The Let's Get Comfy Podcast
Hosted by Founder and CEO of Comfort Measures Consulting LLC, Norman Harris. The Official Healthcare Edutainment station. Empowering listeners with the knowledge and resources to age comfortably. The podcast platform will uniquely provide laughter, peace, joy, resources and most of all COMFORT. Fostering professional partnerships and engaging the audience by providing them access to a REAL family-like conversation. That gives them the REAL reasons. Connects them to REAL reliable resources. To get REAL results. For REAL Comfort! Through interviews with C-suite healthcare leaders, experts, caregivers, founders, authors, educators, and thought leaders who are doing incredible work for older adults, family caregivers, and the healthcare community.
The Let's Get Comfy Podcast
The PBJ Whisperer: Making Sense of Healthcare's Most Tedious Data
Analytics expert Dov Greenberg, founder of Boosted Analytical, reveals how data management transforms skilled nursing facility operations and improves patient care. Specializing in Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) compliance, Greenberg demonstrates how proper data handling directly impacts star ratings, reimbursement, and ultimately the quality of care provided to residents.
• Processing millions of rows of data to track staffing compliance in nursing homes
• Converting complex analytics into actionable steps for healthcare administrators
• Helping facilities improve star ratings through better data management and reporting
• Reducing reliance on agency staff through strategic data analysis
• Creating customized reports that solve real staffing challenges
• Bringing an Orthodox Jewish background and rabbinic training to business leadership
• Emphasizing productivity as both a personal value and business principle
• Encouraging entrepreneurship and small business development
Find Tove Greenberg at boostedanalytical.com or on LinkedIn where he regularly shares PBJ tips and tricks.
This episode of let's Get Comfy was brought to you by Evolutionary Healthcare. Caring is what we do. Welcome to the let's Get Comfy podcast. Thank you for joining us here. I'm your host, norman Harris, ceo of Comfort Measures Consulting, and I have a wonderful gentleman with me today. He came all the way down from up north. I'm going to let him tell you where he's from His own introduction, like I always do, to my right, I have Tove Greenberg.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I made it all the way down. Actually it was a pretty difficult trip. They actually took us off the plane and back on the plane and a different plane and canceled someone else's flight. But thank God we made it down here and that's what's great, because the Florida Healthcare Association Conference is fantastic.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:There's so many wonderful people to meet, like you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, man. Thank you Well, mr Greenberg. First off, when I saw your business, your organization Boosted Analytical, I definitely was intrigued because I've never seen an analytic company. But then, when I spoke with you and you told me how many facilities you provide oversight of, that was very inspiring and intriguing to me.
Speaker 1:And then you are also an entrepreneur yourself, so I know the difficulties and the persistence and consistency you have to display to build an organization. But if you could tell me how did you build your company from the ground up and what inspired you?
Speaker 2:did you build your company from the ground up and what inspired you? So I had a little bit of a background maybe a little bit more than a little bit of a background in the space that I'm in now, providing analytic, analytical support. That's the way I would say it. So there's a lot of analytics out there in the market today, but most of it it comes in the comes to the end user as a software, and the problem is that the end user doesn't know necessarily what to do with all those numbers. So if you can have someone who understands the numbers and how the data plays out and then talk to the people in the business, decision makers, speak their language and say, hey, based on the data, this is what you need to do. You can really really help drive outcomes and that's our overall approach. But I've had a background right here in this and what we focus on now, which is PBJ.
Speaker 2:Pbj is payroll-based journal, so that's labor compliance in nursing homes Pretty heavy data. Average nursing home is submitting 6,000 to 10,000 rows of data to the federal government every single quarter and if you figure that the federal government takes some of that data and they track six quarters worth for a single nursing home. So you're talking about a single nursing home is running between 40 and 60,000 rows of data Federal government is tracking at any given point in time. Now we start doing that for dozens and hundreds of buildings that we're supporting right now. Yes, sir, so that's many millions of rows of data and you really want to be able to be on top of that and, like I said, make it actionable, because that's the most important.
Speaker 1:I know, but my thing is what I guess drew you to the analytic. I guess industry and sector of things, because the first thing is people will always, I guess, consider or think about care right, Direct care and how you're taking care of the patient, quality of care but no one ever could probably consider statistical data and how it supports. So if you can explain to our audience today how your analytics and your data actually help improve skilled nursing facilities, Okay.
Speaker 2:So the truth, honest truth, is that when I started in this industry, I wasn't looking to get into the skilled nursing industry. I was starting in analytics. I was in Georgia Tech. I was in the middle of getting my master's in analytics. I dropped out subsequently when I got into this industry, but really I was just. You know, my background is in analytics but, like I said, main focus is always trying to use it to help the end user.
Speaker 2:Now, ultimately, in a skilled nursing facility, if you could have someone help you. So I mean, I'll give you a pretty basic example. Okay, if you have some data, good data, and your good data helps you. Let's say, get agencies out of your building. Well, if your agencies are reduced, that means that your labor cost comes down and you might have extra money to spend on staff. So if now you have, let's say, 10 CNAs in the building and three of them are agency, if you knock out agency, you can probably get 11 CNAs in the building. At the same time, it'll be cheaper than your 10 with the three agency. So you're giving better care because you've got a better ratio of staff to residents. That's true, and it's all because you had some good data that maybe helped you make those decisions.
Speaker 1:Right? Well, that is really true. Yes, to utilize that. So are you able to share our results from a client you know, a success story you can share?
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course.
Speaker 2:So again, our main focus right now is payroll-based journal, which is this government reporting.
Speaker 2:So what we do is we're able to provide fantastic reports and, of course, support, because that support is critical where our team reaches out to buildings and helps them identify areas where they're missing hours. So payroll-based journal is just, you know, for those who are not familiar with it basically means that the federal government wants to make sure that there's enough staff in the nursing home and then they get rated based on the ratio of staff to residents and also based on the turnover, which is a complex ratio calculation, actually the way they calculate it. Now, because we help them track it, we've seen some of our, some of our clients go from one star rating on staffing to two star, or two stars to four stars, and that can really impact them. It impacts the reimbursement, of course. If they have higher reimbursement, there's more money to go around, and more money to go around means, eventually, better care. So that's that's what that's what that's, you know obviously there's probably someone who's running a business probably wants to get paid too and wants to keep it a profitable business.
Speaker 2:But I would say on both ends that we've seen those successes. So, but more, but really specifically on the star ratings, we've seen many, many buildings. We have a client with 14 homes. When they came to us, two of them were a two-star and the rest were one-star. Now I think seven of them are already up to a two-star and that's through our reporting, being proactive, figuring out how to really navigate the complexities of how CMS looks at that data.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, and that's going to lead to my next question how do you take complex data and assist the facility to put it into actionable steps?
Speaker 2:So the answer is really again same point, which is there's the complex data. You need to have good reporting, so whoever is working through those numbers has to understand what the end result reporting should look like. So we do our own reporting in-house. All of our reporting is built by our developers and pretty much everyone on my team codes.
Speaker 1:Got it.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, we all code, so we build all our reports in house, but ultimately the next step is having one of those people who understands those reports get on the phone with an administrator and say, hey, you had six, you had six nurses that haven't worked in 30 days. Cms is going to look at them as turned over If they don't come back in. Why don't you get them to come back in and you'll have better scores? It looks to us like you have a hole on the weekends. It looks like you didn't staff and you're going to get dinged for that, for not staffing. No, of course we staffed. It was the regional who was covering. Wait a second, did you take credit for your regional hours? Oh, you're right, we didn't take credit. And it's again a combination of good reporting but also people that understand the reports, going and taking that reporting and talking to the end user, because ultimately, if the end user cannot use the data, the data is worthless, worthless now on your jacket.
Speaker 1:There you have a pin that says pbj master right. So yes, if you have a client out there right now, today, als, you work with those.
Speaker 2:No, only skilled, nursing facilities. Yes, correct.
Speaker 1:So skilled nursing facilities that are needing someone to help them with improvement in their reporting, their data, labor management as well. Why should they come to the PBJ Master at Boosted Analytica?
Speaker 2:Okay. So that's a great question and the real answer is that it depends on their needs. So what we find with a lot of people is that PPJ just becomes tedious. I was at the Iowa Healthcare Association Conference and I was sitting in the hotel lobby and I met one of the administrators there. She says so what do you specialize in? I said PPJ. She says why, why do you do that to yourself? It's such a pain. Pbj is such a pain, why would you want to deal with that? And I said well, we specialize in it and for us it's not as much of a pain. It's still tedious, it's still complex, but because we have good reporting and because we have a good system and process, because process process is crucial when you're dealing with many tedious, you know missing pieces and parts all over the place. You have a good process, you have good reporting, so we're able to work with it, and so for a lot of clients it's really just about taking that pain away from them, because you have another show.
Speaker 2:We had a corporate HR director who was doing PBJ herself. I sit there. I said hey, when you focus on PBJ for two weeks out of the quarter, who's double checking your facility payroll. She said well, honestly, nobody double checks the facility payroll. I said well, that's pretty bad, because that's your job, to double check facility payroll and you may be paying people money that they're not supposed to get paid. And she said I agree with you. So sometimes it's a question of just focusing resources where it's best and then other times it's just expertise, because there are all those nitty gritty nuances. Cms changes the rules all the time. They just released some new specifications a couple of weeks ago. I get written up in McKnight's every so often, so McKnight's reaches out to me.
Speaker 2:McKnight's long-term care news. So I became friends with some of the people there, and sometimes we discuss some of the changes. I want to be friends with some of the people there and sometimes we discuss some of the changes. I want to be friends with them. Introduce me, though. Maybe, maybe, okay, yeah, reach out.
Speaker 1:Maybe we'll send an email. One thing I can just feel right now You're really passionate about what you do in your organization. That's a lot of times the spirit that people need to. If you want to partner with somebody, you want someone to take pride in their work.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent.
Speaker 1:They got to bring that passion A hundred percent when they're partnering right A hundred percent. I want a partner that is passionate about what they bring to the table and their reputation matters to them my reputation, is everything.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, my reputation is really everything, and that's so, so important. And what I say is sometimes you want to deal with a small business. We're a small business even though we work with hundreds of facilities. It's not you know, I'm not this big corporation of hundreds of employees. We're still, at the moment, we're still under 10 employees, even once we grow, god willing, and we'll be 20, 30, 40 employees. That's not all that large, something that we can really and we really do take that pride in our work. Everyone on our team takes pride in their work by us. There's no one who's just coming in and shuffling papers. You either take pride in your work or go find a job somewhere else. You won't be able to boost the analytics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're not going to boost the analytics. We actually have a lot of part-timers who we actually have some teachers who work for us, so their teaching salary doesn't really cover the bills, but so their teaching salary doesn't really cover the bills, but they have a passion for teaching, so they teach part-time and then they work for us part-time. They're really smart, so this way they're able to use their talents somewhat to educate the young, but also somewhat to make money and bring some money home for their families. Very true man, that's good.
Speaker 1:So just from a standpoint and I'm going more about you as a person- yes. If you could share with us where you're from and what value you would say from your childhood that you still carry today.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I grew up in Rockland County it's about an hour north of New York City and you know, I mean I had a pretty typical Orthodox Jewish upbringing, which means that I, you know, I was in school, I, I was in school, um, until I was 30, actually. So I, I didn't get my first job until I was 30 years old. I was I'm actually an ordained rabbi. So I was, I was, I. I I studied higher education for many, many, many years until until I was about 30 years old. Um, I think a lot of those values do stick with me, because really making focus being a product, what I would say is being productive.
Speaker 2:One thing my dad always used to say is that the most precious commodity is time, because time doesn't come back. We see so many people today in the world and they're walking around and they're killing time. You only get one chance at life. You're killing time. You know what you're doing. You're killing yourself because that's all you got. All you got is the time that you have on this world. Okay, you want to spend a few minutes to relax, to recharge? Of course you should do that, but be productive. Be there. Be there for your family, be there for your neighborhood. Be there for others, be there for yourself, but be productive, and that's so important.
Speaker 2:That's something that my dad was such a productive man. He died. He was, you know, he died. He was one of the. It was a COVID cat. He was a COVID casualty right in the first wave of COVID uh, april of 2020, but he was such a productive person and I always said I can't imagine what he would look like when he would retire, cause I couldn't imagine him ever retiring because he was so productive. He just he was always doing things, he was always busy, and that's something that I really try to take with me, that, wherever I am, if it's at home, my wives and kids, if it's in my neighborhood local charities and various organizations I try to help out with or it's in my business we just try to be productive and that's so important to me. Yes sir, yes sir.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, and as we wrap up here, mr Buehberg, I want to say to you a question I want to ask is what's your definition of successful? In short, short, brief, what's your?
Speaker 2:definition Successful? It really goes back to the last question. Successful is productive.
Speaker 1:Exactly Productive. I didn't mean to say that that's successful.
Speaker 2:Well, most people you will see that are successful. They're productive. They feel like they're utilizing their time in this world wisely. It can be a thousand million or there's a million different ways you can do it, but the point is they're being productive, they're using their talents. I think it's really, really important. I'm a big fan of there's something called Clifton Strengths. It's from Gallup. I don't know if you're familiar with that, so that's a big. They make a big push that in your career, you should focus on your strengths. Play to your strengths. That's a Harry Potter reference right.
Speaker 2:Play to your strengths. Always play to your strengths, don't play to your weaknesses. Recognize your weaknesses, don't let them destroy you, but play to your strengths. And if you can play to your strengths and be productive, you're going to make an impact in the world. True, and that's you know, and that's that's the way I see it. And I see tons of people, tons of people here. Hey, look at you. We see so many people who are they're just doing good things, they're pushing forward, not just, you know, sitting around sitting around sitting on the curb watching Netflix the whole day.
Speaker 2:You know again, like I said, you got to recharge, you got to rejuvenate, but remember you're not. You know your hands are worth to be a productive human being. You've got so much innate talent within you. Unleash it.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir. So final message to the audience. What do you say to the audience?
Speaker 2:Final message to the audience is really thank you. Thank you for watching. I hope this was interesting to you. What I would say is that we didn't get to speak so much about business. One thing that I am also passionate about is small business and entrepreneurship. I think there's so many. There's's really really tons of opportunity for people. Again, many people like working in bigger corporations and that's better for them, but if you are an entrepreneur, it's really really not that hard if you're willing to go wear a few hats, because that's what you have to do as an entrepreneur. Sometimes you got to build a chair and sometimes you got to connect the light. Sometimes you got to do some marketing, some finance, finance some operations, some efficiencies. But if you're willing to do those many things, small business is really really powerful and especially in the United States of America the SBA and all the resources I think it's a fantastic opportunity for so many.
Speaker 1:Yes sir, yes sir. Well, thank you for doing this platform If you'll let the audience know as well where they can find you, your website. Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we can be found. We have a website. It's called boostedanalyticalcom. I'm also pretty active on LinkedIn. I try to post a video or some PBJ tips or tricks about once a week, so that's really the best place to find us either LinkedIn or boostedanalyticalcom.
Speaker 1:Thank you, sir. Well, thank you for joining the platform. Once again, thank you for tuning in for the let's Get Comfy podcast and CMC Media. Please subscribe on YouTube Also. You can find us on all your favorite podcast platforms. Check us out on comfortmeasuresconsultantcom. Until next time, thank you. Thank you, man. Thank you, man. This episode of let's Get Comfy was brought to you by Evolutionary Healthcare. Caring is what we do.
