Relationships Module Glossary

Owned by Chris vanderHeide
Last updated: Apr 15, 2016
15 min read

Demographics

Profile

Edit the demographic information for the person or organization.

Status

View or edit the status history for the person or organization.

Communication

Specify telephone numbers and email addresses to contact the person or organization.

Languages

Indicate the Language(s) spoken by the person or organization.

Classifications

Classifications are descriptors used to describe or group people in your system. A person can have an unlimited number of Classifications attached to their profile. Use the Classifications that are attached to people to filter or group the information displayed in the Find Area portion of the screen.

Secondary Addresses

If a person or organization has a secondary address (such as a P.O. box), this should be recorded to guarantee that optimum communication will take place.

EXAMPLE: A Clients’s home address is different from their mailing address where invoices are sent. In this case, their primary address should be their home address and the mailing address is added under Secondary Addresses. Secondary Addresses may be chosen as the location in events or in Billing Options as an override for mailing invoices.

External IDs

(Clients, Caregivers & Office Staff tabs only)

View or edit External IDs for the person or organization. External IDs are ID numbers for external programs like Billing and Payroll export interfaces.

Relationships

View, add or edit relationships to the person or organization.

Mobile Security

(Clients, Caregivers & Office Staff tabs only)

Enter Mobile Credentials for the selected person to enable them to access their schedule information on their Android or iOS phone or tablet.

(Cloud users only.)

Care Plan

(Client tab only)

Modify Care Plan

Show the Care Plan items and related care plan notes in tabs in the Main Display portion of the screen.

Care Plan Report

Print the Client’s plan of care. This report can include the Client’s general Care Plan information as well as information about their Authorizations and Care Plan items specified on each individual Authorization.

(Optional) Include signature lines on the Care Plan for the Client, their physician, the primary Caregiver, and your Office Staff person who is the Client Manager. The signed document may be kept on file as an official care agreement between the Client and your office.

Care Plan Summary

View a summary list of all information related to the Client’s plan of care in a grouped list of items.

View Individual Care Plan Sections 

Home/Health Evaluation

Add items that describe a Client’s condition(s) or other items related to their health. For example, you might wish to identify that they have an allergy to a particular food or drug. These Health items are informational only, and can be included on the Care Plan Report.

The list of Health items is maintained in the User Defined Information Module.

Duties to Perform

A Client’s Care Plan provides detailed information about the type of care the Client requires. Care Plan Duties can be specific tasks that must be performed, or important informational items about a Client’s condition that impact upon the care provided. 

Only general care information should be added here. This is information that applies to all caregivers who visit the Client.

Additional Care Plan information can be added to specific Authorizations to customize the care information for specific services.

The list of Care Plan Duties is maintained in the User Defined Information Module.

Medications

Record information about medications the Client is taking, including the dosage amount and frequency. If your caregivers dispense medication to the Client as part of their care, using the Care Plan to record accurate information about the medications required is very important.

Skills

Recording the Skills needed by a Client is driven by the type of care the Client requires. Skills added to a Client’s profile or Authorization represent the Skills that a Caregiver must possess to work with this Client. The Skills that a Caregiver has, and those needed by a Client, have great impact on the scheduling process. While the Call Type represents the type of service to be performed, each Client and Authorization may also have unique specific requirements. The system can match the Client’s needs to a Caregiver’s skills.

There are two types of Skills you can add to a Client and Caregiver profiles. These are Critical Skills and Regular Skills.

Critical Skills are Skills that a Caregiver must have in order to work a Schedule requiring those Skills. Critical Skills are used by the Caregiver Suggestion tool to filter out Caregivers who do not meet the requirements to work with a particular client. You cannot save a Caregiver to a Schedule unless they possess all of the Critical Skills required by the Client and/or Authorization.

Regular Skills are less important, but still desired to work with the Client. The percentage of Regular Skills matching between a Client and Caregiver is seen in the Caregiver Suggestion form. Missing Regular Skills does not prevent a Caregiver from being scheduled.

Skills required by a Client may be Client-Specific or Authorization-Specific.

Client-Specific Skills are added directly to the Client. These Skills are always needed by the Client, no matter what service is being performed.

Authorization-Specific Skills are added directly to an Authorization. Add these skills only if you have multiple Authorizations for different types of services for a Client, and different Skills are needed for each service. Authorization-specific Skills do not override the Skills needed by the Client. Rather, the Authorization-specific Skills are added to those already needed by the Client when matching Caregivers to a Schedule.Your list of Skills can be configured in the User Defined Information Module, under the Documentation drop down menu.

Characteristics

(Optional) Recording personal Characteristics of a Client helps you to know more about your Client. When you add a new Client into the system, you can choose their Characteristics (i.e. personality traits, likes and dislikes, etc.) from a list.

The list of Characteristics is configured in the User Defined Information Module.

Interview

Use this section to record answers to standard interview or assessment questions for new or potential Clients. For example, you can use this feature to fill out and record standard Client needs assessment information.

The list of Interview Questions is maintained in the User Defined Information Module.

ICD Codes

ICD Codes are standard diagnosis codes that succinctly capture specific information about a client’s conditions and medical diagnoses. The two current standards are ICD-9 and ICD-10, with ICD-10 slated to replace ICD-9.

The list of ICD codes is maintained in the User Defined Information Module.

All Care Plan Notes

Use Care Plan Notes to provide additional information for various sections of the Care Plan. The Care Plan Note categories align with the sections of the Care Plan Report. Care Plan Notes are printed on the Care Plan Report at the bottom of the section to which they apply.

Care Plan Notes may also be given effective date ranges, so that older notes may be kept for historical purposes. Specific notes may also be manually hidden from the report, so that the information may still be kept in the system but not included on the Client’s printed care plan report.

Care Plan Notes are more flexible than General Notes since the General Notes cannot be categorized nor have effective dates applied to them.

Scheduling Setup

Authorizations

(Clients tab only)

Before scheduling care visits for this Client, you must set up an Authorization for the service. The Authorization represents the care agreement between the Client and your office and defines the type of service and care required, who is paying for it, how many hours are authorized, and for how long the service is authorized. The default length of an Authorization is 10 years, however you can configure this duration in the Agency Office Module, Default Time Settings screen.

If you edit an existing Authorization to change the end date, any schedules that fall outside the authorized date range will be deleted.

You can choose to see only current Authorizations or All Authorizations by clicking on the pull down arrow below the Authorizations button. By default, the Authorizations tool shows All Authorizations.

Compatibility

(Clients tab only)

You can specify relationships between this Client and Caregivers, indicating the Caregivers who are preferred by the Client. If the Client likes a Caregiver, you can add that Caregiver as Preferred by this Client. If the Client dislikes a Caregiver, you may add that Caregiver as Not Preferred. (You might also add the Caregiver as Not Preferred if they did not like the Client.)

The Client’s Caregiver Compatibility relationships will be visible when setting up schedules for this Client, but will not cause errors or prevent you from saving schedules.

Billing Rates

(Clients & Payers tabs only)

List the Client’s Billing Rates. This determines how much the Client will be billed for their services. Billing Rates must be specific to a Call Type. When creating Authorizations for this Client, the list of Call Types from which to choose will be based on the Bill Rates that have been set up. OPTIONAL: You may choose to use different Billing Rates depending on which Caregiver is working with the Client. A Caregiver-specific Billing Rate must also have a Call Type specified. When Billing is calculated, the most specific rate available will be chosen (i.e. Caregiver-specific first, then Call Type-specific, then Rate Type-specific).

The effective dates of a Billing Rate can also be specified. The effectiveness is inclusive of the start and end dates. If multiple matching Billing Rates with overlapping effective dates are found when calculating Billing for a Schedule, the Rate with the tightest effective date range will be the one chosen.

If no matching Rate is found for the Client when calculating Billing, it will fall back to the default rates defined in the Agency Office Module. 

These rates will only apply if the Client is the primary Payer on the Authorization. If an organization or other third party payer is paying for the service, the rates must be set up on that Payer’s profile.

Billing Options

(Clients & Payers tabs only)

Configure options related to how a Client is billed. This includes setting options for how billing hours are rounded, whether to bill extra for overtime or holiday rates, rates for mileage and travel, and whether to bill for different expense types.

You can also change the name on invoices to address the invoice to a family member instead of the client, or send invoices to a secondary address using overrides. Note that these options will only be applied if the Client is the primary Payer on the Authorization. If a different Payer is going to be paying for the service, these options must be configured on that Payer’s profile in order to take affect when processing Billing.

When a Client is first added into the system, these options will be pre-populated with the values configured in the default Billing Options in the Agency Office Module.

Possible Payers

(Clients tab only)

View, add or edit additional Possible Payers for this Client. Possible Payer relationships indicate parties that will be paying for the Client's services, whether that may be the Client, or a Payer from the Payer Module such as an Insurance Company, government agency, or other third-party Payer.

If the Client's bill is to be paid by a family member, HomeTrak recommends that the authorization payer be left as the Client, and put the family member in the "Send To Override" in the Client's Billing Options. This keeps the list of Payers in the Payer Module shorter and not cluttered with individuals that only pay for a single Client, and the Billing Rates and Options can be maintained directly in the Client Module.

Payroll Rates

(Caregivers & Human Resources tabs only)

List the Caregiver’s Payroll Rates. This determines how much the Caregiver will be paid for their work. Unlike Billing Rates, the Call Type on a Payroll Rate is optional, and you can set up generic rates for each Rate Type. OPTIONAL: You may choose to use different Payroll Rates depending on which Client the Caregiver is working with. A Client-specific Payroll Rate must also have a Call Type specified. When Payroll is calculated, the most specific rate available will be chosen (i.e. Client-specific first, then Call Type-specific, then Rate Type-specific).

The effective dates of a Payroll Rate can also be specified. The effectiveness is inclusive of the start and end dates. If multiple matching Payroll Rates with overlapping effective dates are found when calculating Payroll for a Schedule, the Rate with the tightest effective date range will be the one chosen.

If no matching Rate is found for the Caregiver when calculating Payroll, it will fall back to the default rates defined in the Agency Office Module.

Payroll Options

(Caregivers & Human Resources tabs only)

Configure options related to how a Caregiver is paid. This includes setting options for how pay hours are rounded, whether to pay extra for overtime or holiday rates, rates for mileage and travel, and whether to pay for different expense types.

When a Caregiver is first added into the system, these options will be pre-populated with the information configured in the default Payroll Options in the Agency Office Module.

Qualifications

(Caregivers, Office Staff & Human Resources tabs only)

Use Qualifications as a way to indicate your Caregivers’ disciplines, or what type(s) of service they are qualified to perform. Caregivers may have multiple Qualifications.

Qualifications are used by the system when matching Caregivers to a Schedule for a particular Client. Call Types will usually have a Qualification associated with them. Then, when you create a Client Authorization you select a Call Type. A Caregiver must have the Qualification that is required by the Call Type in order to provide the authorized care. A Caregiver who does not have the Qualification required by the Call Type cannot be saved to a Schedule created from an Authorization using that Call Type. Also, the Caregiver Suggestion tool will not show any Caregivers who do not meet the qualifications for the Schedule.

Preferred Districts

(Caregivers & Human Resources tab only)

Indicate which district(s) of your company’s service area that a Caregiver is willing to work. The Caregiver Suggestion feature can filter out Caregivers based on matching the Client’s home District to the Caregivers’ Preferred Districts. A Caregiver with no Preferred Districts specified will always be considered a match on all Districts.

Skills

(Caregivers, Office Staff & Human Resources tabs only. Under "Care Plan" for Clients.)

Record a Caregiver’s relevant Skills. When scheduling Caregivers, their Skills are matched to those required by the Client and/or Authorization. The Skills that a Caregiver has, and those needed by a Client, have great impact on the scheduling process. While the Call Type represents the type of service to be performed, each Client and Authorization may also need unique skills. The system can match the Client’s needs to a Caregiver’s skills.

There are two types of Skills you can add to Client and Caregiver profiles. These are Critical Skills and Regular Skills. Critical Skills are those that a Caregiver must have in order to work with a Client who requires those Skills. Critical skills are used by the Caregiver Suggestion tool to schedule for a particular Client. You cannot schedule a Caregiver with a Client unless they possess all of the Critical Skills needed by the client. Regular Skills are less important, but still desirable to have, to work with the Client. The percentage of Regular Skills matching between a Client and Caregiver can be seen in the Caregiver Suggestion form. Missing Regular Skills does not prevent a Caregiver from being scheduled.

Your list of Skills is configured in the User Defined Information Module, under the Documentation drop down menu.

Schedule Length

(Caregivers & Human Resources tabs only)

Use this option to specify the length of Schedules that Caregivers are willing to work. Each option specifies a range with a minimum and maximum number of hours. Use this in conjunction with Caregiver Suggestion to find Caregivers whose schedule length preferences match the actual schedule length. (If the Caregiver has no Schedule Length preferences specified, then Caregiver Suggestion assumes they are willing to work any length of Schedule.) Not having a matching a Schedule Length preference will not prevent a Caregiver from being scheduled – this is only used when suggesting possible appropriate Caregivers for a Schedule.

Event Reminders

Use Event reminders to send reminder notices via SMS text to the Caregiver's cell phone in advance of events involving this person.

Event notices may be configured to send a set amount of time before or after the beginning or end of an event, and may be set to send for specific categories of Tasks or Appointments, or Schedules. Specific Schedule Call Types may be excluded from Alerting and Notices by editing the Call Type in the Agency Office Module.

You must have SMS Texting set up for your office to use this feature.

(Cloud users only.)

Scheduling

View Calendar

Show the calendar for this person or organization in the Main Display portion of the screen.

Daily Schedules

(Clients, Caregivers & Office Staff tabs only)

Show a grid of all schedules for this person or organization in the Main Display portion of the screen.

(This is the same grid from the Schedule Review tab in the Schedule Review module.)

Actual Hours

(Clients, Caregivers & Office Staff tabs only)

Show a grid of the non-finalized schedules for this person or organization to view or edit the actual hours and extra charges on those schedules.

(This is the same grid from the Actual Hours tab in the Schedule Review module.)

Availability

(Clients, Caregivers & Office Staff tabs only)

Allows you to record the time(s) a Caregiver is available to work, or when a Client is available to receive service. The system will warn you if a person is involved in an Appointment or Schedule during their unavailable time. By default, all days are available.

There are three levels of Availability, each more specific than the last. These are:

  • Working Days: Indicates the person is available on that day of the week, without specifying times. The person is available on that day, every week.
  • Day Specific Availability: Indicates the specific times that a person is available on a specific day of the week. The person is available on that day, at these times, every week.
  • Date Specific Availability: Indicates the specific times that a person is available for a specific date. The person is available only during the specified times on that specific date.

Any records that are more specific override anything above it. Therefore, Day Specific Availability overrides Working Days. Date Specific Availability overrides any Working Days or Day Specific Availability that might normally apply to that date. The main display area of the Availability screen shows a 7-day calendar that indicates what availability applies to each date.

Events

View Tasks, Appointments and Schedules involving this person or organization.

Recurring Events

View, add or edit any Recurring or repeating events for this person or organization.

Schedules, Tasks and Appointments may be set up to repeat on a specific pattern.

Documentation

Documented Events

See all Documented Events in which the person or organization is involved. Documenting significant events is a very important part of keeping reliable records for your company. You can record outstanding performance as well as complaints or problems (e.g., caregiver was late, client hospitalized, etc.). Documented Events will appear in the profiles of all people or organizations involved. You can run robust reports on documented events.

Required Dates

Use Required Dates to keep track of items that must be completed for or by a person or organization.

EXAMPLES: Orientations, evaluations, first aid certification dates, license expiration dates, etc.

The list of Required Date categories is maintained in the User Defined Information Module. The categories you create will represent the different requirements your company tracks, as well as their importance and when or whether they expire. Required Dates are specified as either Mandatory or Optional.  If a Caregiver has an incomplete or expired Mandatory required date on their profile, you will receive warnings if you try to schedule that caregiver.

Required Date categories can be set to three types:

  • No Expiry: These requirements are entered with the date they are completed. They do not expire.
  • Actual Date: These requirements are entered with the date they are completed. They will automatically expire after a length of time that is specified for the requirement.
  • Expiration Date: These requirements are entered with the date they actually expire, rather than the date the certification or requirement was completed.

General Notes

Write Notes to record general information and observations. Notes are not intended to record incidents or daily occurrences, since these are intended to be recorded as Documented Events. Several reports, including the Master reports, have the option to include Notes.

Popup Alerts

Create pop-up alerts to appear in the bottom right corner of the screen when opening a person or organization's profile. These alerts may serve as important reminders or warnings about the person or organization.

Email

HomeTrak Companion allows you to send emails directly through the program without using a separate mail client. You can see the log of emails sent to a Caregiver (including when they were sent), right on their profile. The log also shows Calendars and Reports emailed to the Caregiver. To send emails through HomeTrak Companion, your Email settings and Email server information must be properly configured in the Agency Office and User Defined Information Modules, respectively.

Characteristic

(Under "Care Plan" for Clients)

Recording the personal Characteristics of a person or organization is an optional way of remembering things about your caregivers. When you add a new person into the system, choose their Characteristics (i.e. personality traits, likes and dislikes, etc.) from a list.

The list of Characteristics is configured in the User Defined Information Module.

Extra Information

Add Extra Information to a person or organization's profile. Use this area to add any extra information you wish to record in addition to the other fields and features. The list of Extra Information categories can be configured in the User Defined Information Module, under the Documentation drop down menu.

Additional Images

Add images directly to the Companion database and attach them to a person’s profile, such as a photograph or a scanned image of a signed contract or care agreement. You can view, add, edit and delete the images with this tool.

External Information

External Information items represent links to files and folders outside of Companion.

EXAMPLE: Add a link to a Caregiver’s certifications or employment information.

Adding a link allows you to launch to the file, folder, or website without using Windows Explorer to locate it. 

Only create links to shared files and folders that are accessible to all users. If a user does not have access to the file or folder, the link will not open on their computer.

You can add a link to an image through this tool. However, you may prefer to add images through the Additional Images tool, which allows you to view images right in the software.

Referral

(Clients & Caregivers tabs)

Referrals represent how people first heard about your company. Tracking Referrals can be an important marketing tool for your office.

Your list of Referral categories is maintained in the User Defined Information Module.

Office Notes

Office Notes are meant for internal office information only. Office Notes are not included in any report. 

If a person/organization is tied to multiple offices in the same database, the Office Notes are only visible to the office that created them. If the same person/organization has multiple roles (e.g., both a Caregiver and Office Staff) the Office Notes are also unique to each role.

Application

(Clients & Human Resources tab only)

View information from the original web application for this person if they originated from a web application/client inquiry.

Interview

(Human Resources tab only)

Record interview or assessment questions and responses.

Interview questions are maintained in the User Defined Information Module.

Form 485

(Clients tab only)

Fill out detailed care information for the Client’s Form 485 Plan of Care (US Medicaid). The Form 485 report can be printed from the Printed Reports Module, Client tab.

Invoices

(Clients tab only)

View Billing history for this Client.

Payroll

(Caregivers tab only)

View payroll history for this caregiver.

Web Intakes

(Human Resources tab only)

Caregiver Applications

Submitted Caregiver Applications received from the web form. Review and manage your caregiver applications from here and make them Potential in the system.

Office Staff Applications

Submitted Office Staff Applications received from the web form. Review and manage your office staff applications from here and make them Potential in the system.