Newly appointed MatrixCare CEO Jonathan Lujan is keenly aware that technology intended to ease the post-acute sector’s burdens from heavy regulation to unpredictable reimbursement can sometimes add to them. And so, his immediate goal is to help staff spend more time at the bedside and less time managing technology.
Under his watch, Lujan wants MatrixCare to become an organization known not simply for software solutions, but one that specifically removes certain frictions from care.
In skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), for example, that means helping a thinned-out workforce of clinicians and caregivers spend more time with residents and less time documenting, managing workflows or dealing with technology, he said in an interview with Skilled Nursing News.
Lujan brings experience leading healthcare services and technology businesses, most recently as CEO of Site Growth Partners and previously in leadership roles including DaVita. What Lujan sees as different about MatrixCare is the environment its customers operate in.
“Home health, hospice, skilled nursing facilities – these providers face enormous workforce pressure, reimbursement complexity, regulatory burden and fragmentation across the care continuum,” he said.
Given the thin margins facing post-acute care providers, staffing shortages mean that every administrative task has a meaningful financial and operational cost, he said.
“Every additional click, every aspect of workflow, every administrative task has a real cost, and I believe our job isn’t simply to deliver features on a technology platform,” Lujan said.
MatrixCare provides electronic health record and revenue cycle management software for long-term and post-acute care providers.
In listening mode
His current focus is listening to providers deeply and extensively across the post-acute care sector to identify the biggest pain points, then using MatrixCare’s solutions to move faster in solving them.
Only days into the job, Lujan is already meeting with major customers, smaller providers and frontline employees to learn directly from operators and clinicians about what makes their work unnecessarily difficult and what problems MatrixCare could solve within the next year. He is seeking feedback from MatrixCare advocates and frustrated customers alike.
Under Lujan, MatrixCare will prioritize practical AI and automation for clinical documentation, revenue cycle and workflows, he said.
In skilled nursing, this includes streamlining MDS documentation through voice-enabled tools and using AI to identify clinical trends, such as increased falls, for earlier intervention. Strengthening revenue-cycle tools will help providers improve documentation and collections. Lujan also sees interoperability as critical, with MatrixCare connecting hospitals, skilled nursing, home health, senior living, hospice and technology partners.
All said, Lujan’s definition of success over the next year is less about launching a particular product and more about changing how customers experience MatrixCare.
“When I think about what success looks like in 12 months from now, one of the most important aspects is that our customers say to us … ‘MatrixCare truly listens to us. MatrixCare is moving really fast and providing real solutions to us that solve our problems, and more specifically, MatrixCare is helping my staff spend more time caring for patients and less time managing technology,’” he said.
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