, including: nursing, personal and home support, bereavement support, day programs for those with Alzheimer disease, caregiver support and education, as well as visiting services for seniors, those with memory impairments, and those with life threatening illnesses.
In addition, we support front line health care staff in their provision of hospice palliative care through consultations, training, education and mentoring. ,
Our vision is to be the preferred partner in providing community-based health care solutions. Our team of almost 400 staff members and over 800 volunteers brings this vision to life by encouraging respect, participation, responsiveness and innovation in service. For more information visit: www.acclaimhealth.ca