OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (April 14, 2021)—WellSky, a health and community care technology company, announced new enhancements to its data analytics solution for home health. The new addition to the CareInsights solution suite, known as CareInsights Guidance, provides actionable visit utilization insights to balance the goals of care quality and patient health improvement with the need to control costs—and early adopters of the new capabilities are already realizing the benefits for their patients, staff and business.
Deborah Barry, RN, CHPN, COS-C, BCHHC, vice president of clinical excellence and integrity for Intrepid USA Healthcare, Inc., found that the solution is well-suited to improve their care planning process, because it draws on the vast historical data of the WellSky Home Health client network and OASIS items already being captured on the patient record. Barry shared that as one of the largest home health care providers in the U.S. with 90 offices spanning 20 states, Intrepid USA has a history of high performance and continues to lower its hospitalization rate while reducing overall visit utilization—a critical factor in controlling costs.
“Guidance gives our clinical leaders confidence by providing a comprehensive view of the elements they need to help them make a decision on visit utilization,” said Barry. “It helps us understand each patient’s specific needs and how we can best support them, while ensuring we meet our margin requirements as a business. With CareInsights Guidance, it’s easy to play out the possibilities for different scenarios in the plan of care and refine our approach to achieve the patient’s goals for discharge.”
CareInsights Guidance is available as part of the WellSky CareInsights for Home Health solution, powered by algorithms based on historical data from more than 7 million home health patient episodes. This innovative technology delivers predictive insights on real-time patient hospitalization risk, social determinants of health, care setting suitability, Low Utilization Payment Adjustment (LUPA) risk and now, enhanced utilization management for improved care planning.
“Through collaboration with our home health clients, we recognized that case managers and other clinical leaders have to rely on too many different pieces of documentation to determine the appropriate visit frequency,” said WellSky Chief Analytics Officer Wes Little. “Our Guidance solution reduces that burden and takes some of the guesswork out of care planning. Home health providers can now automatically receive customized frequency guidelines in one simple view.”
The impact of CareInsights Guidance is further strengthened by recent enhancements made to the frequency management capabilities within WellSky’s core home health electronic health record (EHR) solution, WellSky Home Health. WellSky clients now have the data insights to develop more personalized, effective and efficient plans of care using CareInsights Guidance, with the added benefit of streamlined frequency approval, scheduling, and documentation throughout the charting process.
As health care continues to shift from fee-for-service payment models to value-based care, it is increasingly important for providers to improve care quality and outcomes while keeping costs to a minimum. WellSky CareInsights for Home Health offers providers a competitive edge, with the supportive data needed to proactively manage their patient populations and effectively allocate resources for a more sustainable care delivery model.
Visit wellsky.com for more information.
