The Ankota Healthcare Delivery Management Blog

Maximize the Value of your Private Duty Software

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A few weeks ago at the NAHC Private Duty Summit (see conference highlights here), I attended an outstanding presentation by the COO of Visiting Angels, Pat Drea, where she shared many of the best practices in her playbook.  A few weeks ago, we posted a story inspired by Pat entitled Establishing a Customer Service Culture in Your Home Care Agency which you can view here.  Today's post, also inspired by Pat, is about maximizing the value of your private duty software.  Pat recounted a situation where she helped a struggling branch to generate almost immediate savings of over $80K and a big portion of the benefit came from better use of the software that they already had.  Here's a summary of Pat's best practices to maximize the value of your Private Duty software:

• Use the Matching and Filtering Tools: If you're not using these, chances are that your scheduling people are keeping track of all of this in their heads which slows down the process.  Your software should check for the following:
• Right skills and certifications
• Match customer preferences (e.g., Spanish Speaking)
• Proximity
• Preferred Caregiver for the client
• Available when the work is needed
• Worker not designated as "do not send" for this client
  
• Detect Sheduling Conflicts: Your software should inform you if there is ever a double booking or other availability problem
  
• Alert you when an assignment is missed: Does your software let you know when a worker has not reported their arrival?  You don't want a dissatisfied customer or missed revenue
  
• Telephony: Cuts your data entry by four hours
  
• Family Member Communications: Does your software allow the family members of your clients to know how things are going with their loved one?
  
• Web-enabled: Can your office managers and caregivers securely access their schedules from their home internet?

These are some of the features that can help your organization increase its productivity.  Thanks Pat!

If your Private Duty software doesn't perform the features listed above, Ankota would be happy to help.  You can learn more about Ankota's comprehensive solution for Private Duty care here.  As a private duty business owner, you are in the enviable position to have a growing client base, but if adding clients forces you to add back office staff and increase your costs, it might not be worth it.  To see how Ankota can help your organization, please contact us or come see us at NPDA in Philadelphia in booth 32.