Visit scheduling for small Spitex teams: visits, routes and kilometres

How do I plan the visits of a small Spitex team?

Spitex is the Swiss name for home care and home help. Create each client as a place, each carer as a team member, and enter the visits as shifts in the week. Then you send each person only their own visits.

You do it on the iPhone, with no computer. It is meant for small, private teams of two to eight people.

Clients as places: names, notes and data protection

Each client is a place with a name and an address. The address is needed for the route. For the name, initials or a short name are enough: “Mrs K.” instead of a full name.

The text of a shift goes into the message. What you write in the place name and the note reaches WhatsApp, SMS or email. Health data counts as particularly sensitive under the Swiss data protection act (FADP). The app is not meant for it: leave it out. Your data stays on the iPhone, with no server and no account, but what you send leaves the device.

Spitex is subject to cantonal rules and, depending on the organisation, its own contracts. Ask your canton, your association or your data protection officer what applies to you. The app helps you plan and inform; complying with the rules is up to the organisation.

A checklist to tick off before you send the first plan. It is saved in this browser only.

• Each client is a place. With initials and an address.
• Each person is entered. With phone or email and, for routes, their address.
• No health data in the notes. Not in the place name either.
• Each person's rate is entered. The employer sets it.
• The way of sending is agreed. WhatsApp, SMS or email, depending on the person.

Visits that repeat every week

Mrs K. gets a visit every Monday and Thursday. Create the visit once, as a weekly series with the weekdays you pick, and the app puts it into the following weeks. An end date is optional. There are also daily, fortnightly, monthly and yearly series.

• Series1 series on the free plan; as many as you need with Pro.
• Days off and absencesFrom–to, inclusive. The reason stays private and never goes into the message; it only says “Day off”.
• Conflict rulesTwo visits at the same time, or a visit on a day off: allowed, warning or conflict, as you choose in the settings.
• Public holidaysWith Pro you import them by region, for example for your canton. On the free plan you type them in.

How far is it from home to the client?

With Pro, the app measures the kilometres and minutes from each person's address to the place of each visit, using Apple Maps. You see at a glance who travels how far.

Only home to place. The app does not calculate from client to client. If you have three visits in a row in the morning, you do not see the legs between them: allow for that time yourself. With no connection, the app only gives an estimate.

Pro also records how each person gets to the visit:

• Own carThe person drives their own car.
• Car shareAnother team member drives. Handy when two people head the same way on the same morning.
• Public transportWith a ticket and a time.

Mileage cost: distance times rate

With Pro, the app works out the cost using each person's rates: per hour and per kilometre. To see how it works, here is a sum by hand, with invented numbers. Swap in your own.

The rate is the one your organisation sets. 0.70 CHF is an invented example, not an official value. In the app, enter for each person the rate you agreed with them.

• The month's reportHours and costs per person, using each person's hourly and per-kilometre rate.
• A basis, not payrollThe app does not calculate salaries or record the hours actually worked. It shows what was planned.

When someone drops out or wants to swap

If someone is ill, you enter the absence. Depending on your rule, the app shows that day's visits as a warning or a conflict, and you see which ones need someone. If two people want to swap visits, one long press does it.

1. Long presson Lea's visit
2. “Swap shift”choose
3. TapMarco's visit

Then you send. Each person gets only their own visits, by WhatsApp, SMS, email or Share. Your team members do not need an app.

• Automatic emailAt the time you set, from your own account (Google or SMTP). The app has no email server.
• CalendarIf you like, as an .ics file, by email or Share.
• Poster (Pro)The plan as a PDF, A6 to A3, for the day, week, month or year. Do not pin it up where third parties can read the clients' initials.

Send Planning for small Spitex teams

An app for iPhone and iPad, with no account and no server. Your team members get their visits as a message.

• Routes (Pro)Kilometres and minutes from home to the place, using Apple Maps.
• Costs (Pro)With each person's hourly and per-kilometre rate, in the month's report.
• Series and days offVisits that repeat are created once; absences stay private.
• Swaps and sendingSwap shifts; each person gets only their own visits.
• Data on the deviceLock with Face ID or PIN. The app works offline, except for sending.

Frequently asked questions