Two residents, two pairs of aids, one mix-up
A care home rings. A resident's aids have gone missing, or perhaps they are in another resident's room. Night staff took them out, day staff put them back, and nobody is sure whose are whose. The clinic fitted both residents, but the notes are in two patient files and the serial numbers are not to hand.
Hearing clinics that support care homes deal with this kind of call regularly. The clinical work at each visit is straightforward. It is the record-keeping around it, across staff shifts and several homes, that causes the trouble.
Why care home records fall apart
- Resident details are held per patient, not grouped by home, so the clinic has no quick list for a visit.
- The home's staff change shifts and do not know which aids belong to whom or how to look after them.
- Requests from the home arrive by phone to whoever answers, and are not logged.
- Visit outcomes are written in the clinic's notes, but the home only hears about them by word of mouth.
- Who pays for batteries, repairs and replacements differs by resident and is not recorded clearly.
What it costs the clinic and the residents
Lost aids are expensive and distressing for families. Time on visits is spent working out whose aids are whose rather than helping residents. The home's manager is frustrated when requests seem to disappear. And invoicing is messy when some residents pay privately, some families pay, and the home pays for others.
| Record | Who needs it | What we keep |
|---|---|---|
| Resident and their aids | Clinic and home | Name, room, device models, serial numbers, left and right |
| Care notes for staff | Home | Charging or battery routine, how to insert, in plain words |
| Requests | Clinic | Logged with date, resident and who asked |
| Visit outcomes | Home and family | Short summary after each visit |
| Who pays | Clinic accounts | Payer per resident and per item type |
How we build it
- A register for each care home lists its residents who use your service, their aids with serial numbers and colour or marking, and the payer for each type of work.
- The home gets a simple request form or email address that logs requests against the resident, so nothing depends on who picked up the phone.
- Before a visit, the clinician sees the home's open requests and each resident's devices on a tablet.
- During the visit, outcomes are recorded per resident: checked, cleaned, repair collected, replaced, and any consumables used.
- After the visit, the home receives a short summary for its staff, and families who have asked to be informed receive an update, where consent is on file.
- A one-page care sheet per resident, in plain words from your clinical team, can be printed for the home to keep in the resident's room.
- Charges are grouped by payer and pushed to your accounts package, such as Xero or QuickBooks, as draft invoices for checking.
The register sits alongside your practice management system and uses its patient records where it can, so residents are not duplicated.
What the care home relationship looks like afterwards
The home's manager has one place to send requests and receives a clear note after each visit. Staff on any shift can look at a resident's care sheet. The clinician arrives with a list and leaves with everything recorded. When aids go missing, the serial numbers and markings are to hand, which makes finding or replacing them simpler. Invoicing follows the payer rules rather than guesswork.
Is care home work getting messy?
- You support several care homes and have no list of residents by home.
- Homes phone with requests that are not always logged.
- Aids go missing or are swapped between residents.
- The home's staff do not hear what happened at your visit.
- Invoicing care home work takes longer than doing it.