Your scheduling system should work for you, so make sure you’re maximizing your software.
Whether your agency is a new player in the home care space or you’ve been around for a while, you should be using caregiver management software to help you streamline your processes.
Maybe you have implemented software to get away from some of the manual practices that were eating away at your time and ability to provide exceptional care for your clients. You still need to make sure you’re taking full advantage of the software you’ve chosen.
Our team has put together a list of what we consider to be some of the most underutilized tools in your home care management software that could really make a positive difference for your agency if and when you begin to use them.
Actions
Actions are a specialized method of note-taking. Consider it documentation that’s going to save you a bunch of time in the long run.
How can your home care agency use the Actions feature? The Actions feature is ideal for tracking credentials and compliance items.
Some examples of caregiver credentials that might need renewal reminders include the following:
- CPR training
- CNA licensing
- Driver’s license
- Car insurance
With the Rosemark System, you can set future reminders for these and other important documentation you’re required to keep records of, so when something is about to expire, it will show up as a readily accessible Pending Action, a reminder to ask your caregiver for those updated materials.
We know there’s a huge amount of paperwork needed to manage your clients and caregiver assessments that need to be performed periodically, employee reviews, and updating documentation. Being able to set up regular reminders for your office staff for things that need your attention will save your agency a lot of time and give you peace of mind.
Setting these reminders in Rosemark streamlines your business, with no need to jump between different programs to get the information you need.
By default, you can see what’s immediately needed so you don’t miss anything. Pending Actions give you a concise overview of what needs immediate attention, in addition to what is on the horizon, making sure you’re always prepared
You can also filter the Actions to see things further in the future, helping you keep your clients and caregivers informed of what you’ll need and when.
Actions can also be utilized for communicating and sending out emails to specific people or groups of people within your agency. Not only can you send the email, but the Rosemark System keeps a record of it, giving you an easily accessible receipt of outbound communication.
Auditing
Another important reason for maximizing your software is to make sure you’re prepared if and when your home care agency is audited.
If your agency is using Actions to track incidents that come up with clients and caregivers, you have a record of those incidents and will have the information on hand when it’s needed most. When it comes to audits, record-keeping can save your agency so much time and stress if you have simply utilized the features in the software to their fullest potential as you’ve used it.
By utilizing custom categories of actions you can ensure that everything you need is at your fingertips. You can also access Actions for specific clients and caregivers, meaning you never have to dig through everything to find a single client’s paperwork.
Forms
Why are forms important and why should agencies be utilizing them if they are not already doing so?
Reason number one: paper is so easy to lose!
As much as we try to stay organized, keeping up with paper documents is a lot harder to do than keeping up with forms stored in your home care software.
The second reason is two-fold: ease of use and accuracy. Forms can allow caregivers to fill out the required information while they’re still with the client. Your caregiver won’t have to try to remember something at a later date, there is less miscommunication, and documentation is stored electronically rather than manually in a folder that can be misplaced. If a paper form gets lost or destroyed, that record is gone. Electronic storage is much more efficient and secure.
What types of forms can you generate and store to ensure you’re maximizing your software?
- Client Intake
- Client Assessment
- Electronic Forms
- Job Applications
Caregiver Mobile App
If your agency is still using the old-school telephony system, now is the time to update your processes and start using the caregiver mobile app provided by your software company.
At some point in the future, the option to use telephony will be phased out country-wide. Currently, there are several states that have already implemented a partial moratorium on telephony for Medicaid services. Make sure your agency is prepared for when your state says telephony is no longer an acceptable option to clock in/out and submit tasks.
Telephony doesn’t offer the same GPS location information for EVV, and can only confirm the caregiver’s location if they’re using the client’s landline. The mobile app provides consistent, precise data on EVV location to ensure that your clients receive the care they need and that your agency remains compliant
In addition, logging tasks in telephony is a long process, especially if the caregiver’s task list is pretty lengthy. The ability to mark tasks as completed on a caregiver mobile app is much more efficient for the caregiver and saves them a great deal of time that can then be given back to client care.
Telephony can also require caregivers to remember the different codes for each type of task. If they hit the wrong button or transpose the numbers, that can create real issues for record keeping.
Pay/Bill Rules
Implementing Pay/Bill Rules will drastically improve your operations.
By automating both pay and bill rate changes for holidays, you can tell your caregiver scheduling software to pay time and a half for specific holidays for the entire year. You can set rates for holidays, weekends, and set premium rates for short shifts to make them more appealing to caregivers.
If your agency is manually adjusting pay rates for every shift that has a different rate, you can start maximizing your software immediately by implementing pay/bill rules.
For details on how to improve your home care agency operations by implementing any of these features, reach out to one of our customer care team members.