The majority of the healthcare providers in post-acute care facilities want Electronic Health Records (EHR) Software technology designed for their specific area. However, as revealed by a  KLAS report, these organizations continue to face interoperability and care coordination difficulties.

What are post-acute facilities?

Post-acute care settings include long-term care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, skilled health facilities, and home health agencies. Post-acute care is an essential and growing service accounting for almost 15% of the total Medicare spending.

Post-acute care organizations are looking for Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software vendors that meet their post-acute care requirements so they can offer high-quality care to patients.

Challenges faced by post-acute care organizations

Post-acute care facilities in the US have reported that they face challenges in the following areas when it comes to post-acute care,

  • Interoperability, the ease of sharing health data.
  • Analytics,
  • Value-based reimbursements.
  • Care coordination between clinicians.

No EHR Software vendor has been able to deliver solutions across all the services offered by the post-acute care settings. Usually, organizations offer facility or home-based care hence purchase decisions are made according to one type of care.

Different EMR Software vendors offering solutions to post-acute care organizations

  • MatrixCare – MatrixCare has been adopted widely in several post-acute care settings. The software technology performs reliably in home health, hospice, and long-term care hospitals.
  • WellSky – The EMR software vendor offers tools and solutions for post-acute care settings however the adaptation rate is relatively low, especially in LTC/SNF.
  • Epic EMR Software – Users leveraging Epic software’s post-acute care technology solutions are satisfied despite some gaps in important areas such as documentation on tablets for home health. The customers using Epic solutions are confident in the vendor’s ability to keep up with the regulatory requirements to advance their solutions.
  • MEDITECH – There has been less adaption of MEDITECH’s post-acute care health IT. User’s who use post-acute care solutions for hospice and home health which are not part of the Expanse platform are reasonably satisfied.

Customers of all post-acute care software solutions have concerns with the software technology’s ability to offer the needed functionality. Reporting tools are one of the most major requests from clinicians. Software vendors need to work to overcome the challenges faced by providers working in post-acute care settings so they can concentrate on patient care and streamline day-day tasks to boost productivity levels.

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Anna Parker