Birdie Reviews

The system is really good

App keeps crashing however very useful app

does not link in well with our managment systems

My mum s carers have been using Birdie for about 2 years now and they ve given me access to it so that I can view her twice-daily care visits This has been great except for one point I d really like to be able as next of kin to leave comments on my mum s care notes for the carers to read This is the big issue I have with the app ATM if I read anything on the app that I need to talk to the carers about I can t comment Instead I have to ring mum s neighbour and ask them to watch for the carer coming and go out and talk to them In one way this is more reliable than emailing the care manager who often doesn t reply but most of the carers aren t native speakers of English so sometimes due to a language breakdown the carers don t understand the message and that s another problem Example - the message for the carer was to get the manager to email me The carer misunderstood and asked my mum who has demantia to email me She can t even recognise a computer Another thing is that mum often tells me things in our daily phone calls which I need to tell the carers about but I can t - again I have to rely on the neighbours not fair on them They already have enough to do and they are elderly themselves and again there are often communication breakdowns It would be so much better if I could leave messages for the carers or the care manager on the app As well as providing direct contact everyone would have a written record of messages and recently written information seems to be easier for some of the carers to understand compared to conversations Update Hello Lucy Thank you for the very prompt long and detailed reply I really appreciate it I ll have a good read through this information and think about how it relates to my mum s her care team s situation then decide who it s appropriate to talk to - you or them or both The problem is always that communicating with them is often very difficult for so many reasons Anyway thanks again Very much appreciated Kind regards Paula2nd Update Hi again Lucy Having thought in-depth about the situation I now tend to agree with you The problem lies in the frequent communication breakdowns within the various organizations tasked with caring for my mother It is already far too complicated - I have recently created a log-book on the advice of my solicitor in which to record all the communications and I can see now why everything is so complicated I am in communication with NINE different managers dept heads administrators clinicians etc there are at least TEN hands-on carers and in August alone I had to email these people 48 times Many of these mails were not replied to Very stressful As your experience suggests adding NoK comments to the mix would create even more confusion Too many cooks have already spoiled the broth I will try to sort something out with their side first and if that proves unsuccessful I ll take you up on the offer of an online chat I m actually much much better at face-to-face communication both in person or virtual than I am in writing I have a phobia of medical care email text but I endure it for the sake of my mother I need to be able to see the face of the person I m talking to in order to feel at ease Thanks for your input Paula

I am worried about the fact that carers can log in and out when they aren t even at the clients house For example I was messaging my dad earlier and he said to me the carer has just gone she was there for 20 minutes The app wasn t saying they had even been there then a few minutes after they left it came up visit in progress and was completed after 1hr and 18mins it doesn t make sense Can someone from Birdie explain please

Pretty strightforward however there were a few outrages I m not happy with Consumes lots of phone battery

It is easy to use but you need to improve in other area like we must know the next carer to that visit It helps a lot in person centred care The app can be force logged by unintentionally Meaning it needs safeguards on this area It does not include soup either on fluids or on food It does not give the carer the flexibility to record other areas On toilet it does not include urine bottle or bucket

The App its self is easy to do for the employer but the Birdie system once the rota is in the system it works out the mileage which doesn t allow for road closes and sometimes not to used the direct rota because of school traffic etc Than there is the issue of travel time this is such a joke Birdie reckon you can get from one customer to the next in a ridiculous amount of time doesn t allow for getting from client home to car doesn t allow for traffic doesn t allow for parking doesn t allow for getting the key code some times if new client you get lost so we get paid for unreal travel time and not for wait time if your a carer your rushing about in my day I haven t got time to wait this needed to be address because this is why Working in carer is not for the carer basically the app is computerised carers aren t robots can t fly from one client to the next and the app is making carer very devalue no one carer leave because not get the right amount for time