Electronic medical records for county home deemed an urgent need

LACONIA – Belknap County Commissioners are looking to get the Belknap County Nursing Home into keeping electronic medical records as soon as possible in order to stem an estimated $185,420 yearly loss in Medicaid income.

County Commission Chairman David DeVoy said interim Nursing Home Administrator Bob Hemenway recently told commissioners that the current record keeping system is ineffiicient and doesn't accurately capture all of the activity for which the county should be reimbursed.

The county currently uses PointClickCare software for the nursing home, but licensed nursing assistants do not have access to it, so they enter information on what they have done into another system at the end of the day.

DeVoy said Hemenway recommended that the county move as quickly as possible to install kiosks where the information can be entered throughout the day by the LNAs, which will ensure that the information is accurate and reflects all of the activities which are performed.

The county has already paid for wireless access throughout nursing home and purchased two laptops for the second phase of the medical records program, he said.

"We need to buy 12 wall-mounted kiosks for approximately $20,000, software for approximately $12,500, and there's a monthly charge of $1,627," wrote County Administrator Debra Shackett in a memo to the commissioners. She said the total cost for Phase 1 is estimated at $52,000, and that if the commissioners can get an additional $9,000 in 2016, the county can get the whole project online.

DeVoy said commissioners are looking at encumbering the needed funds from this year's capital improvement budget line so they can implement electronic medical record keeping as early as possible in 2016.

"If we wait and go through the 2016 budget process, it could take us until May or June before the program is implemented. It will cost about $90,000 we won't be reimbursed for. And I'm sure there will be other savings from the program. It's a win-win for us if we do this as soon as possible," said DeVoy.

He pointed out that the nursing home currently hires registered nurses who come in at the end of the month to work on the files, and that is another expense which can be eliminated.

"We're the only county nursing home in the state without electronic medical records. We want to be ready to pull the trigger and move ahead on this," he said.

DeVoy said that commissioners will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 30, at 3 p.m., to take up the issue. They are scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. that day with the Belknap County Convention's Executive Committee to take up budget transfer requests.