CareConnections Member Site Revision

10/24/2007

CareConnections Member Site Revision

The CareConnections public Web site received a significant structure and layout update on September 5, 2007. As promised in the related news update of August 21, 2007, this revision will now be applied to the CareConnections Member site. All clinics holding accounts with us will notice a change to the look of the pages when you log in on Monday, October 29th. In addition to the new look, we are pleased to announce some enhancements to the My CareConnections page that will help to make administration of records easier and more efficient. Some minor revisions have also been applied to the outcomes reports.

  1. Functionality Enhancements to My CareConnections

    The Active Patient List will now display only 50 records at a time. Page numbers will be displayed as links at the bottom of the page to facilitate scrolling through all patient records. Since the site only has to load 50 records at a time, clinics with large active patient lists will likely notice that navigating the site will be much faster. All active registrations can still be viewed, but users will be required to use the new navigation options at the top of the My CareConnections page to do so.

    • New navigation options will allow users to return specified groups of patients. These groups include:

      Active Patients – all registrations that have not yet been archived

      Complete Registrations – all complete outcomes registrations that will be reported on in the current reporting quarter

      Incomplete Registrations – all incomplete patient registrations

      Ready to Archive – all complete and incomplete registrations that are available for archiving. Note – incomplete registrations can only be archived if they have been residing in CareConnections for more than 90 days.

      Counts of records in each group will be shown at the top of the My CareConnections page. Clicking on the count for one of the indicated categories will return all patient records in the specified category. You may also use the sort ascending/descending options for Patient ID and Submitted/Eval. Date/Discharge columns.

    • Search by Patient ID is a new feature to the My CareConnections page that allows users a fast way to locate a patient record in the active patient list. If users do not want to scroll down the page to look for a specific record, the patient ID can be typed into the search box, and the record(s) matching the patient ID will be returned.
  2. Search Patients

    Patient search function under the Reports heading has been updated to match abbreviated search capabilities on the My CareConnections page. Users may search patients by category (Active, All, or Archived). After a category is selected, users may search by multiple criteria, including date ranges, Therapist, Problem Area, Patient ID, Referring Physician, and Insurance Type.

  3. ICD-9 Code Listing

    The ICD-9 code listing in CareConnections has been updated to coincide with the book, “ICD-9-CM 2007 Expert for Physicians Volumes 1 & 2.” When entering data, only valid codes will be accepted into the system. Note that with the most recent updates, expired or invalid codes can no longer be used. If you are unsure of whether a code you are trying to use is valid, you may use http://icd9cm.chrisendres.com/ as an online resource.

    The CareConnections site will provide all available valid codes in a drop-down list. All you have to do is enter the first 3 digits of the code, and all available subclassifications of the specified code will appear in your drop-down list. If the code being entered is invalid, it will not appear in the list, and a valid code must be entered before the record will save.

  4. Anatomic Group and Problem Area Integration

    During data entry, Problem Area will now be linked to Anatomic Group. Since users are first required to select an Anatomic Group, Problem Area will only become available after Anatomic Group has been selected. As an example of the link between the two fields, when a Primary Anatomic Group of Foot/Ankle is selected, users will only have a choice of Lower Extremity for the Problem Area. If you indicate a Secondary Anatomic Group in this example, you will then have a choice of Lower Extremity or Multi-Site for the Problem Area.

  5. Subscriber Information

    Under the Clinic Information link, we have added additional address lines for you to indicate physical address, mailing address, and billing address. If you require invoices or mail to be sent to somewhere besides your physical address, this is the place to supply us with that information so that all correspondence from CareConnections goes to the appropriate person and address for your facility.

  6. Reports

    Some reports have been altered slightly in order to provide more beneficial information.

    • Facilities Comparative Outcomes - Report now shows “Not reported” category under acuity
    • Work Outcomes – Report now shows “Not reported” category where Work Status was not completed by patient. Report has also been improved upon in the work status percentages. Report now displays percent of work status reported for each insurance type. Since all work status categories display “Not reported,” percentages will now add up to 100% for each category (Health Plan, PIP/MVA/PNC, Work Comp, and Overall).
    • Clinic Outcomes – Report used to show only clinic overall outcomes. Update has added quarterly comparative information for Network and National. Format has been revised to separate out each anatomical group as well as the overall outcomes into their own sections.
    • Pelvic floor reports – For those participating in the Pelvic Floor Outcome Pilot, 3rd Quarter 2007 reports will be available for viewing.

In the coming weeks, these changes will also be applied to the CareConnections User Manual. Once the manual has been updated, we will email you to inform you in case you wish to download and print an updated copy. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email .

What is CareConnections?

CareConnections is a Web-based suite of rehabilitation medical Management services. CareConnections uses combinations of tools to assist providers and payers with the medical management of patients and clinical services. These tools are the CareConnections Outcomes System, CareConnections Treatment Guidelines, CareConnections Patient Satisfaction Monitoring, and CareConnections Prior Authorization/Advice System (PAS).

The entire suite of CareConnections management tools present powerful, yet cost effective systems for today’s healthcare world. Providers and payers alike can benefit from CareConnections’ component parts or their integrated ability to serve the needs of both value-based and outcome-oriented care to all rehabilitation patients.