(Dallas, TX) – Hurricane season presented homecare and hospice agencies with some unique challenges this year. The recent hurricane, Gustav, may have wreaked havoc on the Louisiana and Texas coasts, but it had a limited affect on the level of care delivered by Feliciana Home Health, Medistar Home Health and Ochsner Home Health. With the help of Homecare Homebase, all three agencies were able to provide care to homebound patients along the Texas and Louisiana coasts even as power and access to their offices were disrupted. Prior to the storm’s arrival the agencies implemented plans to ensure continuation of care for their patients. These plans included coordinated communications with office and field nursing staff, physicians and facilities, as well as, their Homecare Homebase support team.
“One thing we learned from past hurricanes is to control what we can and plan for what we can’t,” said Jason Brock, Administrator, Feliciana Home Health, “the situation in the field is the most dynamic, but making sure everyone in the patient’s circle of care has access to the information they need is easy with Homecare Homebase.”
Feliciana Home Health, which serves southeastern Louisiana, including hard hit Baton Rouge, began contingency planning prior to the storm’s arrival. Using data from the workflow-driven Homecare Homebase solution, Feliciana personnel prioritized and rescheduled patient visits based on urgency of need. Visits to patients requiring urgent care were rescheduled for the day before the storm’s anticipated arrival, while less urgent visits were moved to the day after the storm. Feliciana field nurses, carrying powerful handheld PDAs, were visiting patients only two days after the storm, while most other agencies required a week or more to get back to work.
Medistar Home Health, which operates from six offices across north and central Louisiana, worked closely with Homecare Homebase to ensure they continued to deliver the highest level of care in the face of Hurricane Gustav. Medistar was faced with varying connectivity issues and power outages in several offices, but worked closely with Homecare Homebase to ensure that as power came up, all of the staff had current, up-to-date patient information. They were able to quickly schedule visits, capture and share patient visit data and re-establish communication between the office and the point of care.
“We were so impressed with the prompt support we received from Homecare Homebase during this disaster,” said Beth Denton, Owner & CEO of Medistar, “it confirmed we made the right choice moving to the Homecare Homebase solution.” “We had zero down time during Hurricane Gustav thanks to AT&T and Homecare Homebase” said Sandy Lemoine, RN BSN, Director of Nursing, Ochsner Home Health “by using handheld devices my nurses were able to capture and share patient data the day after the storm.” Ochsner Home Health experienced long delays making patient visits following Hurricane Katrina, however, following Gustav they were caring for patients the next day. With this hurricane, Ochsner faced a new challengein that all of its office personnel were evacuated to another city. This created a problem in that staff would be required to access the agency’s data from a remote location while maintaining communications with nurses in the field. Since Homecare Homebase is a Web-hosted solution, all of the agency’s data is stored in redundant data centers located in Dallas, Texas and Louisville, Kentucky. So, all Ochsner needed were computers with Internet connectivity to instantly access their patients’ data. The Homecare Homebase support team working with Ochsner’s IT group securely downloaded the Homecare Homebase solution onto new computers located in the city where staff was located. Homecare Homebase’s mobile point of care solution allowed field nurses to communicate with the relocated staff effectively linking everyone in the patient’s circle of care. “We find some agencies can be unsure about the concept of a Web-hosted solution,” said Tom Maxwell, COO of Homecare Homebase, “but it’s events like hurricanes or other natural disasters when you see the benefit of Web-hosting coupled with a truly mobile point of care solution really shine.” About Homecare Homebase, LP Homecare Homebase (www.hchb.com) is a privately held software development company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1999 by industry veterans, Homecare Homebase offers a comprehensive integrated web-based software solution to improve theclinical, operational and financial success of home care and hospice agencies. Homecare Homebase enables real-time, wireless information exchange and communication between office staff, field staff and physicians; automates workflow processes; enables accurate billing through numerous integrated checksand balances; and provides powerful management reporting via a back office data analysis tool that ties together all agency operational information.