Overview:

Private Duty Nursing (PDN) is skilled, medically necessary, continuous, substantial, and complex hourly nursing services provided by a licensed nurse in the patient’s home. The skilled nursing care tasks are provided frequently, which makes the care continuous. Private Duty Nursing care is mainly provided by Registered Nurses (RN) or Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN). Private Duty Nursing Home Care Agency nurses provide one-on-one skilled care for medically fragile adult or pediatric patients.

Continuous Care - Clinical Documentation Challenges

Examples of Private Duty Nursing services include:

Chronically ill patients who require extensive skilling nursing care to remain at home
Patients who require prolonged intravenous nutrition or drug therapy
Ventilator dependent patients
Tracheotomy patients
Patients who are dependent on other device-based respiratory support
Patients with significant Medication Administration and Treatment Administration needs

Nurses providing Private Duty Nursing care work in longer shifts providing continuous care for the same patient. They need to collect and document Vitals and Measurements (Vent Settings, Trach Settings, Cough Logs, Seizure Logs, etc.) and administer medications and treatments multiple times during the shift. Providing continuous care in a longer shift creates unique documentation challenges for nurses and Private Duty Home Care agencies. Additionally, meeting Medicaid or Managed Care billing requirements and communications with family members are critical.

These requirements create unique challenges for Private Duty Nursing Home Care Software Platform. However, most Private Duty Nursing Home Care Agencies use a software platform designed for Home Health Care agencies providing intermittent services. This leads to significant operational inefficiencies for Private Duty Nursing Home Care agencies. A software platform should accommodate the challenges of Continuous Care Documentation for Private Duty Nursing Home Care Agencies.

Challenges for Home Care Agencies

Private Duty Nurses provide continuous care for medically fragile patients with complex medical needs. These patients usually have a large number of medications and treatments. These patients may also be dependent on devices for respiration and feeding, which require continuous monitoring and adjustments. Documenting the care provided while providing care adds another layer of difficulty for Private Duty Nurses.

Private Duty Nursing agencies face the following challenges in providing and documenting continuous care for patients at home.

Collect and document vitals multiple time during the day based on the plan of care
Collect and document measurements, such as Vent settings, Seizure Log, etc., during the shift based on the plan of care
Medication and Treatment administration based on order frequency
Significant time and effort spent in medication entry, reviewing drug interactions, and updating Continuous Care, Medication, and Treatment Flow Sheets
Time spent on paper-based or static flow sheet documentation for Medication and/or Treatment Administration (eMAR, eTAR)
Using a paper-based or static continuous care document sheet will require a nurse to flip through pages to document care
Paper-based or static continuous care documentation cannot be personalized for individual patients
Hard to catch missed medications, treatments, or measurements with paper-based or static continuous care documentation
Time spent on communicating medication and treatment changes to nurses at the Point of Care
Communicating Care Plan and continuous care documentation requirement changes to the point of care nurses
Communication between shifts with notes for the next shift nurse
Significant manual efforts to compile clinical documents to meet unique billing. requirements for Medicaid and Managed Care payers

Software Platform for Continuous Care Documentation

The following are some of the features required in a home health care software platform to effectively manage the challenges posed by Continuous Care Documentation for Private Duty Home Care Agencies.

Start and complete continuous care documentation in one screen
Ability to document vitals and measurements multiple times during the shift
View vitals and measurements for the current shift and previous shifts
Electronic Care Flow Sheet for continuous care documentation
Integrated order entry (Medications, Treatments) with real-time drug integration and alerts
Medication and treatment changes available in real-time for administration at the point of care
Electronic Medication and Treatment Administration (eMAR, eTAR)
Print Medication or Treatment Administration History for physicians or payers
Personalize care plan and continuous care flow sheets
Care Plan and Measurement changes reflected at point of care in real-time
Proactive alerts when medications, treatments, or measurements are missed
Access all the clinical and scheduling information at the point of care to get a complete picture of the patient
Ability to communicate key information from one shift to the next shift
Produce consolidated clinical documents to meet billing requirements
Communicate with patient and family using Family Portal
Meet unique billing requirements for Medicaid and Managed Care Payers

Conclusion:

Private Duty Nursing Agencies should choose a software platform that addresses their unique requirements for continuous care documentation. The software platform should be easy to use and enable nurses to keep up with continuous care documentation during the shift while efficiently communicating changes in real-time to the nurse at the point of care.

Further, the software platform should allow Home Health Care agencies to render other services without switching between multiple software platforms. Choosing a software platform that can handle continuous care documentation for Private Duty Nursing will improve the quality of care, reduce cost, optimize reimbursement and operational efficiency.

CareVoyant understands the demanding requirements to manage Private Duty Nursing while managing other services like Non-Medical Personal Care, Home Health, and Home and Community Based Services. CareVoyant software platform provides tools that will help a Private Duty Nursing Home Health Care agency effectively manage Continuous Care Services and other service lines.

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.