PointClickCare Customer of the Month: Carl Nelson

We’re excited to announce PointClickCare’s August Customer of the Month – Carl Nelson and the Plaza Healthcare Team!

Carl is the Business Development Manager at Plaza Healthcare located in Scottsdale, Arizona. Plaza Healthcare has been a PointClickCare facility since 2016 and Carl has been involved in the partnership with PointClickCare since implementation. Carl and the Plaza Healthcare team have had to navigate through several regulatory changes over the years – most recently, PDPM. Plaza Healthcare’s commitment to successfully preparing for PDPM come October 1, 2019 made Carl and the team this month’s Customer of the Month.

We sat down with Carl to learn more about his journey:

Tell us about Plaza Healthcare:
Plaza Healthcare is a 179 bed CMS 5-Star Rated Skilled Nursing Facility specializing in ventilator and tracheotomy care, as well as in patient hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. We have physicians on-site 7 days a week as well as Pulmonologists, Nephrologists, a Certified Wound Physician, a Certified Infectious Disease Doctor, and Psychology NP’s who make rounds 1-3 times per week. Plaza Healthcare is blessed with half the staff turnover rate of the national average, and over 50% of the workforce has been a part of the team for 5 years or more.

Tell us a little more about you:
I am the Director of Business Development and have been with Plaza Healthcare since 1997. I oversee all aspects of admissions including maintaining positive and meaningful relationships with hospital systems, insurance companies, regulatory agencies, and the community. It also involves the exploration of new lines of business, new referral sources, and any other opportunities available to further Plaza Healthcare’s mission.

Why did you decided to get into the healthcare industry?
My Grandmother was my inspiration to get into healthcare. It was one of those things where I knew I wanted to work with the elderly but didn’t really know where it would lead.

What’s the best part about your job?
The best part of my job is the pride I have in what we do at Plaza Healthcare. 12 years ago, we had a vision of where we wanted to be and its been quite a journey from then to now. Plaza Healthcare went through its share of rough times, but knowing in your heart you’re doing the right thing, makes our success even sweeter. To be able to touch the lives of so many in a positive way every day makes me smile and keeps me motivated to go to work each day.

What’s the biggest challenge you face?
Regulatory compliance challenges. The rules are constantly changing, and to keep up with what needs to be done to stay compliant is challenging. This is where our partnership with PointClickCare has been of great value. PointClickCare is excellent in anticipating what facilities will require during times of change and provides the resources necessary to ensure readiness.

How do you think PDPM will affect your care processes?
Truly understanding PDPM and all that it entails will take time, but we will get there. PDPM is going to be a team effort in order to ensure we capture how we care for our residents. I have no doubt we already provide the services needed to ensure maximum reimbursement under PDPM however, we’ll need to focus on capturing supportive documentation and accurately log what we’re doing on a daily basis.

What have you already done to prepare for PDPM?
In the past year, we’ve started comparing the 5-day PPS assessment with the 14-day assessments to identify items that were missed and what changes could be made to gather this information earlier. We also stepped up our ICD‐10 CM coding practices to capture all diagnosis being treated and identifying the best principal diagnosis as well as relevant histories.

What will you be training your staff on in the coming months?
Due to the significance of cognitive function under PDPM, we’ll be training our staff on conducting thorough interviews to ensure we continue to accurately identify signs/symptoms of depression on our PHQ9 and BIMS. We also plan on providing ongoing training based on findings during our chart reviews as it pertains to MDS coding.

Favorite PointClickCare feature or module?
My favorite part about the PointClickCare system is how all the modules and features speak to each other and how PointClickCare speaks to other systems such as payroll, rehab, and pharmacy. We’re at a point now where we do not even entertain a vendor company unless they integrate with PointClickCare.

Why did your organization choose PointClickCare?
Plaza Healthcare required support, guidance, and expertise in an electronic health record solution that also offered flexibility and customization. Because of the complexity of our patient population and the fact that Medicaid in Arizona is managed care driven, Plaza Healthcare has some very unique needs to its billing and clinical operations. PointClickCare checked all those boxes and was able to configure the system to what we needed and assist with the implementation. Most importantly, PointClickCare let us go at our pace. Instead of implementing everything at once, we implemented module by module starting with MDS, then POC, orders, pharmacy, AR, AP and so on.

What’s one tip or piece of advice you’d give to an organization thinking about moving to an EHR platform?
I cannot stress the importance of planning. This starts with having a competent project manager, preferably someone with experience in PointClickCare, who has no other duties outside of the project. Having qualified people with the appropriate security settings goes a long way in building a successful team. But my biggest piece of advice is to enjoy the process! It can be stressful, frustrating, and at times you may want to give up, but when you finish and see the benefits, it is totally worth it.