What is Telephony?
I believe Telephony is one of the greatest inventions since sliced bread. It works for everyone involved. It saves time and money and it is easy to use. Best of all it prevents a lot of problems.
For those who don’t understand what it is; with telephony, a caregiver arrives at a client’s home, uses the clients phone to dial an 800 number, which tells the office they have arrived for their visit. They can pick up voice messages or just hang up and begin their visit. When it is time to leave they dial the number, check messages and type in codes for the tasks that were done on the visit. They can also leave a message for the office, if needed. So in essence, when they leave the home they have completed their visit, charted and verified their time sheet. It is now already back in your office ready for QA and payroll.
Of course you hear objections at first.
“The clients don’t like us to use their phone.” Once they understand it costs them nothing and ensures that they are getting the appropriate care, very few really object. One company uses telephony as a marketing tool, promising clients they are never charged for extra time.
“The clients don’t have phones.” Really? How often is that, and how safe? There may be an exception and in that case the clinician can call from their own cell phone. Exceptions can always be handled from the office
Once your staff gets used to it, they will appreciate the time savings it has for them. Maybe it saves them a trip to the office every week or helps them be more concise and on time with their charting. Payroll is more accurate.
For the office, the saving is great. First, you know when your staff is at a client’s home. You know if they arrived on time. You know they got your message about the meeting next week. You get an alert if they don’t arrive on time, even if it is after regular office hours. Instead of waiting for everyone to trickle in with paperwork a few days before payday, you have it as it is completed, and it is ready to process.
Fraud prevention is another area where telephony really helps. We all have had experience with a caregiver who was “sloppy” about her record keeping and always in her favor. Maybe she is running late but writes she was there on time, or she slipped out a little early to stop and do some shopping. The client doesn’t notice, so who gets hurt? Well you for one, and the client. “Padding” of time sheets costs agencies countless dollars. And when you get into Medicaid and Medicare it becomes fraud and can get the entire agency in trouble. If knowing that you have a strict telephony policy in place keeps someone from even applying, you might never know how much you have saved. One of our clients told us recently that he saved $1200 the first month he used ClockWork!
I once worked in an agency back in the days before PPS and OASIS, where a nurse had convinced the owner she could do 21 visits a day! I knew it wasn’t possible but it took weeks to come up with enough proof to convince the owner. Eventually she slipped up enough to prove she wasn’t where she charted she was and we found patients who were able to recall that she was not there when she said she was. It ended badly for all involved when it turned out the owner was supportive of the fraud.
The point of the story is that it would never have taken place in an agency using telephony. She would have been foolish to try a scam where she could not falsify her documents. If you think stories like that don’t happen anymore, take a look at an OIG website or your state Board of Nursing’s disciplinary list.
So why doesn’t everyone use telephony? Good question. Maybe you think it costs a lot, maybe it seems too complicated. Boy have I got a deal for you!
August Systems recently went through some big changes to make our company more efficient and state of the art. As a result we are able to really lower the price of some of our programs especially for small and new companies. We have taken our telephony program to a new hosted level, which means you don’t have any hardware or extra phone lines to deal with. If you qualify for our Home Care Essentials product you can add our telephony, Clockwork for just $99.
Better yet, we have also lowered our pricing on Visit Wizard Home Care Essentials! This program is designed for companies with less than 5 users, who need Scheduling, Staff tracking (HR), and a way to extract payroll to QuickBooks, .csv file or a report. It gives you the foundation to grow your business and build on when you are ready. We give you options to start small and become whatever you want to be. Staffing, Private Duty, Medicare certified or Hospice. We do it all. You choose between web based or self-hosted.
Contact me when you are ready to experience the magic of Visit Wizard!
