The problem
Relatives ring the office to ask whether the lunch visit happened, who came and whether Mum ate. At 12 calls a day, 5 minutes each, every day of the week, that's 420 minutes a week, about 30 hours a month of office time taken up with questions the visit record already answers.
What the AI does
Birdie's Family App, included from its Starter plan, gives invited relatives read-only access to their own family member's care. Birdie's site says families can see visit logs with the carer's name and check-in and check-out times, care notes, tasks, medication and observations, daily wellbeing summaries, and the schedule for the next seven days. The agency invites each family member from the Agency Hub, chooses what they can see and can revoke access at any time. It is free for families to use. Carers' personal details are not shown.
A worked example
A home care agency in Exeter with 60 private and council clients gets about 12 calls a day from relatives checking on visits. After moving its records to Birdie, it invites the main contact for each client who agrees.
Before
About 12 family check-in calls a day at 5 minutes: 30 hours a month
After
About 6 calls a day, mostly about real changes: 15 hours a month
What it's worth
About $319£240€286A$461C$451 a month of office time saved, against Birdie from $266£200€238A$384C$376 a month. That assumes the app halves family calls, a saving of 15 hours a month at $21£16€19A$31C$30 an hour. The same Birdie subscription also covers care plans, rostering, invoicing and eMAR, so the app is rarely the only reason to pay for it.
How to set it up
- Check each client's consent, or the authority of the person acting for them, before inviting any relative. Record who has access and why.
- Decide what each relative should see; a power of attorney for property and finance doesn't automatically cover health information.
- Brief carers that their notes will be read by families: factual, kind, no shorthand.
- Invite the main contact for a handful of clients first, and ask them a month later what they still ring about.
- Review access when a client's situation changes, and revoke it when a relationship breaks down or a client leaves.
What goes wrong
- Sharing care notes is sharing health information. Get the client's agreement first, and where the client lacks capacity, check who has legal authority before giving access.
- Families may ring more at first, as they see things they didn't know about. That is often useful, but plan for it.
- Birdie's price depends on your care hours. The $266£200€238A$384C$376 is the published starting point, so get your own quote.
- Late notes mean worried relatives. If carers write up visits hours later, the app shows gaps that look like missed visits.