Caregivers, coordinators, owners, executives… No matter the name, rank, or role, a professional in the home care industry could always benefit from using technology. Technology can not only increase operational efficiency and profit margins but also improve the quality of service to clients. After all, technology for home care was made to be used by home care professionals on a daily basis, taking into consideration their needs and workflows.
Operations and AI
Mainly, when we talk about improving home care with advanced technologies, we talk about either one of two things: software solutions for office staff, that can be used for billing, scheduling, payroll, etc’ or next-generation solutions that are based on AI and can enhance and compliment the agencies capabilities, and provide it with a competitive advantage when it comes to better serving clients.
In home healthcare, the most common solutions focus on remote patient monitoring, also known as RPM. These allow providers to remotely monitor their patients’ everyday habits and routines, using wearables or sensors installed in the home, that collect data, analyze it, and let healthcare providers know about anything that might require professional intervention. Many of them come in the form of smartwatches or smart bands that record heart rates, blood pressure and even water intake. These devices send vital information into secured servers where healthcare providers can monitor and analyze samples collected over the course of the day.
These solutions have become available for non-medical home care providers as well. Some providers used them to give their clients an added layer of protection and support, and sold them as an “add-on” service. Recently, a new category was introduced to this market. One that allows home care providers to use technology to remotely monitor the quality of care.
This benefits of remote care monitoring allow providers to be on top of things at all times, to know what goes on with each and every client during each and every shift, and to make sure they provide support to their caregivers and clients, when they need it. Sensi.Ai’s solution, is the first and only audio based solution in this category, minimizes the time it takes for home care providers to check on multiple clients and their caregivers. Sensi’s intuitive dashboard requires minimal training to use, and allows office staff to keep track of things quickly and easily.
This technology is bound to become a standard in the home care industry, reduce the “known unknowns”, and make traditional methods of remote care assessment, almost obsolete. This will make time management for home care staff easier, and let them focus on what they do best – meet client needs, recruit and train the best caregivers, and grow the business.
Those who do not adopt the technology may find themselves outcompeted by those who do. And with the outset of the covid-19 pandemic, adoption has increased drastically due to the need to reduce the number of people going in and out of the homes of older clients.
After the pandemic, remote care monitoring will remain in use for home care for generations to come. This is because the technology touches on various needs that traditional methods have failed to achieve. The biggest drawback of traditional care assessment methods is that they are often reactive, rather than proactive. Indeed, not all clients are able to let the agency know whether the service provided by their caregiver meets their expectations, and supervisors often find out too late that something is out of the ordinary. Moreover, some agencies charge their clients a premium for a house call, and while not all clients are willing to spend the extra amount, providers are still required to know what’s going on. By adopting the newer, more effective methods available, home care providers can stay ahead of the curve and gain a competitive advantage.
What you can do
A huge part of embracing newer technologies includes finding out what these are and understanding what exactly makes these vital in the near future. Besides RPM, there have also been recent advancements in artificial intelligence technology that helps in remote care monitoring and data analysis from care environments. Those can be used to provide better service to more people.
The thing is, care technologies are designed to help home care providers with their day-to-day tasks. By investing in this, you are not only helping out the people who directly use them; you are also helping your caregivers, who work day in and day out in order to provide care, and your clients.
Implementing new technologies is not a one-size-fits-all approach. You can book a demo with Sensi.Ai to find how you could benefit from remote care monitoring.
