We at AlayaCare are monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely and are committed to upholding the highest standards of client service and performance. Here’s what you need to know right now:

• Our top priority is the health of team members, clients and partners. 
• We do not anticipate any disruptions to our business or change in the service you have come to expect from us.  
• If you have in-person meetings scheduled with any member of our team, please know that we are prioritizing video-based calls and meetings and we have asked our employees to work from home. 

Your front-line staff have critical roles to play in delivering consistent, high-quality care to clients in their homes and they may be understandably nervous right now. Your administrative team at the home office likewise plays an essential role in maintaining client service, keeping the organization functioning in times of stress, and supporting those workers delivering care on the road.   

To support your staff as they prepare to care for clients during the COVID-19 outbreak, we’ve put together a list of tips and resources for your organizations that you can implement today.  

We will continue to keep you updated with any relevant information regarding our response to COVID-19. We also welcome your feedback on additional ways we can support you during this time and encourage you to reach out to your Service Manager or Relationship Manager with any questions or concerns.

Advice and Resources

The advice and resources are focused on: 

• Your employees – things you can do to help them deliver their work safely, tasks with forms sent to employees to self-screen, etc. 
• Your clients – things that you can do to deliver targeted care if resources become scarce. For example, our client/patient-facing interfaces such as our Remote Patient Monitoring app and Family Portal are a focus for AlayaCare. 

Certain AlayaCare features may be useful in keeping employees safe in the coming days and weeks:

1. Deploy Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) prior to visits: Consider initiating broad health and safety measure reminders via service instructions to caregivers. Daily activities or interventions can be built into care plans to ensure both employees and clients take precautions if the latter is at high-risk for COVID-19, or if the visit is a COVID-19 check itself. More information on how to do this is here and here. 
2. Tags, Risks and Emergency Risk Levels (ERLs): Use our Tags feature to quickly identify more vulnerable clients (e.g. those in higher-risk environments or quarantine) and our Emergency Risk Levels feature to highlight specific risk severity for any client. More information here.
3. Track COVID-19 policy training: Use our employee Skills feature to track staff who have been, or need to be trained on the agency’s policy on COVID-19. More information here. 
4. Track field staff who are ill: It may become difficult to manually track field staff who are at work or home or ill. You can create a new time off/unavailability type specifically for this purpose. Set up a special pay code for any quarantined staff members. More information here.
5. Using AlayaCare from home: AlayaCare is a web-based software as a service product available anywhere. If you choose, your staff have the flexibility to coordinate and schedule your clients from home. We find using webex and instant messaging tools helpful in coordinating work from home and between offices. 
   

Watch the AlayaCare COVID-19 Webinar Recording

Download the Step-by-Step Guide for Creating COVID-19 Screeners for Employees
and Clients in AlayaCare

Download the COVID-19 Self Screening Assessment Form [Employee Cheat Sheet]

{{ script_embed(‘wistia’, ‘czlslf0abz’, ‘, ‘, ‘inline,responsive’, ”wistia’, ‘czlslf0abz’, ‘, ‘, ‘inline,responsive”) }}How do I manage caregivers coming back to work after showing symptoms of COVID-19?

If you wish to require caregivers to complete a COVID-19 Post-Illness Assessment before returning to work after showing symptoms of the coronavirus, you can create the form in AlayaCare and assign it to them as a task once your organization has deemed them eligible to return to work. Follow the steps below to implement a workflow for integrating caregivers that have been sick back into your agency’s workforce. 

Read the step-by-step instructions here

How do I build a COVID-19 time off report in Data Exploration?

Building a COVID-19 time off report will help your organization facilitate the process of screening employees as they return to work following a possible or confirmed case of the coronavirus. You should build this report in the availability cube after creating a special COVID-19 time off type to keep track of employees that have days off remaining with that time off type.

Read the step-by-step instructions here

How to complete the Mandatory COVID-19 Screening Assessment within AlayaCare’s Mobile Application

COVID-19 Contact Tracking

AlayaCare is currently developing a COVID-19 Contact Tracking service to help our customers track those who may have come in contact with a positive client, employee or facility. Available in Beta this week, customers can provide us with a list of AlayaCare IDs and a time range for us to identify the web of contact of that client/employee/facility with up to 3 degrees of separation. Our team will then provide you the report in your Operations Reports. We will be in touch soon with more details on how to take advantage of this feature. Please reach out to your CRM/CSM if you have any questions in the meantime.

Depending on your workflows you might consider using the following features in Procura:

Several organizations made the decision to compensate quarantined staff at an amount that is equivalent to what they have commonly been paid in recent payroll runs. This can be accomplished manually, however should the volume of staff grow, please contact your account manager to discuss methods to use specialized Attendance Types, Availability, workflow, scheduling and Timekeeping for this purpose that might be suitable to your organization from a policy and payment perspective. Review the process here. 

Procura CS customers can also access their scheduling workflows from home if necessary. See the guidelines in the documents below:

Procura COVID-19 Home Assessment Workflow

Depending on your workflows you might consider using the following features in Arrow:

We recommend you refer to the following reports to assist in supporting clients and staff:

1.      Client/Employee date of birth (can sort by age)
2.     Clients information sheet
3.     Employee List with Lang/Zip (Act/Inact)
4.    Clients on hold with summary
5.   Employees Absent
6.    Absent Employees with Schedules
7.    Appointments by Time
8.  Deleted Schedule Appointments Report

SMS Text Blasts: Arrow can send out a daily text blast (or at your preferred frequency) to your employees and request they contact the office if they or their patients have any change in status. Examples: 

• COVID-19- Respiratory Status- Call office immediately if there are any changes in your or your patient’s respiratory status (cough, sore throat, fever, or shortness of breath).  
• COVID-19 Travel Status- Have you or your patient traveled to a CDC Level 2 or 3 travel designation country for COVID-19 within the last 14 days? If so, please call office ASAP 
• COVID-19 Contact Status- Have you or your patient had contact with any persons under investigation for or with known COVID-19 in the last 14 days? If so, call office ASAP. 

Additionally, we can help you setup templates to send further messages to your employees, whenever needed. For example, to cancel in-services: 

• COVID-19 In-service Cancellation – due to the coronavirus outbreak all in-services are now canceled until further noticed. Please call the office to confirm receipt. 

We also can setup a training session to show your staff how to setup templates so they can send text messages to some or all your aides. 

There are several areas that you might want to update to gather data for COVID– 19, including:

Arrow features update to help gather data re: COVID–19:  There are several areas within Arrow that you can update workflows to gather data for COVID– 19, including:

Absence Reasons, Referral Discharge, Replacement Reason, Schedule Deleted Reasons, On Call Reasons (these control “Issuses” in the Notes/Contact Log for Clients and Employees) 

You can add a new code named “COVID– 19” or  “State of Emergency” or whatever your agency thinks best.  

Arrow’s Deleted Schedule Appointments Report will give you data for your newly created Deleted Reason. 

Arrow has added reason filters to 3 additional reports. These reports are: 

• Employee Replacement 
• Clients On Hold with Summary
• Employees Absence

See step-by-step instructions for editing drop downs in Arrow

See step-by-step instructions for new Employee Compliance Options

Resources 

Respiratory Screener & Positive Screen Algorithm for Home & Community Care Staff: The Home Care Ontario Association has circulated this updated, bilingual respiratory screener developed by Ontario Health for COVID-19. You can create a form version of the screener in the AlayaCare platform, accessible to staff on mobile.

• COVID-Respiratory Screener (ENG)
• Positive Screen Algorithm (ENG)
• COVID-Respiratory Screener (FR)
• Positive Screen Algorithm (FR)

Mobile App use: Here are some best practices on keeping devices clean in the field as recommended by Apple, Samsung and Google 

Again, we will continue to keep you updated with any relevant information regarding our response to COVID-19. We also welcome your feedback on ways we can help you during this uncertain time. 

Partner Solutions 

Over the past couple weeks, AlayaCare’s partners have been working hard to develop new ways to contribute to and support the home and community care industry during the COVID-19 crisis. See below the partner solutions and resources available to date. To learn more about these offerings and resources, please reach out to your AlayaCare team.

       
Home Care Pulse helps home care agencies survey their clients and caregivers to gather satisfaction insights that enable them to identify their blind spots, retain caregivers, provide better care, and achieve long-term growth. 

How they can help:

• Repositioning eNPS/NPS call teams in order to offer pre-visit client phone screening for COVID-19​
• Currently available free of charge for agencies that are clients of both AlayaCare and Home Care Pulse​
• Free COVID-19 Caregiver Training

Rubi Works builds integrations and products to help home care agencies address their business needs, solve problems, improve business processes, and optimize workflows.

How they can help:

• Repurposing the SMS Visit Reminder tool they are developing to be an on-demand notification tool for clients to be able to broadcast messages to employees via SMS
• AlayaCare clients can inquire about implementing this on-demand notification tool today

CareAcademy is a mobile-friendly caregiver learning management platform that delivers interpersonal and technical skills training. Their mobile platform delivers state-approved, video-based classes that promote active learning and cultivates skilled caregivers, contributing to better client outcomes.​

How they can help:

• Free Certification Class – COVID-19: A Guide for Direct Care Workers
• COVID-19 Webinar – Friday, March 27th onwards – Live online supportive roundtable for home care agency owners and their caregivers – Each week until the pandemic subsides, CareAcademy is going to ask the questions you need help answering

Nevvon is an intuitive and user-centric education and training platform for caregivers that entails both a mobile app solution and advanced online education system. ​

How they can help:

• Real-time COVID-19 training – Free training for home care workers on the Coronavirus

Samsung helps you discover a wide range of home electronics with cutting-edge technology including smartphones, tablets, TVs, home appliances and more.​

How they can help:

• Samsung Healthcare Appreciation Program – Samsung is implementing a discounted device program for Canadian home care agencies and healthcare organizations​
• 10-15% off participating Samsung models (valid from April 1, 2020 – June 30, 2020)​
• For more information, contact Scott King – [email protected]

Kno2 provides an interoperability platform across various patient care setting. Kno2’s Interoperability as a Service turns on connectivity to millions of healthcare providers and the capability to send, receive, find, and use patient information with everyone. Kno2’s IaaS enables access to providers via cloud faxing, patient information query, etc. ​

How they can help:

• Kno2 is providing record retrieval that allows query only access to care providers’ EHRs via the Carequality network across the US during the COVID-19 crisis

Checked In Care is a leader in the innovative use of technology that enables aged care providers to achieve higher revenues and efficiencies. Care Cohort™ is their flagship product that includes but not limited to a comprehensive family portal.​

How they can help:

• Free Coronavirus App for Aged Care Facilities to Communicate Instantly with Families and Staff​
• In response to the pandemic, Checked In Care re-configured their Connect App platform to enable a COVID-19 App to be made available to Australian Aged Care Providers free of charge
  

Hireology offers an all-in-one hiring and talent management platform for businesses of all sizes. Their platform enables home care agencies to centralize their hiring processes to save time, streamline operations, and build their best team.

How they can help:

• Hireology is offering a free ready-to-go resource centre for health care 

Soutenir votre personnel durant cette période de COVID-19

Chez AlayaCare, nous suivons attentivement la situation du Covid-19 et tenons à respecter lesnormes les plus strictes en ce qui a trait au service à la clientèle et à la performance. Voici ceque vous devez savoir :

• Notre plus grande priorité demeure la santé de nos collègues, de nos clients et de nos partenaires.  
• Nous n’anticipons pas de perturbations au sein de la compagnie ou de changements dans leniveau de service auquel vous vous attendez de nous.  
• Si vous avez des rencontres en personne prévues avec des membres de notre personnel, sachez que nous privilégierons les appels et rencontres via des plate-formes vidéo.  

Votre personnel de première ligne joue un rôle crucial dans la prestation régulière de soins dequalité à domicile et il est tout à fait normal que ce personnel soit nerveux en ce moment.Votre équipe de gestion joue également un rôle important dans le maintien des services aux client en permettant à l’organisation de continuer à fonctionner en temps de stress et en soutenant les employés dans la prestation de soins sur la route.  

Pour soutenir votre personnel qui se prépare à prendre soin de clients en ce temps d’épidémie de COVID-19, nous avons créé pour vous une liste de conseils et de ressources qui peuvent être mises en place au sein de votre organisation.  

Nous vous tiendrons informés de tout nouveau changement dans notre réponse au COVID-19. Comme d’habitude, nous vous invitons à nous faire part de vos commentaires et de vos idées quant à la façon que AlayaCare peut vous soutenir ces temps-ci. N’hésitez pas à me contacter ou à rejoindre votre Gestionnaire Client.  

Conseils et ressources 

Les conseils et ressources mettent l’emphase sur: 

• Vos employé(e)s – ce que vous pouvez faire pour les aider à travailler de manière sécuritaire, des tâches avec formulaires envoyées aux employé(e)s pour des auto-examens, etc. 
• Vos clients – ce que vous pouvez faire pour offrir des soins ciblés si les ressources devenaient rares. Par exemple, nous mettons l’emphase sur nos interfaces pour les clients/patients telles que le Portail Famille ou l’application de Suivi des patients à distance.  

Certaines fonctionnalités de AlayaCare peuvent s’avérer utiles pour permettre de garder les employés en sécurité dans les jours et semaines à venir:

1. L’utilisation d‘équipements de protection individuelle avant les visites: prenez en considération la mise en place de rappel de mesures de santé et sécurité via des mémos internes aux prestataires de soins. Des activités quotidiennes et des interventions peuvent être ajoutées aux plans de soins pour s’assurer que les employés et les clients prennent les précautions nécessaires si les clients sont des personnes à haut risque pour le COVID-19 ou si la visite est pour une évaluation de COVID-19. Vous trouverez plus d’informations sur comment procéder ici et ici (contenu en anglais pour le moment).  
2. Étiquettes, risques et niveau de risque d’urgence: Utiliser nos Étiquettes dans le logiciel pour identifier les patients vulnérables (par exemple, qui vivent dans des environnements à haut risque ou en quarantaine) et nos niveaux de risque d’urgence pour documenter la gravité des dangers pour chaque client. Plus d’informations ici.
3. Surveiller les employés malades: Il peut s’avérer difficile de suivre à la trace manuellement les employés de terrain qui sont à la maison, au travail ou malade. Vous pouvez créer un nouveau type de suivi de temps pour les cas de congés ou non-disponibilité. Vous pouvez aussi configurer un code de paye spécial pour tout personnel mis en quarantaine. 
4. La section des habiletés peut vous permettre de faire le suivi du personnel ayant reçu la formation sur la politique de réponse à la COVID-19 de la compagnie ou du personnel nécessitant la formation. 
5. Suivi des patients à distance: Si vous utilisez notre application de suivi des patients à distance, vous pouvez créer un questionnaire d’examen dans le processus autonome d’auto-évaluation de santé. 
6. Utilisez AlayaCare à la maison: AlayaCare est un produit infonuagique offert partout et en tout temps via un modèle SaaS. Si vous le désirez, votre personnel peut  être en mesure de coordonner ses clients et visites depuis leur domicile. Des solutions comme Webex et autres outils de messagerie instantanée sont à notre avis utiles dans la coordination des services depuis la maison et entre les bureaux de services.  

Selon vos processus de travail, vous pourriez peut-être considérer les fonctionnalités suivantes dans Procura: 

Plusieurs organisations ont décidé de compenser le personnel mis en quarantaine avec un montant équivalent à celui reçu en moyenne sur les dernières payes. Ceci peut être effectué manuellement. Cependant, dans le contexte où le nombre d’employés en quarantaine s’accroîtrerait, veuillez contacter votre gestionnaire client. Vous pourrez discuter de comment comment utiliser des codes spéciaux pour les types d’assiduité, de disponibilité, de processus, de planification d’horaire et de suivi de temps qui seront plus adéquats pour votre organisation d’un point de vue de paiement et politiques internes.  

Ressources 

Examen respiratoire et algorithme d’examen positif pour les prestataires de soins communautaires et à domicile: L’Association des Soins à domicile de l’Ontario a distribué cette mise à jour bilingue de l’examen respiratoire développé par Santé Ontario pour la COVID-19. Vous pouvez créer une version formulaire dans la plate-forme de AlayaCare et la rendre accessible à tout le personnel via l’application mobile.  

Utilisation de l’application mobile: Voici quelques pratiques exemplaires pour conserver les appareils mobiles propres sur le terrain, tel que recommandé par Apple, Samsung et Google 

Encore une fois, soyez assurés que nous vous tiendrons informés de tout nouveau changement dans notre réponse à la COVID-19. Comme d’habitude, nous vous invitons à nous faire part de vos commentaires sur les moyens que nous pouvons prendre pour vous soutenir et vous aider en ces temps incertains.