Artificial intelligence (AI) is creating a lot of buzz in the health-care space, and home care is no different. Every week it seems there is a new announcement: intelligent systems, fewer hospitalizations, improved care, less paperwork.
But if you're operating a home care agency today, you might be thinking:
What's actually useful? And what's just noise?
At Ankota, we think AI should be practical (not just a buzzword). That means more benefits for the folks providing care every day. So let's take a look at what AI is about to go big within home care, and which factors you should keep an eye on.
1. Predictive Staffing: Foreseeing Gaps Ahead of Time
Predictive staffing is one of the most exciting applications of AI and it can be useful to forecast caregiver availability and staffing needs. Instead of reacting to last minute cancellations or insufficient staffing, predictive staffing models can analyze past scheduling patterns, client usage, and even employee trends and time-off, so agencies can plan ahead.
This type of insight could allow care coordinators to staff up, or redeploy resources, before a gap from the schedule starts to impact care.
At Ankota, we are in the process of building this type of proactive capability directly into our scheduling engine, so you cannot only fill shifts, but also anticipate and stay ahead of the risks.
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2. Risk Scoring: Assisting to Prevent Hospitalizations at Home
AI can also assist in identifying clients at risk for decline or hospitalization by providing information about particular details in the frequency of visits, updating care plans, or changes in behavior on a subtle basis.
While this area is still emerging, the potential is huge: proactive care instead of reactive crisis management.
As this technology matures, Ankota will look to embed timely alerts and insights not just data for data's sake. This means using AI in support of real care decisions, without overloading your team
Pro Tip: A great way to prevent avoidable hospitalizations (unrelated to AI) is to configure two things on your caregiver mobile app: 1) Ask a question like "Have you seen any changes in your client's condition, appetite or emotional state that is unusual? and 2) Configure an open ended question like "Are there any concerns that you'd like to escalate to the office?" This one should be a narrative. Also, make sure that these answers are configured to alert your staff. If you use Ankota and want us to configure these, please reach us on support@ankota.com. If you don't use Ankota and you want to learn more about this, please contact us and we can explain it in more detail and you can see if it's supported on your caregiver app.
3. Natural Language Processing (NLP): Getting More Out of Your Notes
Caregivers already record everything, but most of that documentation is stuffed within visits notes! Natural Language Processing (NLP) can examine the notes and identify trends, keywords, or concerns without you having to read them.
By their very nature, the NLP tools of today have many limitations: they cannot address the nuance and tone, especially in healthcare settings. However, we see exciting potential in facilitating documentation and highlighting important issues, ideally as part of a solution like Ankota's, such that helps make sense of home care.
4. What to Spend Your Time & Energy On - And What to Ignore
All AI tools are not alike. Some user facing platforms bury users under dashboards of complexity, functionality that no one will ever use, etc. Our philosophy at Ankota is straight-forward:
If it doesn't make the care delivery easier, we don't build it.
If it takes more time rather than saving time, it's not ready.
We are excited about the future of AI—but we are focused on providing you a pieces of AI that is real, tested and usable.
5. Provide Them A Path - Not Just A Job
AI That helps — Not confuses
AI should not take the place of the human connection in caregiving, it should enhance it. When AI is properly designed, it eliminates barriers, diminishes disrupting distractions, and creates room for care.
This is the future that Ankota is creating; one where technology fits easily into your flow and eases burdens on your caregivers (not adds to them).
📞 Interested in seeing what smart, practical AI looks like in home care? Schedule a demo with Ankota.
Let’s Talk
If you want to explore how to better manage same-day visits or need help with other complex billing scenarios, reach out to us at Ankota. We’re here to help.
Ankota's mission is to enable the Heroes who keep older and disabled people living at home to focus on care because we take care of the tech. If you need software for home care, EVV, I/DD Services, Self-Direction FMS, Adult Day Care centers, or Caregiver Recruiting, please Contact Ankota.
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