AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Cantata Health, a leading provider of EHR and RCM solutions that improves the health of facilities and their residents through greater patient visibility, operational efficiency, and successful financial outcomes, today released a white paper offering a glimpse into the trends that will drive the most growth this year in long-term care.
Focusing on skilled nursing facilities and other long-term care providers, Cantata Health's white paper offers unique insights into new payment models, quality measures, patient complexity, and the increasing resident and family expectations effecting the market in 2019.
"The professionals we serve face a continuously changing environment of increased costs, complexity and regulation, along with changing expectations of patients, residents and their families," said Krista Endsley, President and CEO of Cantata Health. "We view it as our responsibility as a partner to our clients and as a member of the community to share our decades of industry experience and insight into the trends that will impact our industry and the best practices people can implement to improve both the quality of care and the financial health of the facilities that provide that care. Together we can use technology, data and the experience of our thousands of customers to improve community health."
Cantata Health's 2019 predictions for the future of long-term care include:
- A greater emphasis on accurate coding will require training and a shift in mindset for skilled nursing facility staff. There will be a greater emphasis on accurate minimum data sets (MDS) assessments in 2019 as the patient-driven payment model (PDPM) takes effect on October 1st. Skilled nursing facilities that do not code properly, especially at admission, are going to lose out on Medicare reimbursements. Helping staff prepare for PDPM, using technology to aid the transition, and keeping your MDS coordinator up-to-date with all changes will be imperative.
- More skilled nursing facilities will turn to specialized care in 2019 to stay competitive. In 2018, skilled nursing facility (SNF) occupancy rates dropped to 81.7 percent, the lowest this segment of healthcare has ever seen. Despite a slight occupancy rate increase in Q3 of 2018, we foresee 2019 will continue the downward trend. As the long-term care industry shifts from volume to value-based care, we predict SNFs that provide specialized care will have a higher likelihood of sustainability.
- Provider burnout, heightened by technology, will begin to decrease. With improvements to the user interface of electronic health records, vendors will make their products more interoperable, streamlined and intuitive. This will lead to users having easier access to patient care and accurate records, leading to less tech-induced burnouts.
- Healthcare facilities must find new and innovative ways to engage families with the shifting of generations. With Millennials and Generation Z beginning to make more decisions for aging loved ones, facilities must acknowledge their preferences for technology use in patient care and family communication, while still appealing to the Baby Boomers, Generation X, and even the Silent Generation.
- Data-driven decision making will increase in importance in 2019. By analyzing the data trends provided by your electronic health record (EHR) and financial management software, facility administrators will be able to make more informed decisions on how to keep the bed counts up, care coordination with other providers, staff turnover, infection control and more based on data instead of intuition.
To read Cantata Health's "The Future of Long-Term Care: Predictions for 2019" white paper in its entirety, visit https://cantatahealth.com/ns-predictions-2019/.
Later this month, Cantata Health will release trends and predictions about the future of acute care and community-based hospitals.
To learn more about Cantata Health's solutions for long-term care facilities, visit:
https://cantatahealth.com/solutions/net-solutions
About Cantata Health
Cantata Health delivers award-winning software for acute, post-acute and long-term care (LTC) facilities that is purpose-built to improve the health of the facilities and their patients/residents. Cantata Health's Revenue Cycle Management (RCM), financial management and Electronic Health Records (EHR) software is configurable to meet the unique needs of each facility or system; provide staff and administrators with greater visibility to patient care across the continuum of care; ensure predictable financial outcomes; improve back-office operations; clinical efficiency; and revenue recovery. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, our team of experts provide uncommonly attentive service and support.
SOURCE Cantata Health
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