There’s a great article written by Michael Smith, Division President of Marquis Health Services published in the July 24 edition of McKnight’s online. Michael discusses his company’s journey through a Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA). I had the privilege and pleasure to work with his team on their compliance journey and witness their commitment and what they were able to achieve. When I begin my relationship with a client, I start with two messages: Tackle what keeps you up at night and let’s make lemonade out of lemons. How did Marquis do these do things effectively?

Tackle what keeps you up at night

The team at Marquis “inherited “this CIA. When they took over the management the facility, a preexisting CIA was in place, and with which they were required to comply. In addition to the headache that comes with taking over a new building, the team was also dealing with CIA requirements and visits from Federal Monitors. I would start every site visit by asking the team the same questions: What’s keeping you up at night? We learned very quickly that A LOT of things kept them up at night, so much so that it was difficult to assess real strengths and weakness.

As a team, we decided that the best first step would be to sort through the existing data, specifically clinical, to find the areas of greatest liability that required immediate attention. As it turns out, this was easier said than done.

During these early transitional stages, it appeared that the data we received differed depending on the nurse on duty, DON at the helm and many other factors. The variability was getting in the way of our ability to quickly pinpoint our risks, trends, and successes. One of our first objectives became to ensure the data was the same month over month- not at the discretion of the clinician. For added incentive, the OIG and federal monitors were challenging the team to create systems for consistent data analytics. These systems would enable the organization to self-identify issues, conduct root cause analyses, and put the appropriate corrective measures in place. To make this task easier and to change the culture of the facility, the team developed an internal tool to organize the data and to perform critical data analytics. Finally, with the systems in place and to my delight (and to the delight of the OIG) when asked “what’s keeping you up at night?”- the team was able to quickly and efficiently provide the data and see the path to improvement.

Making Lemonade out of Lemons

While our primary goal in this CIA was to meet the government’s standards, Marquis was challenged to take it a step further. Instead of just implementing the CIA to check the box, what can we do to change the way we do things- and spread those changes? Through the innovations of this team, Marquis was able to implement and further develop data analytics for the entire company. In speaking to Smith, they have seen an overall reduction in the number of survey findings and complaint surveys, since they have implemented this data analytics within their entire operation.

But why stop there? Marquis realized that if this system helped them, then it might also be a useful tool for other LTC organizations. So the Marquis team developed a sophisticated data analytics platform and created the SNF Metrics company. The platform is always evolving based on industry changes and provider needs.

The SNF Metrics solution is a data analytics platform that centralizes data from all of your company systems (Clinical/EHR, Financial, Payroll, Billing, etc.) into a single, easy to navigate dashboard. The platform also includes several applications that were built to automate and systematize manual processes. This way, those manual processes can also be a source of data. The integrated data platform from SNF Metrics takes all of that data and applies critical analyses so operators can see patterns in their data, can quickly identify issues and opportunities, and finally feel focused in a chaotic environment.

To learn more about the SNF Metrics Platform and how it might help you and your organization to find focus in the chaos, visit the website at snfmetrics.com or call (732) 836-8300.