How Hospice at Home Used Point-of-Care Documentation to Boost Efficiency

Oct 18, 2016 8:28:06 AM

Organizations that provide in-home health care are constantly challenged to improve the accuracy of services delivered. When care delivery doesn't match the care plan prescribed, the impacts can be serious and may include:

  • Over-serving of client care
  • Non-compliance with visit verification
  • Too many missed visits
  • Inefficiencies in scheduling and payroll
  • Excessive mileage costs
  • Poor staff satisfaction

smiling-field-worker-sm.jpgHospice at Home, an affiliate of Michigan-based Lakeland Health, struggled with many of these issues. Their chief concern? Improving the point-of-care documentation process.

Paraprofessionals in the field made hand-written notes about their visits on any piece of paper that was convenient, including Post-Its, scraps from other notes, even envelopes found in their car. Then, at the end of a grueling work day, they had to travel back to the office, decipher the scribbles, and recall additional details from memory, then wait for one of the few shared computers to become free so they could manually input the notes into an EMR system.

“I used to spend two to three hours after my shift officially ended just on documenting work,” said one Hospice at Home caregiver.

It was an inefficient process, to say the least. And it also meant EMRs were frequently inaccurate and out of date.

All of this slowed down caregivers; because they had to allocate so much time for paperwork, they were unable to take on a full load of clients. Moreover, caregivers often struggled to deliver the right care, given that client records often didn't reflect what had happened during the client's previous visits.

Improving Efficiency and Accuracy with a Digital Approach to Point-of-Care Documentation

While attending a conference, that same paraprofessional learned about a solution that could help address all of these challenges, and in the process help her recapture personal time with her family. She suggested Hospice at Home look into CellTrak.

They did, and they liked what they saw. With CellTrak's mobile solution, cargivers were able to eliminate multiple manual, paper-based processes, including:

  • Recording of mileage expenses
  • Recording of visit documentation
  • Pick up of schedules and care plans

The agency implented CellTrak, and the improvements to care delivery management were almost immediate.

Within months, the time required to complete visit documentation was slashed to just 40 minutes each day -- a 76% time savings for each caregiver. Over-serving was also cut by more than 50%, and compliance (thanks to Electronic Visit Verification) doubled. Even mileage reimbursement expenses fell by 26%. What’s more, staff satisfaction soared, which created a major improvement in caregiver retention.

"I love CellTrak!" exclaims that innovative paraprofessional.

Read the full case study of this award-winning organization to see how they approached their digital solution to point-of-care documentation. To learn more about choosing your own digital approach, download our white paper, "How to Choose a Mobile Health Care and Services Delivery Solution."

Download "How to Choose a Mobile Health Care Solution"

Topics: Cost Reduction, Productivity, Care