As healthcare continues its shift beyond the walls of hospitals and into homes and virtual platforms, ensuring patient safety across every point of care has become increasingly complex. With the rapid growth of home health services and telehealth, more care is being delivered remotely than ever before. However, this expansion comes with a challenge: incidents that jeopardize patient safety are often missed or go unreported when care occurs outside traditional hospital settings. That’s where incident tracking software comes in.
By providing a centralized, real-time, and integrated solution, incident tracking software for healthcare empowers organizations to capture, analyze, and respond to safety events across the entire care continuum—from inpatient settings to home care to virtual consultations.
In this blog, we’ll explore how incident tracking software addresses safety gaps in home health and telehealth, and why it’s a vital tool for improving outcomes and reducing harm across the healthcare industry.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of virtual and home-based care models. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), telehealth usage increased 63-fold just from 2019 to 2020.
Meanwhile, the demand for home health services has surged as aging populations and cost-conscious systems seek alternatives to hospitalization and long-term care.
Over 87% of older adults express a desire to remain in their own homes instead of moving to assisted living or nursing facilities, and over 80% of older adults are not financially prepared for long-term care requirements.
These trends are here to stay—but so are their risks:
As healthcare extends into more decentralized environments, traditional safety monitoring methods no longer suffice. Manual reporting, post-event reviews, and paper-based systems fall short when the point of care is a patient’s living room or a virtual call.
Incident tracking software provides a modern solution to these safety challenges. At its core, it enables organizations to:
However, the real value of technology lies in how it’s used. Incident tracking software fosters a culture of safety by making it easier and safer for staff to report concerns through:
Together, these capabilities not only improve incident visibility but also empower healthcare teams to take timely, informed actions that enhance safety across every care setting.
Home health services—whether administered by nurses, therapists, or aides—present unique challenges. In home health, staff are often working independently in non-clinical environments, and incidents may go unnoticed or unreported without the right tools.
This can lead to serious problems.
In one study of near misses in home health care, more than half of patients were affected—and about 63% of those incidents could have been prevented. The most common incident types were falls, deficiencies in medication management, and moderate pain.
It is essential that such incidents are reported to proactively prevent these near misses.
Incident management software bridges that gap by:
Virtual care has revolutionized access to medical services—but it can also obscure safety signals that would be more visible in person.
A survey of healthcare workers in telehealth services found that 72% had trouble making accurate diagnoses, and 77% felt frustrated because they couldn’t see or examine the patient in person.
A study of the Veterans Health Administration looked at 145 adverse events related to telehealth. It found that some were classified as unsafe conditions (45 cases), some were close calls (37 cases), and others actually caused harm to patients (15 cases). The most common issues were delays in care, problems with medication, and equipment not working correctly.
Incident tracking software enables telehealth providers to:
Perhaps the greatest strength of incident reporting software is its ability to unify safety reporting across settings.
For healthcare organizations that offer a blend of inpatient, outpatient, home health, and telehealth services, a centralized platform ensures:
This holistic approach not only drives better patient outcomes but also supports regulatory compliance and risk reduction efforts.
The future of healthcare is decentralized—but patient safety must remain unified.
Incident tracking software ensures that no matter where care happens, safety incidents are captured, addressed, and learned from. Whether in a hospital ward, a living room, or a Zoom call, one thing should remain constant: a strong commitment to protecting every patient, every time.
As care continues to extend beyond the walls of healthcare organizations, incident tracking software plays a critical role in maintaining safety across home health, telehealth, and every point in between.
With a centralized, easy-to-use platform, your organization can capture safety events in real time—ensuring no concern goes unheard, no near miss goes unnoticed, and no trend goes unaddressed.
Ready to improve patient safety across the entire care continuum? Book a demo to see how our incident tracking software helps healthcare teams prevent harm, reduce risk, and empower staff to speak up—no matter where care is delivered.