Client intake: from the first call to the start of care

Where it is. In your agency workspace, open Client intake under Clients, right after Requests. It is for your agency's administrators, your office, and anyone your organization admin gives the Intake permission. On a phone the pipeline is a list; on a desktop it is a board with one column per stage (List and Board switch between them). Chips at the top filter by stage with a count each (New inquiry, Phone screening, Assessment, Welcome packet, In-home intake, Start of care, Care started, Lost / not now); search by the patient's or the caller's name, and filter by source and owner. Each row names the patient, the caller and how they are related, the source, the owner and the next step.

Where families come from. Log a new inquiry is a phone call by hand: how they reached you (phone call, website form, hosted link, referral partner link, hospital or case manager, Agencies & Quotes, other) and how they heard about you, the caller's first name, last name and relationship, phone and email, the patient's first name and last name, the city, state and ZIP, what help is needed (the same list as your Request care form), hours per week, the start date and the payer (private pay, long-term-care insurance, Medicaid waiver, VA, not sure yet). Only the names and one way to reach the family are needed to save. Every Request care form from your website or your hosted page becomes a New inquiry by itself, with an office task to call the family back; transportation requests and questions stay under Requests.

One family's pages. Each stage is its own page with its own address: New inquiry, Phone screening, Assessment visit, Welcome packet, In-home intake, Start of care, and Lost / not now. A slim header names the caller and the patient, the stage, the source, the owner and the next step; Owner and next step changes them. The inquiry page keeps what the family told you, an optional thank-you note, the family's office tasks, a note box and the timeline, which lists every stage move, note and message with who did it.

The phone screening. A guided script: each question with the line the office reads aloud, with the patient's first name in it. The standard questions are the diagnosis, the transfer assistance level on the standard scale (Independent through Maximal assist, Dependent and Bedbound, with the line saying what the level means), how many people help and the equipment in the home, memory and understanding, moods and behaviors, pets, smoking in the home, getting into the home, and the days, time of day and length of each visit; then your own questions from Intake settings. Fit with Clients we accept compares each answer with your settings and shows a plain heads-up where something does not match, never a refusal: you decide. Fit takes the family to the assessment; Not a fit asks why and where you referred the family, from your own list first, with a link that opens other agencies on the ExpressAgain Marketplace near the family's ZIP code. No referral fees are recorded or paid on patient referrals.

Health answers and the Intake permission. The diagnosis, transfers, memory, behaviors and your own screening questions are health answers. They are sealed at rest and read only by the people your organization admin gives the Intake permission in Intake settings, Permissions (an administrator gives it to themselves too). Everyone else at the office works the same pages: each health answer shows a lock line in its place, the fit shows how many answers need a look without naming them, and saving the screening never changes a health answer they cannot see.

Lost / not now and office tasks. Lost / not now keeps a reason (chose another agency, cost, payer not accepted, not a fit, needs changed, moved to a facility, family is providing care, no answer after follow-ups, other), an optional date to check back and a note; on that date a task appears for the office, and nothing goes to the family by itself. Reopen puts the family back at the stage it reached last. Office tasks lists every task as Today, Overdue, Upcoming and Done; add one with what to do, the due day, the family and who it is for. Tasks stay in the app: they never email, text or push anyone.

Nothing is sent without your confirm. A message to a family, such as the thank-you note or the not-a-fit note, is shown first with your wording filled in and the address it goes to; choose Email, Text or Both, edit it if you like, tap Review and send, and only Send in the confirm sends it. The text stays short and carries no health details. The message is kept exactly as sent, with your name, on the family's timeline. ExpressAgain can also switch each kind of intake message off for every agency; while one is off it says so and nothing goes.