In the McKnight's article, Cheryl Field weighs in regarding integrated data and merging it with user-friendly dashboards to provide up-to-date information (such as our primeVIEW application) and how this is changing the ways operators capture, analyze and strategically employ critical data.

“A vendor's ability to take data from multiple sources so it can be analyzed and [shared, as needed] is becoming increasingly important,” says Cheryl Field, chief product officer for Prime Care Technologies. “Providers become frustrated when they want to send data to a third party, but another party doesn't want to integrate. We own our own middleware, so we are vendor-neutral and can truly integrate all the different clinical and labor data to help operators make the best decisions, but without having to spend time collecting data and doing the math.”

The National Investment Center (NIC) recently spoke with Jeff Amann, Welcov’s Chief Operating Officer, about the company’s approach to tracking quality in an evolving health care system.

In the article Jeff was asked what kinds of specific data does Welcov use to make decisions.  He highlighted that they use the dashboard system primeVIEW, a product of Prime Care Technologies.  primeVIEW’s dashboard allowed them to review occupancy, cash collections, bad debt, labor hours, customer satisfaction, and key clinical metrics in real time.

Click here for the entire article.

Click here to see a 60 second overview of primeVIEW.

Rest assured. LTPAC Clinical executives can know rather easily.

What keeps you up at night? When I ran SNFs, many things would intrusively leap onto the stage of my dreams, stealing the limelight. Their discordant presence would dash the quiet and restful performance currently playing, causing me to start into a sudden and unwelcome wakefulness. It was one thing to steal the limelight, it was another to completely take over the show and lock the stage door to my more sedate and slumber-inducing dreams. Stifling a cry, I would sit bolt upright in bed, beads of sweat on my furrowed brow. One of those frequent limelight-stealing imps was a nagging doubt about my facility’s compliance.

Compliant to what? Federal and State regulations? Fire and safety? The Fair Labor Standards Act? Safe Harbor? HIPAA? Corporate standards and objectives? The list goes on and on, each list member competing animatedly for my attention. “No sleep tonight,” I’d groan. But times have changed and so has technology potentially barring the stage doors to unsolicited dream disturbers.

In the days before automated data mining and business intelligence (BI)-generated dashboards and reporting, I would have to make a mental note to investigate if and how compliant we were, recognizing that the research alone would take quite a lot of time, assuming no interruptions (silly me), sorting through charts, files, and printouts. But today WITH BI at a manager’s fingertips, those with compliance concerns, including clinical managers, have ready access to critical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). With Business Intelligence, clinical managers can conveniently view a variety of KPIs which they can make their own. (I’ll get to that shortly.)

Let’s take a look at some of the KPIs clinicians can view to discover in measurable terms if their areas of concern are compliant. With regular input either directly from the data which resides within their clinical application automatically “pumped” into the data warehouse or keyed in directly, clinicians have access to frequently refreshed information. This information can include such KPIs as in-house-acquired or community-acquired pressure ulcers with the number of residents with pressure ulcers at what stages and at what percent of the average daily census over a month’s period of time or trended over a 12-month period.

Restraints? Weight loss? Anti-psychotic use? Infections? Readmissions? Falls/Accidents? Sentinel events, such as dehydration or fecal impaction? Indwelling catheters? Pain management? Hour per patient/resident day compared to state standards and to budget? Overtime usage? And more. If the data exists, the information can be viewed in the BI dashboard.

Now, I referred earlier to managers making KPIs their own. How about comparing the KPIs against benchmarks the clinical team has created based on regulations and company/facility-established standards, usually set to exceed the regulatory requirements? It’s all in one dashboard. No longer do clinicians have to wait for reports to be researched, compiled, published, and distributed. Log in and find out. No more uncertainty. Just discover. Take action. Get results.

With BI, this potentially sleep-disruptive concern can be put to rest. It’s called peace of mind. Take a dose of BI every day and sleep well.

In our more recent blogs, we have pushed the benefits of business intelligence (BI). We have especially emphasized its timeliness. With BI, you can know what’s happening practically in real time. Just open the dashboard and you see Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) important to you. But are you aware that you can be alerted via email when certain KPIs are significantly above or below targeted benchmarks?

Let’s say you and your management team have identified specific census benchmarks with given parameters which, when exceeded or fallen short of, the BI tool immediately sends you an emailed alert notifying you that certain regions and facilities are at risk. With that information in hand, you can immediately contact and troubleshoot the situation with the appropriate staff.

This is just as valid with labor KPIs. How about overtime? You are sitting in your office preparing for the next meeting when your email notifies you of an incoming message. You navigate to the message to see that it’s from the Business Intelligence tool alerting you which facilities have exceeded overtime parameters today.

Cash management? Near and dear to any executive’s heart is making sure that collections are keeping pace with targeted collection goals. Let’s say your team has identified that certain private-pay collection benchmarks are achieved by the 10^th. On that day, you receive an alert that specific facilities are falling short of their collection goals for private-pay with resident-specific contact and balance information. Because of this alert, your team can address the issues now.

Business Intelligence generated alerts not only deliver timely information, they also reinforce accountability. I don’t think it’s so much of matter of “Big Daddy” is watching. Rather, it’s an opportunity. When facilities are falling short of their goals, they may be distracted by other matters. Receiving an alert-generated call from your team can be helpful and supportive.

If you have a Business Intelligence tool like primeVIEW, that generates alerts, use them! It’s one more benefit available to help your team to effectively manage that which really matters.