By now everyone has heard of the value of communication and how a lack of it can only create problems for you. You have also heard that what is driving healthcare survival is outcomes. With accountability becoming increasingly more important as healthcare dollars are being squeezed, the ability to effectively articulate your metrics grows accordingly. Functional Pathways has three ways to approach both of these needs.

As I see it there are three very important groups with which to communicate. Physicians, Case Workers and family members form the triple crown of communication. They all have the ability to either positively or negatively affect your business. If they are not informed with the correct information there is a vacuum that most often times is filled with the wrong information leading to many headaches.

Functional Pathways Regional Manager Kim Williams has come up with a quick easy way to share a residents’ progress called the Physician Communication Tool (PCT). It includes 0 – 10 ratings on twelve different outcome measures, both at admission and discharge or at any point in the residents stay. If you had a resident going for a follow up visit to and orthopedic doctor, and you wanted to send it to that doctor electronically ahead of time, you could. The PCT includes a picture or the patient and ample space for a narrative about their progress. The measures are in bar graph form with a key to explain the number given. The community has their logo at the top along with any other valuable information that you would like to include. This same piece can be sent to Case Workers and family members as well.

The second way to approach this is through Right Track. Right Track makes this remarkably easy. It allows you to clearly communicate the progress of each resident to physicians, hospitals, administrators and to the resident’s family members through automated updates. The automated update is delivered via email and provides individuals a link to the systems web portal and access to detailed reports and information. These updates will help reduce phone calls and ease concerns of family members while providing facility staff with a tool for better patient care. Once discharged, a final report will be sent to the referring physicians and hospital for follow up. Metrics reports can be generated, being sliced and diced with a few key strokes.

Lastly, the Advanced Clinical Documentation system (ACD) is the therapists’ electronic documentation and charting vehicle. It allows for clear and concise documentation of the residents notes. It provides a cleaner picture for billing and standardizes the whole process. Outcomes reports can be generated straight from the resident’s chart.

There is no disputing the importance of being able to communicate your outcome measures in an easily understandable manner and Functional Pathways provides you with three different avenues to do so.