IT Outsourcing - VCPI: A Step Beyond - Health Solutions - RedCoat Publishing - Inside Healthcare

Technology is becoming increasingly important in the long-term care industry. As technology becomes more and more embedded in clinical delivery and reimbursement and regulatory rules pressure administrators, it’s important to find an IT partner with the expertise to provide the appropriate solutions as well as a complete understanding of your industry. That’s where VCPI comes in.

Loren Claypool, VP and Managing Director

Founded in 2000 as a subsidiary of one of the largest operators of skilled nursing, assisted living, and contract therapy facilities in North America, VCPI partners clinical understanding with the IT solutions front-line caregivers and administrators need to ensure the lives and care of their residents are handled effectively and efficiently. A staff of more than 130 certified, credentialed technology professionals ensure the total solutions provider provides cost-effective, efficient, flexible, and scalable processes and solutions.

“We take a holistic approach to solve our clients’ issues,” said Loren Claypool, vice president and managing director. “Most of our competitors are pure technology, and often they provide technology solutions to other industries. We focus exclusively on long-term care IT outsourcing.”

VCPI’s size also gives it an advantage in terms of expertise and continued investment in staff education, which means the company continually creates new products and services. In January, the company launched an encryption solution to protect PHI (personal health information) on its clients’ laptops. The program not only protects information on the hard drive but also anything that’s burnt to a CD or put onto a USB flash drive.

And, as the company expanded its client base to include skilled nursing, assisted living, hospice, home health, and rehabilitation facilities, it created stand-alone offerings. VCPI can now support a client with only assisted living facilities, for example, as well as a client with offerings that span the continuum of care. Additionally, because VCPI provides such a wide array of long-term-care solutions, if a single-focused client decides to expand, VCPI can grow with them.

The next level
In June, VCPI opened a second technology center in Milwaukee. The company’s growth and subsequent need for additional capacity was an obvious reason for the development. The other was quality. IT systems required by long-term care need to focus on supporting a 24/7 environment, Claypool said. Historically, it wasn’t critical if a facility’s system was available at night. As the industry moved to point of care data capturing, VCPI needed a 24/7 hub for its clients.

The 22,000-square-foot, $5.5 million facility’s amenities were designed to be redundant, with single points of failure eliminated. Examples include multiple power sources and network access points, as well as “building inside a building” architecture for additional protection and industrial strength generators capable of handling the 1,600 long-term care and assisted living facilities that now make up VCPI’s client base.

“Many of our clients do around the clock ADL (activities of daily living) capture,” said Claypool. “With the center designed to be a 24/7 monitored facility, what they’re doing at 3 a.m. is paid just as much attention as what they’re doing at 3 p.m.” The company’s previous location, although now an ancillary facility, has not been forgotten. “We turned it into a place where we can house high availability applications in the event of a catastrophic disaster,” he continued. “It’s no longer a core part of our day-to-day processing environment, though.”

All sides
The company’s growth also inspired an investment in the Remedy IT Service Management System. In all of its ventures, VCPI strives to unite fiscal responsibility with a fast turnaround and increased efficiency. The Remedy system does just that.

From a client perspective, VCPI’s service desk is the primary touch point for most of its clients’ employees. The company needed a tool that allowed it to, firstly, manage rudimentary front desk troubleshooting. Secondly, it needed a tool that effectively managed a knowledge base of previous problems and solutions. “We solve a client’s issue once and sometimes have to be creative to do that,” Claypool said. “We need to learn from that. We did some integration work and plugged the Talisma Knowledge Management System into our Remedy solution.”

The third need was answered with a Cisco VOIP management solution coupled with skill-based routing. When clients call in, they can make a selection on the voice response unit to be routed to the appropriate team, or they can bail out of the routing and the call will be manually answered. Additionally, clients can submit their issues via e-mail or VCPI’s Web site, which is also tied into the Remedy system.

“Self-help isn’t for everyone, but for the clients who may be a little more technologically experienced, sometimes they just need a hint to solve their issues.”

Well-rounded goals
The importance of VCPI to the long-term care industry is multifaceted. In addition to providing clinicians with tools that help them do a more effective job of caring for residents out in their facilities, the company’s tools ensure clients get paid for the services they deliver, that their expenses are as thoughtful as they can be, and that those services are high in quality financially and clinically.

And although that’s the goal of many IT outsourcing companies, what makes VCPI stand alone, said Claypool, is its ability to spot employees who will go one step beyond the technology. Experience, ability, and professionalism will get potential employees to the table. What gets them in the door is a commitment to improving the quality of what, in many cases, is the end of life experience of the residents.

“We view that as a noble cause and a sacred trust. We get up in the morning to help the front-line caregivers deliver better care. When we do that right, the other stuff takes care of itself. Our employees have a commitment to help residents and families, through the front-line caregivers, have better experiences than they might otherwise have,” he concluded.

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