Havenwood Care Center's challenges:
- Paper charting causing less time spent with the residents
- Multiple staff processing physician orders
- Inability to pull reports for entire facility
- Difficulty in the survey process pulling information from the paper chart and shuffling through papers to find items
- Inability to fax automatically/receive documents to/from pharmacy, lab, radiology
- Extra time spent with ER transfers copying paperwork
- Documentation not in real-time
- Managers relied on staff communication for shift to shift reports
- Processing paper claims to insurance companies negatively impacting cash flow
Matrix
Web-based clinical and financial software system with electronic health records capabilities.
Havenwood Care Centers saw results with Matrix
- Decreased paper stream
- User-friendly system
- Enhanced monitoring and reporting capabilities
- More efficient survey process
- Consistent and accurate documentation
- Enhanced organizational effectiveness
- Increased time spent with residents
- Exceeded customer expectations
Havenwood Care Center is a 100 bed skilled nursing facility located in the northern portion of the state in Bemidji, Minnesota. Havenwood Care Center is part of a corporation entitled Eldercare of Bemidji, managed by Eldercare of Minnesota, Inc. The Eldercare of Bemidji campus also has a 42 unit independent senior apartment building entitled Birchhaven Apartments, a 15 unit assisted living single bedroom style home entitled Cedar Cottage, and a 32 apartment style assisted living unit entitled Tamarack Court.
Havenwood Care Center originally was entitled Beltrami Nursing Home which started operations in 1968 and was owned by Beltrami County as a non-profit company. Private parties acquired the home in 1994 and established the corporation. Eldercare of Minnesota, Inc currently manages a total of 8 Skilled Nursing Facilities, 20 Assisted Living Facilities, 1 ICF Facility and 1 Senior Apartment Facility.
Matrix Case Study
Matrix exceeds Havenwood Care Center's expectations
When the staff at Havenwood started using Matrix, they were amazed at the massive amount of information at their fingertips. They were also impressed with how the system helped improve the day-to-day tasks that had been bogged down in paperwork and data entry.
"Before Matrix, some resident information could have gone uncommunicated between shifts causing a lack of quality care to the resident," says Lynn Fossen, Havenwood's Director of Nursing. "Now we have the ability to pull important information for shift reports or for managers that have been on vacation. Caregivers are able to update themselves with their resident’s status very quickly. This increases resident quality of care, and improves our ability to have information available to physicians, family, ombudsman and surveyors quickly," she continues.
Havenwood, like most eldercare facilities, often struggled with time constraints during surveys. "Our staff would have to spend so much time with surveyors, paging through paper charts to find the information they needed," says Marcie Swang, who works in Medical Records at the Minnesota facility. With Matrix, the electronic record pulls it all together for both the MDS and the survey process. "Now the staff can assist surveyors in maneuvering in the system in a limited amount of time, and get back to caring for the residents."
Matrix has also allowed Havenwood to streamline their Physician Orders process. Before Matrix, Physician Orders were written down by one person and entered by someone else, resulting in transcription errors. Physician orders are processed in real-time with Matrix and automatically faxed to the pharmacy, lab or radiology. Now, the wing manager / RN completes all the steps to enter the order. This gives the manager enhanced organization, effectiveness and knowledge of new orders by allowing them to complete the process from beginning to end.
"Matrix has helped tremendously with our Accounts Receivable process," according to Barb Caspers, Havenwood's Business Office Manager. New admissions are entered right away which allows nursing and the business office to start entering data in real-time. The RUG score is available to the business office as soon as the MDS is completed. Retroactive changes are processed very easily and new rates can be entered quickly. Adjustments to charges can be made when entering payments. Census data can be printed in excel format.
"Our therapy charges are sent to us in a file, which can be easily uploaded to Matrix, saving many hours of data entry and reducing transcription errors." continues Caspers. "Preparing claims for the clearinghouse is easy. We have the availability to set up insurance companies as an electronic payor." The claims are stored and are easily retrieved. Private pay statements are also stored, easily retrieved, and can be printed at any time.
"Matrix has given us accessibility of the online software in simple terms. When we train new staff members or show our system to other providers, the response is always 'it is so easy' as the system is so user-friendly," says Caspers. "MDI Achieve listens to their customers. The technical support staff is always polite, courteous, helpful and get solutions back to the facility in a timely manner."
