If you haven’t been living under a rock, you’re probably aware of the ludicrous number of apps out there. If you go to the store and buy something that’s even vaguely electronic, there’s a good chance that there’s a companion app that goes along with it.
You can use apps to find love, control the lighting in your house, make your vacuum clean the house, set up your schedule, wake you up, control your blender, change the T.V. channel, order things from the internet, and a lot more. It’s pretty miraculous if you think about it.
This all begs the question, is there a caregiver mobile app that you could use to make your caregiving job a little easier? That would definitely be nice, wouldn’t it? Especially with how often we use apps for nearly every other aspect of our lives, it seems like it would only make sense.
Today we’re going to be exploring this very question so that you can have a better understanding of the answer and potentially even go and find one of those apps so you can use it for yourself and change the way that you approach work.
What are your predictions? Do you think that app developers have already gotten all over this task, or do you think that the caregiving industry is one that’s being neglected for things that could generate a lot more money? It can be hard to say without seeing the real data.
We’ve done a good deal of research on this topic and we decided to make your research a little easier by placing the information that we were able to find in this convenient article so that you don’t have to go to the ends of the internet to find it.
Table of Contents
Who Would Make an App for Caretakers?
One of the first and most important things to try and figure out is who would have any interest in making apps for caretakers. If we understand this, then we can move forward to determine if any such apps exist in the first place.
So, who makes apps? Who would want to make apps for caretakers specifically? We’ve made a list of possible candidates:
- Software developers making companion apps for software they’ve already released.
- Application developers that are making apps specifically for the phones of caretakers.
- Caretakers that happen to have the money to fund the creation of such an app.
- Companies that hire caretakers looking to make things easier both for themselves, their clients, and their employees.
- Medical companies that want to help everyone involved in the caregiving industry, ranging from companies all the way down to clients.
- Comp sci majors making it as a project.
Now we’ve narrowed it down, it’s important to note that a couple of these groups probably wouldn’t release the products for mass consumption. Comp sci students might, but odds are they have too much on their plate to be running a business at the same time.
Most likely it’s going to be made by a company that has already released a piece of software to caregivers and it’s going to act as a companion app to something that’s already been released by them because it allows for more easy communication between caregivers and their home offices.
It’s also pretty likely that a medical company had it created as well as a piece of software to go with it, considering their entire business has a vested interest in ensuring that people are getting the care that they need when they aren’t at the doctor’s office for any reason.
What Would an App for Caregivers Do?
Now that we’ve established who the most likely parties to create such an app are, let’s take a look at what this type of app would likely do so we can further know how reasonable it would be for such an app to exist.
Generally, most caregivers would agree that this kind of app would be good if it was able to:
- Meet legal requirements for caregivers.
- Allow for notes to be taken.
- Help with scheduling for the day.
- Make communication between themself and their client and themself and their home office easier.
Looking at this list of things that most caregivers would want in an app, we have to ask ourselves how reasonable it would be to expect an app developer to be able to add all of these features in one single place without it being too difficult to accomplish.
Firstly, meeting legal requirements for caregivers. This isn’t too hard, but it can be a little tricky on a state-by-state level. Assuming that they just followed the federal law it should be easy, and with a big enough team they could probably get it up to code for every state.
Taking notes in an app is something that’s incredibly easy to do, but it could be looked over for other functions within the app. Fortunately, most cell phones come with a built-in notes app that can be used to keep notes, but it would be pretty easy for an app to include this.
Getting your schedule in order is also something that would be pretty easy. All that requires is a calendar and a clock, both of which are things that app developers are able to do with relative ease, so it seems reasonable that you could do this within a caregiver app.
Finally, messaging capability. It seems like nearly every app out there has some sort of messaging ability so that also doesn’t seem like it would be too difficult. It would be preferable for the app to have end-to-end encryption which is a little more difficult but not a deal-breaker.
After reviewing the list, it appears that everything that we listed would reasonably be able to be put into an app built for caregivers. At this point in the article, it’s looking like it would be pretty likely for this kind of app to exist on the market.
That is, speaking from a software development standpoint. It would be child’s play for a lot of developers to make an app specifically to help caregivers out with their daily tasks and make their jobs generally easier, especially when it comes to complying with the laws that surround their profession.
Would it be Profitable?
Now, money makes the world go round. It’s been said a million different ways by a million different people, even Wu-Tang Clan said “Cash rules everything around me.” and it rings true to this very day. If something isn’t profitable, there’s a good chance that it won’t exist.
While some software companies do exist to do things out of the kindness of their heart and open source projects are abundant online, hiring programmers to develop an app for caregivers isn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination. Good programmers make good money, so there has to be some way to monetize it.
A company without any money will simply cease to exist before too long, and any products that they put out will either become abandonware that’s vulnerable to bugs and attacks or will simply cease to exist. That wouldn’t be helpful for caretakers or anyone else for that matter.
Well, as you’re probably aware, everything in the healthcare industry is very profitable, and the caregiving industry is typically considered to fall under that umbrella. That means that there is a good chance that someone would make an app and be able to make enough money from it to incentivize it.
With money coming in, a software company would be able to hire proficient programmers to make sure that their apps and pieces of software are up to snuff both from a usability viewpoint and from a legality standpoint, so that’s another point for these apps existing.
Do Apps for Caregivers Exist?
Finally, we get to the question that’s on everyone’s minds. Do apps for caregivers exist? With all of the information that we’ve covered, it would seem at least a little odd if they didn’t. That would mean that people are just leaving money on the table for a product that is definitely wanted.
So, you’ll be happy to know that apps for caregivers do exist. In fact, most caregivers have at least one app that helps them with their job one way or another. Odds are the apps are assigned by their company, making choosing one pretty easy.
Using the Convenience of Technology
Technology makes our lives significantly easier when we know how to use it correctly. We live lives with more at our fingertips than even the richest kings of the past could begin to dream of, and it’s something that nearly everyone has.
Knowing what’s available for your professional life can make it go by a lot easier and can even make you a lot better at your job. Whether you’re new to caregiving or you’ve been at it for a long time, using the right tools can always help make things go more smoothly.