Long term care software is primarily used by nursing homes and other facilities providing long term health care. Basic nursing home software helps facilities meet assessment guidelines provided by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). It will include a MDS (Minimum Data system) module for the storage of data required by CMS standards and provide assessments required by Medicare.
These software packages track and manage other information required by nursing homes such as:
- Medication
- Diagnosis
- Medical records
- Nursing assistant assignment modules
They often include quality assurance reporting capabilities. These allow customers to set up individualized care plans for residents. These care plans then interact with other software used by the facility.
While these software programs are available as stand alone products, they are generally sold as part of a nursing home ERP software package that also includes census, administrative, clinical, billing and financial modules.
Some features available with software for nursing homes include:
- CMS record storage
- Assessment preparation
- Medication tracking
- Nursing assignments
- Unlimited note taking
- Individual care plans
Available add-ons or other long term care facilities programs include:
- Census software
- Accounting software
- Dietary management
- Admissions
- Billing and accounts receivable software
- Trust fund processing
- Rate adjustments (including retro-active)
- Complete history
- Audit capabilities
- Purchase order
- Inventory
- Report writing
- Payroll systems
Major Vendors include:
- MDI Technologies
- Melyx
- HCI Solutions
- Advantage Systems
- RH Positive
- Momentum Healthware
Several factors should be considered when selecting software for nursing homes:
- Installation and training – people in this industry are notoriously non-computer savvy
- Decide plans for not only now , but 5 years from now – get a package that allows for all functions – even if you only get some modules now
- System resources: Not usually an issue, but sometimes small facilities are on over-taxed hardware already.