How has technology changed Home care?

What are the key ways new technologies are impacting how home health agencies operate?

From mobile phones and home health software to EVV and even Chatgpt, in the last 10-15 years technology has moved the home health care industry forward significantly. but what exactly has changed in overall home care day-to-day workflow? While some agencies still operate on paper, many have long abandoned the once-routine idea of paper schedules? For most, it would be hard to go back to that now. In this blog, we'll run down the biggest ways that technology has furthered home care in America.

1. The Age of Digital Caregiving

There are a lot of digital solutions available now that allow distant family members and long-distance caregivers to keep in touch with their loved ones without sacrificing the quality of care. Examples such as Envoy at Home and Electronic Caregiver have changed the spectrum of how communication happens.

2. Tracking key care analytics

Technology is enabling home care providers to keep track of important metrics that pinpoint what aspects of care are going well, and which ones are suffering. Knowing these weaknesses and strengths can help bolster your company into a premier provider for your area. EHR for homecare systems, analytics programs, and other data-centered platforms have become both ubiquitous and more affordable.

3. Platforms like MUSE

MUSE is a digital software partner that helps end-of-life care providers to pinpoint when patients are in their last days of life, to help put additional care and support in place. And to help educate and inform family members of what is going on. Analytics are going to become a more important part of the patient care process, and MUSE is one of many technology solutions that have emerged in the last decade. 

4. Interoperability

This was optional at one point in time, but with this being 2023, interoperability has pretty much become obligatory. Have you experienced the frustrations of hearing one patient’s story from a hospital discharge planner, and then when you begin care, it’s almost as if you’re taking care of a totally different patient? This wouldn’t be the case if you had access to this patient’s full medical record. Interoperability connects you and your agency to partners in care, that can help put the complete picture together for you. 

5. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

ATS systems help you document and track every applicant, to see where you’re having problems in the hiring process. Is it a low applicant problem? Or is it a conversion from applicant to hire problem? There are also healthcare-specific hiring platforms available now, like mycnajobs and caregiverjobsnow.

6. Employee Caregiving Solutions

Caregivers need benefits. Not only caregivers that work for your agency in the field but your office staff. Are your employees doing double duty? Taking care of your patients and their own families? Solutions like CareWise help you to give your employees the peace of mind that they need to balance their day-to-day responsibilities.

7. Tremor Spoon

This is a technology that helps to reduce tremors in patients living with Parkinson’s disease, or experiencing symptoms of Parkinsonianism. This is a solution that you may partner with or recommend to your patients’ families to alleviate some of their symptoms.

8. MediSafe (and other medication solutions)

Medications are an important part of the senior care process. And new advances in medication delivery are helping to reduce medication errors. Solutions like MediSafe pack pills into a small baggie in monthly intervals to make sure that there are no mix-ups or forgetting to take one.

9. Alexa (and other voice-activated assistants)

Voice assistants have changed the game for caregiving and seniors in general. Patients can set up daily reminders for certain tasks and for appointments. You can also build a grocery list – if caregivers notice that a patient is running low on certain foods, they can add it to a list for themselves or a family member to pick up.

10. Smart Insulin Pen

This is a new advancement in diabetes care, that delivers continuous glucose monitoring to make sure that everything is regulated at all times.

11. Telemedicine

Telemedicine has helped to evolve the care that patients receive in their homes. Home care agencies are non-medical in nature, but that doesn’t mean that patients have to be on their own to take care of medical problems anymore. Caregivers can assist in setting up telemedicine visits and take notes on what the physician says and recommends.

    12. The rise of operational software

      While it is surprising that in a time of home health technology mandates for Electronic Visit Verification, regulatory requirements, and the conveniences of a “digital paper trail,” some agencies still have over-stuffed file cabinets, paper-based accounting ledgers, and other time-consuming methods. Soon it will be impossible to be successful in home health care with operational software with cloud-based access. From a management and compliance perspective, something as standard as a good HomeHealth Care Software system will be an exceedingly crucial component of agency growth and operational productivity. For an overview of some of the best systems, you can visit www.Capterra.com, where you’ll find user reviews and a who’s who list of providers.

 Summary

Technology will continue to move forward, and more solutions that bring ease and new capabilities to those in the home care industry will emerge in the market. Businesses that embrace these new technology innovations, viewing them as a new pathway to convenience as opposed to a challenge to the status quo, will find themselves in a position to win the day and keep winning for tomorrow.

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