Reasons Why You’re Home Health Agency Isn't Using Medalogix And Why You Should Be

July 05, 2017

You’re a smart home health agency. Why aren’t you using Medalogix’s analytics-based solutions?

Your peers are—we’ve worked with 7 of the 10most profitable home health providers, and they’re experiencing millions in savings and at least a 10x ROI after leveraging our analytics-based solutions. Further, and most importantly, they’re improving patient care quality.

You might be thinking to yourself,I can’t afford more technology,or maybe,I’m already using technology that provides risk flags, I don’t need Medalogix. Here are common misunderstandings regarding Medalogix solutions and our thoughts regarding your concerns.

  • I can’t afford Medalogix. You can’t affordnotto have Medalogix. First, we’re exceptionally more affordable than you’d think. And, after you’re up and running you’ll experience tremendous savings and returns. Encompass boasted $1 million in annual savings after leveraging just one of our solutions. Further, our clients typically experience 10-40x return on investment.
  • I don’t have internal technical support to implement and then manage your software. You don’t need it. We do all the work—and there’s NO work to be done from your technical team’s perspective. We’re cloud-based, so there’s nothing for you to install. Once purchased, your EMR will turn on the Medalogix adapter. The extent of our project planning is a series of remote calls (plan on 2-4 depending on the solution you choose), and they are all clinical in nature. We hold your hand the entire time. If your EMR installation was a 10 on the time-commitment scale, we’re a 1.
  • Only large providers use predictive analytics. We have clients with censuses ranging from less than 300 to more than 80,000. Providers on both ends of the spectrum, and in between, experience the same outstanding results.
  • I don’t need Medalogix because I already have an oasis data scrubber that provides risk information. Data scrubbing technologies are excellent—especially for oasis scrubbing. However, the functionality our companies provide are not in competition. In fact, almost 100% of our customer use both. There are key differences in how we leverage the idea of “risk” and implement them into our products. Here are the two big ones:
  • We risk stratify patients so you can see each patient’s risk relative to the other patients on your census. This helps you best manage your population and resources, especially since many of the patients you are taking care of are older than 65, you need to know which patient to review FIRST. It is not possible to do an eligibility assessment for 60% of your population.
  • We also track the implementation of this information within your clinical workflow. The question is not,How good is the model?Rather it’sWhat did your clinical team do with the information?We provide monthly or quarterly calls to you and your team to outline the value realization for your agency as well as opportunities to improve the implementation.

By the way, our models have been peer reviewed by Vanderbilt data scientists and determined to be robust and highly accurate. They are really good.

  • I don’t need MedalogixTouchbecause Ifrontloadvisits and schedule clinician calls in between.Touch is our solution that leverages predictive analytics to identify and rank your patients most at risk of hospital readmission. After identification, Touch equips your team with an automated calling function to help you scalably act upon that risk. Using this tool, providers have successfully reduced readmissions from 27-37%.

If you haven’t started using the tool yet, you might have concluded that your frontloading strategy coupled with calls in between visits is all you need to effectively care for risky patients. The thing is, despite best intentions, those follow-up calls often fall by the wayside. Nurses are busy. Often times they’re visiting patient after patient without a break in between. Unfortunately, without a mechanism to manage those intended follow up calls, many calls fall through the cracks. Further, Medalogix is more affordable. Clinicians’ time is valuable. If your clinicians are spending time calling patients that costs money—a lot more money than an automated call. Touch reduces, on average, 7,500 full time employee hours monthly. If you consider a clinician’s average hourly rate, that adds up.

  • I don’t need MedalogixTouchbecause I already use Telehealth.Medalogix Touch can be leveraged as both an adjunct OR alternative to your Telehealth strategy. Telehealth is used for high acute, specific diagnosis or conditions. Medalogix is used for all diagnosis, and driven based on the CLINICAL acuity, or likelihood to transfer to an inpatient facility. This is important because it is tailored to what is financially risky for you–all cause readmissions. Finally, using Medalogix Touch is much more cost effective than what you are currently paying for Telehealth, AND there’s the added bonus of not having to manage devices.

Did we mention yet that providers leveraging Touch have successfully reduced readmissions by 27-37%?

  • I don’t need MedalogixNurturebecause I already call every patient after discharge.Nurture is our solution that leverages predictive analytics to identify and rank your former patients who could most benefit from additional care. After identification, Nurture equips your team with a milestone monitoring tool that helps you oversee and organize patients based on how many days they’ve been off census. After reviewing patient records, discharged-patient callers can easily contact the appropriate patients with Nurture’s call scheduling too. Using this tool, providers have successfully identified 300 former patients in need of additional care.

The key to a successful discharge follow up program is managing your resources effectively. The goal is to strategically touch base with patients who are most at risk of declining again after discharge. This is very different than calling each patient 14-30 days after discharge. Several clients do check in with every patient at day 14, but then use Nurture to check in with at-risk patients again at day 30, day 60 and day 90. Following up with the right patients at the right time helps you decrease rehospitalizations, improve customer satisfaction and ensure patients who need additional care come back to you rather than a competitor.

  • I don’t need MedalogixBridgebecause my clinicians can identify patients who could benefit from hospice without analytics-based technology.Bridgeis our solution that leverages predictive analytics to identify and rank your patients who could most benefit from hospice care. After identification, Bridge equips your team with organizational workflow steps to help ensure the right patients receive timely end-of-life care conversations. While your clinicians’ experience is invaluable, analytics add another dimension to their decision making. It ensures those patients who are more difficult to identify with the human eye alone, those who may have 6 months ahead of them, still learn about their end-of-life care options at the right time. Using this tool, providers have decreased deaths on home health by 52%, decreased early deaths on hospice by 26% and increased total hospice days by as much as 528%.

Ensuring patients are in the right care setting at the right time is best for care quality and your bottom line. Additionally, the hospice benefit is 180 days. Far too many patients who opt for hospice don’t experience the full benefit. Many only receive a week or two of hospice care. If you have patients dying in their first week of hospice, or dying on home health census, Bridge can help.

Still have questions or reasons why you haven’t jumped on the Medalogix band wagon yet? Write them in the comment section below or email me atdanielle@medalogix.com.

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