According to comScore Reports, 129.4 million Americans owned a smart as of January this year.  As smartphone adoption continues to grow, the demand and ability for your employees to document service provision via a mobile device will also grow.  And if you're using an agency management platform, this change in how documentation is recorded will be an easy one.  Now, it should be noted that providing smartphones to all of your employees may not be the answer.  If you read our report on technology investments, we lay out a couple of different options.  But, if you think arming your staff with mobile devices or even allowing them to use their own is an option, here are 3 ways that mobile documentation is better than paper.

In our last post we talked about the risk of getting fined for an audit because of incorrect or missing documentation.  Getting fined is a very good impetus to move to a computer system for your dd agency.  But, unless you enjoy feeling the pain of a fine, there are other signs that it might be time to go electronic.  

One of the biggest areas of concern when looking at dd provider software is the cost.  The cost of the software is obviously important in the decision making process but to zoom out, what does the investment look like in terms of purchasing computers, tablets and smartphones?  Also, what type of technology works best in home and community based settings?  With our experience, we have seen the type of technology that works best in the different settings.  Again, it's not just the software that's important - how your employees access it is crucial as well.  Below is a guide to help you understand the type of technology investments you'll need with dd provider software, or more commonly known as agency management platforms.

The idea of moving from a paper based agency to a computer system seems overwhelming for most providers.  It is definitely an exercise in change management as we have recently written about.  One of the pluses to getting everything off of paper and into a system is the ability to track everything in one platform.  Before, with paper, you could track things on forms or in different binders but that information is basically trapped on the paper.  If you stop and think about everything that you track for a client, from service notes to emergency contacts to units authorized, if you were tracking that in a single system as opposed to pieces of paper you would have tremendous data on every client you served and be better able to serve that client.  So to answer the title of this blog post, you can track everything that you're tracking now on paper.  The only difference is you can do a lot more with the information once you've noted it.  Let's examine some areas of tracking.