Private duty nursing is the care provided to clients at home by nurses, who may be licensed as RNs (Registered Nurses) or LPNs/LVNs (Licensed Practical Nurses). Working with Private Duty Nursing Home Care Agencies, these nurses provide one-on-one skilled care for medically fragile adult or pediatric patients. Most nurses who provide private duty care work one-on-one with individual patients in patient’s home.

Private Duty Nurses (PDNs) work in longer shifts providing long-term care for the same patient creating unique staffing and scheduling challenges. They need to collect and document Vitals and Measurements (Vent Settings, Seizure Logs, etc.), and administer medications and treatments multiple times during the shift. Additionally, meeting Medicaid or Managed Care billing requirements and communications with family members are critical.

These requirements create unique challenges for Private Duty Nursing Home Care Software. However, Most Private Duty Nursing Home Care Agencies are using a software platform designed for visit based Home Health Agencies leading to operational inefficiencies. A software platform specifically designed for Private Duty Nursing Home Care Agencies should be able to meet these unique challenges.

Selecting the Right Software for Private Duty Nursing

Challenges with Traditional Home Care Platforms

Private Duty Nursing agencies face the following challenges in typical software platforms.

Significant time and effort spent in medication entry, reviewing drug interactions, preparing flow sheets and medication administration history
Inefficient documentation process while trying to use visit based clinical software platform
Paper-based or static flow sheet documentation for Medication and/or Treatment Administration (eMAR, eTAR)
Time spent on communicating medication and treatment changes to nurses at the Point of Care
Paper-based or static care flow sheets for continuous care documentation
Communication of care flow documentation requirements and changes to point of care nurses
Independent authorization and scheduling functions leading to non-billable services outside authorization
Scheduling challenges leading to uncovered shifts and/or overtime
Significant manual efforts to meet unique billing requirements for Medicaid and Managed Care payers
Post-shift manual review process to ensure treatments and measurements were not missed

Advantages of Using a focused Private Duty Nursing Platform

As the requirements of Private Duty Nursing Agencies are unique, the software designed for them should be specific and include the following features:

Integrated order entry (Medications, Treatments) with real- time drug integration and alerts
Medication and treatment changes available in real-time for administration at point of care
Electronic Medication and Treatment Administration (eMAR, eTAR)
Print Medication or Treatment Administration History for physicians or payers
Personalized care plan and care flow sheets
Electronic Care Flow Sheet for continuous care documentation
Care Plan and Measurement changes reflected at point of care in real-time
Proactive alerts when medications, treatments, or measurements are missed
Access all the clinical and scheduling information at the point of care to get a complete picture of the patient
Produce consolidated clinical documents to meet billing requirements
Integrated authorization and scheduling functions to manage constant changes in scheduling requirements
Reduce overtime, uncovered shift and non-billable unauthorized services
Meet unique billing requirements for Medicaid and Managed Care Payers
Communicate with patient and family using Family Portal

Conclusion

Private Duty Nursing Agencies should choose a software that addresses their unique clinical documentation, scheduling, and billing requirements. The software should be easy-to-use and enable Nurses to keep up with continuous care documentation during the shift while providing efficiency in communicating changes in real-time to the nurse at the point-of-care.

Further, the requirements of home care services are many and the software should allow for rendering of other services without needing to switch between multiple software platforms.

Choosing a software platform specifically designed for Private Duty Nursing will improve the quality of care, reduce cost, optimize reimbursement and operational efficiency.

ABOUT CAREVOYANT

CareVoyant is a leading provider of cloud-based integrated enterprise-scale home health care software that can support all home-based services under ONE Software, ONE Patient, and ONE Employee, making it a Single System of Record. We support all home based services, including Home Care, Private Duty Nursing, Private Duty Non-Medical, Home and Community Based Services (HCBS), Home Health, Pediatric Home Care, and Outpatient Therapy at Home.

CareVoyant functions – Intake, Authorization Management, Scheduling, Clinical with Mobile options, eMAR/eTAR, Electronic Visit Verification (EVV), Billing/AR, Secure Messaging, Notification, Reporting, and Dashboards – streamline workflow, meet regulatory requirements, improve quality of care, optimize reimbursement, improve operational efficiency and agency bottom line.

For more information, please visit CareVoyant.com or call us at 1-888-463-6797.