For families of a veteran
A veteran in the hospital today, and a plan for home.
Your father is at the VA medical center, the family is taking turns at the bedside, and the plan after is home with help in shifts. ExpressAgain starts on the ward: the doctors, the visiting hours and the room schedule, the day plan and the medications go in now, and the same record follows the veteran home to the Home Team. On the veteran's own Emergency page, the Veterans Crisis Line is one tap away.
Free to start, in the browser on any phone, tablet or computer. Nothing to install.
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The situation
It starts in the hospital, and it follows the veteran home.
Taking turns at the bedside
Visit Planning shows where the veteran is, the floor and room, and the visiting hours. While the veteran is in a facility, the Room Schedule books the room in fixed blocks, two by day and one overnight, so the family knows who is there and when.
Doctors in two systems
Every doctor, nurse, clinic and the hospital itself is a contact card on the Care Team page with a phone number to tap and call, and Log a call or visit records the hospital admission, each call and what was decided.
Home, with help in shifts
The Home Team side of the app is built for exactly that: finding the professionals, the agreements, the weekly schedule, the checklists, the clock and the pay, ready before the first shift.
A line of the veteran's own
On the veteran's own view of the Emergency page, the I am not safe card calls the Veterans Crisis Line, 988 then press 1, with one tap, and keeps one trusted person to tell behind a private code only the veteran knows.
The program, in plain words
Veteran-Directed Care is a VA program for a veteran who needs personal care services and help with the activities of daily living: the veteran is given a budget for services, managed by the veteran or the veteran's representative, and with the help of a counselor hires their own workers, who may include a family member or a neighbor, to live at home or in the community. The VA runs the program; the family runs the home.
What you set up now
While the veteran is on the ward, the record is built for where the patient is today.
Create the account, add the patient by name, and the whole app says Frank's Day, Frank's Schedule, Frank's care. Every card below is on the family's side of the app today and links the Help Center article that describes it.
Every doctor and the hospital, on the Care Team page
Each one is a contact card with a name, a role and a phone number to tap and call: the attending physician, the surgeon, the primary care doctor, the clinic, the medical center itself as a clinic, office or hospital card. Log a call or visit records the hospital admission, each call, who was on it and what was decided, and later the hospital discharge.
The Care Team page →A login for each clinician who should see the record
Give access on a doctor's card, or Add to your home team, mints a single-use code for that discipline: Physician (MD / DO / NP / PA), Nurse (RN / LPN), Physical therapist, Occupational therapist, Speech therapist, Palliative care, Hospice and more. The person joins at the IDC Team sign-in and reads the day plan, the medications, the tracking and the notes.
Invite a clinician with a code →Visiting: where the veteran is, and when people can come
Visit Planning shows where the patient is, the floor and room, and the visiting hours. A shareable visit link lets a guest see who is already coming and request a time, and the family answers from the approval queue. While the patient is in a facility, the Room Schedule books the room in fixed blocks, two by day and one overnight. On the Visitors page the patient says I would like visitors today or No visitors today.
Visit Planning and the room schedule →The Schedule: the appointments, the therapy, the days away
One calendar for a doctor appointment, therapy, the daily routine and travel. A stay at another hospital, or anything over more than one day, is one entry from a first day to a last day, and those days read Away to anyone booking a visit. Coming up reaches six months ahead, by month.
The Schedule →The day plan, named after the patient: Frank's Day
Time blocks for the day as the family wants it run, each with the steps to follow and a how-to video the family records. Whoever is on shift taps each step off, and the log keeps who did it and when. The app says the patient's name, never a pronoun, on every label.
The day plan →Health Tracking, started on the ward, with Copy and Print
Blood pressure and pulse, temperature, oxygen, weight, meals, sleep, a bathroom log, symptoms such as pain, nausea or a fall, and personal care: a shower, a bath or bed bath, a wash-up, dressed, a skin check, moving around. Every entry carries who logged it. Copy and Print reproduce the sheet to hand to the ward team or the home health agency.
Health Tracking →Medications, with every change the doctors order
Each medication keeps its history: started, increased, decreased, paused, resumed or stopped, the day it starts and who ordered it. Times from the label become a dose-due pop-up for whoever is on shift, and a dose nobody logged counts as missed in the Medications report.
Medication schedules and the dose-due reminder →The papers that let the family speak for the veteran
Important papers lists the health care power of attorney, the living will, the durable financial power of attorney, the HIPAA authorization and the rest, with each state's signing rules (a hospital notary for the advance directives), a status for each and the signed copy uploaded. Insurance & Devices keeps the coverage cards, with Veterans community care, TRICARE and Original Medicare among the kinds of coverage, and the member ID sealed.
Important papers →The Veterans Crisis Line, on the veteran's own Emergency page
Directly under Get Help Now, on the patient's own view of the Emergency page, the I am not safe card has four call buttons: 911, the Eldercare Locator, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and the Veterans Crisis Line, 988 then press 1, or text 838255. Behind a private code the veteran chooses, one trusted person to tell with Tell [name] to check on me, and a private note. Nothing on the card is spoken out loud, and nothing on it alerts the family.
The I am not safe card →
The Care Team page and the visiting hours can be filled in from the hospital room this afternoon.
At home
When the veteran comes home: the Home Team, every shift, every checklist, every invoice.
Care Team helps manage the care. Home Team helps the patient at home: the aides, CNAs, LPNs and RNs on shifts, the companions, the household help. Each professional has one profile with the agreements, the documents, the pay and the schedule, and the home side is set up before discharge. Coming Home holds the therapy team's home recommendations with Done, In progress and Need help.
Find the team
Find a team member sends a questionnaire to anyone the family is considering, and the Marketplace search finds professionals by service and ZIP area. Agencies & Quotes writes a de-identified overview and the proposed schedule, sends one link, and the agencies' quotes land back in the app side by side, with no access to the record.
Find a team member →Agreements, the W-9 and the documents before the first shift
Home Team agreements drafts the Independent Service Agreement from the template, sends it, the professional signs, the family countersigns; an agency's own PDF goes in with its rules. One table shows who has completed the agreement, the W-9, CPR, the license, TB and the skills checklist. A professional fills and signs the W-9 in the app; the family sees it on file with the last four digits, and the owner's reveal for a 1099 is recorded every time.
Home Team agreements →The weekly schedule, with open shifts when someone is out
On Home Team management, the Weekly schedule holds a recurring slot per person with the days it covers, day shifts and overnights that cross midnight, each at its own rate. When someone is out, the shift is offered as an open shift and whoever picks it up is on the schedule for that day.
Home Team management →A checklist at the start and the end of every shift
The family writes the Start of shift and End of shift items. An item can be verified from the day's data, such as vitals logged, medications given or a shower logged, or by a photo the professional takes before it counts. A required item left undone holds that day's pay for the family's review, and hours worked are always owed.
Shift checklists and photo proof →A clock that works only at the house
The family sets the house on Home Team management, and the Home Team clocks in and out only there: the phone's location is checked at the tap. This week shows where every clock happened, and a professional who is somewhere else taps Ask the family to fix my time.
Clock in and out only at the patient's home →Timesheets, invoices and pay, with the year's total
The clock becomes the timesheet. Each professional, or the agency office, sends an invoice for the pay period; the family approves it, and Pay now shows their chosen method: Zelle, Cash App, direct deposit, a check, a bank transfer or a wire. Mark paid records how and with what reference. Year summary lists what the family paid each professional or agency, by the day it was paid, and flags an independent professional paid at or over the IRS reporting threshold with 1099-NEC likely due.
Clock in and out, the time log and pay release →Home Team reports to print or download
Home Team reports has five reports behind a row of tiles: House entry, Comings and goings, Who's been paid, Invoices sent, and Sign-in history, each with a range, Print and Download CSV. The hours clocked, the invoices sent and the payments marked paid are the family's own record of the care given at home.
Home Team reports →Health reports for the next visit
Reports has five reports: Vitals and glucose, Medications, Symptoms and alerts, the Weekly home summary and the Visit flow sheet. Pick 7, 30 or 90 days or a from-to range; Print shows only the report with a header naming the patient and the range, and Download CSV is built from the rows on screen. The clinicians' dashboard shows the very same reports on its Reports tab.
Health reports →
Hiring, agreements and the weekly schedule are ready weeks before the first shift.
One record
The family, the care team and the Home Team read one record, each from their own side.
The family
The owner and caregiver-role accounts run the record from a phone, a tablet or a computer, in the browser. Nothing to install.
Who is who →The care team
Every clinician login opens the care-team dashboard: Today (the checklist, since your last visit, the schedule, the team feed, alerts), the patient's care, the patient, Clinical, My shifts, Paperwork, and Billing & pay. Every discipline reads the day plan.
The care-team dashboard →The Home Team on shift
Clock in at the house, the start-of-shift checklist, the day plan's steps to tap off, the dose-due pop-up for the medications on this shift, the end-of-shift checklist, clock out.
The app during a visit →
Every clinician login, whatever the discipline, reads the day plan.
Create a free accountQuestions
What families in this situation ask us.
Start the record today, from the hospital room. It comes home with the veteran.
Create the free account now, or tell us where things stand and we will set the first pieces up with you.
Talk to us
Tell us where things stand.
Where the veteran is now, what the doctors have said about the stay, and what the plan at home looks like. A real person replies within one business day, and we set the first pieces up with you.
Rather start on your own? Create a free account.
One team, one plan
Built for the interdisciplinary care team
An interdisciplinary care team is a group of different health professionals who work together closely with the patient and family to create a single, shared treatment plan. ExpressAgain is the platform where all of those parties care for one patient together: the same day, the same medications, the same notes, and the same record of who did what and when.
Family
the daughter, the siblings, the friends who show up
Home care
aides hired directly or sent by an agency
Clinicians
nurses, therapists, hospice, palliative, paramedics
Agencies
the office that staffs, schedules and bills