Brightree Hospice Workflow

Barriers/Challenges

Without visibility into key performance indicators, executives are challenged to make informed decisions about:

• Sources of process friction impacting cash flow
• Ways to increase satisfaction of all stakeholders while delivering services more efficiently
• How to keep up with the tumultuous regulatory changes

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software executives can:

• Manage by exception with a dashboard of trending metrics for referrals, reimbursements, etc.
• Maintain positive cash flow by monitoring key financial reports and metrics
• Adhere to regulatory compliance with built-in checks for mandatory items
• Improve efficiency and satisfaction of clinicians and office staff with streamlined technology making their jobs easier
• Increase patient and family satisfaction levels and receive high patient care quality scores

Barriers/Challenges

• Finding the right message that resonates with referral contacts to drive higher referral and conversion rates
• Inability to articulate the advantage of your clinical tools and processes, or provide the data supporting the results of those processes
• Cumbersome exchange of documents or patient information
• Slow response providing care to new patient referrals

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software marketing staff can:

• Better manage referral sources and effectiveness of liaisons by knowing volumes and where referrals are coming from
• Save time and increase accuracy of referrals through streamlined processes with a direct link to referring physician’s system
• Increase number of referrals by making the process easier for your referral sources
• Differentiate by providing excellent care that result from your quality process

Barriers/Challenges

• No connection between other providers’ systems causes redundant, slow, error-prone entry of referral data
• Delay between notification of new referrals and processing caused by manual entry of patient record from referral source
• Referral source may lose confidence and reduce future referrals if the hospice is not able to respond quickly
• Staff wastes time contacting payers by phone or going to their website to find out if a patient is eligible to receive care

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software intake staff can:

• Respond quickly to referrals and eliminate wasted time in Intake with automatic notification of new referral
• Ensure nothing is missed as Referral Wizard guides you through all patient record setup steps
• Increase accuracy of patient record with no transcription required
• Gather all required documents faster and transition to scheduling/clinical team
• Eliminate acceptance of ineligible patients by easily verifying insurance upfront

Barriers/Challenges

• Delay reviewing and scheduling new referrals due to incomplete information or missed notification
• Time consuming, manual process to determine if patient is a “fit” and if orders are complete
• Difficulty matching patient needs and preferences with staff availability

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software referral & scheduling staff can:

• Ensure Initial Assessment visit occurs within 24-48 hours of referral receipt through automated alerts
• Increase referral volume and satisfaction from referral sources with your prompt response time
• Easily view schedule either by week or month and access to employee contact information right from the scheduler
• Improve efficiency of assigning the most appropriate staff for patient

Barriers/Challenges

• Challenge to keep clinicians up-to-date on their assignments in real-time when they are in the field 
• Too much non-billable down-time if clinicians have to drive to and from the office or call in to check their schedule
• Electronic exchange of data may not be secure and HIPAA-compliant, putting the agency at risk for penalties

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software scheduling staff can:

• Ensure clinicians are always up-to-date on new visit assignments or schedule changes through automated alerts
• Save time and reduce risk by sending secure, HIPAA-compliant text communication—including patient record, copy of referral and orders—directly to clinicians in the field
• Make the most of clinicians’ time by eliminating need to drive into office to pick up new admission packet

Barriers/Challenges

• Initial assessment visit can be time-consuming to chart so much information, and often important things get missed
• Many times clinicians chart after hours, creating fatigue and inaccuracies
• Keeping up with all the regulatory requirements, such as Hospice Item Set (HIS), can be challenging for clinicians

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software clinical staff can:

• Increase accuracy and efficiency of clinicians’ initial assessment through the guided, required question sequence
• Ensure completeness of documentation and compliance of regulatory requirements with built-in prompts and validation checks
• Maintain intimacy with patients by removing barriers created by laptops or binders for charting, yet still capturing information seamlessly on an iPad
• Reduce after-hours “homework” for clinicians and help them regain their work-life balance
• Eliminate overtime payment for clinicians who no longer have to work long hours to complete initial assessment

Barriers/Challenges

• Building the Care Plan and the Plan of Care can be time-consuming and incomplete if all critical information was not captured during the Initial Assessment
• Clinical staff can be tied up instead of conducting other visits, reducing overall capacity

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software clinical staff can:

• Easily build thorough, patient-specific care plans with built-in clinical content and pre-populated information captured during the Initial Assessment
• Save time by choosing from built-in best-practice care plans including problems, interventions and goals based on the Top 8 diagnoses
• Reduce time to create the Plan of Care with all key items (care plan, notes, orders, diagnosis, etc.) pre-populated from the Initial Assessment
• Work wherever is most convenient with offline access to patient information on iPad point-of-care device

Barriers/Challenges

• Billing can get backed up if it takes too long to generate the CTIs and get physicians to sign them 
• Staff has a hard time keeping track of which documents have been submitted and received

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software clinical & document tracking staff can:

• Save time with automatic generation of the CTI
• Get CTIs signed and returned faster with better tracking and alerts
• Never lose track of required documents or miss deadlines through automated alerts and escalations

Barriers/Challenges

• Preparing for the IDG meeting and pulling together all the documentation from each discipline takes hours, slowing your productivity
• The meeting itself can take long if everyone hasn’t reviewed all the notes prior 
• Bringing all field staff in for the meeting can be an inconvenience to staff and costly

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software IDG staff can:

• Slash IDG prep time from hours to minutes with the Patient Changes Document (PCD) generated automatically
• Ensure IDG is up-to-date so meetings are faster and more efficient
• Improve staff productivity by keeping them in the field with the ability to review and participate in IDG meeting remotely
• Adhere to regulatory requirements with reminders of when IDG review is due for each patient

Barriers/Challenges

• Billing can get backed up if it takes too long to get required documents signed and collected
• Staff has a hard time keeping track of which documents have been submitted and received

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software document tracking staff can:

• Never lose track of required documents or miss deadlines through automated alerts and escalations
• Enjoy faster collection, signature and submission of required documents
• Avoid reimbursement penalties by ensuring Notice of Elections (NOE) are back within 5 days
• Optimize reimbursement by receiving Plans of Care more timely

Barriers/Challenges

• Keeping track of all requirements for HIS submissions can be time-consuming and tedious for QAPI staff
• Not submitteding HIS documentation timely or accurately, can result in compliance issues and low quality scores affecting future business

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software QAPI staff can:

• Increase QA workflow efficiency with automatic notifications when a new HIS is ready for review
• Improve accuracy and completeness, with built-in checks, before submitting to your state resulting in fewer rejections
• Ensure timely completion of HIS documents through  integration of patient assessment and visit notes
• Generate more business as a result of improved QAPI scores

Barriers/Challenges

• Inability to easily match your patients’ needs with appropriate disciplines and their availability can cause result in a lengthy, confusing scheduling process
• Making and tracking schedule changes and how they impact compliance with orders and authorizations can take a lot of time and slow the billing process

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software scheduling staff can:

• Streamline the scheduling process with insight to all disciplines’ availability who match patients’ needs and preferences
• Easily replace caregivers for scheduled visits as needed
• Never miss scheduling supervisory visits with automated alerts and easily adjust schedule to ensure timeliness
• Be confident that schedules are compliant with orders and authorizations

Barriers/Challenges

• Gathering all the required documentation can be challenging at the point-of-care, or require after-hours documentation by the clinician
• Documentation may be inaccurate if rushed onsite, or if done long after the services were provided
• Incomplete or inaccurate documentation can have a negative impact on billing and add risk in audits

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software clinical staff can:

• Provide the most intimate patient care without any barriers while documenting
• Enjoy a holistic view of the patient’s record on an unobtrusive iPad, even without an internet connection
• Ensure compliance with established patient plan of care
• Safeguard that nothing is missed when documenting medical history with intelligently guided questions
• Eliminate the after-hours “homework” and regain work-life balance

Barriers/Challenges

• If each discipline keeps visit notes separately, it is difficult to have a full view of the patient and to show a record of care coordination (required for hospice)

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software all disciplines can:

• Provide the most appropriate care with quick access to notes from other disciplines about the patient
• Minimize risk to patient care by easily sharing all patient visit information for each discipline in the patient record, accessible from anywhere
• Help ensure compliance with hospice Conditions of Participation (COPs)
• Streamline interdisciplinary communication and  prove coordination of care by securely attaching written conversations to patient’s record 

Barriers/Challenges

• Giving volunteers access to patient’s electronic record is critical but can be too expensive if additional license fees are required

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software organizations can:

• Avoid incurring additional charges to have volunteers access patient records in the Brightree system for documentation
• Empower volunteers and extend staff capacity without overhead expense or supervision
• Easily include volunteers‘ activities with patient in the IDG review meetings
• Effortlessly track and calculate volunteer hours

Barriers/Challenges

• Reproducing all the required documents can be very time-consuming if not automated
• Manually keeping track of due dates for required documents can put the agency at risk of non-compliance

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software clinical & document tracking staff can:

• Jumpstart the 90 day re-certification process by utilizing relevant content from the original Plan of Care, IDG notes, patient record, etc.
• Save time with automatic generation of the CTI for physician signature and track until signed and returned
• Streamline physician’s documentation of Physician Terminal Illness Narrative and Face-to-Face visit from the phone by using HIPAA-compliant Communicate
• Stay on track of required documents created automatically from the patient record, such as a new CTI, Local Coverage Determination (LCD), and Face-to-Face

Barriers/Challenges

• If a patient dies or is discharged, it can be difficult to know who to notify if all the patient’s contacts are not easily accessible
• After a patient dies, there shouldn’t be any lag in the initiation of Bereavement Services or notification of Billing

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software office staff can:

• Easily notify all patient’s key contacts when patient’s status changes, either due to death or live discharge, with quick access to all contact information stored in their patient record
• Keep cash flow moving with alerts to Billing upon death or discharge of patient
• Help ensure regulatory compliance is met by helping guide documentation of required information upon patient’s death in a Time of Death Visit note
• Streamline initiation of Bereavement Services with an automatic alert when change in patient status occurs due to death

Barriers/Challenges

• Billing can be delayed if claim documentation is incomplete / incorrect, or if there is a delay in notification of patient’s death or discharge
• Keeping up with payer rules and regulations is challenging so things can get missed or errors made, resulting in reduced reimbursements 

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software billing staff can:

• Eliminate billing delays with immediate notification to Billing staff when patient status changes
• Experience faster billing with 45 built-in system validation steps to ensure claims are complete, correct, consistent and compliant
• Reduce claims rejections and improve billing efficiency with built-in, payer-specific rules, formatting and timing requirements for billing
• Avoid any billing gap days by ensuring claims are processed sequentially and match certification period
• Save time with automatic posting of payer remittance

Barriers/Challenges

• If access to family members’ contact information is difficult to obtain, delayed communication from the hospice can cause an even more painful experience for the family

Benefits using Brightree

With Brightree Hospice software office staff can:

• Respond quickly to family of deceased with built-in, best practices bereavement letter templates easily generated and personalized with information stored in the patient record
• Leverage the Bereavement Risk Score to determine which letters to send to family members, and when, so the support continues seamlessly
• Save time recording all after-death outreach and services provided to family members right on the patient record using bereavement-specific visit notes