Home care agencies that have not yet shifted from Telephony to using a caregiver app are missing a prime opportunity to move from legacy to more modern technology. While many people find change to be difficult, there are situations where change can be incredibly beneficial and time-saving. 
One problem agencies run into is that they often don’t know their processes are outdated. Having used the same methods for so long, care staff tend to get set in their ways while assuming their current workflows are their only options.
While transitioning from one process to another might sound hard, using a caregiver app to transmit electronic visit verification (EVV), take down care notes, and get a client’s signature is much easier than using an old-school system like Telephony.
Let’s review why home care agencies should consider shifting from Telephony to a caregiver app.
Electronic Visit Verification versus Telephony
The first thing to remember about Telephony is that it relies on landlines, which are rapidly disappearing due to increased cell phone usage. That means Telephony is becoming less and less reliable for EVV.
According to a study performed by the Pew Research Center, 98% of Americans now own a cell phone of some kind. Of those cell phones, nine out of 10 are smartphones.
In its heyday, agencies could verify EVV through Telephony via caller ID, allowing them to prove the caregiver was on-site at the client’s home. For decades, Telephony was an effective tool for making sure a caregiver was in the right place at the right time. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.
The ability to carry around GPS-enabled computers in our pockets, aka smartphones, has revolutionized the ability for the home care industry to verify caregiver locations. By using smartphones, agencies can verify clock ins and outs more accurately through location-enabled caregiver apps.
By pinging the caregiver’s location at the time of clocking in and clocking out, agencies have better accountability and understanding of where their care staff are.
One thing to note is that, while caregiver apps are the best option, having Telephony as a backup is not a bad idea. If the caregiver on shift drops and breaks their phone or the battery on their phone dies and they cannot use the caregiver app, they can request to use the client’s landline to call the Telephony number. While not the optimal procedure, it is an option that can be used as a last resort.
Why Using a Caregiver App is the Better Option
Telephony requires a caregiver to dial into a phone, listen through voice-recorded steps, and respond using a keypad. While it does allow for very basic task logging, it can be extremely time-consuming. This could unintentionally lead to a decreased amount of time that could be devoted to client care.
If the caregiver accidentally hits the wrong button, the data entered into Telephony will not be accurate and will have to be changed by the administrative staff. The caregiver will have to alert the office of the error as well. This creates extra time delays in the process for both the caregiver and the office staff.
There are many benefits to using a caregiver app. Let’s look at a few:
- Agencies can:
- Send shift offers to caregivers, which they can see, accept, or decline on their cell phones
- Send shift reminders to caregivers
- Caregivers can:
- Review their schedules easily and quickly
- Review client information efficiently
- Clock in and out at a doctor’s office, dialysis clinic, treatment facility, the home of the client’s child, etc., if that is where the client is on a particular day
- Caregiver apps should have an integration of client addresses and directions so they can use the mapping app of their choice to get to and from a client’s home (i.e. Waze, Google Maps, Apple Maps, etc).
- In addition, additional navigational instructions can be left on the client’s directional information, such as “second house on the left” or “Door code is 0753.”
- Task logging with signatures should be available in most caregiver apps
- Caregiver apps allow for improved communication between the agency and care staff.
If you are currently using a caregiver app that does not allow you to use any or all of these features, give Rosmark a call.
Benefits of Switching to a Caregiver App
Trying to decide if switching from Telephony to a caregiver app is the best choice for your home care agency? Here are some benefits that might help you make a more mindful decision:
1. Using caregiver apps helps reduce errors and saves time.
- Telephony is prone to errors. In addition, Telephony does a poor job of collecting information compared to a caregiver app. Because of these combined issues, agencies are generally forced to use things like paper timesheets to accurately record what’s going on in the field.
- These issues then required a follow-up with the client (or responsible party) and the caregiver for clarification on exactly what took place during a shift. This additional “back and forth” can take time, and the longer the agency has to work on something, the more likely it is that unintended mistakes could occur. Caregiver apps reduce the chance of mistakes like these to near zero, improving accuracy, saving time, and reducing the need for paper.
2. Agencies can expect fewer calls from care staff who are using caregiver apps, as they now have access to their schedules, shift offers, and client information at the click of a button.
3. Agencies have more detailed, actionable EVV information than Telephony provides.
4. Office staff can review caregiver notes provided in the app rather than wait for a text or phone call after a shift. Telephony cannot record additional comments from caregivers.
- Allowing care staff to leave additional notes for agencies improves client care and ensures agencies have a clear understanding of how the client is progressing.
- Telephony is a binary tool. You can say you did or did not do something. It lacks the opportunity for additional input from the caregiver. Those extra pieces of information, some could say the “color” of the tasks, would need to be transmitted by the care staff to the agency. This adds additional steps, and the more steps you add, the more likely they are to be missed.
By using a caregiver app rather than Telephony, agency staff, schedulers, and care coordinators have much more control and a broader understanding of what’s happening in the field.
Using a Caregiver App Is Easy. So is Switching to One!
Once an agency gets over its initial fear of trying out a new piece of technology, using a caregiver app is pretty straightforward.
The caregiver taps on a shift and taps clock in. When the shift is over, the caregiver taps on the shift and taps clock out. It’s not a complicated user experience. In fact, it’s very streamlined.
Once caregivers get over the initial fear of forgetting their password, which tends to happen with any new piece of technology that requires a password, everything else is pretty simple.
Most people, including your care staff, use smartphones and various apps on their phones daily. This is not new technology. That being said, one doesn’t have to be good with a computer to understand how to use a smartphone. Even if your agency employs caregivers who are not particularly tech-savvy, using a caregiver app is still much easier than using Telephony.
To turn on the caregiver app functionality in Rosemark, simply reach out to a member of the Customer Success team to schedule a meeting. Our trained team of experts has helped agency owners and office staff navigate the challenges of switching from Telephony to the Rosemark Caregiver App many times, and they’d love to help your agency as well.