The Post-Acute Care Taboo?

I’m about to make one of the most taboo statements possible in healthcare today. So I apologize for the discomfort this is going to cause, but we can’t solve a problem without first building clarity around it. 

Are you ready? 

Humans make mistakes. There I said it. We do — we make mistakes, even in healthcare. And the worst part is, we always will. That’s why compliance initiatives, documentation, and a million other quality-control processes have been developed. Because in the healthcare business, it’s important to minimize the risk of error. After all, lives can depend on it. 

And so now, here comes technology, where (in a perfect world) all worries about errors, compliance, and proper documentation become a thing of the past. The trouble is, we don’t live in a perfect world. 

The softest software is humanware

In my last article I wrote about how PAC agency software has become a Frankenstein of mismatched “solutions” wreaking havoc on the agency they were built to help. What this technology monster has actually done is steal the highest and best use of a clinician’s time, which is attention, passion, and use of their special skills. 

A clinician’s soft skills drive positive outcomes just as much as the right processes. If the software is built proactively with insight into the complex environment in which it will be used, then alerts, dashboards, and reports become helpful instead of painful. 

Instead of robbing the clinician of valuable patient time, technology should free them up to do what they do best. In the healthcare environment, the bedside manner, the instincts that lead to the best questions and the right diagnosis, the compassion for the whole family — this is the heart of a great clinician. Technology should minimize distractions and anticipate compliance and documentation needs, so excellent care can be the absolute focus. 

Technology and humanity should work in harmony to elevate outcomes. I believe this is true even beyond healthcare. Even the technology-fixated CEO Elon Musk recently admitted that part of the reason for recent problems with the Tesla 3 production was caused by an over-reliance on robots, and an under-reliance on humans.

The software industry’s dirty little secret

Here’s another dangerous statement that software vendors are unwilling to admit: technology isn’t infallible, because it’s been created by humans, who are all likely to make a mistake or two from time to time. A developer might quite simply make a false assumption, as a result of not having a clear understanding of the whole care continuum, or by not anticipating the trends that will create change in the near future, or by lacking comprehensive knowledge of the environment where the technology is to be used. 

That may be a worst-case scenario. But even in the best case, technology will always be a work in progress. It’s never perfect, and there’s always going to be room for improvement. The best technology companies are the ones that can learn and improve, then learn and improve again. Where mistakes have been made, the learning organization is always geared up to correct the error and draw lessons from it that lead to growth. 

I like to think that this is one area where KanTime has really excelled. We’re not the biggest kid on the block, or even the strongest. We’re more like the wiry kid who learns fast and who takes a smarter, safer, and quicker route to school. The bullies may make more noise and even call the little kid names, but guess who gets to school on time and who pulls the best grades?

Of course, we’re not in school any more. The work we do is serious business, both for us as dedicated technology providers, and for you, post-acute agencies with a commitment to serve owners, employees and, of course, patients. The key question to ask is, what will your technology partner do about it when an inevitable error affects your operations? (Hint: hire a partner, not a vendor.)

“There are no traffic jams on the extra mile” — Zig Ziglar

We focus on delivering the right integration between human and technology. Our founder is a process engineer. From the beginning, the philosophy has been to study how agencies drive outcomes and to build technology that supports the entire continuum. Instead of building solutions piece by piece, KanTime has been constructing a system that actually scales across growth and change, and serves all agency types, because driving patient outcomes is always the goal. 

But, if I’m being honest, as amazing as our technology is (and I’ll boldly put our technology against ANY of the other platforms out there), it’s the human side of our business that wins the day. 

We have more in-house people developing software than any of the larger competitors, which is why we release updates and improvements at a rate that no one can else can touch. After all, if the industry changes constantly, shouldn’t your software keep the same pace?

We have ongoing, human support, not as an extra charge, but because it’s the right thing to do as a trusted partner. 

We also invest in our onboarding and customer support to help our partners speed up adoption, results, and efficiency. 

We’re constantly asking how we can improve. We ask our agency partners, and we ask ourselves. We never stop asking, and then taking the answers we receive to get better. We believe that integrity, commitment and a good old-fashioned human connection will drive both your success and ours. 

This is how we’ve carefully turned KanTime into a technology solution specifically developed for the post-acute reality. No more Frankenstein, no more one-size-fits-all. No more situations where quality of care is forced to take second place behind the tyranny of technology. We can show you a better way. 

We don’t just want to earn your business; we want to earn your trust. 

Kristen Duell is Vice President of Sales & Marketing with KanTime Healthcare Software. With a background in healthcare information technology, she has been highly successful as a business consulting professional focusing on the needs of post-acute healthcare agencies nationwide.