Building the Foundation in 2007

At the start of 2007, MedShare was providing its administrative solution that supports client database, scheduling, billing and payroll.  MedShare HC supports the “back office” operations of an agency.  Our key differentiation was the electronic health record foundation which reduces paper and inefficient paper processes at the agency office.

Taking it on the Road in 2008

The home health care sector has laboured for many years using inefficient paper forms and fax communications. Existing computer systems focus on automating billing and reimbursement, which are important, but only represent 10% of the home care operation.  Nurses, therapists and allied health professionals account for 90% of the workforce of an agency.

The mobile nature of home health care workers requires our solutions to work away from the office both with and without network connectivity.  Automating clinical processes at the point of care will significantly enhance an agency’s quality of service and efficiency, and provide a source of competitive differentiation.

In 2007, MedShare developed and released MedShare Enterprise Server (MES) to power our 2 mobile solutions, MedShare for BlackBerry and MedShare eMotion. Both mobile solutions integrate MedShare HC, however with MES, we are now able to integrate into competitors' back office software and extend their point of care capabilities with our full EMR functionality.

For 2008, MedShare is committed to ongoing investment in the eMotion and MedShare for BlackBerry for mobile computing.  We believe widespread adoption of mobile computing will transform the way health care is delivered and documented. 

Barry Billings, President, MedShare
barry.billings@medshare.com

A full time nurse will make 8 to 12 home care visits in a day.  He/she needs to access the client’s chart to review the care plan, deliver care and then document the medical encounter.  When care is not generating the desired outcomes, the nurse may recommend changes to the care plan which need to be communicated to the physician and other members of the care team.

The nurse uses pen and paper to document care and the fax machine to communicate clinical information.  Each visit consumes 10-15 minutes for paper-work. When a patient is discharged from the hospital and needs home nursing, health information is often dictated over the phone to the nurse.

Nurses spend an estimated 30% of their time on administration.  The paper-work is often done outside of working hours, consuming up to two hours each evening.

The health care system generally agrees that using technology to improve information access provides better decision support and enhanced health outcomes.   And when we ask Canadians, 88 per cent support electronic health records, according to new research from Canada Health Infoway. VDC Research1, RAND Corporation and others point to technology as a key to reducing paper-work and providing significant nursing productivity gains. 

Personal Digital Assistants for Visiting Nurses

What if we could provide a nurse with a small, light and robust PDA that meets their needs for clinical information at the point of care?  The leading PDA solution today is the BlackBerry.  The BlackBerry is the only PDA device that provides the built-in security essential to meeting healthcare security and privacy requirements.  The device integrates voice, secure email, GPS, camera and has a full keyboard.

MedShare for BlackBerry™ provides client health information, interactive scheduling, care documentation and visit confirmation in an extremely easy to learn software, built specifically for home health care.  Using the device fundamentally transforms the way we deliver home care and document care.  Once we implement the BlackBerry in an agency, the health care workers refuse to give them up!  Once in place, we can use the BlackBerry to collect health outcomes (e.g. HOBIC ) and deliver best practice information at the point of care.

Tablet Computing best for Assessment and Care Planning

Most nursing encounters begin with an intake process that includes a comprehensive assessment followed by a Care Plan.  Current paper-based processes take 1 to 2 hours to complete during the initial visit.  This is where the large screen format and the intuitive pen-interface of a tablet computer can save time by capturing form-based information electronically.  According to VDC Research, nurse supervisors can generate up to 35% productivity improvement using the tablet at the point of care.

Making a Business Case for Mobile Computing

The total cost of ownership for PDAs and tablets are about the same - roughly $1,600 per year.  The tablet computer will cost more initially and the BlackBerry incurs monthly communication charges.  The best solution for your nursing staff depends on their usage patterns; visiting nurse = PDA; nurse supervisor = tablet, is the simple division.

By increasing productivity we can deliver more visits which translate into more revenue for the agency and nurse.  One visit per week is a 2.5% productivity gain, which will provide a positive return;

• One extra visit per week x $45 per visit = $2,340 per year (52 weeks/year)
• One extra visit per day x $45 per visit = $9,000 per year (200 working days/year)

Adopting technology for home nursing will also help to attract and retain new staff.   Reducing nursing staff turn-over, which is currently averaging 21% amongst home care, can generate significant cost savings.

If you are interested in receiving a copy of VDC’s Research report, please send an email to barry.billings@medshare.com or call me at (519) 624-0014 x225

As MedShare continues to focus on bringing technology to the point of care, MedShare eMotion has been developed to allow nurses and therapists to securely access and add information to the client’s electronic medical record (EMR) without the need for an internet connection.  Our vision for MedShare eMotion will bring more capabilities to the point of care to increase efficiency, improve decision support, reduce errors, and enhance job satisfaction and employee retention.

The initial feature set includes:

 
MedShare HC
We continue to improve MedShare HC, based on valuable client feedback and emerging industry trends.  We have acted on our client input by building out a series of enhancements to improve the intake, scheduling, and billing processes.  By growing our administrative foundation, we persist in our efforts to improve data accuracy and increase productivity back in the office, while providing the groundwork for our mobile solutions.

MedShare™ for BlackBerry®
Along with advice from our expert panel, we have begun to take action on feedback received from our BlackBerry Trailblazer participants.  The result is improved navigation, support for self-scheduling, and some fine-tuning based on our initial experiences deploying the devices.  Our participants can look forward to more features to improve coordination with the office and further reduce administration time!