Continued Care: Transitioning Programs

Programs allow facilities to group patients and apply custom filters for managing patient census and configuring system requirements, like Chart✓. Once a patient is assigned to a program, the program details display on the Patient Landing Page, Occupancy View, and Bed Board.

Required Permissions: Admin, Therapist, Case Manager, Biller, Utilization Review Internal, Record Admin, and Super Admin.

How to Determine a Facility’s Programs

Designing a Patient Program requires collaborating with the facility to identify and implement best practices. Programs should include detailed service descriptions like Mental Health and Substance Abuse rather than broad categories like Detox or Outpatient.

When defining programs, the facility should consider the following:

• Does the facility assign patient programs based on their condition, independent of the Level of Care (LOC)?
  For example, patients with eating disorders (ED) receive specialized ED-based therapies in the same location as patients with substance use disorders (SUD), who undergo treatment and participate in groups tailored to SUD or a specific substance.
• Does the facility organize programs based on infrastructure or care management groupings?
  For instance, programs organized by floors (e.g., Floor 1, Floor 2) or by treatment tracks (e.g., Track 1, Track 2).

Best Practice Workflow Steps

Let's review Kipu EMR's best practice workflow when transitioning programs. By adhering to these guidelines, facilities can effectively manage programs while optimizing patient care workflows.

• Ensure the patient meets the criteria to enter or transition to a specific program.

• Update the Building and Bed Information fields on the facesheet. The system will automatically populate the start date for the building.
  

• Update the Patient Programs on the facesheet. The start date for the program will auto-populate. 
  

• Filter patients on the Dashboard using Programs as filtering tool.

  
• Visual Indicators: Patient program details appear in the Occupancy view and Bed Board Display for reference.
  
• Reporting: Filter by Program using Kipu Reports. 
• You can also filter by Program using Kipu Analytics metrics.
• If applicable, use the Kipu RCM Billing by Program feature.
  
• Build program-specific requirements for Chart✓.
• Super Admins should configure Patient Programs as Kipu recommends to optimize integrated billing, reporting, and visual organization while maintaining the benefits of LOC-based filtering.
• Decide how to filter the patient landing page. Some facilities configure their Kipu instance to filter by LOC. Instead they set up Programs to be LOCs.
  • Best Practice: In this scenario, configure Patient Tags & Filters to assign a Level of Care tag on the facesheet and use Custom Filters to sort by LOC, so you can still use Programs.