The use of technology in home health care agency workflow can be a game changer

Running your home healthcare agency takes a great deal of work. Your many tasks don’t happen randomly or “just whenever.” They take place in a logical order, where each event triggers the next. For example, a senior citizen calls your office to request information. That phone call leads to an intake visit. Then you schedule a caregiver. Payroll needs to know what hours that caregiver worked, and you also need to bill for those hours. This is just one example of a sequence that defines your agency’s “workflow.”

Like any chain of tasks, your workflow is only as strong as its weakest link. A mistake or delay in any of these steps could block subsequent tasks from getting done. When multiple links have problems, you risk a total workflow breakdown.

As an agency owner or manager, you can take full advantage of the abundance of technology that keeps your home health care workflow moving smoothly. Here are the cornerstone, impactful ways you can use technology to prevent breakdowns and optimize your agency’s workflow.

Automated Scheduling & Dispatch

All your employees’ schedules and availability should be easily visible in a single display. In fact, you could even set up your home health software platform to dispatch caregivers automatically. Be careful, though. You may want to match a home health aide to the patient based on their personality and special needs, which a human scheduler can do with more personal precision than a computer. Additionally, you’ll want to use GPS and digital maps to send someone who is already nearby, and provide that caregiver with the best route to get to the patient. These concerns likely require a human being to monitor your scheduling and intervene often, although strides in AI integration in home care software may soon change that. It’s recommended you only automate dispatch — and only appoint select nurses to be on standby — for major emergencies where a patient needs help as soon as possible.

Digital Compliance and Documentation

Depending on the state where your agency is located, you will likely be required to submit reports and data about your home health aides and their patients. If you have ever tried collecting data on paper, or taken a census by counting heads, you know how exasperating these chores can be. With a digital system, you can automatically compile visit notes, medication records, and incident reports, and never miss a detail. This precision reduces errors and gives you a clean report to send to regulators. These audit-ready reports lift your burden of paperwork while improving transparency. Best of all, you’re much more likely to avoid an expensive penalty.

If your EHR for home health system includes secure sharing features, you should take advantage of them. This way, your patients’ family members can get alerts and look up info on their loved one without needing to ask you. It’s a great value-add that shows your agency cares about communication. More importantly, it saves you time and streamlines your workflow. Of course, always ensure that your patients’ health information is secure. And only give access to those persons the patient has authorized.

Electronic Communications

In between the steps of your workflow, there must be some kind of communication. Because of the nature of home healthcare, most team members are not working inside the same office. So that means your agency must be able to send and receive messages instantaneously and securely. The good news is that you can secure your texts with several apps that offer end-to-end encryption.

You should encourage your caregivers to use their secure message app to chat with each other and with the person in charge of scheduling. Doing this will keep everyone in the loop when someone’s availability changes and improve your whole team’s coordination.

Automate Billing and Invoicing

When I first started out in home healthcare, I dreaded sending out bills. My big mistake was that I relied too much on my employees’ reporting their own time and attendance manually. That led to all kinds of mistakes, and every two weeks I would inevitably have to go back and adjust some line item on an invoice. My stress level was through the roof.

Then we implemented a mobile home health care app for caregivers to clock in and out. The app came with location recognition, so I could easily match every patient visit to the patient’s home address. No more did anyone have to round up to the nearest 10 minutes. No more disagreements between caregivers and the cared for, and nevermore did I have to reverse a charge on a wrong invoice.

Save yourself the headaches and the math. Give your agency an electronic way to clock time and attendance. Let the computers count the hours and the minutes and generate bills. You will rest easier knowing that your workflow is flowing.

Data Analytics

From time to time, look at your agency’s data to see where you can improve your workflow. Any time your agency falls short of regulatory standards, you should record what happened and analyze the incident. By doing so, you identify inefficiencies in your workflow and prevent recurring issues, ensuring that every step of your operation contributes to better care.

Care notes are a vital part of your workflow. So you should empower your nurse supervisor to track how often caregivers miss the deadline for completing their visit notes. These notes should include key details on medication adherence, so you can monitor when patients do not follow their prescribed regimens. Tracking these metrics enables you to enhance patient care and streamline your agency’s workflow.

The Takeaway

According to the latest statistics, most home health agencies have adopted EHRs, with many having used one or more within the last 10 years. Shockingly, one recent study found that just shy of 20% of agencies operating in the U.S were still using paper. Even more surprisingly, almost 7% of full-fledged hospitals were still using paper. With changes to laws, EVV regulatory implementation and other headwinds, agencies without a software system or similar technology should expect to regularly face problems with data access, storage, time delays, potential fines and penalties, and compliance. Most industry experts predict it is a matter of when, not if, having some form of home health care technology will be a pre-requisite to opening an agency.

Related blogs:

1. How do I choose the best home health care software
2. AI in home health documentation
3. How to optimize home health agency workflow with the best technology
4. Financial management tips for home health agencies