Many facilities run reports only when someone asks a question: a surveyor, a corporate office, a family member, a board member. The result is a scramble every time, and numbers that cannot be compared month to month because the report was built a little differently each time.
A standard monthly report set solves that. It is a short, agreed list of reports that are pulled the same way, on the same schedule, and reviewed by the same people. Here is how to build one in your PointClickCare environment, described in general terms since report names and options vary by configuration.
Before opening the reporting area, ask leadership what they need to know every month. For a skilled nursing facility the list often includes:
Census and occupancy by unit and payer
Clinical quality indicators, such as falls, pressure injuries, infections and weight loss
Medication and treatment documentation completion
Staffing-related measures where the data is available
Choose the questions first. Then find the reports that answer them. Resist the urge to include everything; a set of eight to twelve reports that people actually read beats forty that nobody opens.
For every report in the set, write down:
Purpose. What question does it answer?
Owner. Who is responsible for running and checking it?
Filters. Date range, units, status and any other selections, saved exactly the same each month.
Audience. Who receives it, and what do they do with it?
Due date. For example, the third business day of the month.
Saved filters and consistent date ranges matter most. A report that covers "last month" one time and "the last 30 days" the next is not comparable.
Where your system supports scheduled or saved reports, use that instead of relying on memory. Where it does not, put a recurring task on the owner's calendar with a checklist. Deliver reports to a secure, access-controlled location. Reports with resident names are protected health information and should not be sent through personal email or saved to shared desktops.
Limit the details to what the audience needs. Leadership summaries rarely need resident names at all; the clinical team reviewing a falls list does.
A report that is produced but not discussed has no value. Set a monthly meeting, 30 to 45 minutes, with the administrator, director of nursing, MDS coordinator, business office and others who own the numbers. Walk through the same reports in the same order each time and ask three questions:
What changed since last month?
Why did it change?
What are we going to do about it?
Record the decisions and check them at the next meeting.
A report is only as accurate as the entries behind it. Before the meeting, owners should spot-check totals against something they know, such as the current census on the unit or a count from the incident log. If a number looks wrong, find out whether the problem is in the data or in the report definition. Keep a short log of any known limitations so that the same issue does not surprise people twice.
Review the list once or twice a year. Drop reports no one uses, add ones that answer new questions, and confirm the owners are still the right people. When staff change, hand over the checklist and saved settings so the routine survives the transition.
A one-page guide that lists each report, owner, filter settings and delivery location protects you from losing the process when a key person leaves. Store it somewhere the team can find it.
UnityCare IT works alongside long-term care teams that use PointClickCare. If you want help planning your report set, organizing secure delivery or training backups on the routine, we can help you set up something practical.
Keeping PointClickCare and other EHR systems fast, connected and available.
Call or text: 405-285-3845
New customers: start@unitycareit.com
Existing customers: support@unitycareit.com
Address: UnityCare Technologies, 2524 N Broadway Ste 554, PMB 947974, Edmond, Oklahoma 73034-4172