Care Management in Assisted Living

PALs software supports the following 5-step process of Care Management (or Case Management) in Assisted Living Settings.

1. Resident Assessment - To identify resident needs. In most states an RN does this assessment, other states permit a "manager's assessment".

2. Service Negotiation - identifying which assessed needs will be met and how. Also, resident "wants" may be added.

3. Service Plan or Agreement - a signed agreement between the Assisted Living Provider and the Resident (or their representative) identifying the services to be provided to meet both resident needs and wants. These services will customized for the resident, and will provided at a stated time and frequency (daily or weekly or...). Finally, the cost of these services will be itemized (or combined into a monthly package).

4. The Service Plan is supervised on some schedule, based on agency policies, or state licensing requirements. In many states where services may involve delegated nursing, the services are supervised more frequently the services that are not delegated. The most common nursing delegated service is medication administration. The purpose of the regular plan supervision is to determine if the current plan is meeting the resident's needs and preferences. If there is a change in condition, a new assessment and service plan may be negotiated.

5. Re-Assessment. The may start the process anew. Most states require an annual physician review that most providers precede by a nursing assessment which accompanies the resident. In this way, the physician and Care Manager are coordinating services.

PALs supports the above process in the following ways.

1. Assessment templates are provided for Care Managers that can be edited to fit their preferences, program specialties, and state requirements.

2 & 3. Service Planning is supported by selecting services from approved services based on licensure then customizing the service for the individual resident based on the resident assessment and “wants”. These services are assigned to a shift and scheduled for a specific time and day(s). This same information is used to create a Resident Agreement to be signed, shift assignment sheets, service documentation forms, and invoices.

4. Based on the services provided, if they are Nurse Delegated or not, and state licensing requirements, PALs will compute the date for the next plan supervision. PALs also provides a plan supervision form, for the nurse to document their finding regarding the appropriateness of the plan to the residents current health care needs and preferences, staff competence in providing the service, and resident’s evaluation of the service provision. Also the service documentation forms may be reviewed noting any variations (added or cancelled services). Based on the date of this interview, the next plan supervision is computed. So the nurse may print an up-to-date plan supervision schedule at any time.

5. Finally, at the time of physician review, at least annually by regulations, the nurse is again prompted by PALs to complete a re-assessment prior to the physician visit and PALs will print a form summarizing the nurse's recommendations and current treatments and medications for physician review and signature. A list of upcoming required physician visits can be printed at any time.

The above process has proven effective in meeting state requirements as reflected in state surveys.

For more information, visit our website at www.PALsSoftware.com and consider downloading a trial version.

Vaccination Record

PALs has updated its software to make Resident Medical Records easier to enter and access for the following components.

Diagnoses / Allergies / Medical Appointments and Changes / Vaccinations.

Print reports for any or all of the above for any date range entered.

PALs, the leader in Assisted Living Software, just keeps getting better with age!

Pennsylvania Assisted Living Forms

PALs has added Pensylvania's Adult Residential Licensing forms to its library of assessments and forms.

Personal Care Home Assessment - 55 Pa.Code 2600.225
Personal Care Home Support Plan - 2600.227
Resident Medical Evaluation - 55 Pa.Code 2600.141

Please contact our office for copies of these forms, or better yet, visit our website and download our FREE Trial.

PALs, the leader in Assisted Living Software, just keeps getting better with age!

Building Manager

PALs has updated it's building manager program to make it more user friendly.

The building manager is a program to create Work Orders related to apartments or other assets (like equipment or buildings).

These Work Orders are assigned to a shift (generally maintenance or housekeeping) for either a specific time and date or repeating. In the latter case, a task can be entered once and repeated on either a weekly, monthly, or ___ (enter Number) of days to repeat-cyle.

A task list is printed for a specific date or range of dates, for staff to complete. Completed tasks are checked off, and any monetary charges recorded and staff time documented.

For Example. If a resident calls down with a request to fix a leaky faucet, a one-time Work Order is completed and entered into the system.

If the North Stairway needs to be swept and mopped every Wednesday, that is entered into the system to repeat on every Wednesday.

If Furnace filters need to be replaced every 6 months, that is entered to repeat every 180 days (30x6).

Print Work Orders daily, and each of the above will print on the correct date.

PALs, the leader in Assisted Living Software, just keeps getting better with age!

iPhone and PALs

I just bought an iPhone, and let me tell you, the entire experience was a joy.

First of all, the sales staff were delightful, informed and loved their product. It was infectious. They took the time orient me about the phone, then I was off on an adventure. And soon downloaded my first app from the app store.

And here is where I want to link the iPhone to PALs. I wanted to be able to access PALs from my iPhone. No problem, "there is an app for that". I downloaded iTap RDP, and in no time at all, I was using PALs on my new iPhone. FANTASTIC!

I know other smart phones can do this also, if running windows mobile v5 or higher. But my experience with the iPhone was just too good not to share.

PALs, the leader in Assisted Living Software, just keeps getting better with age!