CORHIO’s COVID-19 Tools Help Skilled Nursing Facility See Patients’ Full Picture

With no end in sight for the pandemic, keeping a close tab on its patients in real time is now even more critical for the medical team at HCR ManorCare.

Alarming headlines about coronavirus “hot spots” and facility outbreaks have caused long-term care facilities across the nation to come under increased scrutiny. Unfortunately, the communal environment of these specialized facilities – with the population typically being elderly and/or individuals with underlying health conditions – naturally increases the risk of infection spread.

HCR ManorCare focuses on rehabilitation for the elderly or those needing skilled nursing care, in addition to long-term care services and hospice and memory care services. They operate two skilled nursing facilities in Colorado: a 150-bed building in Denver and a 130-bed building in Boulder.   

Ericha Loosbrock, ManorCare hospital liaison, helps patients and their families navigate what to expect and how to prepare for a transition from a hospital or home setting into a ManorCare facility. She says CORHIO’s PatientCare 360 patient lookup tool has always been valuable, but the addition of COVID-19 data makes it a true game changer for her. The tools, including COVID-19 Lab Notifications, not only helps with existing patients but also patients referred to her for services at ManorCare’s Denver and Boulder locations.

Before the pandemic, Loosbrock visited newly transitioned patients in person to make sure they were settling in well, but she can’t do that for the time being. For patients without strong family networks, in particular, it’s been difficult to miss out making a personal connection, so she relies on PatientCare 360 to follow their progress.

“PatientCare 360 lets us look at a broader picture of our patients,” she says. “We can see the whole perspective; we’re able to look at how we can accurately piece together the patients’ medical concerns and rehospitalizations, and ensure our medical treatments are safe and effective.”

She adds, “The addition of the COVID-19 information was wonderful. All the laboratories we use are on CORHIO, so we are able to follow that and see real-time information about tests and their results, and then look at the trends history to see what’s really going on with our patients.”

Outside of the COVID-19 insights, she said access to therapy notes about a patient’s progress (such as results from barium swallows) within PatientCare 360 has helped their therapists better understand their patients’ needs and develop individualized treatments.  She also touts the tools’ benefits of accessing patient information when admitting new patients; this allows ManorCare to appropriately bill the patient’s insurance since sometimes patients are unable to provide an accurate health history.

Loosbrock, who joined ManorCare from another long-term care organization in 2019, has been using CORHIO’s tools since 2011.

“I’m a huge advocate for CORHIO,” she says. “My region also covers Washington and my care managers there hear me talking about how great CORHIO is all the time, and they tell me they wish they could have them as their HIE.”

ManorCare recently joined the non-profit health and well-being organization ProMedica, which is the 15^th largest health network in the country.

“I love my job. It is so much fun,” Loosbrook says. “I feel really fortunate to be working for a company that cares so much about its patients.”