One of the key factors impacting quality of life as people age is their ability to remain living in their own home for longer.
This requires an exceptionally person-centred approach to home-care services and the dedication of a mobile team of allied health professionals, including occupational therapists, physiotherapists, exercise physiologists, personal trainers, massage therapists and dieticians.
And a lot of really big forms.
Halving the Time it Takes to Produce a Report
Occupational therapists – or OTs – undertake highly detailed home and equipment assessments to identify opportunities to change elderly clients’ home environments in ways that support their independence.
The extremely thorough home and equipment reports that support these assessments can be very extensive and time-consuming to produce.
According to Peta Weisfelt, Director of Canberra-based Summit Health Solutions, the turnaround time for these types of reports – which are fundamental to creating a safe and hazard-free home environment that promotes and maintains independent living for as long as possible – is typically around a month, with a waiting period of up to six months.
Using online forms our team can turn around quality reports in a week.
“There are other organisations here in Canberra that have a waitlist of six months for reports,” Peta says.
“They do a report within a month – but using Snapforms our team can turn around quality reports in a week – so if someone actually needs a home assessment – rails, ramp, something to get them independently mobile again – or if they’ve had a fall, and they need to have somebody straight away – we’re actually able to get the service to them and the report out to them within a week – whereas it used to take a couple of weeks because we were typing every single word.”
What was the business challenge?
As a provider of innovative telehealth solutions for older Australians, Summit Health has experienced a pronounced spike in demand for its services in the COVID era.
With more than 600 clients to see every month, the Summit Health team needed a way to reduce its reliance on manual tasks and processes.
I wasn’t ringing an overseas call centre…
Peta explained the challenges she and her team faced and how Snapforms emerged from the chaos of COVID as a willing partner with the capabilities she was looking for.
“We’re trying to reduce a lot of manual processes,” Peta says.
“We see 600-plus hundred clients every single month, so that’s 600-plus invoices, reports, all sorts of different forms, HubSpot communications, so we’re trying to make sure everything syncs together.”
Data security is also paramount to Peta, especially in terms of all form data being stored here in Australia.
“It has to be for us – one hundred per cent – because obviously, it’s their confidential medical information.
“I did search for lots of different form providers and one reason why we chose Snapforms was because I wasn’t ringing an overseas call centre – it was a time zone where I could actually get people to work with me when I needed them to.
We could integrate with Nookal…
“The information was stored within Australia, which ticked the boxes, but we could also integrate our forms with Nookal, making it even more secure in terms of medico-legal requirements, which is super important.”
How was the solution implemented?
Having grown frustrated with a Word-based referral form made into an editable PDF, Peta began the search for a secure digital form that could be embedded on the Summit Health website.
“Now all our organisations have a secure website that they go into and fill out the form,” Peta explains.
It doesn’t get lost in our email process; it saves into Nookal.
“The beauty about Snapforms is all their data is collected and also integrated with Nookal.
“When the care managers do the online referral forms, they get a copy of the PDF straight away that they can save into their files – so it’s not really for our benefit only – it’s for the benefit of the care manager and the client.
“And as soon as the OTs press submit the form instantly goes to the care manager – it doesn’t get lost in our email process; it saves into Nookal – and we get a copy.
“We’ve got a workflow that automatically generates from Snapforms into Hubspot, so if an OT ticks other services required, it sets off the workflow and generates a whole new email trail – the cogs are all working together.
I can do it sitting right there in their meeting!
“It’s a conduit to opening up communication – before we’d have to manually send the report to the care manager.
“Now with the automatic email notification we can send it straight to the care manager with a follow-up email saying that we’ve recommended other exercises or services – then another form will be sent out and it will just continue that workflow.
“Care managers are very surprised at how quickly we can change and manipulate the reports – they’ll say, Can we have this? Or, Can we have that?
“And we’ll say, Yep, done and they’re like, What, really?
“I can do it sitting right there in their meeting!”
Peta’s team has also embraced QR code technology to make it easy for clients to connect with their services.
“When our staff are out with the clients, they use QR codes to complete the reports – we’ve printed out the QR codes and laminated them onto sheets or stuck them onto their equipment.
“With 2020 it was brilliant – it really helped.
“We run telehealth services, so we now put a QR code into the booklet that goes out with the exercises.
“The elderly scan over their QR code to link in with Zoom, so it makes it even easier.
Summit Health has even integrated Snapforms into its online learning platform
Summit Health has even integrated Snapforms into its online learning platform, helping new staff get up to speed on how to use the forms.
“It still maintains the quality when we’ve got new graduates coming on,” says Peta.
“The quality is the same because we’ve put so much effort into having clinically written answers in a really good form and the quality across all the OTs is the same.
“Rather than having a new grad come over and not knowing how to fill out a form… it gives them a guideline which we’ve been really impressed with.”
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