Brittany Isaacs
May 24 2022
Reading Time: 4 minutes
By: Brittany Isaacs, MSN, RN, IgCN, Customer Success Manager, CitusHealth
With 29% of nurses saying their desire to leave the field is significantly higher than before the pandemic, it’s clear that staff burnout in home-based care is a reality and organizations need to face it head on. The good news is technology can reduce burnout by easing the administrative—and often frustrating—burden on staff, giving them more time to focus on patient care and more of the work-life balance they need.
Here are six ways innovative technology targets burnout:
Streamline communication to keep everyone in the loop
With prescriptive workflows for Patient Discussion Groups (PDGs) and the ability to tag messages, staff always know who needs to be brought into a conversation and when. If intake is processing a referral, they can bring in the pharmacist when the office is ready for the order. Messages can be tagged throughout the care journey to let the team know what is pending, when authorizations are approved, and that care is ready to be passed onto nursing for scheduling or that the shipping department needs to schedule a fill.
This streamlined approach to communication eliminates the need for care teams to chase messages using multiple methods like fax and email. The running conversation keeps the entire team on the same page about every step of the process regarding pending, incomplete, or complete tasks associated with the workflow.
Integrate with EHRs or any central location for patient information
When a patient has a wound, they can securely message their home health or hospice providers to describe the wound and attach photos—creating a centralized location to keep all documentation. These messages can be tagged and pushed directly to their EHR or any patient information software in other healthcare settings, ultimately eliminating the need for double entry and keeping everything in one place to keep the entire care team in the know.
Eliminate the need to share personal phone numbers
Secure messaging takes away the need to give out personal phone numbers—an often-cumbersome part of the home-based care staff role due to feeling on call 24/7. After-hours messages can be set to a routing schedule or can be escalated to an appropriate team member who can address the problem quickly.
This is huge for staff who are experiencing the burnout of always being on call and having to double document during after-hours.
Capture signatures electronically, in real time
Having to make long phone calls for each patient to answer assessment or refill questions or waiting on a fax to come back with a required signature are administrative burdens of the past. Now, staff can send any form electronically to one patient or multiple patients at a time. Patients can complete the forms at their convenience and staff are notified upon its return.
Signatures can also be captured electronically, allowing physicians to easily sign and return forms quickly in an app-less format that removes the common hassle of multiple logins. All of these forms return to one centralized platform, where any care team member with visibility can process them appropriately—allowing staff with time off to truly enjoy their time off.
Send assessment forms in between visits
Want to check in on patients in between visits without having to physically visit? Customized forms can be sent to patients to assess anything from care progress to insurance information to supply requests. This gives staff a real-time view of how patients are doing, any gaps in care, and if an extra visit is needed—without having to travel or disrupt their schedule.
Give staff customized flexibility
When staff have a voice, and their leadership listens, they feel prioritized and appreciated—which can go a long way. Whether it’s needing to change a field on a form or add more supply options to a dropdown, listening to what your staff needs to make their jobs easier can make a world of difference.
Is your organization experiencing staff burnout? Learn how CitusHealth can help you not only retain staff, but also boost satisfaction with technology that simplifies the way they work. Schedule a demo today to see for yourself how we can help home-based care providers prioritize staff and reduce burnout.
