Brand new or seasoned, all home care agencies need to focus on the healthy habits of data management. Making sure the data in your system is clean and accurate will go a long way in helping your staff’s daily workflows run more smoothly.
Common Problems
The biggest challenge home care agencies face with data management is simply a lack of focus on keeping the data accurate and up to date. Caregivers roll on and off the roster frequently at many agencies. Clients may pass away or take a break from services because they have family in town, might be in the hospital, or because they no longer need additional support.
When caregivers are on vacation, they should be marked as “Temporarily Inactive” during that time frame so agency staff don’t accidentally schedule shifts for them that will not be filled. On the other hand, if a caregiver leaves permanently, they should be marked as Quit or Discharged, so they are no longer on the roster.
If a client is taking a break from services for any reason, they should also be marked as “Temporarily Inactive” to pause their service. Should they pass away, they should be marked as “Discontinued” so they are no longer on the list of clients who need service.
It’s important to put processes in place to make changes as they happen so you and your staff can trust your data.
The Importance of Clean Data
When agencies use good data management practices, they’ll find it’s easier to pull key performance indicators (KPIs) and other types of reports like active client counts.
The only way to know all shifts are covered is to reduce the number of open shifts to zero. That can only be achieved if agencies are putting in the work as they go to keep the data accurate.
Information is often siloed in specific departments. Proper data management is a tool that can break down those silos. For example, adding notes to a caregiver’s profile will make it easier for agency staff to see if they are marked temporarily inactive because they are on vacation, sick, or for other reasons.
Clean data also helps agencies run more efficiently. Rather than wade through old profiles or data that doesn’t need to be in the system, a clean database can help staff run through workflows at a normal pace.
Practicing healthy data habits can also positively impact morale. Once the comprehensive problem of inaccurate information goes away, staff members won’t be slowed down unnecessarily and they can be more productive.
Best Practices for Managing EVV Data
We highly recommend that agencies not currently using electronic visit verification (EVV) transition to it sooner rather than later. If your agency is already using EVV or if you’re considering transitioning to it, here are some best practices that can help ensure your agency is creating healthy habits of managing EVV:
- Link loose EVV events
- Make sure to mark incorrect EVV events as “Ignored” so you and your team know they have been reviewed
- Check EVV frequently (morning, afternoon, and evening)
Remember that any shift not verified after all EVV has been linked cannot be billed for. If the shift doesn’t have two EVV events (a clock in and a clock out), your agency cannot prove the caregiver was on location for their shift. Everything translates into billing and payroll, so making sure your data and EVV are accurate is the only way for agencies to stay in operation and ensure profit margins.
Data Management Best Practices
We know good data management sounds challenging, so we’ve put together a list of best practices that can help.
- Deputize specific staff members to “own” certain jobs. Whether they’re the ones holding the ball or the ones passing out the balls, their job is to make sure the balls don’t get dropped. They will need to check in with team members taking calls to make sure the data is being updated in the system routinely and accurately.
- The more your staff can check on EVV, the less work it’s going to be in the long run and the more quickly shifts will be verified or problems will be diagnosed.
- Have conversations for action with team members to make sure all loose EVV is taken care of or other data has been collected in a timely manner.
- Mark time on your calendar every week to do clean up (whatever that means as it pertains to your specific job).
- If you’re not sure if your team is doing a great job of managing data, sit down with your data partner and ask.
How Rosemark Can Help
Partners like Rosemark will happily speak with our customers to determine if their data practices are outdated or in sync with their needs. Rosemark staff won’t know your data practices need help unless we speak with you about how you’re managing your data.
Sometimes, solving an issue is as easy as training someone who didn’t know how to do it in the first place. Other times, things pop up frequently, like caregiver no-shows.
Your software should be able to point you in the right direction and show you where you’re missing things. For example, the Unverified Shift Report in Rosemark is a great tool for billing and payroll.
The Actions feature in Rosemark is another helpful tool. Think of it as a digital sticky note.
It’s hard to remember everything, so we’ve created a way to give your brain a break and store notes in your computer where they belong. If you have an Action type called “Time Off,” you can put it as “Pending” and then just go back to your job since you’ve set a reminder for yourself.
Using Actions is also a great way to help agencies remember:
- When caregivers need to renew their licenses or medical tests
- When to send out greeting cards to doctors, customers, and referral partners
- Any other task you don’t want to fall off your radar
During your designated clean-up time, check Actions. Look at all your time off requests, service stoppage requests, etc. Once you’ve leveraged the tools like Actions, you can take those things off your mind and it can help lessen physical and mental exhaustion.
Contact a member of our Customer Success team to schedule a chat to discuss your data management or learn more about setting up Actions on your Rosemark dashboard.