When home health and hospice agency Visiting Nurse Service Health (VNS Health) decided to replace its existing document management software with Forcura’s care coordination platform, they knew it would require the work of a true partnership to create a successful implementation and achieve optimal ROI.
Having served Manhattan and surrounding areas for decades, VNS Health was no stranger to adopting new technologies to solve ever-evolving needs for a highly populated and diverse region. They shared their experience during a recent webinar, in which panelists explained how VNS Health’s preparation and mindset from the beginning contributed to one of Forucra’s smoothest implementations and most compelling illustrations of client success.
Using A Change Management Approach
Rather than viewing the adoption of Forcura’s platform as an IT-owned process or a leadership-heavy initiative, VNS Health took an organizational view and enlisted all teams to gather perspectives and disseminate information accordingly across the enterprise. Using tried-and-true methods that had been applied to various changes within the agency, VNS Health was able to organize this effort in a way that was familiar and effective for its employees, through consistent messaging that demonstrated value to each team.
“Their change management strategy was very, very successful,” says Meghan MacGrogan, Forcura’s Senior Implementation Consultant in Client Experience. “We do recommend having an entire team prepared for communicating with the end-users, providing as much information as possible so that they're excited about Forcura, all the things that it's going to solve, what to expect, and what's going to change for them as individual users, depending on the team they're on. All of that is so vital for having a successful implementation.”
Getting Front-line Buy-in
Having appealed to its employees on a philosophical level, VNS Health was determined to ensure that its front-line workers – administrators and clinicians who would be using Forcura’s platform functionalities on a daily basis – were involved in the operational level while VNS Health’s unique configuration needs were determined. Rather than having leaders dictate what their employees would use and accepting a base-model-fits-all approach, VNS Health included employees in planning meetings and demonstrations, fully encouraging them to express their concerns and ideas from the point of view of an everyday user. This provided tangible evidence to the employees that their voices were being heard, and promoted genuine ownership of the platform from the bottom up.
“It's important that they're engaged and upbeat, and feel like they're connected through the process and have some decision-making ability along the way,” says Robert Orlando, Vice President of Application and Integration Services. “That makes all the difference in the world. We would never have been successful, had we not had the buy-in from our staff.”
Identifying Bad Business
With extensive preparation and healthy user knowledge developed beforehand, VNS Health hit the ground running with remote implementation and saw some dramatic results within months. One of the most surprising results, with long-lasting critical implications for VNS Health’s financial health, is the ability the agency now has to see which signing providers are the quickest to respond to VNS Health’s care plans. Because delays in submitting accounts to CMS can result in smaller or even no reimbursements, VNS Health uses the transparency and analytics of Forcura’s platform to identify their most responsive signing physicians and discuss opportunities to continue relationships that will optimize compensation.
“I never thought I would see the day at VNS Health when we could sit down as a management team and decide which provider we're not going to do business with anymore because documents are not being signed on a timely basis,” says Sal Bastardi, Vice President of Corporate Administrative Services.
Want to Learn More?
These are just a few insights from this lively analysis to help your home health business thrive in the tumultuous months to come. You will also have the opportunity to reach out to panelists with additional questions. Download the recording here, and enjoy the discussion.
