A well-known regional Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF), in operation for over 150 years, gained a favorable reputation from health care partners for its strong work culture and guiding high-quality, efficient health care in Erie, Pennsylvania. With their extensive history and facility renovations throughout the years, they now offer a wide range of services, including short and long-term nursing, skilled nursing care, memory care, short-term rehab and respite care, wound healing treatments, and more.
Executives at the SNF recognized the facility was experiencing significant challenges in reducing patient readmissions, managing their length of stay, and improving overall quality measures and facility ratings. They aimed to strengthen their collaboration with hospital and provider partners to enhance the quality of care provided and create a more positive experience and outcomes for their patients and caregivers. Helion, an independent company that provides post-acute care network management services, provided the support they needed to ultimately meet those goals.
To dive deeper into these challenges, Helion’s Network Performance Manager worked directly with the facility, using provider scorecards to uncover any problem areas and instituting discharge follow-up protocols to improve transitions of care, Helion’s scorecards offer a range of metrics derived from claims-based data demonstrating a provider’s performance (e.g., micro-market and state-wide rankings) relative to various quality targets (e.g., 30-day readmissions, emergency department (ED) utilization, 7-day PCP/Specialist follow-up, etc.). This allowed their leadership team to conduct deep dive analyses of their member-level data to identify root causes on all performance metrics, including all-cause readmission rates. Their dedicated Network Performance Manager worked closely with the leadership team to identify reasons for the readmissions and provided recommendations on how to prevent avoidable readmissions and unnecessary transitions.
“Being able to easily view our scorecards and drill into the data really helps. The calendar view in Helion’s scorecards helps us to track the full episode of care and conduct root-cause analyses. If we come across an issue, we work with Helion to conduct a robust investigation, discuss concerns with our Network Performance Manager, and take the appropriate next steps to make sure our patients have a good experience.” — Chief Operating Officer
The goal of creating more positive experience for the SNF’s patients and caregivers was successfully met, and new strategies and protocols have been adapted by the facility to continue their positive trend. The facility’s Network Performance Manager added, “A key component to the facility’s improvement can be attributed to their collaboration with Helion. They’re now one of the most engaged facilities in the network and view challenges as opportunities to improve. Helion’s scorecards were able to reveal what those opportunities were.” Performance improvements at the facility were bolstered by the installment of new leadership and the clinical team’s strengthened efforts around increasing quality of care. The partnership between Helion and the Erie facility has led to an 86% increase in the facility’s 7-day PCP/specialist follow-ups; a 56% decrease in 30-day emergency department utilization count per 100; and a significant improvement in both their micro-and state-rankings. Quality-of-care also increased, and the plan’s members saw a significant drop in readmissions, dropping to zero 30-day readmissions. This allows patients to heal comfortably at home while maintaining the same high-quality standard of care. The successful outcomes have impacted all levels of the SNF’s organizations, strengthening their partnership with Helion as they continue to improve the patient experience.
