The Importance of Documentation in Home Health Pediatrics
Pediatric documentation can be tedious and meticulous, especially if an agency’s software doesn’t have a streamlined process to make it easier.
Clinicians make multiple patient visits a day, thus manually documenting each patient’s visit and then inputting the information into the system. This often creates room for error or bottlenecks, resulting in more extended workdays and decreased quality of care.
Documentation in-home healthcare pediatrics can be intimidating and stressful if done manually. However, a suitable electronic medical record (EMR) with forms already embedded in the system can reduce stress and streamline workflows.
Challenges with Pediatric Documentation
Authorization Forms
To say authorization forms are essential is an understatement. Pediatric agencies must keep track of every authorization form that the patient’s insurance needs approval for to schedule visits.
The agency often organizes the authorization information on a spreadsheet and manually completes the forms to send to the payer for approval. They may also have to manually keep track of the number of hours, units, and visits made, ultimately causing confusion and running the risk of losing track of information in various spreadsheets.
With the right pediatric software, clinicians can easily keep track of visits inside the system, and the system will remind them of when the visits are almost up and need to be resubmitted to the payer.
Manual Documentation
Some clinicians may have to document during their visits manually and then input the information into the system later. Manually inputting information could lead to misinformation and errors in the software, thus potentially harming the patient by giving them the wrong medication or diagnosis.
A national survey regarding pediatric documentation reported that 62 percent of pediatric clinicians spent more than half of their time documenting patients in inpatient settings, and 32 percent in outpatient settings. The survey also found a direct correlation between apprehension about documentation and reporting stress.
With a proper pediatric EMR, pediatric agencies can reduce stress and the time it takes to document by automating documentation and auto-populating repeated data to spend more time with the patient and deliver quality care.
Substituting Adult Forms as Pediatric Forms
Pediatric patients are typically a high-priority, high-risk demographic for patients’ safety due to their physical development and issues relating to being underage and requiring a guardian. While pediatric patients may have the same illness or condition as an adult, they may respond differently to medication or treatment due to their body development and response.
Using the same form for adults and pediatric patients can hinder clinicians from collecting the most accurate data for their patients.
With the right EHR, agencies can access the correct forms for the proper patient and no longer substitute various adult forms for their pediatric patients. Clinicians can access various pediatric forms and subforms without having to compensate.
The Gold Standard for Pediatrics
KanTime’s Pediatric Software Works FOR You
With KanTime’s pediatric private duty software, agencies won’t need to stress about manual documentation, inputting insurance authorization forms, or compensating adult forms for pediatrics. KanTime can handle all documentation inside the system to make it easier for the agency and clinicians.
Below are a few examples of the subforms, tracking, and graphing in KanTime:
Pediatric Forms
- Ventilator flowsheet
- Seizure fog
- Suction log
- Infection control
- And more
Tracking and Graphing Pediatrics in KanTime
Clinicians can track and graph the patient’s vital signs INSIDE the visit notes to make it easier to access for every clinician that visits the patient.
A few vital signs that can be tracked include:
- Blood pressure
- Temperature
- Respirations
- O2 SATs
- Blood sugar
- Pain
- Weight
- Height
- Abdominal girth
How Better Happens
A customer of KanTime, Ageless Living, faced manual documentation challenges with their old EMR system. The lost patient information had prolonged downtime and had too many manual spreadsheets to count. When they implemented KanTime, Ageless Living could streamline the manual process, enhance data input, and gain visibility into claim statuses and responses.
Philip Thomas, a Home Health Administrator from Ageless Living, stated, “KanTime listens to what the customer wants and then delivers to them. We would not have been able to grow as fast or as far without the use of KanTime.”
By doing it right the first time, and managing by exception, private duty pediatric clinicians can focus on taking care of the little patients while their EMR works for them.
To learn more about the gold standard of pediatrics, check out our website, or request a custom demo today.