National HealthCare Corp.’s 90-plus assisted living communities and skilled nursing facilities will be retrofitted with new electronic health record tools, thanks to a new partnership with MatrixCare, the companies announced Monday.
MatrixCare is one of several long-term care software suppliers that recently have been updating their services to create more interoperability among different industry stakeholders.
Experience with a “robust” electronic health record drove the decision to team with MatrixCare, said Andy Flatt, NHC’s chief information officer.
“We are confident that our partnership with MatrixCare aligns seamlessly with our vision of modernizing the post-acute industry,” Flatt said in a statement. The addition to NHC’s facilities will come via its new senior living and care subsidiary, Tranzion, the company said.
Overall, NHC currently operates 68 skilled nursing facilities, 25 assisted living communities, a behavioral health hospital, five retirement communities, three behavioral health hospitals, 30 hospice agencies and 35 home care agencies, according to its website.
MatrixCare had the third-highest score in last year’s Best in KLAS awards for its software solutions for long-term care providers, just behind PointClickCare and Experience CareNet Solutions.
The company has been working steadily to expand its tools within senior care; before this latest agreement, MatrixCare announced a partnership with Saber Healthcare Group and its 140 long-term care facilities, McKnight’s reported in November.
It capped a busy 2023. A MatrixCare survey last year revealed that nursing homes overall were making slow but steady progress toward better interoperability.
The company gauged its provider partners and found that fax machines remained the dominant means of receiving patient referral data among 28% of respondents, ahead of email (11%) and electronic data feed (14%).
That’s not to say nursing home providers themselves don’t want to change, recent McKnight’s Long-Term Care News coverage noted. A clear majority (86%) of respondents said they were disappointed with their inability to receive patient referral information digitally, whereas slightly less (71%) expressed a belief that such capabilities are “very important.”
That finding has given some electronic records executives reason for optimism.
“We have seen tremendous growth in the use of interoperable solutions in long-term care over the course of the past five years,” said Nick Knowlton, vice president of strategic initiatives for ResMed Saas, parent company of MatrixCare. “From referral management to providing patient updates to other care settings and on to connected care for the patient and their family members, interoperability uptake in long-term care has increased dramatically.”
