Innovating Healthcare with Software and Technology with Alan Dworetsky
Alan Dworetsky is the director of sales and marketing for Approved Admissions.
Alan has been in the medical space for nearly 15 years started by selling durable medical equipment and then transitioned into wearable ultrasound devices. At that point, Alan found the opportunity at Approved Admissions to move into the software part of the healthcare space.
The healthcare is solid and is not going away anytime soon making it a very stable industry for the long run. Software is becoming a become part of our daily lives.
What is Approved Admissions?
There are 2 functions for Approved Admissions.
Family member will at times make changes to their HMO (insurance) plans in a way that they will no longer be covered without notifying the facility. They had no intention of paying privately and would never have done so, had they fully understood the implications of their actions.
Now Approved Admissions will notify the facility in their report that there was a change and the business office will be able to address the issue in real time.
The Manual Method
Without a software that automates this process, the facility either will wait for the denial letter from the insurance company at which point its much more complex to fix the issues.
Additionally, there would have to be someone who is manually checking every resident’s insurance individually. This is a very time consuming process and leaves the facility wide open to human error.
The goal of any software innovation is to minimize the reliance on human beings.
When was the last time a traffic light was incorrect and it displayed green instead of red?
You Must Trust the System!
If you don’t rely on the system, you will not get the full benefit out of it.
A GPS will only get you to your destination in a timely manner, if you shut off your brain’ and allow the system to help your navigate.
From Your Perspective, Where Do Nursing Home Operators Need to Improve?
There seems to be a strong push back from the nursing home staff in regards to accepting and embracing new technologies.
These innovations will actually make their jobs easier and improve the quality of the care we are all striving to provide. However, in the present, they present as a change and disruption to what has always been common practice.
Institutional Memory
Just because you are used to doing things a certain way doesn’t make it the correct way anymore. There is a great reluctance to change in any organization and that is a barrier to innovation.
Limited Resources
Unfortunately, nursing homes have limited resources which forces them to maximize the efficiency of whatever and whoever is available to them. In this environment, it’s challenging to introduce change even if it will produce significant improvements.
The bottom line is that it means more work right now and that is unthinkable in many facilities who simply trying to survive moment to moment.
What Commendable Practice Have You Noticed in Nursing Facilities?
Some nursing homes are putting kiosks in the lobby’s for family members to leave their feedback on their interaction with the facility.
They may leave a glowing 5 star review or share some criticism and a one start review. It’s encouraging to see nursing facilities that are open to hear the truth and act on the feedback they receive.
Repute iPad Review System
Repute is a system that we work with here at SNF Marketing to encourage family members and anyone who engages with the facility to share real and actionable information.
If there is a negative review, it will actually create a ticket that is emailed to the administrator and cannot be closed until the issue is resolved.
Truth be told, seeing a large iPad in the lobby of any building give the impression that the facility is up to date and pays close attention to detail. This is even before you fully understand the functionality of the system.
What is the Biggest Myth Regarding Your Product?
People believe that they can do a better job than the software or the AI can do.
This is incorrect.
Countless times the system find spelling mistakes and incorrect numbers that would have affected the claims and they ultimately would have been denied. By finding this information in real time, they facilities are savign real time and money.
Aren’t Software Companies Like Yours Rolling in Dough?
Being that your product is a software, the cost is fixed and should not matter if you have 10 facilities or 1000 facilities. So does that mean that you’re company is attaining larger and larger profits as it grows?
The real answer is that, yes, it’s true, that the cost is not affected dramatically when there are additional clients who sign up on the software side. However, Approved Admission, is constantly reinvesting back into the system.
The software is ever evolving based on changes in the marketplace, the needs of the customers and upgrading the software. An entire team of developers created, maintain and upgrade the system.
So, yes, the cost may be close to fixed to onboard another facility, but there is still a significant expense to constantly update and upgrade the system.
Links and Resources
Check Out Approved Admissions Here!
Repute iPad Check in Kiosks
The Love Your 9 to 5 Show
Reach out to Alan
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