What’s included?
We’ve worked hard to expand much of our existing functionality, as well as a handful of brand new features. A brief description of each is included below.
Observations
Carers are now able to record observations within the Carer Companion App. You'll see 6 types of observation to start with; we’re planning to add many more in the coming months!
Each type of observation has its own set of information that can be recorded. Observations can either be added on an adhoc basis, or listed as required by recording an Observation Period in the management portal. If an observation isn’t able to be completed the carer can mark the observation with a status, similar to task completions.
Fluid | What the client had to drink, and how much |
Meals | What the client had to eat, optionally including different components of the meal and their nutritional values by scanning barcodes |
Blood Glucose | What the client’s blood glucose reading is in mmol/L or mg/dL |
Blood Pressure | What the client’s blood pressure reading is |
Catheter | Catheter output, including colour and volume in ml |
Injuries | Facilitates regular observations of a pre-recorded injury. Carers can log the current state and progression. |
Carer Concerns & Incident Reporting
Throughout the app, we’ve allowed carers to flag any concerns that they may have. These will feed into the management portal, showing you the context of the concern, any comments made by the carer, and how urgently the carer feels it needs to be addressed.
If a concern has been reported, you’re able to start an incident report off the back of it so that can you can ensure that actions are taken and the appropriate process is followed.
Incident reports can also be started from scratch.
Assessments & Preferences
We now also provide facilities to record a client assessments against their profile. These assessments are different to forms, in that they are pre-configured and not (currently) customisable. Hydration, Nutrition, and Mental Health assessments are available to start with; along with food & drink preferences.
Family Portal → Care Circle
We’ve renamed the family portal and given it a bit of attention! The new Care Circle portal can be used by a wider audience; instead of it being targeted for family members we've now made it easier to give access to a variety of stakeholders including; healthcare professionals, social workers, case managers and emergency services; allowing you to grant access to anyone who needs it.
Much more information is being made available in the Care Circle, including contact information, next of kin, medical history, prescribed medication, and more. We realise that you don’t necessarily want everybody to have the same visibility which is why we’ve added Care Circle Roles; these allow you to fine-tune how much information is presented to a particular person. Whether that’s removing carer names & photos, medical history, or masking the planned visit times.
We’re also adding support for emergency one-time access to a service user’s Care Circle. This takes the form of a QR code that can be kept in the service user’s house, and will allow a member of the emergency services to get access to up-to-date records. This is completely optionally, and not required. Before granting someone access to the portal, we collect contact & location information (including a verified selfie & mobile number) so that you can follow up if needed.
We’ve taken a bit of inspiration from the Lion’s Club Message in a Bottle scheme whilst building this.
Capacity
It can often be an arduous task trying to figure out if you have capacity to take on a new care package. We've introduced a set of capacity tools to try and ease the process for you.
Availability
Define a set of potential visits and check whether you have carers that are available for them.
Geographic/Location
You can now set up 'Service Areas' for each of your carers, which defines where they'd prefer to work. Once you know where a potential new client is located, you can use the Geographic Capacity tool to check which of your carers are in the area.
Assistant
The Capacity Assistant combines each of the tools above into a simple 'wizard' style tool, allowing you to quickly check whether you have the capacity to take on that new client!
Getting started
We've put together a number of articles to show you around the new features. You can find them all here: