What are the Different Types of Home Care Software?

Home care is care that is administered by health care professionals in clients' homes. Professionals are normally employed by health care agencies that specialize in matching nurses and other health care providers with clients. Home care software is a kind of computer program that optimizes communication between home care professionals and their agencies, allows agencies to check progress and records related to home care visits, and may provide guidelines for professionals regarding plans of care. There are types of home care software that take care of scheduling needs, billing, and records related to patient medication.

Many home care professionals have several different clients that they may visit throughout the week. An effective type of home care software may allow professionals to create schedules that do not contain overlapping appointments and which can also factor in travel time. Agencies can use this same type of software to track employees and make sure that they are sticking to their schedules. This software can also be used to track factors such as expenses required by employees and any comments regarding a particular visit. Home care software for scheduling can also save time since professionals need only enter data once before it is saved and sent to the proper recipients.

Billing software is also used by home care professionals. These programs often have the capability to create claims for private insurance providers, as well as for government funded programs, such as Medicaid. Many professionals believe that this kind of home care software makes work easier and speeds up processes by allowing users to submit claims with just a few clicks. The capability to calculate and display payment amounts is another common function of this type of home care software.

It is common for home care providers to administer drug therapies to clients. A useful type of home care software might contain a drug database that includes facts about various drugs, such as side effects and allergic reactions. Professionals can also use this database to record when drugs were administered, how a client responded, and when they are scheduled to receive a therapy again.

Many types of home care software can be installed in individual computers. In these cases, home care programs might deliver information through the Internet so that other uses can access records. Software on demand or hosted software is another common type. This software is hosted from a website that can be accessed by privileged professionals who have passwords and user names.