4 Reasons Why GPS-Enabled Mobile Care Workers are a Home Care Agency’s Best Friend

Mobility in home healthcare is not new. Agencies have dipped their toes in mobility over the past 10 years with varying degrees of dedication – from automated phone clocking systems to care workers and nurses lugging around laptops to the few agencies who have made the investment in mobile phones or tablets for their team members and some communicating in real-time through SMS, push messaging and IVR. That being said there are many more agencies that aren’t leveraging mobility to the max.

One easy entry point into mobility is the use of smartphones for care workers to use while visiting clients. Beyond viewing schedules, care plans, notes and charting – the simple GPS function embedded deep inside every smartphone available today provides unparalleled benefits for the agency of today and tomorrow.

The mobile care worker benefit starts well before entering a client’s home and the benefit lasts long after the visit’s conclusion.

1. Before the visit starts, providing home healthcare workers with an accurate location and directions to the client site ensures on time care resulting in instantly improved customer service.
2. Validating the start and end of the visit with an irrefutable date, time and location stamp provides mitigation from any billing disputes.
3. Over the past 3 decades other agencies have seem a 3-5% reduction in payroll cost simply by implementing accurate punching policies. Finally home care agencies can join the crowd, GPS stamps provide a way to avoid the ‘punch from the coffee shop’ world and instantly see a reduction in error induced over payments.
4. Billing and Payroll accuracy is small potatoes compared to a care visit report being instantly defensible called into question. By providing a GPS stamp with date, time and location attached to the report any questions are instantly answered.

So while you don’t need to sprint to your local mobile phone store and buy out their inventory, we do think it makes sense to start thinking mobile – to improve field efficiency and outcomes but also to provide an incredible audit trail for billing, time and attendance and client care.