Because it was old technology, Oak Hills also faced problems with the technology's medical records package capabilities. "The medical records package was difficult to use and very limited," said Williams. "MDS and care plans were cumbersome. Again, a lot of data entry was required in the medical records package."

With a staff of 150 caring for 126 residents, Oak Hills recognized the need for a new, updated technology that customized reports and streamlined billing and medical records packages eliminating the use of multiple computers. "Our plans were to have our RN unit managers, social services, activities and dietary enter all of their own information relating to the MDS," noted Williams. "So, we wanted a system that was user friendly, as this would be new to many of those individuals."

As a long time customer of Achieve Healthcare Technologies, Oak Hills decided to look at the technology provider's newer technologies. "Having been with Achieve for many years, we knew Achieve was a company that knows our business and the needs of our business," said Williams.

Oak Hills approached Achieve about upgrading their technology. After reviewing Oak Hills' criteria and working with them to develop a comprehensive needs assessment, the teams concluded that PathLinks was the product to best serve Oak Hills.

Achieve’s PathLinks product provides integrated modules that support clinical and financial management and allows customers to start with a few applications and add others as needed, or implement the entire system for a total solution.

“We really liked the medical records package and the accounts receivable,” said Williams. “The financial package is something that we really needed to customize our reporting."

PathLinks’ accounts receivable module combines account control and credit management with the intelligence of SmartBiller. The system coordinates benefits by handling unlimited payers with varying coverage for all state-specific, federal and Medicare requirements, as well as the managed care, assisted living and continuing care retirement community needs. Accounts receivable/billing provides detailed daily revenue and receivable analysis, pre-billing and retroactive billing capabilities.

In addition to the accounts receivable and financial functionality of PathLinks, Oak HIlls also found what they needed in the product’s clinical module, which includes:

• Admissions and Census - monitors a wide range of detailed information for each resident upon pre-admission to a facility.
• Care Plans - provides multiple ways to write a resident care plan through a comprehensive library, the ability to create standard templates and free text in responses and the Care Plan Profiles that allows users to track care needs for residents.
• Case Mix Coach - allows the user to proactively review assessment documentation to ensure accurate representation for the care of each resident.
• Clinical Documentation - allows clinical staff to keep a record of notes, user defined assessments, wound/skin documentation, weights and vital signs, and view clinical information online resulting in immediate access to resident information.
• MDS - users can schedule, document resident assessment protocols, submit assessments and complete the MDS, which integrates with Admissions and Census and billing to provide RUG Scores and other necessary information to the PathLinks financial applications for UB-92 billing.
• Physician’s Orders - minimizes nursing time spent preparing medication orders and treatments, and supports the order management process within a facility.

As a result of upgrading to PathLinks, Oak Hills staff is performing more accurate billing processes in half the time it previously took, and is more accurately submitting MDS information because each discipline is inputting information.

“We are finally able to tie our aging to our accounts receivable in the general ledger,” said Williams. “And each discipline doing their own MDS data entry has saved a lot of handwriting of information and eliminated the extra data entry.”

Oak Hills also found that PathLinks was relatively easy to use and Achieve’s training program provided its staff with the necessary information to almost seamlessly transition to the new Windows-based system. “I believe PathLinks is very user friendly,” stated Williams. “Now that we have gotten past learning a Windows-based system, things are really going quite smoothly.”

All told, PathLinks has helped Oak Hills increase accuracy, streamline its MDS process and create efficiency for Oak HIlls, Williams said, “More efficient! User friendly. More customized reports available and much better checks and balances!"