Then came the eChart: How this retirement home app keeps you close to your relatives from afar

An app created by theowner of two Moncton retirement homes gives families a link with regularly updated information about their loved ones' lives and health.

With eChartHealthcare, staff create accounts for each resident at the home and package all of a resident's personal care information into their account, including medical charts, past history, a medical appointments schedule and do not resuscitate orders.

"Now, the family can rest and not have fear of the unknown, whether their loved one is getting checked on or not," said Amanda Betts, creator of the app and owner of the Autumn Lee retirement homes at Moncton and Sackville.

"They can sign in and see exactly what time they were last checked on, who did the check, if they were sleeping or participating in a group activity and witness a picture."

Early start on seniors care

The application is being tried outat the Autumn Lee retirement homes inMonctonandSackvilleandAlleiraLiving in Fredericton.Betts hopes to sell her technology to other care homes in the future.

Betts has been working at Autumn Lee, owned by her parents, since she was seven. Every day after school she wandered the halls of the home, dropping off juice boxes to the many seniors who'd become her friends.

But when Betts turned 20 and started working as the home's operator, managing the staff, residents and family relationships, she saw how pen and paper was all they had to chart residents' information.

This meant binders were constantly added to the growing stack on the shelf and no matter how many colours were used to code the data, operations were still slow. Betts said this kept staff from treating patients as best as they could.

Easy use a priority

So she started looking for a program that would bring innovation to the care home.

"I looked at the major players in the country and their systems were really complex," she said.

"Alot of our staff aren't tech savvy, so I just took it upon myself to develop a product that would have an easy user interface."

The application also includes a ranking system for the level of help each resident needs and a record of their medicine administration.

Joining families

What makes this app different, however, is how it brings in the resident's family members and tries to keep them updated on everything that's going on with the seniorat the home.

"When I was looking at other competitor systems they didn't have any family tie-in at all."

Family members also have their own accounts on the eChart Healthcare app and after logging in, can check on their relative whenever they choose.

Then came the eChart: How this retirement home app keeps you close to your relatives from afar

7 years ago

Duration 1:20

An app created by the owner of two Moncton retirement homes gives families a link with regularly updated information about their loved ones' lives and health.There's no limit tothe number of accounts different family members of one resident can have, as long as each resident approves each one of them. If residents do not want somefamily members checkingup on them through the app, those relatives can't get an account. If a resident is not coherent, staff members at the home follow the power of attorney.

Updates on each patient are posted by staff throughout the day, including pictures of the social activities they are taking part in.

Mike and Mary, anapp away

One year ago, Mary Bulmer, now 88 years old, told her son Michael Bulmer she wanted to go to a retirement home. She moved to Autumn Lee.

This decision was hard for Michael and his husband, who shared their home with Mary, but with the app, Michael said it's been easier to cope with not being there with his mother at all times.

"It gives me a chance to know what is going on with my mom without being here," he said.

Bulmer visits his mother at least five times a week and worries about her during his regular trips to Prince Edward Island.

"I go to the Island during the weekend, so I just go to the app and check if everything is all right with mum."

Bulmer thinks the app is "excellent" because it allows him to save all the pictures thatstaff members take of his mother and send his way.

"This way I will have many memories of her."

15-minute training

Betts and Logan focused on creating a user-friendly application so staff members at seniors homes had no trouble getting used to the program.

"We can train [staff] on it in about 15 minutes," Betts said.

The eChart Healthcare application also allows care home operators see if something isn't being done correctly or on time.

"Everything is being time stamped," she said. "If something is being inputted at a different hour we can see that," she said.

Staff members at Alleira Living and Autumn Lee said the app is making a huge difference.

"It certainly saves time to be using a digital platform," said Aime Foreman, chief operating officer at Alleira Living.

"It makes it much easier for our management staff to look at what's happening in the care delivery for all residents through one unique platform as opposed to separate hard files."

Betts came up with the idea in September 2016. A few months later, the first version of eChart Healthcare was out.

The app is now available for android users and will be available for iphonenext month.