Delta Health Technologies® Success Stories

Read examples of how our customers use our solutions to improve care and efficiency.

Eddy VNA Care Management

Eddy Visiting Nurses Association

Challenge

On any given day, the Eddy Visiting Nurses Association (Eddy VNA) may have between 300 and 400 caregivers in the field making calls on patients in the five-county region around Troy, New York. Over the course of a year, these care providers—ranging from nurses and physical therapists to IV therapists and nationally-certified wound specialists—will make more than 260,000 home health visits. Matching this number of caregivers to patients on a daily basis and managing patient care across multiple specialties for the duration of their convalescence could pose daunting challenges for any agency. Which caregiver is working with which patient? How do you keep caregivers informed of whom they are to visit and where they are to travel today? How do you enable each caregiver to see the history of their patient’s current (and previous) interactions with the Eddy VNA and its care providers? Nor is that all. The Eddy VNA needs to know which practitioner has done what in order to bill for these services. The agency’s management needs timely and accurate financial information from each of its operating units. Factor in these demands, and the technical challenges could be nightmarish.

Solution

But not for the Eddy VNA. The Eddy VNA has a single integrated solution from Delta Health Technologies® that helps manage every aspect of client care—in the field and in the back office. “From the moment we receive a patient referral,” explains Michelle Mazzacco, Vice President / Director of the Eddy Community Services Division, “we’re populating the Delta system with information to kick off an episode. It goes out for insurance verification, and once we have that then that client is in the system.” Ms. Mazzacco goes on to explain that workflow systems within the Delta solution set up authorizations for required services and then route the referral to the scheduling team, which assigns the right team of resources to meet the needs of the patient. The Delta solution then schedules home visits, ensuring that the right personnel are sent at the right time and in the right order. One of the Eddy VNA care transition coaches, for example, may visit a new patient that has just come home from the hospital. The coach collects background information about the patient and reconciles the lists of medicines the patient is taking. All that information becomes part of the patient electronic medical record captured in the Delta solution. And each Eddy VNA caregiver can view that information, along with their schedules, and notes left for them by other providers that are working with that patient, at any time using a mobile device—such as a Blackberry or a laptop. Whenever the information about the patient is changed or updated, Eddy VNA personnel have access to it—so everyone interacting with that patient is always working with the most up-to-date information.

Benefits

Immediate access to up-to-date information is integral to excellent care delivery, and there’s no question that Eddy VNA is breaking new ground in that space. The rate of rehospitalization within 30 days of discharge for patients working with Eddy VNA care transition coaches is only 9% — and the average rehospitalization rate in the country is 20%. Immediate access to information from all the Eddy VNA care delivery business units is also critical. This enables Eddy VNA managers to make well- informed, data-based business decisions that can lead to better service delivery at lower costs. Again, Eddy VNA has already demonstrated excellence in this area: its highly acclaimed Medicare waiver program, known as the Long Term Home Health Care program, has enabled hundreds of seniors who would otherwise qualify for nursing home benefits under Medicare to stay in their homes and receive high quality home care—for less than 75% of the cost of a Medicare sponsored nursing facility.

“The Delta solution is at the very foundation of our organization,” says Ms. Mazzacco. “It’s what we use to coordinate, document, and bill for the care we deliver. It’s so much a part of our operations that, without it, we would not have an operation.”

Masters In Home Care

Masters In Home Care

Challenge

In 2013, three healthcare executives decided to start their own home health care agency in Connecticut after years of working in various healthcare environments. Their journey began by recruiting qualified employees with significant experience in healthcare and seeking their Medicare accreditation. Their next step was to search for an EMR solution. They needed a scalable solution that would work for a start-up agency but also continue to work for them during their rapid growth. The EMR had to be a solution that would meet the state’s special requirements. After speaking with industry colleagues at other home health agencies, as well as their own staff who had used various EMR solutions, it was determined which solutions to evaluate. The solution needed to be a single solution that would allow for a comprehensive assessment, had OASIS integrated into the visit note, included a Medication Administration Record, provided notification to physicians, and could handle the states complex billing requirements. Management also needed timely and accurate financial information. After evaluating six EMR solutions, there search was narrowed down to two that could meet all their requirements. But in the end, Delta was the distinct winner.”

Solution

It was clear that Delta’s Solution met all their EMR requirements and was clearly, from a user perspective, easy to use. The EMR allowed their clinicians to utilize tablets, which makes it easy for their staff to carry while also giving a full view of the patient chart on the device.

Delta’s EMR includes built-in workflows for clinical documentation. That coupled with the solution’s ease of use allows clinicians to complete the documentation in the patient’s home. The software’s flexibility lets Masters In Home Care customize the EMR, both from a financial and clinical perspective, to meet their specific needs. “As someone who has worked with various EMR solutions in the past, one of the unique aspects of Crescendo is the allowable customization, which is very important with today’s changing requirements and our business processes,” explains Chris Pankratz, CEO of Masters In Home Care.

Data analytics is critical for a lot of organizations. Delta’s Solution provides the necessary information to Masters In Home Care to review admissions, referral sources, financial data, etc. on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

The QA/QI workflow allows their staff to easily see deficiencies during diagnosis coding and OASIS reviews. This coupled with the built-in integration to Strategic Healthcare Programs (SHP), which includes real-time alerts, allows them to improve their client outcomes and home health compare five-star rating.

Benefits

Today, Masters In Home Care is a family-run business with over five decades of experience in the healthcare industry. Delta’s Solution has helped the agency to manage and grow their business while staying compliant with the ever-changing regulations. Since going live in 2014, they have more than quadrupled their average daily patient census, now have two locations, and have seen an improvement in their quality outcome scores.

The immediate access to patient information and ease of use of the solution are integral to the excellent care they deliver. “A key Crescendo benefit is having the ability to run Crescendo in real-time – allowing staff to always see current information on the patient,” says Mr. Pankratz. “Our clinicians love how easy Crescendo is to use and navigate, both on tablets or laptops”.

With the help of Delta’s Solution, Masters In Home Care continues to focus on the quality of care they provide and expand their referral sources. The EMR allows them to manage all their referrals from hospitals, physicians, individuals, assisted living facilities, and the local community, which may be entered through direct entry or via integration with various referral sources.

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