Maplewood House & MSA Manor
This article appeared in the Summer 2001 Nugget.
Maplewood House and MSA Manor, located in Abbotsford, British Columbia, are non-profit nursing home facilities in the Fraser Valley Health Region. The two homes share a common Board of Directors, administration staff and more. Together, they accommodate over one hundred residents.
When Dennis Magnusson was appointed Executive Director of the homes, he recognized a need to redesign many of the current business practices and found the current computer system inadequate. To increase efficiencies and streamline practices, Dennis began the process of consolidating the services of the two homes. They built new offices, hired new staff and began redeveloping the finance department.
Upon reviewing software solutions, Dennis said he was impressed with GoldCare because not only was it cost effective, but it offered a comprehensive suite of applications and was designed specifically for the Long Term Care industry. When Dennis was doing his homework, he found GoldCare’s reputation to be solid.
In fall 1999, Maplewood decided to install GoldCare Financial Administrator, including Payroll, Billings & Receivables, Accounts Payable, MYOR, Trust Accounting and ADT. After months of training and careful planning, the project went live in January 2000. By the Fiscal Year End in April, everything was completely switched over.
Dennis comments on the successful implementation: "It was a combination of the ongoing service, training and support we received from GoldCare staff, but ultimately the staff at Maplewood really made it happen." Staff, who were going through many changes as it was, willingly and enthusiastically made an effort to learn GoldCare while continuing to maintain their day to day workloads. Dennis acknowledges the skills and dedication of Lenore Clark and Charlene Eyres of the Finance Department in being able to effectively implement this program.
Since going live with GoldCare, staff can now access accurate, up-to-date Maplewood House & MSA Manor information quickly and easily. With GoldCare, they can prepare financial statements, including monthly balance sheets, enabling them to be more accountable to the Board of Directors. Since using GoldCare, Dennis reports that they have also been able to maintain better internal control with regards to accounting and more accurate inventory. Dennis is excited by the ability to extract data from GoldCare that can be used to produce financial and statistical indicators. He has begun sharing this process with other facilities in the area.
What's next? Dennis is working on a way for department admin staff to access budget information, enabling them to make better, more informed decisions on a day-to-day basis.