Third Article in the Series: Address Staffing Challenges. To read the second article on Scheduling and Authorization Management, please click here.

In the third article in the series on how home care agencies can navigate staffing challenges, we look at how scheduling, communications, clinical documentation, alerts and validations at the point of care must integrate on one platform to help you utilize resources optimally.

Scheduling

Scheduling plays a critical role in efficiently managing schedules and optimizing the use of available employees to meet the scheduling requirements of patients. The Home Care Software platform should allow you to collect all the necessary information, such as patient preferences, employee skills, availability, etc., for efficient scheduling. Some of the essential features in your Home Care Software platform are:

Multiple scheduling views (Patient, Employee, Scheduler views) for ease of use
Intelligent matching of employees and patients based on patient preferences, employee skills, availability, licenses, etc.
Match employees to optimize employee travel time and cost
Publish or offer shifts to employees
Proactive alerts to reduce scheduling conflicts, overtime, and schedules outside authorization
Proactive notification of changes to schedules
Access to patient and employee information from scheduling screens
Limit schedules within the authorization

Communications

Proactive and effective communication among the home health care agencies, field employees, and other care providers will help clinicians have all the information needed to provide quality care to the patient. With information available at their fingertips, clinicians can reduce the spent looking or calling for the patient's care information and spend more time providing care to the patient.

The following are some communication functions home care software should have to help clinicians provide quality care.

Communicate schedule changes in real-time to field employees
HIPAA Compliant messages for the home care agency to communicate with employees
Communication logs with patients, employees, and other care professionals are available to clinicians at the point of care
Easily share key treatment notes and plans from the current visit to the next visit
Medication and Treatment changes reflected at the point of care in real time
Any Care Plan changes should be reflected at the point of care
Effective care coordination to send Plan of Care and change orders to attending physicians
Communicate the plan for the next visit easily to the next employee
Workflow tasks to follow up on tasks to be completed

Access to Clinical Information in Healthcare

Easy Access to Clinical Information

Access to all patient information – clinical, schedules, communication logs, etc. – will greatly assist clinicians in providing quality care and reduce the stress level of employees. We highlight some of the vital information that should be available to clinicians.

Access to clinical summary and past clinical notes before and during the shift/visit
View Medications, Treatments, and Care plans before starting the visit
Easy access to communication logs and visit-to-visit plans
View complete patient schedules to get an understanding of other disciplines involved in patient care
Access to complete patient demographic information when necessary
Access to authorization and remaining visits
Changes made at the Point of Care reflected in real time

Alerts and Validations at Point of Care

Most accurate, complete, and compliant documentation happens at the point of care. Documenting after the fact may not accurately reflect the care provided. Clinicians can use all the alerts and validations they can get at the Point of Care for providing and documenting care. The following are some alerts and validations Home Care Software should have:

Proactive alerts for missed medications, treatments, or interventions
Configurable consistency checks for assessments and other documentation areas
Configurable triggers to detect problem areas to address and modify the care plan
Alerts for clinical tasks for the patient
Advanced clinical analysis using SHP Interface
Access to medications, care plan, and past clinical notes
Create a Plan of Care and OASIS from the clinical note
Alerts for recertifications or reassessments

Conclusion

CareVoyant understands that leveraging technology and automation will help home healthcare agencies get the most out of the clinicians and meet the staffing challenges. CareVoyant Home Care Software, with its integrated functions and configurable alerts, will improve the quality of care, documentation, and operational efficiency of the clinicians and the bottom line of home care agencies. The software supports agencies providing one or more home-based services - Private Duty Nursing, Non-Medical Personal Care, HCBS, Home Health, Pediatric Home Care, and Outpatient Therapy at Home.

Read other articles in the series:

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.