Quarryville Presbyterian Retirement Community
Quarryville, Pennsylvania

Background
Quarryville Presbyterian Retirement Community is a 350 resident campus with a 110-bed skilled facility in Quarryville, PA in southern Lancaster County. Founded 50 years ago by Dr. Franklin Dyrness, the Community started as a small home and has become a large complex in eastern Pennsylvania.

Challenge
Prior to January 2003, the facility used internally created flow sheets for CNA’s and licensed staff to record all forms of supportive documentation on a daily basis.

“It was very time consuming and we still had a lot of confusion.” explained Renie Logan, RNAC at the facility. “There were always missed assessments in the flow sheets, people were copying from shift to shift and from day to day, and there were always coding inaccuracies. “

Solution
Quarryville first heard about CareTracker through a mailing last July, inviting interested parties to a demonstration in suburban Philadelphia. Renie, along with part-time RNAC Joy Payne and CNA Sandy Duncan attended the program and were quite impressed with what Resource Systems had to offer.
They approached their administrative team which was already familiar with the company, having explored several options for bar coding. Once the administration decided to move forward with the system, Renie and Joy conducted staff in-services to get everyone familiar with the proper assessment language and prepare the staff for the change.

Results
“Within a few days after CareTracker was implemented, the staff were using it easily,” said Sandy, “The people on the night shift ventured into it and taught themselves. We had one lady that was so afraid of computers. She thought she was going to quit when she heard they would be using computers. We spent a little extra time with her and now she said she can’t believe she was so concerned about it.”

The facility’s case mix score was 1.11 prior to CareTracker and went to 1.15 in the next picture date after CareTracker was implemented. This increase is worth about $60,000 for the facility. The May 1, 2003 CMI was up to 1.25 and should produce a revenue increase of nearly $120k per year. “While we can’t attribute the entire increase to CareTracker, it was a major contributor,” said Joy.

“I like the fact that if we have something that seems very out of character for the resident we can find who entered that information and when, “explained Renie. “Then I can go back to that staff person and ask, “I have never known that resident to be physically abusive. Can you tell me what happened that night?”

When asked about their recent survey, Renie explained, “Before I could even introduce the surveyors to CareTracker they spotted the kiosk on the wall and began asking questions. We gave them a thumbnail sketch of what it’s all about and showed them the reports. They were tremendously impressed and even mentioned in their exit conference that some of the problems we had in the past will be dramatically improved, if not totally eliminated, by CareTracker.”

“The staff morale has climbed with our caregivers.” Joy explained. “That ultimately has to improve the quality of care and how they approach the residents.”

“It’s the best thing that’s come along.” Sandy concluded.