In an unexpected turn of events, Caring Hearts technology meant to serve clients may have saved a caregiver employee's life.
The ultimate goal of Kim McCutcheon, the owner of Caring Hearts of Jacksonville, Alabama, is to ensure the well-being of her team's clients and families. That's why she has her caregiver scheduling app set up to notify her when a caregiver hasn't checked in to his or her scheduled shift. Intended to verify that shifts are always covered, it was this alert system that went off one morning at 7 o’clock and led to the rescue of a caregiver staff member.
“I received this alert for Dejuana," Kim explained. "It’s very unusual to receive an alert for her, so I called her mobile phone. No answer. I called the client. Dejuana was not there. I explained that we were trying to contact her and that I would get back in touch with him with an update and to let him know what our next steps would be. I called the caregiver again. Still no answer."
"We probably saved Dejuana’s life that morning."
Kim then called Dejuana’s emergency contact number.
When they found Dejuana, she was facedown on the floor in her apartment, unable to move. They all thought she had suffered a stroke, but after a trip by ambulance to the emergency room, it was discovered that she had slipped into insulin shock from extremely low blood sugar, a not uncommon complication from diabetes.
After receiving treatment, Dejuana made a full recovery and was sent home.
“I’m so glad Kim called my mother to check on me after she got the alert,” Dejuana said. “There’s no telling how long I could have been there and what would have happened to me.”
“I was able to receive the alert, look up the emergency contact number, and place the call all from the HomeTrak app on my phone,” Kim said.
It’s a piece of technology that is crucial to running our private-duty home care business. Our quality service relies on having the right caregiver at the right home on the right day. It amazes me that I can set the schedule in the office and manage it from my phone no matter where I am. In this case, I was at home getting ready for work. We probably saved Dejuana’s life that morning. I’m thrilled that we can use technology to help take care of our family of caregivers as well as our family of clients. —Kim McCutcheon
Please join us in thanking Kim, whose dedication to providing the best in-home care extends not only to her clients, but also to the wellbeing of her staff!