COURSE PROJECT
Kourtney F. Scism
DeVry University
Health Services Info Systems Week 7 Course Project

Table of Contents
Preliminary
Title Page ……………………………………………………………………………………………..……………..1
Table of Contents2
Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………................................3
Overview and Brief History 3
EHR Successful Statistics……………………………………………………………………………………………….…4
Benefits Outlined………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….5
Software Support Summary6
OfficeWyse……………………………………………………………………………………................................7
CallWyse……………………...………………………………………………………………………………….…..7
MobileWyse………………………………………………………………………………………………………...7
Finance Wyse………………………………………………………………………………………………………7
Personal Experience & Advantages/Disadvantages…..……………………………………….8-9
Cost Analysis ………………….…..……...............……………...…………………………………………….10
IT Requirement’s & Conclusion………………………….…………………………………....…….…...11 Works Cited………………….…..…………………………………………..........................................12

Executive Summary HealthWyse is an electronic software company that offers three lines of service to homecare organizations including home health, hospice and private duty. The platform provides secure mobile access to scheduling, documentation and billing functions. The program focuses on increasing agency’s revenue, reducing adverse events and promises to streamline homecare services. The array of features HealthWyse offers is ideal for homecare because it offers relevant tools for homecare providers while staying compliant with HIPPA. Hospice providers benefit from using the Chronic Care Management component because they are able to measure and report treatment outcomes, analyze cost and follow best practice guidelines. HealthWyse’s EMR has helped agencies increase revenues by 10%, efficiently manage workflows and shorten revenue cycles. With recent Medicare cuts, this is essential for homecare agencies to thrive. This profile will review the attributes of the program, analyze and compare the advantages and disadvantages, and also provide a thorough recommendation based on the research conducted. History HealthWyse, LLC was established in Wilmington, Massachusetts on January 1998 and was incorporated in January of 1999. The company developed their software program to provide information systems for the home health marketplace. Their primary lines of service offered are catered toward home health, hospice and private duty. (HealthWyse)
HealthWyse integrates the clinical and financial information software into one electronic medical record. The software is delivered through a data center hosted by a managed team. Mr. Graham Barnes is the current CEO of HealthWyse. He has also co-founded FreshStart Healthcare, a program that “identifies opportunities for innovation in the delivery of home health services to ACO’s, hospitals and high-value networks under healthcare reform.” (Barnes) Mr. Barnes extensive experience in conjunction with his passion for homecare assures potential client’s that HealthWyse is a competitive and prestigious company.

According to the Healthcare Innovation and Management System’s Society diagram, implementing an EHR is beneficial to a company in more than one way. Adopting an EHR program can be challenging and costly, but the benefit outweighs the risk. (Himss)

Benefits of Adopting an EHR
Improved Patient Care * Overall improved chart quality * Reduction in medical errors(pertaining to handwritten documentation that is illegible) * Enhanced communication with staff and patients * Health promotion, prevention and maintenance activities are expanded * Automatic patient reminders for preventive and follow up care * Electronic clinical decision support facilitate correct diagnoses * Enables physicians to electronically generate prescriptions, 485’s, Face to Face and Orders * Consolidated patient histories so physicians can accurately prescribe and administer medication
Improved Productivity * Reduction in paperwork and duplicate entries * Enhanced communication * Efficient electronic billing and streamlined invoicing and payment * Managed time in copying, filing and locating requested medical records * Multiple user and location access to charts
Increased Revenue * Decreased lost revenue with accurate coding * Elimination of medical record storage and coding costs * Extensive savings in chart materials purchased * Health maintenance reminders trigger services rendered sooner * Increased staff productivity * Increased physician productivity that can lead to additional patients seen * Better control of patient care costs by reducing redundancy of clinical services * Tax incentives * Office space savings due to elimination in medical record storage * CMS EHR Incentive program for implementation

The following software programs are integrated through HealthWyse to create a dynamic, innovative system that allows clinicians and physicians to document, communicate and coordinate care for patients.
Summary of Programs
OfficeWyse
Offers support for all lines of service, home health, hospice and private duty. The interface of the overall program is user friendly and easy to navigate through. The setup features several tabs to the left including Medical Records, Scheduling, Management tools, Admin, Mail, Financial and an option to “change sites” for companies that have more than one franchise.
Intake begins in Medical Records. The patient’s demographics are entered and the user is able to tab through and fill in information throughout the entire chart. This portion of OfficeWyse also allows for insurance to be submitted and verified. OfficeWyse also has a feature called ScanWyse. This tracks and serves as data storage for all doctor’s orders, intake notes, clinical notes and any other documentation the patient may need attached to their medical record. Once the patient’s information is entered, the intake coordinator signs the document electronically and then a visit for a start of care is automatically generated.
In home health and hospice, clinical reviews all new start of cares that come across from intake to determine how many visits the patient will need, what type of case and care they need and where to assign the start of care. In private duty, orders are not needed to start services for a patient. Private duty patients’ schedules are made by the family because this type of service is an out of pocket expense. OfficeWyse delivers a great feature for both lines of service because it gives the user the ability to create unique visit orders for each patient depending on what service they need. Once visit orders are created, they alert the scheduling team to be assigned.
The scheduling screen is divided into two separate tabs, HCA and Clinicians. New start of cares and visit orders will show in the “To Be Scheduled” box so the scheduler is able to track new clients and assign them to staff as they populate. This is a drag and drop feature and this screen also creates the option to review each employee’s schedule individually. Scheduler’s have the opportunity to block out specific dates if an employee is out sick that day or on vacation. They can also enter their availability in so if an employee is only available Mon-Sun, 8:00a-5:00p, it will not allow the user to schedule someone in that timeframe without entering an override.
OfficeWyse operates on Android tablets and iPads. It allows users to communicate directly from their device while maintaining HIPPA compliant security. Users can send individual messages through the Mail tab or communicate with a group. This feature acts as a delivery system between internal office employees’ and field staff. The Mail feature in OfficeWyse also allows clinicians and staff to e-mail the patient. Office staff can scan and upload orders and labs for the field staff to review at each visit. Also, OfficeWyse does not have to be connected to the internet for users to access medical records.
CallWyse
CallWyse is a telephone based documentation program for homecare aides that act as a delivery system to OfficeWyse. It is designed to offer support for the field staff and manages their schedules, ensures completion of care plan and documentation as well as time and mileage management. The aide has access to the patient’s information including their address, telephone number and direction’s. They can also access their schedule up to one week in advance. The aide calls the 1-800 number when they arrive at the patient’s home and listens to the patient’s care plan. The program tracks the time they clock in to avoid fraudulent billing. The client has a small device in their home, a FOB, which changes the secure ID number every 30 seconds. This device is tied to the visit order and confirms the aide is clocking in from the patient’s home. The FOB also serves as an electronic signature from the patient. Once the visit is complete, the aide will clock out via CallWyse and complete the tasks on the care plan. The care plan is then submitted and uploaded electronically into OfficeWyse and the patient’s medical record.
MobileWyse
MobileWyse was created for clinicians and designed to optimize their documentation process in the field. MobileWyse streamlines the OASIS assessment through a step by step question system. All data is instantly entered electronically and uploaded to the patient’s chart. In home health and hospice, visit orders are created at the start of care visit and scheduling immediately assign’s clinician’s and aides to the patient.
FinanceWyse
“FinanceWyse provides all-inclusive billing, claims processing, remittance, and collections capabilities.” (HealthWyse) FinanceWyse is fully integrated with the entire EMR system and this eliminates the need to reconcile separate financial and clinical documentation. FinanceWyse alerts billing department of expiring authorizations and creates accurate accounting for every patient. Management of insurance is ideal since the pending verification is derived from referrals and intake. Users have the option to e-bill for Medicare and Medicaid patients by uploading a batch to a file and submitting through a separate vendor. Users also have the ability to manage authorizations by the hour, visit or shift. FinanceWyse can be tailored to fit individual agency’s needs.
Personal Experience & Advantages and Disadvantages
Darlene O’Hara is LifeSpring In Home Care Network’s Chief Operating Officer. LifeSpring is a company based in Norman, Oklahoma and offers three lines of home care services; home health, hospice and private duty. She worked with HealthWyse throughout the implementation process and mentioned several key benefits HealthWyse provided that made LifeSpring’s daily operations easier to manage. She stated HealthWyse customized their software to fit the agency’s needs. Darlene and her colleagues researched three different vendors for over a year and made the final decision to purchase HealthWyse based on their customer support, pricing structure and user friendly interface.
HealthWyse provided a team to train LifeSpring employee’s and staff so they could ensure the transition to the new EHR would be successful. Each company was separated and the training focused on their individual needs. The first company to go live was private duty. This company did not have as many regulatory and compliance needs as home health and hospice so Darlene stated the decision to start with this company was based on risk. The company spent two weeks’ data entering all active patients.’ Darlene stated this was an additional cost of approximately $2,000.00 to hire employees specifically for data entry. Once each client was transitioned into the new system, the company had to hire nursing staff to ensure every patient’s assessment and financial agreements were uploaded into the chart for compliance reasons. During this time frame, field staff was also brought in to train on CallWyse and its functions. Darlene stated cost for training field staff was roughly $3,000.00 for around fifty employees. Finally, on February 4, 2013, private duty was ready to go live after all data was entered. The transition was chaotic at first due to miscommunication and a change in general.
During the interview, Darlene discussed how LifeSpring cut costs by 36% due to reduction of paper usage. HealthWyse offers an output function and it works with software program Excel. Reports, care plans, notes and other financial documentation can be uploaded directly from HealthWyse and imported into a spreadsheet. This file can then be saved and e-mailed or faxed electronically.
Darlene stated another great feature the program offered was that field staff was going to be able to review a new lab or physician’s order from the field, electronically. Office staff would receive orders, upload them into the patient’s chart and case managers could then review notes instantly. However, once the program went live, they found the field staff had to be connected to the VPN, or LifeSpring’s secure network. This compromised the feature and field staff is still not able to review those records unless they are connected to the company’s network server.
Darlene stated FinanceWyse streamlined their billing process and created and opportunity for them to increase their revenue cycle. FinanceWyse’s output function allows for all batches to be imported directly to Medicare’s and Medicaid’s e-bill website. Private duty’s billing suffered at first due to HealthWyse not being able to generate a customer friendly invoice. The format was very benign and the final balance did not reflect accurately if a payment was made. Eventually, the private duty company utilized a third party vendor to create a cleaner invoice for their clientele.
The scheduling portion of the program for private duty served its’ purpose well and created an efficient and modern way to communicate with field staff. Employee’s schedules and time are tracked via CallWyse, scheduling changes are easy to make due to the drop and click feature and contact information for the patient and employee is easily accessed from the scheduling screen. A major issue occurred in scheduling when the go live date for home health was established; the private duty’s company patient schedules were wiped out during the home health upload. HealthWyse never accepted responsibility for this fiasco and it took them over a week to respond. The private duty company suffered a great deal and had to manually build everyone’s schedules from memory. HealthWyse was not able to restore the program although this was one of the features it had promised.
HealthWyse functions in home health promises to deliver clinical excellence and provides guided assessments for clinicians. The interface electronically submits 485’s, or plan of cares, to the doctor for a signature. This portion of the program alerts the doctor of any changes immediately which promotes better practices and improves overall quality of care. Coordination of care when a patient discharges from a skilled unit or hospital is streamlined and this also enhances patient care.
HealthWyse provides a secure network by offering a separate portal for log in. This portal, known as a Citrix receiver, can be accessed anywhere. The network prompts users to change their password every 90 days and locks them out after three attempts of failed log in. Once logged into the receiver, there is an additional user name and password to access OfficeWyse or MobileWyse. CallWyse employees use an employee ID and password to clock in and out of their visits. The following analysis was provided by Darlene OHara and breaks down the cost and savings annually over the next five years. HealthWyse has provided a significant savings to LifeSpring and although the implementation is costly, the spreadsheet and charts proves over a five year period the savings can be massive.

(OHara) IT Requirements Trai Harms is the director of information technology at LifeSpring. He determined the IT infrastructure needed to implement HealthWyse months before the “go live” date. Trai stated, “An investment such as HealthWyse required a specific level of IT expertise, therefore, LifeSpring chose to hire a consulting company.” (Harms) This increased the cost of implementation by 12%, however, the investment would pay off in the first two year’s through savings of the new program. The consulting company assisted LifeSpring in making informed choices, fully prepared the mobile technologies prior to software implementation and they continue to support the program with regular maintenance and support. They provide 24/7 access so LifeSpring can continue to provide the most excellent care to its patient’s. When asked to discuss the preparation methods for all technologies, Trai stated they purchased dual screens for all employees’ so they could decrease the amount of paper needed. This also increased the productivity level of staff. The company purchased iPad’s and laptops so field staff could conduct assessments and documentation electronically and instantly upload them to the server. Trai stated HealthWyse’s customer support has faded drastically since the implementation phase was complete. He feels HealthWyse is slower to respond now that LifeSpring has fully adopted their program and is invested. “This is only my opinion, but I think they knew ahead of time our IT needed additional support and they were scared to reveal that because cost drove the decision.” (Harms) Overall, the decision to outsource IT has proven to be the best decision for LifeSpring. Based on the research conducted and feedback provided, the recommendation is to select HealthWyse as a choice for homecare companies. The innovative design is easy to navigate through and this enables employees that are not comfortable with technology to have confidence in the system. This system manages all areas of homecare and streamlines agencies cash flow and concedes financial stability. One system is ideal for agencies with multiple lines of service. Users can communicate electronically through the system regardless of the line of service the patient is on. HealthWyse customer support is known to be slow in responding to errors or questions, however, this is an issue that can be handled when negotiating contracts and licensing fees. The overall cost to implement may be out of budget for some companies; however, the savings over a five year period proves that this system is an exceptional choice. HealthWyse has a competitive product and it proves to enhance homecare agencies. Works Cited

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HealthWyse, LLC: Private Company Information. (2014, March 2). Retrieved October 10, 2015. (Bloomberg)
Barnes, G. (2006, February 20). Graham Barnes Linked In Profile. Retrieved October 14, 2015, from https://www.linkedin.com/in/gbarnes
Barnes, G. (n.d.). Effective and Enterpreneurial CEO, Graham R. Barnes Home. Retrieved October 6, 2015.
Kramer, D. (2011, September 20). HealthWyse Announces Growth Investment from Housatonic Partners. Retrieved October 11, 2015.
Anderson, C. (2012, August 18). A Review of Healthwyse. Retrieved October 16, 2015, from http://carolanderson.co/2010/a-review-of-healthwyse/
OHara, D. (2015, October 7). EMR Questionnaire [Personal interview].
Harms, T. (2015, October 9). IT Questionnaire [Personal Interview].
Lynn, J. (2013, September 24). Transforming HealthCare. Lecture presented at Oklahoma Association for Home Care & Hospice 2013 Annual Conference & Trade Show in Reed Conference Center at Shearton, Midwest City.
About Health Information Managment Systems Society | HIMSS. (2012, March 21). Retrieved October 13, 2015.