How Smartphone Technology Can Help Home Health Care Workers
When you think of your home health care business, you likely may not consider smartphone technology as part of that. Regardless of how big your business is or how many caregivers you have on staff, smartphones can actually provide a number of benefits. Here are a few of those beneficial points and what you need to know about each one.
Medication Management
If you have multiple residents to care for you know the importance of medication management. In-home health, you do have the ability to give different medications at different times that work best for the resident. This can become confusing and difficult to manage when the resident has multiple medications and various spaced-out times during the day. Smartphone devices can utilize apps, alarms, and other resources to maintain the schedules as well as the records that medication was administered. Families can also login and see this information. You may even find programs that will allow the doctor, caregiver team, and family to all access the information as needed.
Symptom Records
You may have a resident that starts exhibiting symptoms, unlike ones they have had in the past. It is hard to keep track of these symptoms, especially with traditional record-keeping techniques. With smartphone technology, you can maintain a record of not only the symptoms but also the time they happen. There are many apps that will develop the input data into charts. The charts can show the ebb and flow of the symptoms and if the symptoms happen at specific times or with specific interactions with other medications or activities.
Daily Notations
Every caregiver has daily notations on their residents. This happens in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and in-home health environments. These notes are taken throughout the shift and during the end-of-the-day records. You can maintain these notes easily with the use of smartphone technology. Notations can be kept in the cloud and made visible to authorized family members and caregivers on the team. If there is an issue, the notes can be accessed at any time and reviewed.
If you believe smartphone technology may assist you and your home health care residents, discuss the changes with your administrative team. You may also want to discuss these changes with the resident's family so they can be on board with the changes. Keep in mind, the point of using smartphone technology in home health is to maintain records on your residents and maintain their health schedules and needs.