background

In 2016 there were approximately 63,000 professional care workers/home carers and almost 200,000 unpaid carers in the Republic of Ireland, providing over 6.6 million hours per week of care to friends or family members.

Carefolk is an eHealth company based in the Republic of Ireland, providing a secure platform, tools and support, to manage care giving either by family members or professionals to loved ones.

the challenge

Carefolk needed a custom software solution for homecare providers to:

• Automate workflows,

• Reduce costs and;

• Develop great relationships between caregivers, clients and their families.

One of the key requirements was to ensure managers and caregivers had a real-time overview of all aspects of their daily schedules.

It was crucial that instant communication between all parties would be possible to create great relationships between caregivers, clients and their families. The custom software solution needed to be ‘beautiful and easy to use’.

the solution

Applicita worked hand in hand with the Product Owners at Carefolk to establish the initial requirements and designs to develop, test and provide on-going maintenance of the Carefolk Platform.

Using Agile development principles to ensure continuous and incremental delivery throughout the engagement, both Applicita and Carefolk could determine the next phases with confidence.

Capturing every element of client and caregiver scheduling and management, the platform is particularly intuitive with embedded messaging services that provide real-time information on the status of each client.

The mobile app allows managers to track and follow each appointment and will even send a message if the caregiver is late for an appointment. Managers also use the platform as an HR portal, recording staff training, and updating staff expertise.

Caregivers also have a dedicated portal enabling them to view their schedules and timecards, and with the mobile app, can easily record the time they start and finish an appointment.

To deliver a truly custom integrated care platform, Applicita also developed the Carefolk Family web portal, which alongside many of the components that makes the Pro Version so successful, features a care update feed where family members can store and share special moments of their loved ones.

Within the platform, there is a separate hub for the Care community, where caregivers can interact, share ideas and work together to improve practice and keep up-to-date with the latest industry developments.

the results

The collaboration between the technical expertise of Applicita, Carefolk and the domain knowledge of industry experts, Carefolk is now viewed as the most well renowned eHealth solution in the Republic of Ireland.

Carefolk now has a rapidly growing number of customers, has been chosen as an IT partner for the Health Service in Ireland for their National Integrated Care Pilot, and is going a long way to assisting the needs of a crucial industry globally.