CMH66

We use Allegheny Software. We have used it on the office side for many years and have used it on the clinician level for the last 2 years. It is not perfect but it does work fine. Price is reasonable compared to alot out there and the staff is usually very helpful in fixing problems and answering questions. It is the only software I have used so I can't really give you a comparison to others.

We have been using Allegheny POC software for awhile now, I personally love it. Takes some time to get used to but once you learn the system I think it makes documentation quicker, no more problems with not being able to read handwriting, etc. Some of our nurses don't like it but they were not really open to the idea of change right from the start.

I wouldn't dream of signing an order that I did not take regardless of the setting, home health, hospital or other type of health care facility. If that order was misunderstood and there is any type of adverse event because of that error you would be the one responsible. Sounds like a bad way to do things, if for some reason a secretary takes an order as part of a message because I am away from desk or on another line I always call physician office back and verifty before I write the order.

We have one nurse(me) on call whenever the office is closed(4pm-8am mon-fri and all day/night on sat&sun), paid a daily rate of $20 to carry pager and respond to calls. We have a census of around 160. Some nights I don't get any calls, and some times I will get several a day. We try to advise patients/family on best course of action over the phone(reinforce the dressing, irrigate the blocked catheter, and if the catheter is completely out and they are able to void we wait until the next day to reinsert). On saturday/Sunday we have 2 RNs scheduled to work a 8am-4pm day(they may not have a full day scheduled but they are required to be available 8hrs), they are responsible for any daily visits that need to be done on the weekend plus any additional visits that come up during those hours. Visits that absolutely have to be done after normal hours are done on a volunteer basis based on geographic area--we cover 5 counties so it is a large area--if I get a call and a unplanned visit has to be done, I call the nurse that lives closest to that patient(rarely happens, maybe 1/month). If we have planned evening visits for BID IV antibiotic or PM insulin teaching, etc. we will ask nurses to "volunteer" based on a rotating schedule, usually the nurse living closest to the patient will take the majority of the evening visits needing to be covered. It seems to work for us. I like it because I can use the extra on call pay and I rarely have to go out to do a visit, and the other nurses are willing to go out when asked because they hate being tied to a pager 24/7

I work at a HH/Hospice agency in PA, and am responsible for coordinating all nursing schedules(I am also a nurse and spent many years on the road), current census is aprox 160 patients. Productivity is difficult to control, there are so many variables involved. In general nurses will have 5-6 regular visits/8hr day. I will try to limit it to 4 visits if one of them is a SOC/Recert or Resume. I will also try to do the same if one of the visits is an OASIS discharge but this is not always possible depending on staffing and the amount of visits to be covered in a day. We do require that all regular visit notes be submitted daily and all OASIS be completed in 5 days. Our RNs each function as case managers, they plan the visits thru out the cert period and are basically responsible for overseeing all care for their patients(a full time RN typically manages aprox 20 patients) day to day visits are usually done by the managing nurse. Each nurse hands in a list of patients needing visits for the next day, I then adjust those schedules to even out the work load(try to keep patients with their primary nurses but not always possible) admissions, recert/resume are assigned based on location and/or who has the lightest case load. Our nurses don't do much clerical, a secretary makes up charts, files, etc. Nurses are responsible for ordering supples for their patients, making all patient related calls/faxes to physician offices. Supervisor does all insurance auths. We are in a moderately rural area, covering 5 counties so it is not unusual to driver over 50 miles per day. We use laptops for majority of documentation.