Since the widespread adoption of Electronic Health Record (EHR) software, long-term post-acute care (LTPAC) providers have relied on its capabilities to aid in the delivery of safe, reliable and personalized patient care. This interconnected database houses a patient’s real-time medical records, and provides data and insights that can help produce better patient outcomes across the continuum of care. The existence and basic utilization of the system, however, is no longer enough to strengthen an operation clinically or financially. Providers need to move beyond elementary data capture and take full advantage of its benefits—especially when it comes to customization.

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An EHR system that is customized to meet the specific needs of your LTPAC organization can increase efficiency, productivity, and ultimately patient care. Whether your organization is implementing a new EHR system or is looking to improve your existing one, the following benefits can be gained by implementing a more sophisticated personalized system:

1. Compliant Role-Based Security

An EHR system stores an immense amount of data relative to the facility and the patients it serves. In accordance with HIPAA and other privacy regulations, safeguards need to be in place to protect sensitive patient information. EHR systems therefore need to be customized to limit user access based on their designated roles and responsibilities within the organization. A qualified EHR consultant such as Richter can help you restrict features, reports and other data to individuals with the right credentials—keeping your critical data secure. 

2. Financial Statement Customization

When it comes to the financial features of an EHR system, it is certainly not one-size-fits-all. Every financial transaction within an organization is tied to the general ledger account to track revenue and accounts receivable (AR), and this information is included in financial statements which are reviewed by shareholders for decision-making. These figures provide insight on profitability, budgeting, growth and capital. Customizing your financial reports with the right software integrations will not only allow you to automate the reporting process, but you will be able to view all these performance details through a more focused lens. Want to compare costs and revenue for a particular payer? Or look for trends from one period to another? 

While customization makes all this possible, it is important to note that every line-item needs to be mapped appropriately, or AR and revenue could be misinterpreted. To avoid poor decision-making based on inaccurate data, financial data points need to be constructed in a consistent and logical way that mirrors the line of business and unique structure of the facility.

3. Increased Billing Accuracy

There are several different data points that pull together to create a claim, and if just one of those are incorrect the chances of that claim being paid is slim to none. For example, a managed care payer might require that claims go out with a certain revenue code. If this is missing from the claim, it will never get paid regardless of how many times it is sent. 

Every single piece of data needs to be mapped correctly to produce a clean claim, and this begins with proper configuration of your software. An EHR implementation specialist such as Richter will have the skills to analyze points of configuration from both a financial and clinical perspective, and customize them according to the needs of your organization. This includes building payers and reimbursements based on insurance contracts, adjusting for rate increases, conducting ongoing rate reviews, implementing new billing methodology and accounting for coinsurance changes. By monitoring and staying on top of this data, as well as state billing mandates, your facility can achieve greater billing accuracy, fewer payment delays and increased revenue as a result.

4. Comprehensive Clinical Assessments

From a clinical perspective, an EHR captures the care that nurses, therapists, social services and other caregivers provide. Clinical staff use this information to complete MDS assessments, and for sharing updates with residents and their loved ones. As facility resources remain limited, clinicians can make better use of their time by customizing their EHR software to allow multiple different assessments to be combined into one. This eliminates the need for multiple forms, multiple reports and multiple meetings. Taking it one step further, there may be opportunities to auto-populate certain data fields or trigger additional information required. A thorough review of your software and processes can help determine whether redundancies within your organization could be eliminated with a more sophisticated EHR configuration. 

Enhance Outcomes with Richter

As one of the original partners of PointClickCare®, Richter is uniquely positioned to help your organization get the most out of your EHR solution. With nearly 120 years of combined versatile industry experience, our team has walked in your shoes and understands the challenges you are up against every day. We take pride in knowing how to configure, implement and optimize this powerful tool to drive positive business outcomes for your unique organization. To further enhance your EHR user experience and satisfaction, we offer ongoing training, support and analysis. To learn more about our EHR Implementation and Optimization or PointClickCare® Consulting solutions, contact us here or call us at 866.806.0799.