Summer is flying by, and we hope you're enjoying the season, whether you're on holiday or at home! We've got some exciting new features along with upcoming security and data privacy improvements. Read on to see how you can benefit and any actions you may need to take!
Provider information return (PIR) report
Birdie’s PIR report is now live! The Provider Information Return (PIR) is an annual requirement for adult social care services to submit information to the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
To help you save time filling out the CQC’s PIR form, Birdie Analytics has created the Provider Information Return (PIR) data report, so you can quickly access the information required based on the data you input into Birdie! This new report centralises data on key PIR questions, allowing you to monitor your care quality at a glance and to be ready for the CQC’s PIR request at any moment.
Please note: Birdie does not capture data for all PIR questions. You may need to reference other systems to get the information you need.
This will be available for Core, Advanced, Plus packages and Birdie Analytics subscribers. Please get in touch if interested in accessing this feature!
Magic link updates
At Birdie, we use magic links which offer a more secure way of logging in, as the link will be sent directly to your email inbox. Within that email, you are able to click a button ‘Log in to Birdie’ or a click secondary blue link, both of which will then take you automatically to the Birdie Agency Hub.
Currently, the domain of those links comes from Sendgrid, a third party service we use to send login emails. However, on Tuesday 6th August we will be updating the link to use birdie.care domains.
We are making this change as we are aware of some instances where automated IT security systems were clicking on these links as part of security checks to test the link’s validity. As the Magic Link is a one-time link, this resulted in users being unable to log in to Birdie.
Actions for you
If your IT email security systems have any form of link checking, then you will need to add birdie.care to the whitelist of domains. When on the whitelist, the IT security system will know it is a safe link and will not attempt to check it.
- Note: We suggest making sure the birdie.care domain is whitelisted ahead of the change, as from Tuesday 6th August at 9:30am the links will be changed.
If you do not have such an email system in place then you do not need to do anything. When you or a member of your team goes to log into Birdie via Magic Link, they will be sent an email and can click ‘Log in to Birdie’ as normal.
Automated removal of carer access to client records
At Birdie, we're committed to ensuring data privacy and security on our platform. In order to enhance your control over data privacy, Birdie is launching an improvement that automatically removes carer access to view client records once a carer no longer has any visits scheduled for that client. Read the ‘actions for you’ section and let us know if you’d like to opt-out of this change by 7 August, 2024.
What is updating
On Thursday, 8 August, Birdie will be updating carer’s access to client records within the app and how that access is managed.
Where currently carers retain permission to view client records unless manually revoked in the Agency Hub, Birdie will be making it so that access to view client records will be removed 1 day after a carer’s final scheduled visit with a client.
You’ll be able to control the visibility of client records using a new section under ‘Carer app settings’ that allows you to specify timeframes for carers to have access. While ‘1 day’ will be the default setting, you can update this to be ‘1 week’ or ‘1 month’ should you prefer.
When is this scheduled
This change is scheduled to go live on Thursday 8th August, 2024 by the end of day.
Actions for you
If you’d like to opt out of this feature and prefer for care teams to manually update carer access, please:
- Contact our support team via live chat or support@birdie.care and state you’d like to ‘opt out’. Note: please contact support to opt out by 7 August, 2024.
If you are happy to proceed with this feature and default access of ‘1 day’, then you do not need to do anything.
If you are happy to proceed with this feature but would like to update the duration of access, then:
- Once the feature is available under ‘Carer app settings’, you will have the ability to update your preference from the default access setting and choose ‘1 week’ or ‘1 month’.
- Read here for how to update these settings.
Frequently Asked Questions
When will carers have or regain access?
Once a carer is scheduled to visit a client again (and as long as as there is at least one visit assigned to that individual), they will automatically receive access to view that client’s records so that they can successfully deliver care.
Why is the default 1 day following a last scheduled visit?
Access would not be immediately removed less than 24 hours following a carer’s last scheduled visit in order to allow carers to access information during overnight visits.
Stay tuned for more updates, and thank you for trusting Birdie with your care management needs!
Absence management
We’ll be wrapping up the absence management beta programme and officially launching the feature in the second half of August!
To make absence management easier, your care team will be able to view absences and request holidays directly through the Birdie app, and you’ll be able to quickly review the pending holiday requests with user-friendly overviews. You’ll also be able to set the starting month for your agency’s holiday year, which will group carer absences within a recurring year tailored to your agency's specific policies and ways of working.
This feature will be available to Core, Advanced, and Plus packages excluding care management packages. Keep an eye out for more information on this upcoming launch!
More to come!
As always, check out our public roadmap for more information on what we're working on. 👋
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