Hello, this is Hayashi from the Marketing Department.
Many years ago I worked in the nursing home related field. The nursing care profession is an important and indispensable job in this world. However, the nursing care field suffers from a chronic shortage of workers. This is still the case today.
True, the nursing care profession has a reputation for being difficult, and mentally and physically demanding. As a result, there is a shortage of caregivers, and the low retention rate due to the harshness of the work is adding to the labor shortage.
So this time, using my own knowledge and the workflow templates in Questetra BPM Suite, I thought about how to make the work of caregivers, which is thought to be very hard, easier.
Paperwork Plagues Caregivers
Well, I was working at a facility called a “Functional Training Day Facility” for the elderly. At the time I was working as a writer, producing articles related to nursing care, while also working in the field of nursing care and welfare.
A lot of the work at a nursing home was hard, like feeding, bathing, and helping people use the bathroom. The caregivers also had to worry about the paperwork they had to do every day.
The facility I worked at was not very large, but on an average day, for example, about 30 people required nursing care. The staff had to fill out paperwork for each of these patients after their work was finished. This caused them to work late into the night and come in to work early.
Utilize the “Daily Report” template
By the way, we publish many workflow templates free of charge. One of them is the Daily Report template.
This workflow template could have reduced overtime and the need to come in early.
This workflow assigns daily report entries as a task at a fixed time each day. Also, as you can see in the figure above, it is easy for the facility manager or other administrator to send back incomplete daily reports and provide feedback on the content. Daily reports can also be temporarily saved so that they can be filled in during breaks in the workflow.
Incidentally, at the day service where I worked, falls by patients were the top problem to watch out for. The facility is equipped with a variety of rehabilitation and training equipment, so the elderly are at great risk of tripping and falling, and even a minor fall can lead to serious injury. Of course, when such problems occur, the information must be shared promptly among the staff.
If this daily report template is to be customized, it may be a good idea to allow the administrator to select “Problem” or “No Problem” by using a check box so that the administrator can see at a glance whether or not there is an issue.
I Want to Share Information on Problem Behavior
On the other hand, every nursing home has patients who habitually engage in problematic behaviors that lead to trouble.
These troublemakers not only complain and verbally abuse staff, but they also occasionally break things or become violent, so facilities must exercise extreme caution when monitoring and dealing with them
In order to prevent new problems, it is necessary to promptly share information on such individuals to be on the lookout for and examples of problems that have occurred among staff members.
Report problems by sharing information among other departments in shift work
The Information Sharing in Shift Work template introduced in the previous article is useful for the above applications.
This workflow has the following two features.
- Internal memos can be left for front desk personnel by the night shift supervisor
- Real-time confirmation of guest check-out can be done by cleaning staff
This is a workflow for managing cleaning and customer service in a hotel, so it cannot be used directly in a nursing home. However, the framework of the workflow can be applied.
For example, when there is a problem or complaint, an in-house memo can be left and information can be shared promptly, which is an effective function for caregivers as well. When an internal memo is written there will be an automatic email notification so that those who take over the work do not have to worry about missing the memo.
Manage Program Progress with Workflow
On the other hand, the input screen for “Information Sharing in Shift Work” is shown in the figure below.
This is an example of a screen where guest information and complaint records can be entered, but the form could be changed to fit the needs of each user.
For example,
- Health status (temperature, blood pressure, etc.)
- Bathing requirements (if applicable)
- Type of diet (normal diet, calorie-restricted diet, salt-restricted diet, etc.)
- Whether transportation is required or not
and so on.
The facility I worked at had three main services: rehabilitation, training, and bathing, and also offered massage and foot bath services. In addition to the registered basic information we would check whether the user had already used these services or not, and when the user was sent home the checkout process would be completed and the next step would be performed. If special notes are added to this information, you can almost complete the daily report.
Of course, there are some issues, such as the fact that staff members who are performing tasks such as on-site monitoring cannot look at their smartphones. Also, there may be staff members who are not comfortable with computer-based input. Therefore, in order to solve these issues and utilize workflow, it may be necessary for office staff and leaders who manage the entire floor to cooperate and work together.
However, don’t you think that by arranging two templates, “Daily Reporting” and “Information Sharing in Shift Work” it would be possible to create a workflow that would reduce the burden on the nursing home?
Reducing the Burden on Caregivers with Questetra BPM Suite
We have discussed ideas for utilizing workflow in the nursing care industry, but the reality is that paper documents are still widely used in this field. However, even if the care itself cannot be automated, there is potential to automate and streamline the associated paperwork and work management. As automation and paperless systems get better, the costs and workloads of creating and managing documents will go down.
In addition, Questetra BPM Suite is a cloud-based service, so as long as there is an Internet environment, the same system as in the office can be accessed and operations can be handled from anywhere. This allows staff members who are frequently out of the office for visits, pick-ups, and drop-offs to process reports and other tasks on the go.
If work efficiency can be improved in this way and caregivers’ overtime work and early arrivals can be reduced, the image of caregiving as a demanding job may be overturned. Given how important it is for the nursing care industry to share information quickly and accurately, we hope that people in the industry who aren’t familiar with workflow and BPM tools will use them.
After all, that’s why Questetra’s corporate motto is,
“Optimizing business processes around the world”
Please feel free to start with a free trial!
