Discover the numerous benefits of effective care planning in home health care. Improve patient outcomes, satisfaction, and overall quality of service.
This blog will discuss the benefits of effective care planning to deliver quality care to home-bound patients while meeting regulatory requirements.
Overview
The number of Americans in the age group of 64 years and older will reach 80 million by 2040. In the next 40 years, this number is likely to double. The number of adults in the age group of 85 years and older will also increase exponentially. The desire of older adults to age at home will significantly increase the need for home health care services.
Staffing and reimbursement challenges will force home healthcare agencies to do more with less while striving to provide quality care to patients. Effective care planning processes will help home healthcare agencies leverage technology and software platforms to improve the quality of care provided to patients at their homes.
This blog will discuss the benefits of effective care planning to deliver quality care to home-bound patients while meeting regulatory requirements. The blog will also discuss how home healthcare agencies can leverage software and technology to improve the care planning process.
What is Care Plan?
A Care Plan is a document that summarizes a patient’s health condition, problems, goals, and interventions based on a comprehensive initial assessment. A care plan will give a holistic view of the patient's care needs and provide a road map to address the needs. A well-developed care plan will keep all disciplines providing care to a patient on the same page. A care plan is a dynamic document that will change during care, providing a current view of the care plan to the caregiver at any time.
A Plan of Care represents a patient’s health condition and the care plan at a point in time (initial assessment or reassessment). A physician usually signs the Plan of Care document, which does not change during care.
Essential Components of an Effective Care Plan
The following are the essential components of an effective care plan for home healthcare agencies.
Integrated
Developing a patient care plan should be integrated with patient assessment (initial or reassessment) and clinical documentation. Clinicians should be able to build the care plan while they are assessing the patient. The ability to trigger problems or risk areas during the assessment will be beneficial for the clinicians to develop the care plan at the point of care. Viewing the care plan for other disciplines will also lead to more effective patient care plans. An integrated multi-disciplinary care plan will improve team collaboration and patient outcomes.
Care Plan Templates
Home Health Care Software should have a library of care plan templates linked to problem areas or body systems that the clinicians can use during the assessment process to develop the care plan for the patient. Care Plan Templates enable home health care agencies to establish standards that bring consistency and best practices to the care plan process.
Personalization
Even though care plan templates bring standardization and consistency to the care plan process, Home Health Care Software should be able to personalize the care plan for each patient. Every patient will have different care needs, and personalizing the care plan is vital to providing quality care and achieving better outcomes.
Document to the Care Plan
Clinicians should provide care based on the current care plan rather than the one prepared at the beginning of care. Home Health Care Software should allow clinicians to document based on the current care plan while allowing them to view it. The ability to view previous documentation and notes will be beneficial to coordinate care with other disciplines.
Care Plan Changes
Clinicians should be able to adjust the care plan, if necessary, at the point of care while providing care to the patient. Changes to the care plan should be reflected in real-time to other caregivers providing care to the patient. Reflection of care plan changes in real-time will ensure no gap in care. It will also prevent unnecessary care for the patient.
Plan of Care
The Plan of Care document usually contains the patient's health conditions and the care plan to address the patient's care needs. Plan of Care document should be prepared automatically from the assessment and the care plan. The most recent care plan with all the changes should be used to prepare the Plan of Care for reassessment or recertification.
Conclusion
Home Health Care agencies should develop a process enabling clinicians to develop effective, integrated, personalized patient care plans. Using the right technology and the Home Health Care Software platform will help agencies allow clinicians to develop an effective care plan, improve patient outcomes, and improve employee satisfaction.
About CareVoyant:
CareVoyant is a leading provider of cloud-based integrated enterprise-scale home health care software that can support all home-based services under ONE Software, ONE Patient, and ONE Employee, making it a Single System of Record. We support all home based services, including Home Care, Private Duty Nursing, Private Duty Non-Medical, Home and Community Based Services (HCBS), Home Health, Pediatric Home Care, and Outpatient Therapy at Home.
CareVoyant functions – Intake, Authorization Management, Scheduling, Clinical with Mobile options, eMAR/eTAR, Electronic Visit Verification (EVV), Billing/AR, Secure Messaging, Notification, Reporting, and Dashboards – streamline workflow, meet regulatory requirements, improve quality of care, optimize reimbursement, improve operational efficiency and agency bottom line.
For more information, please visit CareVoyant.com or call us at 1-888-463-6797.
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