HealthWare

03/15/2018

EMPLOYEE DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT:
Let’s start in the back office where you undoubtedly keep a lot of documentation for your employees, well now you can keep that all digitally, in HealthWare. Like the Patient EMR/Document Management you can import images, files, just about anything in digital format, date it, categorize it and store it in HealthWare.

A VIRTUAL CHART - AN ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORD:
Virtual Chart is a very powerful digital document-management system which allows you to import documents you already have available in electronic format, including photos. It also considers the fact that paper documents are going to be around for a while, so Virtual Chart includes features that allow you to scan and index paper documents that most organizations still receive, giving you the ability to better manage the delivery of care, achieve higher levels of productivity and quality, all while controlling costs.

Lets you save some trees!
For more information:
https://www.healthware.com/Products/Clinical_Compliance

02/23/2018

Not all POC systems are created equal!

What is most important and what are the limitations?

In our studies with different field Point Of Care systems, we see three different and distinct systems.

1st: One that is a paper form only. It may be on a tablet or computer, and it may be a “fillable” pdf, however, it is simply a tablet version of a paper form.

2nd: A patient file portal that mostly operates when connected to the Internet, but will accept patient information into this tablet or computer offline using a subset of the patient’s chart.. It will then automatically sync when next connected to the Internet.

3rd: A full patient chart at the tablet or laptop. The benefits of seeing the entire patient chart at the POC, provides for changing a schedule quickly, especially if a nurse gets sick or busy with a prior patient, or an em

At HealthWare upon the initial patient synchronization, the nurse receives the entire patient chart. Should this be important to you?

For more information visit our page at: https://www.healthware.com/Products/Clinical_Compliance

01/08/2018

VENDORS PUSHING OUT EMERGENCY FIXES FOR NEWLY DISCLOSED CPU EXPLOITS

All healthcare providers will want to make sure that these fixes are applied to all systems as soon as possible as the vulnerabilities will soon be disclosed and could start being used at any time by attackers to try and gain access to your systems and devices.
Microsoft considered this vulnerability so serious that they are issuing and out of band update to the official fix. For Windows 10 this will be KB4056892.

Microsoft States:
“We're aware of this industry-wide issue and have been working closely with chip manufacturers to develop and test mitigations to protect our customers. We are in the process of deploying mitigations to cloud services and have also released security updates to protect Windows customers against vulnerabilities affecting supported hardware chips from Intel, ARM, and AMD. We have not received any information to indicate that these vulnerabilities had been used to attack our customers.”

At this time Windows 7 and 8 users can manually download and install the update or they can wait until patch Tuesday to receive it automatically via Windows Update.
Researchers disclosed that almost all modern processors are affected by two exploits, called Meltdown and Spectre. These two exploits can be used by attackers to gain access to things such as passwords, emails and other sensitive information.
Patches are also available for other operating systems including Linux, MacOS and more. You should check with your vendor to find out how to get and apply the necessary updates to your systems.
Being in the healthcare field means your agency needs to pay attention to threats such as this and make sure that mitigation steps are taken in a timely fashion. Of course, your agency should always follow good security practices to protect against malware and these measures can often also help protect against new exploits until updates can be applied.

01/03/2018

HealthWare Provides VBP Analysis Service
Value Based Purchasing

The highest performing HHAs will receive an increase in reimbursement payments. The lowest performing agencies will see their payments reduced. Payers other than Medicare have also begun to use quality data in reimbursement calculations.

The subset of measures for VBP has two categories: outcomes and value based aggregates. Outcomes must show improvement while aggregates receive points just for reporting.

Our Quality Measures Dashboards includes what an agency needs to identify shortcomings with VBP measures, evaluate its Star Ratings against the competition, and measure its progress for improvement.

This is one example of the level of detail provided for every Outcome measured by VBP. This example is a Detail Report for Ambulation. Each Outcome has several VBP Analysis measures including Measurement Definitions, High Level Summaries for Owners, Managing Directors and Administrators and Details for Nursing Directors at Time-Points of your choosing. In the Detail sections each agency can drill down to Primary Diagnosis, Tertiary Diagnosis, Patient ID and whether or not Improvement was made and documented. HealthWare also captures Start of Care, Resumption, Follow-Up and Discharge time-points.

Each Home Health Agency can see where they compare to the competition nationally, by state and by zip code including comparison by Quality of Patient Care Star Rating.

HealthWare offers complete back office and point of care solutions plus VBP Analysis services. HealthWare starts helping with VBP at the point of care with InTouch, our tablet based point of care software solution, that collects VBP data.

For more information, contact us:

Home Health Software and Hospice Software. Applications for scheduling, point of care, clinical, financial, billing and more.

12/27/2017

HealthWare provides a complete software solution to manage the clinical and financial needs of your home care agency while maintaining regulatory requirements. Its ease of use and comprehensive home health specific features help your agency improve in areas such as communication, outcomes, and reimbursement, as well as reduces operating costs. Since HealthWare’s applications are seamlessly integrated, information flows smoothly from intake, to scheduling, and clinical, then feeds directly into billing for timely reimbursement and accurate reporting.

With HealthWare you can provide better quality care, more efficiently, without worrying about compliance. All patient records can be safely kept in HealthWare‘s secure EHR, including collaborations between departments using TeamWork. No need to print clinical documents, both clinicians and patients can sign electronically, and physicians can sign digitally using the Physician Portal. Frequencies, authorizations, orders, and POCs are tracked so billing will not be completed without all proper documentation. HealthWare is truly One Solution with Endless Possibilities.

We can help you transition if your existing software vendor is closing or is merging. Contact us for more information: https://www.healthware.com/contactus/Index

11/30/2017

Good for COP: HealthWare’s Care Plan is a living document

In HealthWare we correspond to the CoP by having a “Care Plan” as a living document:

The Care Plan always reflects the patients current plan. With a computer it is easy. They simply make the changes to the plan. The great thing about HealthWare is that it then takes that change and automatically generates the change orders and updates the POT. And our HealthWare software automatically notifies the patient and their representatives, via voice or text message, and sends the order to the physician.

Making it easier to comply with the COP!

See more at

Home Health Software and Hospice Software. Applications for scheduling, point of care, clinical, financial, billing and more.

11/27/2017

QAPI is a COP–How to integrate questions into Skilled Nursing Visits: At HealthWare we integrate Outcomes/QAPI/VBP related questions directly into our Skilled Nursing Visit (SNV) notes.

This allows the nurses to see if the outcome for a particular patient is trending up or down during the episode versus just at the discharge. The main advantage to this is that there is still time to correct any errors that could influence the outcome. Go to https://www.healthware.com/analysis/QualityImprovement

11/17/2017

Meeting all compliance factors in (CoP's)!

HealthWare is the only Home Health Point of Care software provider to offer these QA features.

Our report displays patients who have been discharged, readmitted, or retained for chart and care plan review and can be used to develop a corrective action plan.

> Discovering scoring inconsistencies between clinicians is an essential component of this measurement.

> HealthWare also provides the Disease Section and Chapter including secondary and tertiary diagnostic information.

> Our trending page can assess other relevant patient factors such as living situation, ambulation, vision, and disease progression.

We provide the ability to manage the entire QAPI program and then measure its progress.

HealthWare continuously evaluates agency data, for consistency and quality improvement purposes, before submission to CMS for the Star Ratings process.

HealthWare Quality Outcomes subscribers meet all compliance factors for a data driven quality program indicated in the Conditions of Participation (CoP's).

Contact HealthWare for more information: https://www.healthware.com/contactus/Index

11/13/2017

A 2018 COP REQUIREMENT: ELECTRONIC PATIENT AND REPRESENTATIVE NOTIFICATIONS:

> Utilizes digitized voice or Text/SMS messages,
> Determine who gets notified and how.
> Integrates with Clinical Documentation and Change Orders.
> Contact us to see how this can be implemented for you: https://www.healthware.com/contactus/Index

11/11/2017

Happy Veterans Day!

11/10/2017

We had two questions asked following our COP webinar on 10/24. Gina Mazza's answers are below:

Q: If I have hire a new Administrator after 01/13/2018, can that person be a non-Nurse (Candidate with Master in Health Admn) but with 1 year of Home Health Experience?

A: According to the CoP’s, an administrator hired after 1/13/18 is required to be a physician, a registered nurse, or hold an undergraduate degree. Also, required to have experience in health service administration with at least 1 year of supervisory or administrative experience in home health care or a related health care program.

Q: Is the patient representative only for patients who are unable to represent themselves?

A: No, a patient representative is not a legal guardian. Patients choose to have this person involved in their care. (In addition to a legal guardian or without a legal guardian.)

For more information contact www.HealthWare.com

11/01/2017

It could be 10 years before Internet or Mobile access is fully deployed.

Today some rural areas still do not have Internet access or quality mobile access. Full availability to residents could be the result of a ten-year gradual process.

Chairman Ajit Pai of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) said on April 3, 2017, "I'm pleased that we continue to move forward aggressively to close the digital divide in the United States. The Task Force I announce today will help ensure that taxpayer funds are allocated efficiently for rural broadband deployment, and that all Americans who want Internet access will be able to get it."

Included in this report is the phrase quoted by Pai "to connect unserved and underserved locations over the next decade"

The rest of the story is available:https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-344201A1.pdf

Can you wait ten years?

What if your Point of Care system requires Internet access via Wi-Fi or mobile data? You need offline capabilities for your field clinicians to operate effectively and efficiently. With offline capabilities, there is no need to write it down on paper and then enter it when you get a signal. With HealthWare, your clinicians have access to the patients chart regardless of connectivity.

Some locations have weak or non-existent cellular service. If you cannot wait up to 10 years for Internet or mobile deployment to take place in the areas you serve, we ask you to consider, in the meantime, a product that works both offline and online: HealthWare's "Point of Care" applications InTouch and InTouch Lite, both with Hybrid Data.

Through close collaboration with our clients, we have determined what features require being usable offline and where it makes sense to be online. Offline capability is critical at the bedside with the patient's chart on your device for easy reference and charting. With HealthWare, you can work offline when needed or use mobile data or Wi-Fi when available. You have distinct choices, and you can choose the system which best fits your organization's needs. More information on our point of care is available at https://www.healthware.com/products/clinical_compliance or call us at 850-479-9035 or visit our website at https://www.healthware.com.