Schutt took that maintenance job, hitching rides from his uncle to get there. Just a few years later, he became a Rest Haven administrator. Before long, he was named a regional manager. He now has been at the helm of Providence Life Services (PLS), formerly Rest Haven Christian Services, in Tinley Park, IL, for over 30 years. 

“I didn’t really script my life, but it has pretty much followed out in a marvelous way, because I’ve always had the opportunity to grow, and as the organization has grown, I’ve grown,” says Schutt, 65. He’s helped the organization, which provides a wealth of aging services, expand from three to 10 facilities and into three states.

The current chair of the Global Ageing Network and a past chair of LeadingAge (formerly the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging), the ever-smiling Schutt needs no introduction among the greater long-term care community. 

“He has the combination of being a visionary, being a smart businessperson and being kind,” says Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge.

He is “as well-rounded, principled and successful of anyone in his era in our field,” points out Larry Minnix, who led the national association while Schutt served as chair. Minnix counts the quality movement as one of Schutt’s main accomplishments during his chairmanship, along with the birth of the Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST).

Schutt is a “man of great faith and wisdom with a wicked sense of humor,” adds Dan Reingold, president and CEO of RiverSpring Health, which includes operation of the Hebrew Home at Riverdale. 

Schutt says his strong Christian faith has allowed him to help PLS “hold the center,” and he considers his work life and family life to be seamless. He likens his work-life arrangement to a family farm, like the one his grandfather operated when he was a child. 

“You do what you have to do to farm,” he explains. “Everyone chips in and understands that you defer what you like to do because of what needs to get done, because you enjoy it.”

Not surprisingly, Schutt’s devotion to his family, which includes his wife, Linda; three grown daughters, Jennifer, Bethany and Allison; and five grandchildren, is a major component of his life. 

When he is not at PLS or traveling to a LeadingAge or Global Ageing Network conference with Linda, he might be doing a family activity with his grandchildren. 

Schutt also serves on the boards of a Christian school and local church. He says he has no plans to retire from anything. After more than 40 years at the same organization, he still loves his workplace. 

When he visits residents “and they throw their arms around me and say it’s a great place to live, that totally fuels me,” he says. 

Resume: 1976, Takes position as administrator of the newly built Rest Haven South, a 166-bed nursing facility in South Holland, IL; 1977, Graduates with BS in business administration from Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, IL; 1980, Receives MS in health services administration from Governors State University; 1983, Works as adjunct faculty at Governors State University; 1984, Named regional manager at Providence Life Services (PLS); 1986, Becomes CEO of PLS in Tinley Park, IL; 2001, Elected board chairman of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (LeadingAge); 2019, Starts two-year term as chair of the Global Ageing Network 

Sundale Rehabilitation and Long-Term Care, an 100-bed skilled nursing facility in Morgantown, WV, runs the annual “Presents For Patients” campaign with the help of local partners. 

The campaign calls on the local community to sign up for the program and pledge to purchase or donate gifts to residents for the holidays. The facility then works to match those volunteers with a specific resident. 

There are about 300 to 400 nursing home and assisted living residents in the area, according to Brittany Tichenor, Sundale admissions and activities assistant. All have been adopted and will receive multiple gifts this holiday season. 

“It means everything to them,” Tichenor told McKnight’s. 

The hope is that more than 1,000 gifts will be donated to split amongst residents with hopes that each will have at least one or two gifts to open.

“A lot of people in nursing homes have limited funds, so it means everything to them because sometimes they don’t have money to provide for themselves,” Tichenor added.

The end result? A holiday season that everyone can cherish. 

In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 1 to 3 million serious infections, including respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, skin infections and gastrointestinal infections, occur every year in long-term care facilities, and they are a major cause of hospitalization and death. 

“As we age, the body goes through many changes — one of them being a less effective immune system,” says Amy Stewart, MSN, RN, DNS-MT, QCP-MT, RAC-MT, RAC-MTA, vice president of curriculum development for the American Association of Post-Acute Care Nursing. “There are many other changes of aging that when compounded by chronic disease, such as diabetes, COPD and heart disease, put the elderly at higher risk for a multitude of HAIs.”

Holly Montejano, clinical health liaison for PDI, agrees, adding that many residents of long-term care facilities have catheters — mainly central lines, peripheral lines and indwelling urinary catheters — making them even more vulnerable to infection. 

Certain medications — including chemotherapy, steroids and even antibiotics, also can increase one’s risk for an HAI. 

Given the small spaces shared by residents in long-term care, it is critical for skilled nursing administrators to take definite preventative measures to avoid HAIs, including ongoing staff and visitor training — and ensure proper reporting steps are followed when an infection does occur.

“Education is a key factor for all infection prevention initiatives,” Montejano says. “In addition to robust staff education, residents and visitors also need to be educated with infection prevention accountabilities to create a comprehensive culture of safety at the facility.”

Cause for concern

Some of the most recent and concerning HAI risks affecting long-term care facilities today include multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) and vaccine preventable illnesses, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

“Inappropriate or prolonged prescribing of antibiotics both in community physician practices and in the healthcare setting — along all continuums of care — have driven many organisms to develop resistance, rendering treatment difficult at best and ineffective at worst,” Montejano says. Stewart notes that antibiotic use also can cause secondary infections such as Clostridioides difficile (C. diff), a bacterium that causes diarrhea because of an imbalance of normal bacteria that is usually present in the gut. 

“Great care must be taken in skilled nursing facilities when it comes to this infection, as it can be transmitted very easily because the C. diff spores can live on inanimate objects,” Stewart says. “It also poses a great risk for dehydration, weight loss, falls and pain.” 

One of the most recent emerging HAI risks is a fungus known as Candida auris, which thrives on skin and can lead to invasive infections, says Rosie Lyles, M.D., MHA, MSc, director of clinical affairs at Medline. The bug — which has more than doubled in incidence from last year — can be identified only in specialized labs, and typically affects the sickest of the sick patients: those with tracheostomies, those who are ventilator-dependent, or those who have recently received antibiotics or experienced multiple recent hospitalizations. People infected with this potentially deadly superbug shed the fungus, contaminating beds, bed rails, doorknobs and windowsills, and are often colonized indefinitely.

Another superbug keeping clinicians up at night is Aspergillus fumigatus, Lyles notes. An airborne pathogen, this bug can lead to deadly infections, particularly in immuno-comprised patients, and there is not yet surveillance in the United States for this disease, nor is it reportable or notifiable, she says.

Montejano also notes that vaccine-preventable illnesses such as influenza, pertussis, pneumococcal pneumonia and shingles also pose an ongoing concern in long-term care communities.

“These diseases can be thwarted by a single shot, but if staff, facility residents and visitors aren’t educated on their importance, a gaping hole is left in successful infection prevention practice and infections can be transmitted easily within a facility,” she says.

Successful HAI prevention

When it comes to preventing illnesses in long-term care, taking a wide berth works best because this strategy doesn’t focus specifically on one pathogen, Lyles notes. Proper hand hygiene among healthcare workers tops the list of essential components for preventing the transmission of illnesses. Stewart adds that understanding which scenarios warrant alcohol-based hand rubs compared to soap and water is also important. 

“Infection prevention competencies must be included in every facility’s educational program,” she notes. “This goes beyond handwashing and should include when to use and change gloves, proper incontinence care, catheter care and how to properly use personal protection equipment when entering and exiting isolation rooms.”

Montejano also says that all staff must be trained in how to properly clean and disinfect in the healthcare environment, and provided ongoing reminders about practicing respiratory etiquette when coughing or sneezing, and not coming to work when sick. In addition, all staff should be required to receive all of their recommended vaccinations.

Nurses in particular need additional education focused on surveillance and assessment of HAI, appropriate use of antibiotics, the application of transmission-based precautions based on the HAI, and the facility’s policies in the case of an outbreak, Stewart adds. She also recommends that facilities consider adding an infection prevention surveillance component to daily rounds. 

“During these rounds, monitor staff to ensure they are washing their hands when indicated, following transmission-based protocols and washing equipment that enters more than one room such as blood pressure cuffs, life equipment or equipment used in therapy,” she says. Surveillance for nurses may include such things as proper use and cleaning of glucose testing monitor and wound care treatments, she adds.

In addition, many electronic health record systems are able to print reports such as diagnoses lists that will help pinpoint the most common infections and antibiotic use — sometimes even providing these details on a unit-by-unit basis, Stewart says. 

“This information can help administrators target where infection prevention education is needed the most to help avoid HAIs,” she says.

In addition, when infections do occur, it’s important to take action in long-term care to isolate those patients to avoid transmission, Lyles says. 

“To prevent cross-contamination, facilities should room patients who are positive with the same MDRO [multidrug resistant organism], as opposed to placing a patient who does not have an infection or colonize with the MDRO in a room with a patient who is positive of MDRO,” Lyles points out.

Staying vigilant

While infection prevention was an educated practice and not necessarily a dedicated position in long-term care for a long time, in recent years the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has mandated more in its three-phase rollout of the Rules of Participation.

There has been more to address Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) implementation, infection control, compliance and ethics and physical environment. By November of 2016, long-term care facilities have been mandated to develop an infection prevention and control program; by November of 2017, facilities needed to implement an antibiotic stewardship program and just last month, phase three was rolled out, mandating that each facility employ an infection preventionist.

“With an infection preventionist onsite, communicable diseases can be reported to public health, hand hygiene and personal protective equipment adherence can be internally monitored to assist in reducing HAI transmission,” Montejano says. “Infection preventionists can also provide education regarding safe handling of linen to prevent organism transmission and track outbreaks to prevent future occurrences.”

Facility infection preventionists are also responsible for HAI reporting and tracking within the CDC’s National Healthcare and Safety Network (NHSN), the nation’s most widely used HAI tracking system. 

NHSN provides facilities, states, regions and the nation with data needed to identify problem areas, measure progress of prevention efforts, and ultimately eliminate HAIs, according to the CDC. Long-term care facilities that track and report HAIs through the network have the ability to see their data in real-time and share that information with clinicians, facility leadership, and other facilities and partners such as health departments or quality improvement organizations. NHSN is also the conduit for facilities to comply with CMS infection reporting requirements.

Healthcare facilities within a shared network can have greater impact working together than individually when it comes to infection control efforts, according to Lyles.

What rarely gets reported are the times when a pilot fails in the rollout. In many cases, it happens when a provider loses interest, fails on its commitment or simply gets cold feet, to name just a few reasons.

It affects players both big and small.

When the CMS Innovation Center was getting off the ground in 2010, several professionals issued a report asking the agency to take a better approach to pilots designed to test models that improve care, lower costs and better align payment systems to support patient-centered practices. The report came after a Medical Health Support Program pilot designed to help reduce costs by better managing chronic conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, was plagued with startup problems, including participant selection snafus. The efforts all but eliminated any short-term cost savings, and resulted in paying large sums to private disease management companies.

Taking the leap

Cheryl Field, chief product officer for Prime Care Technologies, likens the process to buying a pair of new jeans: While they may look good in the catalog, it’s much different after trying them on.

Avoiding those kinds of inconvenient surprises, however, is no easy task.

Most pilots would likely work better if both parties looked before they leaped. Following are a few key ways vendors suggest that can happen.

Ask: What’s in it for me? 

“Providers need to make sure they have a clear and measurable understanding of how the project will benefit their organization,” says Doron Gutkind, chief software architect for Lintech Software. 

“From the perspective of the technology vendor, early on in the process there needs to be an open and honest discussion about, ‘What is this worth to you?’” adds Kyle Adamo, product manager at Dude Solutions. “This will give insight into future pricing and inform the scope of the project.”

Be discerning 

Andrew Carle, president of Oak Hill, VA-based Carle Consulting, believes many pilots fail because providers’ appetites are bigger than their stomachs. “Providers need to focus on ‘big impact’ technologies,” says Carle, who also is implementing a first-of-its-kind graduate concentration in senior living administration track, as part of Georgetown University’s Master’s in Aging & Health degree. Those include medication management programs designed to reduce errors and rehospitalizations — “things that can provide measurable outcomes, improve staff productivity, and help a community position for future reimbursement systems,” he says.

Be strategically consistent

“Pilots can be great in terms of getting something off the ground, but providers need to ask themselves if a pilot is consistent with their organization’s strategic vision,” says Jay Schultz, director, technology solutions, Sanford Health/Good Samaritan Society.

Avoid shiny objects 

“Probably the most critical decision at the outset is avoiding being attracted to ‘bells and whistles’ technology and assessing the true value proposition. For example, how will this improve quality of life if utilized directly by your residents?” poses Carle. 

Be realistic 

Failure to manage expectations can doom any project. “The most critical decision providers make is taking the time to understand what they’ll need to do to make the pilot successful,” says Chris Larco, senior director of enterprise sales and solutions consulting for SmartLinx. A pilot is successful only if it achieves results, which can encompass various factors, not all of which are financial, he adds. 

Align expectations around some sort of ROI

“If it turns out that the provider is only willing to pay $500 annually to solve a complex technology problem, that can dramatically impact what’s feasible on the product development side of things,” says Adamo. “If a shared consensus on problem definition and ROI on solving that problem is not within sight, both the provider and the technology vendor should be prepared to pull the plug and go back to the drawing board.” 

Providers would also do well to ask if they will eventually be rewarded as a co-developer if the pilot is successful, especially if the technology is in the early stages, adds Majd Alwan, senior vice president, technology, for LeadingAge and executive director of LeadingAge Center for Aging Services Technologies.

Know thy partner

Savvy providers will do their homework on prospective partners. This includes exploring the history of the current relationship with the vendor, its organization structure and ownership, as well as its reputation or that of the technology in the industry, according to Mona Hohman, vice president of nursing and clinical services for the Good Samaritan Society. 

Before signing on the dotted line, providers need to honestly assess all of the necessary resources to ensure they can live up to their end of the deal. This includes time, money and people, and in the case of software, the right IT infrastructure.

Schultz advises providers to build in an adequate amount of time to do all of this assessing. This includes obtaining legal review of the arrangement and approval at the requisite levels of leadership within the organization, he adds.

Having buy-in from staff is key.

“Without taking the time to communicate and involve the staff in what’s in it for them, staff can resist the change and want to remain status quo,” says Jody Harbour, senior vice president of product management for American HealthTech. 

Facilities that are part of large chains have the luxury of outsourcing with third-party vendors to be the boots on the ground for initial implementation,” adds Hohman. “Understanding the training model is also critical. With turnover, that can compound pretty quickly.”

It’s also imperative providers ensure they have adequate funding on hand to cover things like staff overtime, outside help and the like, even if it’s free. The risks are even higher when a new vendor is underwriting the costs. 

“More than 95 percent of start-ups fold within five years,” says Alwan. “Even venture-backed companies have a high failure rate of 75 percent.” 

And as Schultz notes, having to go back for additional funding can sometimes grind a pilot to a halt.

Experts also advise providers to solicit internal feedback and internal buy-in as early as possible. This could stave off potential problems down the road.

At the end of the day, the decision to participate in a technology pilot can sometimes be like jumping into the pool’s deep end in the dark.

“It is definitely a leap — a leap of faith and commitment,” says Teresa Chase, president of American HealthTech. “Faith that their software partner has done their part in ensuring the product has been tested and functions as designed. A strong, collaborative relationship is key before a pilot is even considered.”

Rubber, meet road

Even after all of this exhaustive preparation and the initial stage results in a quantifiably successful pilot, the hardest part is yet to come.

What dooms a pilot?

As Gutkind observes, there are the usual road hazards like disruption of business processes and service, staff and resident frustration and seemingly endless delays and false starts.

Then come the surprises.

Once a decision to ramp up is made, providers may come across challenges from a technology vendor that can no longer provide the technical and program support when additional users come on board, says Scott Code, associate director for LeadingAge Center for Aging Services Technology.

Overreaching is another. It happened when Alwan observed a consortium of providers attempt to create a comprehensive suite of integrated products. 

“They stepped out of their competencies in providing services into a highly technical and thorny issue of technology integration,” he says. “That effort crashed and burned and a lot of money was lost, driving one of the lead provider organizations close to bankruptcy.” 

“In some cases, enthusiastic organizations and vendors can over-support a project, creating a model for short-term success that is not sustainable in the long term,” adds Brian Buys, senior director, product management for PointClickCare. “In this scenario, phase one shows great results, which fade the moment implementation in a ‘real world’ scenario is attempted. Unfortunately, in this scenario it’s also very difficult to measure the ‘real’ value of a solution.”

For so many participants, the scaling up part is tantamount to a failure to seal the deal. Field says she has seen some pilot participants follow a successful software pilot, only to allow the software to sit unused and uninstalled because of staff turnover or procedural delays. Field and Carle both agree these kinds of issues could be avoided by assessing and anticipating such roadblocks before a pilot launches.

“Providers should assess how well the technology will be received by the general population of employees and residents,” Carle says. “Will staff feel it’s just another layer of duties being added to the position? Will residents be able to easily adapt to its use? Will there be corporate support to implementing, monitoring, and modifying as needed — or will it just be dumped on the communities with an instruction manual and note that says, ‘Please use!’?”

Ensuring success

The key is preserving the momentum that led to the initial pilot.

Designating a pilot champion early on is one answer. Stable leadership is another.

“With no one prodding people to accept it, it’s just going to sit there not being used or adopted,” says Field.

Champions can drive change management, adds Chase, especially if the project dramatically affects existing processes and,  ultimately, staff.

“How do you have the discipline to keep the course and remember why you signed up for this initially, and not allow people to lose that energy?” says Schultz. “If the discipline isn’t there, and a pilot started as that shiny object and it’s easy to get excited, it’s easy for bumps in the road to happen.”

Field advises less experienced providers to “have an out. If you really want to test the software, be willing to sign a long-term contract with a short out,” she says. “Vendors need to know you’re going into a three-year deal and generally don’t mind giving you a 90-day out if you’re really unhappy. If I can’t make a customer happy in 90 days, I really don’t want to keep them as a customer anyway. It’s not fair to either party.”

The best advice Field has for any “newbie” is to have realistic expectations. For example, roll out a pilot in three locations instead of 10.

“Listen carefully to what the software can do right now, as opposed to hearing what you think the software can do next year,” she says. “If you buy into a pilot on some promise of features to come, you’ll probably just be frustrated if those features don’t come fast enough. People are really surprised just how long development takes. It’s not because vendors are slow or not smart enough.”

In my view, winter just completes what fall started, and summer lazily maintains what spring too-slowly recreates out of a dreary wasteland. But autumn is efficient and self-motivated. One moment we’re lying on our backs contentedly admiring the leaves, and the next we’re bagging them for compost. 

 “Autumn is the season when everything falls away,” concurs esteemed travel writer Pico Iyer.

That’s certainly been true in long-term care this year, when fall signaled the demise of the old payment model and heralded its replacement. 

We gush about the beauty of October in Vermont, but it’s also plenty memorable to see all the vibrant new colors the Patient Driven Payment Model has brought to provider faces. Hopefully, they don’t end up dropping from the trees.

For me, fall represents the most vivid possible reminder of the endless constancy of change, unwelcome or not. I just came back from visiting Washington, D.C., with a group of World War II veterans, and clearly nobody better embodies the acceptance of whatever life may bring than they do.

I asked a colleague who was along on the trip to reflect on what she found most instructive about spending quality time with these heroes. As someone who’s experienced a heavy dose of tumultuous change herself recently, she was particularly inspired by their optimism and resilience in the face of challenges we might consider overwhelming today. 

“They have such nonchalance about everything they went through and survived, some of which is hard for us to even imagine,” she said, remembering gripping stories of uncommon bravery and perseverance told to her as they experienced the World War II Memorial together. “But their attitude is, ‘you’ll survive, you’ll get through it, everything will be OK.’”

That’s the lesson that autumn  insists on teaching us, too — that whatever is ahead for our lives and profession, we’ll be fine, and probably even better when we get on the other side.

Those marked with this dramatic symbol would be the ones who were cited for abuse causing actual harm in the last year or an instance of abuse potentially causing harm over each of the past two years.

They had little more than two weeks’ notice that this brand of shame would be coming, and the provider community complained loudly about both the propriety and the mixed message of the icon itself. This writer led the chorus on the latter point.

So what did we learn Oct. 23 when the curtain rose on this unnecessarily dramatic sideshow? Two things. Beyond the absence of humility to admit that the particular icon chosen was inappropriate — or at least was inappropriately unveiled without a better visual example — we learned that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has taken some pains to explain what it is trying to do. 

The icon appears after the facility’s name and is not at the very start of the entry, which keeps it out of speed-skimming territory. 

There is also a prominent explanation on the Nursing Home Compare website search page, which does a credible job of explaining what consumers should do if they’re interested in a facility that bears this icon. 

Interestingly, right below that explanation is the exclamation-point icon in a yellow triangle that signifies the even rarer, poorer-performing members of the Special Focus Facility group.

It seems part of CMS’s problem might be that it was already using the icon it should be employing for the abuse “warning.” Let’s review the rules of the road: Yellow means warning. Red, on the other hand, means stop and take a long look. 

Facilities that receive two D’s in two years — for any of a variety of reasons, many of them subjective — could be looking at the ominous red icon online for a year.

Overall, the verdict seems to be: CMS made a decision, and since the agency is your lifeline, you have to suck it up and deal with it. 

There actually might be two more lessons learned. One, if federal regulators decide they want to do something to get your attention, they have numerous powerful ways to do it and they’re clearly not afraid to use them first and ask questions later.

The other? If you think you’re being wronged, in the long run it’s better to raise your voice and be ignored by unapologetic bureaucrats than to be strong-armed and shamed in sullen silence.

He possesses a lawyer’s wit, a provider’s perspective and a lawmaker’s instinct for fixing things. These qualities have certainly served him well.

But what really sets him apart is an obvious love of data — and how it can be harnessed.

He may not be the first person who said if you don’t know your numbers, you don’t know your business. But he has clearly taken the adage to heart.

To witness one of his presentations is to see stats sliced and presented in ways that would impress an experienced sushi chef.

Many of us were expecting more of the same this past fall, when Parkinson spoke at the organization’s annual convention in Orlando. And to be sure, he did address evergreen challenges such as growing public scrutiny and mounting industry criticism.

But then he suddenly changed course and reminded providers to keep delivering … compassionate care.“Our mission is about love,” he said.

Huh? Look, I’m not questioning the mission. But considering the source, the statement was a bit jarring. It would be as if Spock suddenly turned  to Captain Kirk and said, “Don’t worry, be happy.”

So I considered Parkinson’s unlikely advice. And you know what? He’s absolutely correct. More than a million people find themselves getting help inside skilled care facilities each year. And the care that is received is not so easy to deliver.

Many times, residents arrive in a clinically complex state. Often, they are disoriented. Sometimes they are flat-out abusive. And don’t get me started about the pay or hours caregivers endure.

These are not conditions that typically make for an easy work day. Yet when you ask caregivers why they do what they do, the same sentiment keeps popping up: They want to make a difference.

And why is that? It’s pretty clear that there is a fair degree of compassion and love involved.

You probably already knew that. But a reminder never hurts. Even if it comes from a guy who would seem more likely to eat decimal points for breakfast. 

The HIE selection tool includes a white paper, an interactive guide, an online selection tool  and matrix of existing HIEs that chose to contribute information, and three provider case studies. It is available free of charge to both LeadingAge members and nonmembers. CAST worked in partnership with the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative on this new portfolio.  

“We believe that HIEs can provide significant value to long-term care providers,” said Majd Alwan, Ph.D., senior vice president of technology at LeadingAge, and executive director of CAST. 

But a study published earlier this year in The American Journal of Managed Care found that HIE use remained as low as 46%, even when it was available. One reason why: The specific system wasn’t geared toward skilled nursing needs or left out information that could help them provide better care.

“This new CAST resource aims to be a resource that can help encourage HIE adoption by offering facts and insights about the current HIE landscape,” Alwan said. “That way, providers can make informed decisions when planning for, selecting and engaging with HIE entities and networks.” 

The HIE toolkit is one of eight online technology selection tools created by CAST.  Others include an electronic health record selection tool and telehealth selection tool.

The companies said Leverage Health will advance WellBe’s mission to provide specialty geriatric care to frail, polychronic seniors in Medicare Advantage health plans. WellBe’s geriatrician-led care teams visit these complex members wherever they are, whether in the community or a nursing home.

“Building a deep relationship with our patients and physically being in the home allows our team to address both clinical and social determinants of health directly,” said Jeff Kang, M.D., CEO and founder of WellBe. “The result is immediate, dramatic improvement to the person’s overall health and well-being as we follow the patient across every care setting.”

WellBe said its providers’ interventions lower unnecessary emergency department admittance and redundant testing.

“By providing care wherever the patient requires and following the patient across care settings, WellBe ensures care coordination challenges are overcome,” Kang said. 

WellBe, which is free to  patients, takes full global financial risk for those complex patients who represent roughly  5% of the population and who are persistently the most unprofitable. The firm guarantees improvement in health plan earnings and delivery of at least four stars on quality ratings in addition to financial guarantees.

»Eldermark Software clients can now address billing challenges using CliftonLarsonAllen’s data and technology services. Clients can outsource billing functions on a per-resident, per-month fee and work with CLA to improve financial performance, cost structures and staffing management.

»Prime Care Technologies has released a mobile app and predictive tools for its primeVIEW application. The cloud-based product integrates EHR data, labor, accounts receivable, satisfaction scores, hiring and Five-Star quality ratings, and forecasts PDPM revenue opportunities.

»3M has completed its acquisition of Acelity Inc. and its KCI wound care subsidiaries for about $6.7 billion. KCI’s advanced wound care and specialty surgical applications are now part of 3M’s worldwide medical technology unit.

»HealthDirect Pharmacy Services has acquired King of Prussia Pharmacy Services, or KOPPS, bringing its total number of locations to 25. The expansion aims to enhance customized services, innovative technological solutions and faster delivery in the Philadelphia area.

»Bonafide Management Systems, a DME software provider long geared toward home health, has combined with Next Level 11 and Next Project11 to attract long-term care and acute clients. It  is operating as Bonafide Medical Group LLC and has added a healthcare facility portal, live asset tracking and a healthcare-acquired infection control platform. 

»CarePredict has launched its third-generation Tempo™, a wearable device that includes an advanced motion sensor for gesture recognition and a combined heart rate and pulse oximetry sensor.