Overview:
Private Duty Nursing Home Care is different from traditional home health as it provides skilled care for medically fragile adult and pediatric patients. The care is typically delivered in longer shifts from 8 to 12 hours over a long period. It is imperative that Private Duty Nurses systematically and accurately record the treatment and medications provided to the patient. The accurate and timely administration and recording of the treatment and medications is a critical requirement for patient safety.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend of providing skilled care at home. Patients prefer receiving professional care at home instead of a Skilled Nursing Facility or Hospital. Many families and elderly patients are now increasingly considering Hospital-at-home and SNF-at-home models. Private Duty Nursing Home Care agencies are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this trend and grow. Private Duty Nursing Agencies can partner with Hospital Systems or Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) to provide skilled care at home.
Leveraging technology and the right software platform will help Private Duty Nursing Home Care Agencies to implement strategies to effectively manage Electronic Medication and Treatment Administration and ensure patient safety.
What are eMAR and eTAR?
Medication Administration Record (MAR) is a document that tracks the time and type of medications administered for the patient. Treatment Administration Record does the same for patients. A nurse administering the medication or treatments must document the time of care delivery and sign off on the clinical record. MAR and TAR serve as the clinical and legal records for the medications and treatments administered to the patient.
eMAR and eTAR electronically track the administration of medications and treatments, replacing the paper MAR and TAR.
Why is eMAR/eTAR technology critical for Private Duty Nursing Agencies?
Private Duty Nursing agencies usually provide skilled care for medically fragile adult and pediatric patients with complex medical conditions. These patients typically have more than 15 medications and treatments. Managing and administering these medications and treatments on paper or on software that does not support dynamic eMAR/eTAR will require considerable manual effort leading to errors and missed medications or treatments.
Most health care professionals, especially nurses, know the “five rights” of medication use: the right patient, the right drug, the right time, the right dose, and the right route. The five rights serve as a standard for safe medication and treatment administration.
Private Duty Nursing Home Care Agencies will benefit from implementing a software platform that supports eMAR/eTAR to get the “five rights” correct each time, improve operational efficiency, and patient safety.
Challenges of paper-based or static form MAR and TAR:
Many Private Duty Nursing Agencies use paper-based MAR/TAR or static PDF form-based eMAR/eTAR. Software designed for visit-based agencies provides static PDF forms to document medication and treatment administration. These solutions are sub-optimal and pose significant challenges to properly manage and administer medications and treatments. The following are some of the challenges posed by static or paper-based MAR/TAR.
When using a static MAR/TAR, Nurses spend a significant time and effort making sure the medication list is current and administering and recording medications timely.
Changes to the medication or treatment require a manual and timely update of Medication and Treatment flow sheets. Delay in updating the flow sheets may lead to medication errors or missed medications.
Drug interactions and alerts are not available to the nurse at the point of care.
Nurses will have to manually scan the flowsheet by time to administer the drugs on time.
Access to past administration history is not readily available.
No prompt or alert for the nurse to check vitals or measurements before administering the medication or treatment
Not enough room to make notes during the administration
Preparing the Medication and Treatment Administration history for sharing with other providers, patients, and payers takes too much manual effort.
Static or paper-based MAR/TAR makes the nurses responsible for getting the ‘five rights’ correct while providing care for a medically fragile patient in long shifts.
Benefits of the right eMAR and eTAR software platform
The right eMAR/eTAR software platform will help Private Duty Nursing agencies to get the ‘five rights’ correct. It will also improve operational efficiency and patient safety. The following are some of the benefits of eMAR/eTAR.
Document medication and treatment administration easily and in real-time.
Changes to medication and treatments are reflected in real-time at the point of care, always making the medication list current.
Nurses can make medication and treatment changes (Discontinue, Change Dose, New, etc.) at the point of care.
Drug interactions and alerts are available in real-time at the point of care.
Medication due and missed medication alerts reduce medication errors.
Medications and treatments are listed by time due enabling nurses to administer them on time.
Access to past administration history and past clinical notes improves the quality of care, patient safety, and outcome.
Prompts or alerts the nurses to check vitals or measurements before administering the medication or treatment.
Add additional notes during administration, improving the quality of the documentation.
Medication and Treatment Administration history reports are readily available for other providers, patients, and payers.
The right eMAR/eTAR software will assist nurses in getting the ‘five rights’ correct while providing care for a medically fragile patient in long shifts.
Conclusion:
CareVoyant understands the demanding requirements of getting the ‘five rights’ of eMAR and eTAR correct for Private Duty Home Care Agencies providing skilled care for medically fragile patients. The software enables delivery of other services like Non-Medical Personal Care, HCBS, and Home Health. The CareVoyant software platform provides the right technology and tools to help a Private Duty Home Care Agency improve operational efficiency and patient safety.
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.
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