Interview with Derek Clark, Founder and CEO of ClarkCare, about his experience using FieldWorker

Ben:

Hi there! I’m Ben from the FieldWorker team, and I’m super excited to be joined by Derek Clark, Founder and CEO of ClarkCare based in New Jersey. 

So first of all, Derek, could you tell me a bit about your experience and why you started ClarkCare?

Derek:

Well, I was in the field, what we do is we help adults with developmental disabilities and intellectual disabilities. We help them to accomplish their daily goals. We help them shop to buy groceries, go to doctors’ appointments, helping them to keep up with their hygiene, different things – whatever they need.

So, we are in the field a lot, and we have workers who are in the field, and we are required by Medicaid, which is our funder, New Jersey Medicaid, we are required to basically put a geonet around wherever the caregiver is clocking in and out so that we can make sure that they’re actually where they’re supposed to be and that they’re with the individual.

So that’s where FieldWorker comes in. That’s one of the main things they do, and they customized everything to what we needed. It’s impossible almost to keep track of where people physically are when they’re not with you. They could be in another city. So with this, I can at my fingertips find out where everyone is and what they’re doing, which is tremendously helpful. 

Ben:

Could you tell me a little bit about how maybe a typical day for someone in your team looks, especially out there in the community?

Derek:

Sure! Obviously, it varies greatly actually to what the individuals need. But it could be anything as simple as helping them go grocery shopping, maybe cook a meal, maybe prepare some meals pre-cooked for the week, doctors’ appointments, other kinds of appointments, taking them to the movies, taking them to college courses at the local college and picking them up, as a transportation piece. 

It just depends on what the individual needs. And that could range from pretty much anything. We’re more or less companions, and make sure that not only whatever they need to get done gets done with our help, but whatever they want to do. If they want to go to the park, hang out– anything!

So that’s what we’re there for. Most of our individuals in the population that we work with do not drive, so that’s a huge impairment to them having their freedoms and being able to go where they want, when they want. So that’s a big part of what we do.

Ben: 

I know obviously then all the work that you and your team do makes a big impact in your local community. I know, equally, in the field and in this industry, there are a lot of challenges that you’re faced with. Could you tell me a bit about some of the challenges you’ve encountered so far with your agency?

Derek:

Well, the main challenge is the new implementations they have for what they call EVV, the Electrontronic Visit Verification, where they put a geonet around the service location.

So in other words, if staff were picking them up from their home, and then dropping them off at a day program where they were to be for a few hours, everything would be mapped in there, so that when the staff is supposed to be at a certain place, and they clock in, it clocks in perfectly. If they’re not actually there, then it won’t, and we know there may be an issue.

It’s helped us tremendously keep track of what our staff is doing and where they’re at, and that’s really the main thing. There are a lot of abuses in this field, where literally someone could be at home in their bed, and they could clock in as if they were with someone who is an hour drive away, and then clock out and never go.

Sometimes, you’re dealing with individuals who are non-verbal or maybe not as verbal, and they may not be able to tell you that hey, there weren’t any staff here yesterday, so this is really great and it works great for everyone. It’s one of the biggest pluses I would say to doing it.  

Ben:

I’d love to know a bit about your experience with EVV before FieldWorker and how you found the process of getting set up to be EVV-compliant with FieldWorker.

Derek:

So, again, like you said, we weren’t always mandated to have that EVV function. When we knew that it was coming, we had an opportunity– Medicaid has a company that they work with that we are allowed to work with. I found it very hard to use their software. It wasn’t very intuitive. Everything seemed like an extra step. Actually very hard to learn, very complicated, overly complicated.

So, as soon as we realized it was coming, we started looking for a third-party vendor, and that’s when we found FieldWorker, and we’ve been with them ever since. 

And again, as we go along, we customize things. Even now, we’re still customizing things, changing things, to fit what we need, and it’s been working really well.

Ben:

When you were looking for case management software, were there any other functionalities or features or functionalities that you were looking for that were important for your agency?

Derek:

Well, that was one of the main issues with the original vendor that works with Medicaid; you can’t customize anything, obviously. They’re not open really to making changes, especially not changes on the go, maybe changes a year down the road if a lot of people request them, but we as an agency wanted something very simple for the staff. Basically, as if it’s a time clock where you go and punch in and punch out physically, but on the phone, which everyone has now.

Everything’s already set up for them. The GPS is already set up in the background, everything’s in the background, so they don’t really have to do anything, except for clock in, be where they’re supposed to be, and clock out, and again be where they’re supposed to be.

It’s really as simple as that. We didn’t want them to have to think about any of the background tech stuff, and that’s how it’s set up. There are no issues where they need to worry about anything else, other than hitting a button.

Ben:

When you decided to start using FieldWorker, could you tell me a little bit about your experience of getting onboarded and the support you received with getting set up?

Derek:

Absolutely. So, we originally started our journey with FieldWorker with Anne. She was the first one who really took us under her wing, did all the background stuff, got everything started. 

And then we started to do more of the technical stuff, where I was involved with Sunny, who is amazing. When there’s a problem, he just seems to be able to figure it out, get it done, get it fixed. That’s how it started with Anne, and then more with Sunny for the technical stuff. 

And I probably deal with Sunny once a week at least, where on my end, where I have a question. 

The tech support is above and beyond. With the other platform that works with Medicaid directly, you’re going in, you’re emailing them a question, and you’re going to get a response shortly saying that they’ve received it, but you may not get an actual response for a week, which is not acceptable, obviously. We’re moving and doing things every minute.

I call Sunny, and he calls me right back. I email him, and he answers and texts. That is tremendously important, to have a support staff who is available and actually available with answers and help when you need them, in real time. 

Ben:

I’d love to also talk a bit about growth as well. So obviously with a new agency, and over the past few years, there’s been a lot of, let’s call it, unexpected challenges and things like global pandemics and changes to face as a society. Maybe it’s then a bit difficult to talk about growth.

Could you talk about how FieldWorker has helped you in that area?

Derek:

It’s definitely helped, because it’s made things easier for the staff, and they’re the ones along with the individuals that we serve, the staff are out there in the community, in their homes, under whatever pandemic protocols that we have at the time. 

So again, them not having to worry about having to do a lot of extra things, for stuff other than servicing the individual, it makes a huge difference, because we’ve worked for – and I actually know other providers who work with other apps, similar to FieldWorker, where the staff is already under a lot of stress. It’s a very stressful job, and then obviously being out there during a pandemic, going into other people’s homes. 

Just the fact they don’t have to worry about these extra things is very helpful. And I’ve been given that feedback from other staff, that they’ve come from another provider and using FieldWorker has just made things as easy as possible, where they can concentrate on the individual and have everything they need like the safety protocols and all the government protocols. They can worry about that stuff, the important stuff, and not have to worry about fooling around with the app for 20 minutes because they can’t clock in and now they’re not getting paid.

It can be a very stressful situation for our staff.

Ben:

Stress is also a very big topic at the minute in addition to burnout – it’s a word we’ve seen used a lot of times, especially for those working in this field. Could you tell me a little bit about how you think case management software like FieldWorker can play a role in helping teams with this?

Derek:

Like I said, I think it’s vital, because when you can remove something from a staff member’s plate, it’s always helpful obviously. When you walk into an individual’s home to provide services, it can be traumatic as soon as you walk in. You really don’t know, each individual’s different, there may be some things that they’re going through. It just takes that one extra thing off their plate.

And there’s nothing worse than going to work all week, and clocking in and out on your app, and you don’t get paid, and then they say, well, you didn’t clock in and out, but I did, and it’s just terrible.

So with FieldWorker, everything goes through like it’s supposed to, everything picks up like it’s supposed to, and it works like it’s supposed to. And it just makes things that much easier for us, as owners, managers or supervisors, and for the actual people who are in the field, and the individuals too. It’s not fair to the individual when you show up at their house, and you have to step out for 20 minutes to call someone because your app’s not working and you’re not able to clock in. That’s not helpful to anyone.

Ben:

I want to ask about records as well. So, how has FieldWorker changed the way you and your team deal with keeping records or accessing records?

Derek:

That’s the background stuff that goes on that just does what it’s supposed to. I can go anytime on my portal, I can check everything, from clock in and clock out times, payroll purposes to schedules. For each individual, I can map out exactly what they’ve done, not only this week but also last week, and what they’re due to do next week. 

They are in one central location. I’m not panning back and forth through Excel sheets, to try to keep the payroll correct and all these other pieces of software that I’m going to have to use to keep running the business. This does a very very high majority of what we need every day, it keeps track of it, it keeps it archived where I can have access to it, so it’s very important.

Ben:

Have you got anything else at all that you would like to share about your experience with FieldWorker or the FieldWorker team? 

Derek:

I know I touched on it a few times, about the customer service, and the app, the technology, all that background stuff. It works like it is supposed to, which I guess is the biggest compliment you could give to any piece of software. Works like it’s supposed to.

But the customer service is just probably some of the best customer service that I have personally ever received from anything, whether it’s with my car, my insurance, anything! It’s some of the best customer service I’ve ever received, and that makes things a lot easier on our end, when we know if we have a problem, we can make a call, send a text or email, and not only do we get a call back or someone actually answers the phone, but they actually have solutions and they’re ready to start moving forward with different solutions right away, and it makes a difference.

Ben:

Excellent, that’s everything I had to ask. Thank you very much for taking the time to chat with me today, Derek!

Derek:

My pleasure!