The healthcare workforce in America has suffered due to the strains and stresses brought about during the pandemic. Studies have been performed to find causes and solutions for nursing, clinician, and caregiver shortages, unions and associations have worked with healthcare staff to reduce industry-wide burnout, and administrators have set up programs for staff retention. However, the facts remain that the supply does not meet demand when it comes to nursing staff, specialist clinicians, and in-home caregivers.
This leaves an opening for contract/freelance workers.
Why Home-Health Agencies Are Looking for Contract Clinicians
The rise in contract clinicians, nurses, and caregivers has been a win-win for home health agencies. Here are three reasons why:
1. Healthcare workers willing to work on contract are often entrepreneurial and efficient, working on a convenient schedule and with a more manageable caseload than is often possible in a clinical or hospital setting.
2. These contract workers are highly motivated to take on the work home-health agencies offer. There are many reasons for this.
- They may be interested in cutting down their hours at their current job.
- These skilled workers may need a flexible schedule to care for family or advance their education.
- They may be taking on more work in the short term to help them pay off student loans, save for a vacation, buy a house, help a child get through college, or some other highly motivating circumstance.
3. Contract workers can provide support when an agency has a fluctuating caseload. They can also take on cases while an agency works to hire full-time employees. This removes the strain many agencies experience as the agency grows and referrers send more patients their way.
How cliniCONNECTS Can Help
Home health agencies’ challenge is: how can they manage freelancers who are, by necessity, working in the field on their own schedule?
Scheduling and patient assignment a common challenge for in-clinic work, and it becomes amplified when an agency works in home health. They need a HIPPA-compliant way to:
- Accept and assign referrals.
- Monitor patient progress.
- Accurately bill and manage paperwork.
- Understand the schedule of care.
- Ensure that proper care is delivered in a timely fashion.
- Keep all of the information in one easy-to-access location.
cliniCONNECTS provides answers to these challenges and more.
The cliniCONNECTS intelligent administrative software connects the home health agency administration team with their field employees and contractors. These field caregivers utilize the HIPPA-compliant cliniCONNECTS app to make patient notes, update their schedule, provide billing information, check in to each appointment, and more. The office staff, along with other caregivers and clinicians on the case, can access this information to gain up-to-the-minute knowledge of each patient’s journey to health.
Additionally, patient assignment is a snap with cliniCONNECTS. The app can be set up so field clinicians can accept patients that fall in their purview, schedule the patients directly, and go ahead with treatment without having to step foot in the clinic. This takes all of the stress out of patient assignments.
Learn more about the cliniCONNECTS software and app. Click here to schedule a demo.
