THE NEED
As nursing home clinical caregivers increasingly rally for a transition from manual charting systems to electronic medical records (EMR), the conversion to EMR for long term care is no longer a question of “if” but of "when."

The demand for EMR stems, in part, from the increasing request for information by governmental agencies, insurers, accrediting organizations and other outside entities that pay, serve or monitor health care providers. Because most of the latter organizations are already using software that accommodates volumes of data, there is a wide gap between the amount of information long-term care providers maintain and what is being demanded of agencies to which the provider's caregivers are answerable. Clearly, long term caregivers need to be able to produce and secure clinical data that is timely, reliable and relevant to what is sought by the survey process, risk management entities and payers.

Clinicians need to be able to conduct assessments and develop care plans pursuant to their discipline-specific standards of practice and to (a) keep pace with the growing quantity of medical information needed to be tracked, (b) respond to data requests in a timely manner, and (c) produce internal analysis of outcome measures/trends.

Moreover, having an EMR system that automatically populates the federal Minimum Data Set (MDS) file, through transport of the resident's most current (evidence-based) medical record documentation onto the MDS and onto a facility's other clinical and financial software systems, is a crucial need. Such an automated process promotes time efficiency, accuracy of data and rightful reimbursement. Furthermore, with CMS' reintroduction of the DAVE review process, having clarity, timeliness and accuracy in documentation is vital to avoiding payment denials.

In addition to enhancing quality of care through imbedded clinical logic, standards of practice, data integrity and quality control mechanisms, providers/clinicians need a user friendly EMR system that is easily retrievable, controls costs and improves resident safety. Another essential need of caregivers is an EMR system that automatically compiles and tracks resident-specific and resident-mix information, generates baseline measures for automated analysis and produces discipline-specific, evidence-based, reports on trends, patterns and outcomes that serve to give each clinical Department Head a picture of the effectiveness of his /her area of operations.

Providers need a well-designed EMR program that addresses reimbursement, survey and risk management, while also serving as a tool for validation and measurement of a provider’s success at meeting day-to-day challenges.

Under the Security Rule of the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPAA), which became effective April 21, 2005, and established to protect the confidentiality of electronic healthcare information, a provider's EMR system must keep resident information protected. Among other security approaches, and as a part of disaster preparedness, providers need an EMR program that includes password aging, regularly scheduled scanning of servers, and -- in light of what the industry has learned in the aftermath of Katrina -- a system that performs daily backups of all information to a remote server or other secure site. In the event of a disaster, clinicians should be able to access a resident's electronic medical record from other secured locations.

THE SOLUTION
The EMR solution for long term care is CovetCare. It gives providers all of the above-discussed functionality, is reasonably-priced and is being selected by high-performing facilities that want the best for their residents, clinical caregivers and management. CovetCare is a simple, yet powerful, EMR system that meets the needs of providers and clinicians. What is more, it is operational now.