The right software will form part of an integrated system with your existing tools and processes, making it a complete solution for providing quality, empathetic in home care. It can streamline everything from scheduling to communication between clients and care providers, and in doing so, free you up to focus on what matters most: quality home health care.

However, knowing how to best use private duty home care software is key to not just selecting the right program but also getting the most out of its features and services.

What Is Private Duty Home Care? 

Private duty care is home health care provided by qualified caregivers. Patients are often elderly or suffering from a serious illness, and private duty agencies provide vital personal care services to improve their well being.

These home health services are often made possible via a Medicaid waiver and may be funded through private pay.

Private duty nursing includes bathing, meal preparation, medication, and other essential services that form part of managed care.

How Can Private Duty Non-Medical Software Support Your Home Care Agency? 

Private duty care software can help home health agencies and providers coordinate care more effectively. The comprehensive features can increase efficiency and automate processes, which in turn will enable you to reduce costs and save time when scheduling, billing, updating documentation, and more.

Caregiver management and client management alike are key features of private duty software. As a cloud based tool, this software will instantly give you the information you need to ensure clients are receiving the care they're entitled to. What's more, updates to care settings are immediately made visible to caregivers. In this way, private duty home care software can empower you to more efficiently manage patient care and caregivers across multiple geographic locations.

Private duty software will also give you easy access to important documentation. You'll have an electronic health record of everything from everyday observations to drug interactions and important patient information. And with securely stored communication logs, you'll be able to ensure compliance.

For the home care industry, private duty software is a valuable tool for improving care coordination and quality.

What to Look for in Private Duty Home Care Software

When searching for duty of care software, care providers should look for the following features. They will help you deliver a higher quality of home health care.

Scheduling 

Providing home care services requires an excellent scheduler. You need to not only manage schedules for caregivers and clients, but also ensure you’re doing so in the most efficient way possible to protect your bottom line, improve caregivers’ job satisfaction, and reduce the likelihood of no-shows.

Look for private duty software that automates scheduling and client and caregiver matching, while also taking into account caregivers’ preferred shifts. Ideally, you’ll be able to schedule team shifts and recurring shifts, as well as amending them on a case-by-case basis. Check to see if scheduling software also comes with a team view, client view, and caregiver view to ensure you have the oversight you need.

Documentation Management and Private Duty Nursing Notes

Correctly managing clients’ clinical documentation is key to remaining compliant, so any nursing agency software needs to have a secure documentation storage system that is also easy to access. 

Private duty nursing notes are also an important consideration, as they provide an essential record of the services provided. Check that writing them on the go is intuitive for caregivers, as well as that they are securely stored in a cloud based system.

Client Communication

From secure messaging to a portal for a client’s friends and family members, the right software can improve your client communications. This will help you meet clients' needs while reducing your admin time. It will also empower clients and reassure their loved ones by giving them greater agency.

Billing and Payments 

Efficient patient billing and payments processing is important in ensuring a regular cash flow, so make sure that the private duty care software you’re considering integrates with your accounting systems and can handle private pay.

Time Keeping and Electronic Visit Verification 

Integrated systems with time keeping features built into your private duty care software will help you improve payroll accuracy. Look for electronic visit verification, ideally via a caregivers’ mobile app.

A Secure Cloud Based Solution

Cloud based software will ensure your home health care business is secure and responsive, as everyone can access all the information they need — no matter where or when they are working. It will also enable instant updates to client data, from private duty nursing notes to care plan updates.

The Right Private Duty Care Software for Your Home Care Agency

Scheduling, compliance, recruitment, accounting, training, marketing: health care agencies have plenty of work to do. Back office teams can find themselves so focused on the day-to-day running of the health care provider business that there’s little time left to focus on improving the services provided or expanding the business. 

However, private duty care software helps by taking care of the administrative tasks so you can focus on what really matters: home health care services.

ShiftCare’s intuitive home health care software will help you manage everything from client documentation, communication, and billing to caregiver scheduling and time keeping. It’s a secure cloud based solution built around the needs of home care agencies. 

Try ShiftCare for free today.