Home visits are also conducted in the fields of education, early childhood development, social services, and real estate, but this article will focus on the medical house call. It briefly discusses:
What is a Home Visit Checklist?
A home visit checklist is a tool used by medical professionals when conducting house calls. It helps ensure that all aspects of a home visit are checked and that they are in line with the goal of the home visit, which is to address the medical concerns of the patient and improve overall patient care.
The Benefits of Home Visits
Only around 13% of doctors in the US currently conduct home visits, but the demand for the practice is expected to increase due to the aging population. Home visits have advantages over conventional medical appointments done at the doctor’s office. Below are the three main benefits.
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Home visits help improve patient care and prevent more serious and possibly more expensive medical issues. Medical practitioners that visit patients’ homes can help address patient mobility and safety and assess the patient’s living conditions. By observing a patient’s daily routine, the medical practitioner can recommend modifications that address the patient’s needs. Patients in a house-call program report to have fewer hospitalizations and visits to the emergency room.
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Home visits contribute to higher levels of patient satisfaction. Patients save time and enjoy doctor’s appointments in the comfort of their own home, instead of having to go out and wait for their turn at the doctor’s office.
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The medical practitioners who conduct house calls are reportedly more satisfied with their medical practice and have a more positive attitude for conducting home visits than those who do not.
Types of Home Visits
Home visits are tailored according to the needs of the patient. Here are the 4 types of home visits that address the needs not only of the patients but also of their family members and help create an environment conducive to providing quality patient care.
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For this type of home visit, the medical professional visits the patient to assess the illness and provide appropriate care. These visits are usually done for patients with acute or chronic illness.
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This is conducted for terminally ill patients who are at home so the health practitioner can provide palliative care and make conditions as comfortable as possible for the patient and family members. Medical professionals also provide emotional support to the coping family members of the dying patient.
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The medical professional assesses the patient’s living conditions and aims to ensure that the home is safe and conducive to the well-being of the patient.
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This type of home visit is for follow-up of major events such as the birth of a baby or after treatment of a major illness or post-surgery. This home visit helps the patient and family members cope and ensure that the home is made ideal for patient care.
Components of Home Visits
The objective of home visits is to provide medical service at your doorsteps. According to 2013 home visits health care benchmark, the following are the top components of home visits:
- Medication Reconciliation – is a process of accurate listing of patient’s medication that has been compared to medical orders or patient’s records.
- Clinical Assessment – is a process of diagnosing, evaluating, and planning treatment for patients who have psychological problems.
- Patient / Caregiver Education – caregivers provide all-around support to the patient’s needs including personal assistance.
- Fall Assessment – is a process of evaluating the likelihood of falling for elderly patients.
Home Visits Inspection Tool
With a lot to cover during home visits, medical professionals need to be prepared even before heading out for house calls so they can appropriately address medical concerns. Using paper home visit checklists get in the way of delivering seamless patient care and use time that could have been better spent addressing the concerns of patients. With the iAuditor app on your iPad, smartphone, or other mobile device, you can:
In private surgical practices, pre-operative checklists and post-operative checklists are commonly used by admin staff. It forms an important part of documenting the needs and requirements for a patient who is having an upcoming procedure.
In this article, our Professional Education Manager, Cheryl Ladikos, outlines the guiding principles for having a pre-op and post-op checklist, why it’s important, and how to effectively create these checklists that is tailored for each individual practice.
Whether you’re a New Fellow, Practice Manager or Business Manager, it is important to develop tools that your admin staff can use and one of the common tools of a surgical practice is a pre-op checklist and post-op checklist. These checklists, often combined into one, can help practices to prepare a patient for an upcoming procedure. It follows the patient’s journey from start to finish and focuses on health and safety. These checklists also become a vital communication tool and auditing trail in a patient’s medical record.
What are the guiding principles in pre- and post-operative care?
Based on my experience as a Practice Manager, I believe there are three guiding principles in developing the most effective pre- and post-op care:
Guiding Principle 1: Understand Perioperative Care
Perioperative care is the care given to patients before, during, and after surgery and can take place in a hospital, day surgery or within a private practice. Perioperative care generally includes three stages:
- Pre-operative
- Intra-operative
- Post-operative
In most cases, it is the first and third stage that is used in a private practice as the intra-operative stage is managed within a hospital environment.
The aim of understanding perioperative care is to provide better conditions for a patient before a procedure takes place. By collecting information prior to surgery, a practice can make better decisions about advanced care planning. This also helps patients to prepare for surgery, whether physically or emotionally.
Nurses play an important role in the care of their patients. The care provided should be competent, holistic and evidenced based and must consider the patient’s emotional and psychological responses, as described in this HealthTimes article.
Guiding Principle 2: Understand Your Patient’s Needs
When developing a pre- and post-operative checklist for your practice, it is first and foremost about your patient. Your patient is entrusting the Surgeon with a procedure which is to improve or promote better health outcomes and your practice has a duty of care to ensure that the procedure will run smoothly. Your patients have different experiences, and you need to prepare them physically and emotionally and to ensure that they are well-informed prior to surgery.
- Patient – what information do you need from your patient so that safe care is provided? What information do you need to provide to your patient so that they are well-informed about their upcoming procedure?
Guiding Principle 3: Understand Other Stakeholder Needs
By adopting patient-centric care, you must then consider the needs and requirements that fulfill all these important stakeholders:
- Surgeon – what does the Surgeon need to perform the procedure effectively and safely?
- Anaesthetist – what information do they need to know about the patient for safe choice and dosage of anaesthesia?
- Assistant Surgeon - not all procedures require an Assistant Surgeon however, if needed, what information do they need to know about your patient so that they can effectively and safely assist the Surgeon?
- Hospital Theatre – what information do they need to know about your patient and the Surgeon’s needs, to ensure a safe operating environment?
Why is a pre- and post-op checklist important?
Pre-op and post-op checklists are an important communication tool used within private surgical practices for each patient having an upcoming procedure. It is important for administrative staff to be aware of these tools and how to use them effectively, as it is not just a list with tick boxes. These checklists are important because it becomes an auditing trail to demonstrate how your practice has effectively prepared for the health and safety of your patient’s upcoming surgical procedure.
How can I create a pre- and post-op checklist?
The following list provides information about how you can create a pre- and post-op checklist:
- Pre- and post-op checklist templates needs to be tailored for each individual practice.
- Create a template which can be used for all procedures, rather than a checklist for each procedure.
- Ask the Surgeon and Anaesthetist[s] to find out what are the common key questions that they need to have answered prior to surgery.
- Develop rapport with your Hospital Admissions or Theatre Managers and find out what information they would like to obtain from your practice.
- Draft a list and formulate the questions in a chronological order, making sure that each question is easily understood by admin staff.
- Create your final list into your practice management software, if it has the capability of creating Checklist Templates like in Clinic to Cloud.
- Educate your staff about using the checklist for each procedure, and how to use it.
For a list of commonly asked questions, click on this link to download a copy of our Private Practice Pre-Op and Post-Op Checklist Guide.
For more information on Clinic to Cloud, click here or contact us today.