Successfully Integrating Telehealth into Your Home Care Software

In recent years, particularly in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of new technologies such as telehealth and telemedicine has rapidly grown within UK Home Care Agencies.

These innovative technologies have the potential to transform the way your care clients engage in and control their own healthcare, empowering them to manage it in a way that works for them.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) actively encourages the use of person centred care planning software that fits around the patient’s needs, as well as supporting your care teams to care better and improve the quality of life for your care clients.

NHS England’s Technology Enabled Care Services (TECS) programme provides practical tools and resources, addressing demand from health and social care professionals for more support and guidance, on how to commission, procure, implement and evaluate telehealth, telecare, telemedicine, telecoaching and self-care app technologies.

In this blog, we discuss the differences between telehealth and telemedicine, and explore how UK home care businesses can successfully integrate telehealth into their existing domiciliary care software.

Telehealth vs Telemedicine

The terms Telehealth and Telemedicine tend to get used interchangeably but there are subtle differences between the two.

Telehealth covers the broad spectrum of all aspects of long-distance healthcare delivery and education beyond the traditional doctor-patient relationship, to include other health professionals like nurses, social workers and pharmacists. It uses electronic information and telecommunication technologies, primarily over the Internet to access services from your laptop, tablet or smartphone.

For example:

• Appointments can be held virtually rather than in-person
• Patients can be monitored remotely through the use of GPS trackers or smart wearables and
• E-prescriptions can be sent directly to a nominated chemist

Telemedicine is a subset of telehealth usually conducted by doctors, which focuses specifically on supporting the remote delivery of clinical services, including medical, diagnostic and treatment.

For example:

• Conducting real-time diagnostic tests
• Monitoring a patient’s progress after treatment or therapy and
• Follow-up consultations with specialists not located in the same place as the patient

The Role of Telehealth for Home Care Agencies

Telehealth has enormous potential to support your care teams to help clients who want to maintain their independence and receive care in the comfort of their own homes.

Some benefits for home care agencies include:

• Increased accessibility for care clients, particularly if they live in remote areas
• Enhanced convenience and comfort for patients
• Potential for saving costs and increasing efficiency

Some of the most popular Telehealth services used in the home care sector include the ability to monitor patients remotely, virtual visits online via phone or video calls and remote health education, either via live calls or through user friendly apps.

The NHS TECS programme highlights several case studies where telehealth, telecare and telemedicine projects have been successfully implemented in the UK, including the Airedale Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in West Yorkshire, who have used telemedicine in a number of settings including home care to reduce hospital admissions.

Step-by-Step Guide to Integrating Telehealth into Home Care Software

But what steps can your home care agency take to effectively integrate telehealth into your existing home care software?

STEP 1: Assessment and Planning

Firstly, start with identifying your specific agency needs centred around your care clients and how your care team like to work. Set specific goals linked to those needs and choose the right telehealth features that match up with the needs and goals for your clients.

STEP 2: Choose the Right Home Care Software

Next, choose the right home care software for your home care business by looking for key features such as costs, user-friendliness, flexibility, compatibility with CQC standards and data security and privacy.

STEP 3: Implementation

Work with your home care software provider to get the tech side of the system up and running, train your care teams on how to use the software and carry out pilot testing to iron out any glitches and features that don’t work for your particular agency.

STEP 4: Monitoring and Evaluation

The final step is to collect feedback from your care teams, clients and even family and friends of the patient. Your home care software can track and monitor performance and use of the system, so check this data to see where improvements can be made and whether any tweaks are needed. Continuous monitoring and ongoing evaluation of the software will help you to collaborate with your homecare software provider to improve and adapt it to meet your needs.

Best Practices for Telehealth and Telemedicine in Home Care

In response to the pandemic, many home care agencies had to quickly shift to using telehealth services, and key lessons were learnt on how best to implement and use remote healthcare.

One study carried out in the US in June 2020 by the Institute for Research on Poverty discovered some useful lessons:

• Put client experience at the forefront and especially consider clients with limited Internet or device access
• Pair technology-oriented and mission-oriented individuals within your organisation to build an intuitive workflow
• Recognise your initial processes or systems may miss some components and be prepared to adapt
• Create training that is simple and direct to best engage and prepare staff
• Identify several champions (motivated individuals within your organisation) to help lead the change and provide support to others throughout the transition
• Closely monitor the implementation of virtual technology practice and adjust as needed, focusing on immediate issues
• Prioritise and communicate processes to ensure client privacy and confidentiality.

In conclusion, Telehealth services can support your care teams to help clients keep their independence and essentially improve their quality of life. As a home care provider, it’s important to stay ahead of changes in the digital healthcare landscape and embrace these innovative technologies to improve and enhance care delivery.

Are you ready to take the next steps to integrate telehealth into your existing home care software?

If you need help or support to successfully integrate telehealth into your home care software, give our friendly Tagtronics team a call on 01254 819205.