After a successful launch among nursing home facilities in New York City in 2017, SLF Management Systems Inc., together with Advanced World Solutions Inc., launched its first mobile app in the Philippines, BackApp—an around-the-clock staffing solution that connects healthcare facilities and professionals, home-based patients, and staffing agencies that need top-notch nurses and caregivers.
BackApp comes in three types. These include Long-Term Care, a staffing solution used by affiliated staffing agencies; Acute Care, a staffing solution for hospital-based nurse managers who are looking for last-minute staff replacements; and Homecare, an easy access to private nurses and caregivers for home-based patients.
The all-mobile service does not only provide a hassle-free access to nurses and caregivers at the comfort of home or healthcare establishment, but it also promotes job opportunities and further develops the healthcare standards in the country.
Every health professional hired via the mobile app is carefully matched by a case manager and under close clinical monitoring by the patient’s attending physician.
With at least 23,800 health care workers deployed across the Philippines, of which 17,538 are nurses, the developers behind BackApp, a group of seasoned healthcare practitioners and IT experts, are seeing an unprecedented increase in demand for both nurses and caregivers in various settings.
Edwine Joseph, assistant director of nursing at Mary Manning Walsh, a 362-bed skilled nursing facility in New York City, says, “Before BackApp, for us to find staffing when we are short on a shift, what we would do was to pick up the phone and start calling people. The process used to be lengthy because you had to call around 15 people just to get one nurse. BackApp makes our lives easier,” he says.
Joseph says with BackApp, “Finding manpower now is prompt: we put the request on the app, we get a notification saying, ‘this is what you need,’ then all the nurses get the notification, too. After a few minutes, you’ll get a notification, again, saying ‘this person has accepted your request.”
Gertrudes de Guzman, director of nursing at Amsterdam Nursing Home, shares the same positive experience. “We find the mobile app very easy to use, at the same time, we get prompt responses. It facilitates our staffing needs very well. Plus, the fact that we get to know who are the nurses we are deploying is really a good thing—they are reliable, competent, and dedicated workers,” he says.
For home-based patients, BackApp ensures reliable and safe health care services, in coordination with the attending physician. It limits the cost of hospital admission through home-based monitoring and family health training.
For staffing agencies, it develops a talent pool of top-quality healthcare professionals. It creates additional revenues for urgent requirements.
“Specifically, the Homecare BackApp aims to keep the Filipino family together by eliminating the need to send your sick family member to the hospital or nursing home. This ultimately reduces hospitalization costs, thus lessening the financial burden on the family,” says SLF Management System Inc. president and chief executive Sally Nunez.
Advanced World Solutions Software developer Bryan Bautista says: “We are striving towards continuity of care, and in few years’ time, we aspire to bring the ‘Next Generation Electronic Health Record ’ platforms that will cater to all types of healthcare facilities by linking fragmented systems of different health care providers and the families and communities they serve,” he says.
“We will leverage our U.S. presence, know-how, and experience to bring an outstanding level of quality healthcare and innovation in the Philippines,” he says.
The entire suite of BackApp products runs on Android version 4.4 (KitKat) and up and on iOS version 10 and up. It also has a back-office system that let case managers and administrative staff to closely monitor each nurse or caregiver on duty.
