A day in the life of a home infusion nurse

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As a home infusion nurse, I understand the challenges firsthand that face these providers. Manual methods of communication can only make these struggles even more difficult — which is leading to nurses leaving home care and organizations failing to meet industry expectations. In this blog, we explore a day in the life of a home infusion nurse and how CitusHealth has streamlined a once tedious process.

Home infusion scheduling and delivery communication

In the past, a day in the life of a home infusion nurse would entail reaching out to a patient 24 to 48 hours before a visit to confirm, which always created a game of phone tag or failed to get a response. CitusHealth changed that. With the ability to communicate in real time with patients and caregivers via app or text, as well as utilize a patient discussion group (PDG), care teams can easily manage deliveries and engage those they serve.

If patients or caregivers are unable to be reached to confirm a visit, nurses still visit the home. This often resulted in wasted time having to cancel and reschedule visits or deliveries. CitusHealth allows nurses to communicate visit details to avoid cancelations and waiting around. It also allows deliveries to get confirmed, so nurses know what has arrived and what is still needed — overall, increasing staff productivity.

Scheduling next visits can be done easily through the app as well, eliminating the need to play phone tag with the coordinator.

Home infusion visit and documentation

Once nurses are at the visit and meet with the patient, their focus is on taking inventory of their drugs and supplies, communicating with the pharmacy team and the back office, and confirming what supplies are on hand versus what the patient might say they have or don’t have. With CitusHealth, we can take a picture if needed of the patient’s supplies or medication to document issues such as a defect in medication packaging. These photos can be sent to, or a video chat can be initiated with, the pharmacy to get that fixed — all during the visit with the patient to avoid after-hours calls.

Similarly, documentation for the pharmacist, including side effects and any points of concern, can easily be sent through the app in real time — avoiding the need to send an email after the visit. This also promotes accuracy, as details can be forgotten after leaving the bedside.

Home infusion paperwork and signatures

If nurses need to capture signatures, they no longer have to keep track of stacks of paper. Instead, it can all get done electronically from a tablet through the CitusHealth app, connecting to the patient record in real time for faster billing. Completing documentation and rectifying a medication profile in the patient’s home ensures productivity because there’s no need to clock back in to finish paperwork.

While there was once a need to be available for after-hours calls and charting, CitusHealth gives nurses the work-life balance they deserve. All documentation and communication was done during the visit, updating the patient record in real time — ultimately allowing the nurse to truly take time off.

Request a demo to see for yourself how CitusHealth can streamline home infusion.