The Challenge
LifeCare Centers of America (LCCA), is committed to providing premium quality care across 200+ skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), rehabilitation, Alzheimer’s and senior living campuses in 28 states across the nation. When it needed a solution that could improve productivity and time management to, ultimately, provide even better resident care, LCCA started shopping for an EMR software vendor with equally high standards for quality.
Clemente Aquino, LCCA’s vice president of rehab practice standards, formed a selection committee made up of 14 rehab directors, managers and therapists to zero in on the best EMR solution. Having used other systems before developing their own in-house tool, Aquino and the team had strict requirements: mobility, real-time reporting, physician eSignatures and, most importantly, a vendor they could trust to deliver highly personalized customer service and support to ensure their success.
The Solution
Aquino and his team were impressed by Optima Therapy’s point-of-care solution right off the bat. “A big part that appealed to us was the mobile functionality,” he said. “It really spoke to our clinicians who work at the point of care.” Having experienced connectivity issues that caused clinicians to grow frustrated, LCCA needed a solution that could provide true offline access. The fact that Optima Therapy makes patient information and documentation available at the point of care even while disconnected was a differentiator.
Optima Therapy’s physician eSignature tool also wowed rehab directors by alleviating a significant burden of time spent manually verifying that documents were signed – up to 10 hours per month for some. With the ability to automatically track which documents have been signed, rehab directors aren’t scrambling for signatures at the end of the month, which stalls billing. Similarly ,LCCA employees are no longer forced to track physicians down to get important documentation signed, which can be especially time consuming in metro markets.
Aquino was also looking for better reporting. The batch reporting they’d settled for in previous systems provided only stagnant data, not the insights they needed to effectively manage patient needs with therapy resources throughout the month. According to Aquino, “We weren’t able to share a mid-month status with directors of rehab and the executive team.” With Optima Therapy real-time reporting, rehab directors are empowered with instantaneous views into their business so they can manage labor daily and adjust accordingly – safeguarding both productivity and revenue by not overstaffing or understaffing therapists. Plus, outcomes reporting alerts them in real time to documentation errors before the claim is sent, which means fewer rejected claims and a happier, healthier bottom line.
After lengthy testing of these and more capabilities, the decision to choose Optima Therapy was virtually unanimous.
The Results
Finding a solution that boosted quality while saving time and money was a priority, but it was also Optima’s dedication and commitment to LCCA that influenced the decision. “There were several people reaching out to us personally during the sales cycle,” Aquino said. “That made a tremendous difference in terms of feeling confident to make a change, because we had enough experience with Optima early on to know that they would walk us through the process to ensure a successful adoption. ”With Optima by its side, LCCA is poised to continue growing its business and is now better equipped to care for the residents they are dedicated to serving.
Time Management
Rehab directors save 8-10 hours per month, which used to be spent manually verifying documents were signed. Physicians freed to eSign on any device, in any location, without being disturbed by SNF staff.
IMPROVED EFFICIENCY
Therapists empowered with documentation and patient information that is always available at the point of care, even without an internet connection.
REAL-TIME DECISION MAKING
Real-time views into the business enable rehab directors to align therapy resources with patient demand, improving productivity and preventing under/overstaffing.