Care Plan

The Care Plan is a tool that allows you to specify what tasks need to be done for a Client. With this, Caregivers can know exactly what activities they need to do during a Shift. The Care Plan makes use of the Skills list, using established Skills and applying them as tasks, which print out on the Care Plan. As such, to use the Care Plan function, Skills must be properly configured first (see Skills).

Setting Up Care Plans

To use this feature, it must first be configured. Here's how to set up Care Plan items:

First go to the Skills Configuration form (File->Configuration->Skills), the same place you went to set up Skills initially (see Skills).

In the Skills Configurations form you'll see that there are checkboxes next to all the Skills and Categories. Click to check the boxes of any Skills you want to be made available for inclusion in Care Plans. You can also check whole Categories or Subcategories. You'll notice that when you've checked a Skill, empty brackets will appear to the right of the Skill to indicate that it is available on Care Plans. These indicators will be present in any Skills list you view.

Figure 118: Skills Configuration form, indicating which should be Care Plan items

Making Care Plans

To establish a care plan for a Client, first find the Client (using the Person Finder or a Client List) then click the Care Plan button which will take you to their Skills for Service form. Because you reached this form by clicking the Care Plan button, the Show only Care Plan [] box will automatically be checked so the only Skills shown are Skills that are available as Care Plan items. Any Care Plan-enabled Skill that has been selected here automatically will be added to the Care Plan for that service. Now it is just a matter of setting the Level of Care required and the Frequency.

When you select a Skill to configure for the Care Plan you'll notice that configuration options become available below the Skills list.

Figure 119: Configuration area

Level of Care

First you must determine how much assistance the Caregiver will need to provide on a given Skill/task. There are three options: The first, Self Care indicates that the Client can, for the most part, perform the task on their own, they simply need someone to be there to make sure nothing goes wrong. The second, Assist indicates that the client can perform the task, but to a limited extent and will need some assistance from the Caregiver. The third, Total Support indicates that the client is incapable of performing the task and will need the Caregiver to do it for them. Simply click on the corresponding button to select the desired option.

You also have the choice of not specifying the level of support by not selecting any of the options. If you already have selected one, you can click on the selected circle again to blank it out.

Frequency

The second thing to configure is the frequency with which the given Skill/task should be performed. There is a combination drop-down menu and text box for setting the frequency. You can choose from the list or add a new one just by typing the name in the box. Once you've typed it, it will remain in the list for future use.

As with the level of support, you have the option to not specify the Frequency. You can do this by either not selecting any of the options to begin with or by highlighting the currently selected option and pressing the backspace button on your keyboard.

Viewing and Printing Care Plans

To view the Care Plan for a Client, first find the Client (either using the Person Finder or in a Client's list). Then, making sure that Client is selected, go to File->Print Client. From here you will have the option to select from among 3 printing options, one of which will be the Care Plan. Just click on Care Plan and either print it or preview it in Word.

Figure 120: Preview or Print Care Plan

Figure 121: Preview of a Care Plan printout