Locations

We have an issue which I first brought up some months ago, but nothing seems to have been done to address it.  I know the team are busy doing other things also, but this issue does require something to be done pretty soon as it has become a real problem.

The issue itself is this:  when we have (for example) a husband & wife both requiring care, but each with different requirements – how do we enter this in the database in a sensible manner.  Currently, what we have to do is input the information for each person separately but then enter their property as a “location” and then add their combined visits to that.  This is very unsatisfactory for the following reasons:

1. It is totally impractical to enter their visits separately as to expect the carer to stop half way through to log out of one & then immediately log in for the other is crazy and also doesn’t work.
2. The current “Locations” are woefully inadequate in the information it contains – not even a map of the location – also “Locations” does not show up in the new app.
3. Information input for either or both clients in their separate respective database entries does not show up in “Locations” nor is there any way for carers to access any information about the clients.
4. There is no way to input any meaningful info into the “Locations” with regard to the clients (or anything else for that matter).

Something needs to be done very, very soon as it is getting more of an issue as time goes on and I cannot be the only one who finds the current work-around to be completely unsatisfactory.

I have given it some thought and come up with the following:

Some method of linking 2 people in the database together needs to be found and implemented as a matter of some urgency as this “Locations” method is totally unsatisfactory & almost completely useless.  The “Locations” are fine for specifying a specific place, like our company offices or places we use for some of our training (like the village hall or community centre), but even there a map in the location is a requirement now.  For anything else the “Locations” are next to useless.

One suggestion I have is that under the “Client” tab there is a drop-down list box entitled something like “link to” with a list of all other clients in it so you can choose who to link to as a couple – obviously if it was a new case you would have to enter one client & then set the link when you enter the second.

A second suggestion is that when adding a new client, there could be an additional menu item so rather than just “Add Client” as at present, it could show an additional entry “Add Couple” or something similar, which would lead to inputting one set of information for both clients & then going back in separately to add individual information applicable only to that specific client.

Whatever is done needs to be flexible enough that the two clients can be entered at different times as we had a case where we had one client for several months before that person’s spouse also required care and we have others likely to come up in the not so distant future.

These are the tabs in the client file on the database & what is needed for each:

Client:  to remain separate for each person (except for Telephone Number, Region & Care Manager which will need to be the same for both) – Also “Account Details” to be the same for both, but all other items to be separate.

Care Plan:  to remain separate for each person EXCEPT for the Regular Visit/Services which need an option “tick box” for each visit so as to share that specific visit with the other person (there are cases where one client has 2 visits per day & the other has 4 visits per day).

Contacts:  many of the contacts will be the same for both clients, but there may be specialist contacts applicable to only one of them, so an option “tick box” to link contacts with the other person seems an obvious solution.

Property:  this needs to be linked to both clients as they both live in it.

Schedule:  needs to be combined to reflect all the visits for both clients, although each visit will need to show who it is for.

Account:  to be combined for both clients under the same funder.

Invoices:  to be combined for both clients under the same funder.

Notes:  we need the ability to mark each separate note as applicable to one client or the other, or both.

MAR Chart:  definitely need to be separate MAR Charts for each client as one may need one & the other not or both may need them, but they are different for each.

Finally, when selecting the carer for visits the system needs to show & select either one or both of the clients AS A SINGLE VISIT and show the name(s) as appropriate for that visit.  This obviously needs to reflect in invoicing & payroll so the client is correctly invoiced & the carer(s) are correctly paid.

I hope you can get something rolling on this as it is causing us problems & needs to be resolved soon.