Please note: This article is for partners that are integrated with an external rostering system such as Careplanner, Caras, Staffplan etc.
The Visit Planning feature provides clarity for Care Professionals by clearly outlining their specific responsibilities regarding tasks and medications. Care Professionals can confidently understand and fulfil their duties, ensuring that all necessary actions are carried out effectively.
Additionally, this feature enables Birdie to identify instances where tasks or medications have not been completed as anticipated by the end of a visit. This not only ensures accountability but also helps maintain the quality and consistency of care provided by your agency.
If you would like more information about using your rostering provider with visit planning, please see this article - Why do I have to add visits to Birdie and my external rostering system?
What is Visit Planning?
The Visit planning feature organises details of the visit so that it is easier for Care professionals to follow. It structures tasks and medications into visit cards so that you can plan when and how certain tasks and medication will be given to the Care Recipient.
Why use Visit Planning?
The benefit of using visit planning is that you have the confidence that your Care Professionals must record an outcome for all medications that are assigned to your visit plan before they can check out of their visit.
How does it work with my rostering?
You will first schedule your visits as normal on your rostering integration. You will decide who is going to attend a visit and that assignment will sync across to the Birdie app.
You will then create a visit plan for that specific Care Recipient, this represents the plan that a Care Professional would need to follow when they are with a Care Recipient on their visit.
How do I turn visit planning on?
Before you add a visit schedule you will need to turn visit planning on because care for each Care Recipient is individual, the Visit Planning feature is turned on per individual.
You can check if this is on by clicking on your Care Recipient's name and checking to see if they have a Visit tab on the left-hand side.
If it is not enabled you can do this by going to Settings and turning this on, the visits tab will appear on the left-hand side. Refresh the page so the change can be updated.
For more information on how to do this, please see this article - How to turn Visit Planning on.
How do I create a Visit plan?
To create a visit plan, start by going to the Care Recipients' profile and click on their Visits tab. Now click on Add visit on the top right-hand corner of the page.
On the pop-up box, you can add details about the visit such as:
The frequency (e.g. a visit repeating every day or a few times a week)
The time of the visit
The start date of the visit schedule
The End date for a one-off or temporary visit (optional)
The times of day are stated below, it isn't possible to change these times:
Morning: 6:00 to 10:59
Lunch: 11:00 to 13:59
Afternoon: 14:00 to 17:59
Evening: 18:00 to 21:59
Night: 22:00 to 5:59
The schedule should aim to match the visits that the Care Recipient has on your rostering provider, when you are done click Save Schedule.
You will now see these visit cards on the page.
The next step is to add tasks and medications to the visit card so that the Care Professional has a structured list to complete during the visit.
For more information on how to do this please see these articles:
How to view and edit the visit details
To view and edit details of the visit plan, click on the visit that you have just scheduled. You will be able to see information on the right-hand sidebar, such as:
Visit Time
Visit Status (scheduled, cancelled, not started)
Frequency
End Date
Number of Care Professional's
Care Recipient location
Activities (medications and tasks)
The timeline of any changes made to the visit, and who made them
You can change the details above by clicking Edit.
From here you can:
Edit the time
End the schedule
Change the task order
Cancel the visit
Delete the visit schedule (only if no visits have been completed)
Any significant changes should always be changed on your roster provider as well to avoid confusion. Click Save Changes when you are done.
How to end a visit schedule
You can end a visit schedule if you no longer deliver care at that time or if an ongoing visit has now been made temporary.
For full guidance on how to end the visit plan see this article - How to end a visit schedule.
Please note: It is important that you also end the visit on your rostering schedule as well.
Important notes for if you use an external rostering system
If you are using a rostering system you do not need to change the visit times on Birdie to match the scheduled times on your roster. For example, if you have a call every day at 6 p.m. for 45 minutes, but on certain days the call is 1 hour, you should not reflect this change on Birdie. To understand why, click here.
You do not assign Care Professionals to visits on Birdie. When care professionals are assigned to calls on the rostering system, they will see the visit card closest to their rostered time on their app.
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FAQS
What happens when a visit time changes? Do I have to change the visit time on their rostering system and on Birdie?
There is no need to change the time in Birdie unless it is a significant time difference. Birdie uses the check-in and out times sent from the rostering integration.
Can I see who has added a visit or changed a visit plan?
Yes, by clicking the visit and clicking on Timeline in the right-hand sidebar.
How often do I need to create a visit plan (e.g. once a week, once a fortnight?)
For repeat or daily visits, you only need to create them once. For one-off or fortnightly calls, you would need to add them whenever they occur.
Do I have to use Visit planning?
No, you do not have to use this feature however not having visit planning will make completing tasks and medications for your Care Professionals more difficult and you will not be alerted if they do not complete a medication during the visit. if you don't plan to use visit planning, we recommend turning this feature off, as incomplete visit plans can impact the Care Professionals' experience when using the Birdie app.
Do I need to cancel visits in both my roster system and Birdie?
We recommend marking your visit plan as cancelled in Birdie, to prevent a medication alert from being generated, and to ensure that the MAR chart reflects no visit. If you cancel your scheduled visit in your roster system and do not cancel the visit plan in Birdie, your Care Professional will not see a scheduled visit for that Care Recipient. Please be aware that in this case you may receive a missed medication alert, and will need to update the MAR chart retrospectively to show that the visit was cancelled.