Founded in 1893, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY) is the largest not-for-profit home- and community-based health care organization in the United States, serving the five boroughs of New York City as well as Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties. On any given day, they have more than 44,000 patients and plan members in their care, from newborn infants to our oldest seniors. VNSNY’s programs include everything from short-term nursing and rehabilitation services to managed-long term care plans and population health care, all of which are designed to meet each person’s unique clinical, behavioral, and social needs, allowing them to live safely in their homes and communities. 

VNSNY’s Data Science Team has developed risk models to drive better care for VNSNY members and patients by identifying those at risk for certain outcomes. For those identified as nearing the end of life, Nurse and Social Work Liaisons in VNSNY’s Advanced Illness Management team conduct a Review to evaluate whether these health plan members need additional services and then assist them in receiving appropriate interventions. They worked with HCL-PowerObjects to implement Dynamics 365 and the Microsoft Healthcare Accelerator in an effort to streamline and automate the entire Advanced Illness Management review and evaluation process, including data management. HCL-PowerObjects also helped VNSNY streamline and improve their process workflows. Benefits of the implementation project include:

• Significant improvement in efficiency, output, quality, and conversion rate
• The Healthcare Accelerator cut implementation time and cost by a full 50%
• Real-time insight into data points allows for earlier detection of hospice-qualified patients

Probably the most important “tip” the VNSNY team learned during implementation was to take the time to learn how to use Dynamics 365 properly, not just in the generic sense, but specifically for their unique process. This required a shift of perspective from “how to use the product” to “how to do our work using this product.” A number of “issues” that initially looked like system bugs turned out to non-issues after all. Ultimately, the success of this implementation reflects a truism worth repeating: Innovative partnerships — like the one between VNSNY and HCL-PowerObjects — that focus on results-oriented problem-solving can bring even the most cutting-edge technologies like Dynamics 365 to a new level of effectiveness.

To read the full story on this Microsoft Healthcare Accelerator implementation, please visit our Case Studies page. In addition to the VNSNY story, you’ll find nearly 100 more HCL-PowerObjects case studies. Enjoy!

Happy D365’ing!