CARE Computer Systems, Inc.

Established 1969

636 120th Ave., NE

Bellevue, WA 98005

Phone: [phone]

Web site: www.carecomputer.com

CARE Computer Systems was the first company to bring computer automation to long-term care. In 1969 James L. Ingalls established CARE in Seattle, Washington, and he built the company on the idea that continues to evolve today--computers offer long-term care providers a better way to do their bookkeeping, accounting and clinical paperwork.

The first CARE system was introduced in 1969. It was a mail-in batch system for the unique financial requirements of the industry, including Medicaid and Medicare reporting. The cost for this system was $100 per month plus $.75 per check for payroll, and $150 per month for general ledger.

The company grew by offering its customers what they asked for. CARE customers told the company what systems they needed, such as payroll, physician orders, diagnostic histories and care plans. By 1979, CARE released a new system that worked by facilities entering data at their location on a small computer and then transmitting the data to CARE's mainframe via telephone modem for processing. Then, in 1981, CARE released VistaCARE(R)--a complete clinical and financial system for personal computers. Since the MDS was introduced in 1990, CARE has met each deadline and continues to do so.

CARE contributes to improvement in long-term care by:

* Presenting information in clear and useful report formats so customers can improve outcomes, both clinical and financial. Examples of reports:

* financial statements shown with per-resident-day expense and revenue amounts

* day-to-day census changes

* Quality Indicators that show facility trends plus flags for surveyors.

* Integrating applications so facilities can increase efficiency. For example:

* maximum capacity to import and export MDS data

* seamless care planning process from MDS through to caregiver flow sheets

* data on changes in client location, level of care and payer type instantly available to nursing and billing staff.

For the future of long-term care, CARE sees continued redefinition of service delivery and the creation of more classifications. However, the elderly will continue to want to age in place. This will lead to diversity, with a huge growth in the assisted living market as well as short-term-care specialty units and outpatient service. Third-party service deliveries will occur at the in-house setting, much as hospice care is delivered in nursing homes today.

CARE also thinks that the industry will greatly expand its use of technology. It will be less data bound and more result oriented. Technology will deliver information on a "need to know" basis, and the industry will work smarter. The staff of the future will have grown up using computers and will take full advantage of the systems' capabilities and push developers for more.

The company would like future historians to describe CARE as the company to recognize the need for automation, even before the industry knew what automation was. Over the years, CARE educated and guided the industry to use tools for delivering quality care and managing their business. As the long-term care industry and the technology matured, CARE adapted new, better ways to use automation tools. The company claims that its decisions to stay independent and focus on its core business added to its stability. CARE avoided the development and support issues caused by other software vendors' mergers and purchases.

At its soul, CARE knew its first goal was to make the customer happy. In doing so, the company would also develop systems to solve the biggest problems and meet the ever-changing industry demand.