How Pointclickcare Helped Redefine ABHOW’s Internal Processes and Deliver Better Quality of Care.
Former Clinical Services Director
ABHOW
The former Clinical Services Director for ABHOW has moved on from their role at ABHOW since this article was published.
I’ve been in the nursing industry since 1967 and I truly believe that I have the best job in the world. Our organization is a group of 11 Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC), with over 2,300 team members serving more than 5,500 residents. Since opening our first community in 1949 in Los Altos, California, ABHOW has been guided by a passion to make a difference in the lives of seniors.
Implementing our electronic health record (EHR).
When I first joined the team at ABHOW in 2003, it was clear that things needed to change with the way we were reporting and tracking resident information. It was becoming extremely difficult for us to use a mix of paper and computer-based processes, and instead of focusing our time on our residents we found that a lot of our effort and time was spent on administrative duties.
One of the first projects I was tasked with on the team was to choose the EHR platform for our organization. After interviewing, reviewing and researching the options available, we chose PointClickCare as our technology partner, and fully implemented our first building in 2005.
This was a big decision for us and we knew it would change the entire workflow process that we were accustomed to, but it was also one of the easiest decisions for us. We chose PointClickCare as our EHR for several reasons – its ease of use, its ability to integrate with existing financial and clinical tools we were already using and its comprehensive approach to assisted living facilities.
Achieving better quality care.
Since implementing PointClickCare, the ability for my team members to gain better knowledge into our residents needs has improved tremendously, simply because of the insight that the system provides. The PointClickCare team spends so much time anticipating changes in regulations and making sure we are meeting these changes, and having a team that understand how regulatory changes will impact our organization is invaluable.
PointClickCare helps care providers focus on what is important – getting the right information, at the right time, to the right people, which means better decision-making. Rather than simply using the software to replace existing workflows, PointClickCare has allowed my team to redefine processes, develop new ways to provide care, and figure out methods to improve our quality outcomes.