Techno Nurses
Technological advancements in long-term care offer nurses the opportunity to substantially enhance workflow and resident care. All it takes is a definite set of objectives, sufficient access and a forward-thinking attitude.
Good Use equals Relevance — Understand your Goals. Technology offers you a plethora of opportunities to significantly improve your nursing operations and Resident care; but you have to be focused on what you expect to get out of it. Among the many aspects of improvement that technology can bring you, two stand out as specifically useful in our environment today: Reducing Resident Issues and Recovering Lost Revenue.
By effectively using an EHR system, there are great opportunities for data collection and, by extension, for the analysis that helps nurses to recognize Residents with potential care issues. This allows you to intervene early with a distinct Care Plan to help address and prevent additional complications. Of course, should you consistently do this for all of the Residents within your care, you’ll be much better prepared for Survey too. Everybody wins!
As reimbursement issues gradually advance upon facilities’ operations, recovering lost income opportunities becomes a much more essential component than at any other time in the past. Within the nursing side technology can help you plug some of the holes and even become a hero for your business. For instance, establishing a system in your nursing supplies closet which allows for easy “checkout” of supplies to Residents will help you capture those supplementary charges in a considerably faster method. With an integrated system, this information can automatically flow into your billing area. It’s extra revenue recovered by simply tweaking something you are already doing right now.
The real truth is that a majority of EHR implementations do not fail because of the software or training provided or even just because of culture change. They are unsuccessful because of a lack of focus on objectives and priorities. Knowing where you’re going makes getting there much easier!
Access is Success. Whenever you think technology, software is crucial, but is not enough. Be sure to also invest in the hardware. After all, software is only good if you get to use it and in order to use it you need easy access to it. This makes the IT department your new best friend. Tell them your vision on how you anticipate to use your EHR and task them with giving you options to get it done.
Nothing gets IT folks more fired up than talking tech! Ask them to help you determine whether touch screen kiosks in the hallways would work for your business or if Tablets such as Apple’s iPad or others would be more beneficial for your clinical workflow. The closer you get the software to where the actual care is being provided, the more effective you will be in guaranteeing consistent clinical documentation and better Resident care.
About Author:
Lisset Sanchez-Schwartz is senior director of marketing, AOD Software, Fort Lauderdale, FL.Read more about effectively using an EHR system. Also learn more about Long Term Care Software, Nursing and Technology at www.aodsoftware.com
