Client Profile: Essex Group Management, Massachusetts
Essex Group Management Inc. is an award-winning multi-facility organization in Greater Boston, MA. Family owned and operated for more than 50 years, in the last decade the company has added lines of business related to LTC including respite services, senior transportation, adult day care, home care and assisted living.

The six long term care facilities include Brandon Woods of Dartmouth, Brandon Woods of New Bedford, Blaire House of Milford, Blaire House of Tewksbury, West Side House of Worcester, and Blaire House of Worcester.

The corporate office and facilities are connected via WAN. Cynthia Fitzpatrick, Regional Vice President, says that she "loves the fact that I can be in the corporate office and stay current with our residents and patients by reviewing assessments and progress notes without traveling, pulling charts, or deciphering handwriting."

Selecting Keane NetSolutions
Essex began Keane NetSolutions implementation two years ago, following an extensive selection process. "I can't tell you how many vendor presentations we saw," said Ken White, IT Director.

"Many systems didn't meet our criteria. A deciding factor was that through comparative evaluation our clinical staff preferred Keane Care clinical software and the financial people preferred the AR/billing software. Often we found only one groups' criteria was satisfied.

"We were looking for a company that would be our partner, who offered the scale and capability to meet our needs now and in the future. Keane Care has a strong name in IT. Our senior management spoke with Keane's management and we decided it was an appropriate fit," continued Ken.

Going Live
Jeanne Fernandes, Data Systems Manager, explained that sites went live in order of size, small to large, with five sites currently using the clinical and AR modules. "Some nurses were hesitant at first, it took them a while to get into the swing of using computers. Staff now report that they enjoy the technology and are proud of their new abilities."

Essex SNFs are standardizing the software available at each site. "We use a care plan library our staff wrote to reflect Essex standards of care. Some facilities with specialized populations have added to it," said Charlene Doberck, Corporate Financial Documentation Nurse.

"A recent innovation is giving access to nurse practitioners who work with the medical and psychiatric directors. They use it to view notes and assessments and are starting to write notes as well. As time goes on we will encourage physicians to use it."

"Our first step toward an EMR was installing CareTracker," continued Ken White. "We learned a lot about how to approach users. Our staff are teaching us to more fully appreciate how much the technology affects workflow. Their ability to adapt has reinforced the value we place on our end users. We continue to refine and expand the system to support them as they meet challenges successfully."

Billing and AR The Essex corporate office bills for the organization using Keane NetSolutions. Jennifer Remuck, Business Office Manager at Blaire House of Worcester, makes sure all the billing data for her site is in the system. "I get involved if a rebill is needed, for example if we bill Medicaid for the full month, but the resident leaves on the 28th. I will update the data so the software can prepare a new claim."

For collections, Jennifer starts with the Aging by Month report, checking for changes on a daily basis. She uses the Cash Receipts report to keep current with payments since most are received at corporate. When private portions are due, Jennifer runs an Aging report on just private pays to see if any need her attention.

At Essex, Business Office staff are responsible for registration and census data. "KNS is a real-time system, so when someone leaves, I'll discharge them at the time. This means we're all on the same page since the discharge also goes to CareTracker, where it is available to nursing, dietary, and everyone who needs to know."