Home care
The daughter in another city stops phoning to ask if somebody came.
One private link for each patient, sent once. It shows who is visiting, when, whether they have started, and what was done. No app, no login, and no money anywhere on it.
Sound familiar?
- The same three families phone every evening to ask whether anyone turned up
- You answer from memory, or you open the app and read it out to them
- A relative who lives abroad has no way to check anything for themselves
- When a visit is genuinely late, they find out by calling you, not before
- The one thing you cannot send them is the roster, because it has your rates on it
What the family actually gets
One link, sent once
Create it for a patient and send it on WhatsApp. It keeps working for as long as that patient is with you. Nothing to install, no password, no account to recover at ten at night.
Who is coming, and when
Today’s visits with the attendant’s first name and the planned time. Once somebody starts, the page says so. After fifteen minutes late it says running a little late, not a ticking counter.
What was actually done
The tasks ticked off on the visit, as they are ticked. Bathing, medicines, a walk. The family sees the work, not just that a person was in the building.
Photos, only if you allow them
Two separate switches, both off to start with: the attendant’s face so the family knows who is at the door, and the proof photos taken during a visit.
No money, ever
Charges, staff pay and your margin are stripped out before the page is built. There is no setting that reveals them, because they are never sent to the browser at all.
Yours to stop
Stop a link at any moment and it stops opening for everybody holding it. Regenerate to hand a fresh one to a single relative when a family situation changes.
Why it is a link and not a login
The obvious way to build this is an account for each relative. It is also the way to guarantee nobody uses it. The person who worries most about an elderly parent is usually the one living furthest away, and asking them to install an app, verify a phone number and remember a password puts three doors in front of a question that takes four seconds to answer.
So there is no account. There is a long random token in a URL, the same shape of thing a courier sends you when a parcel is out for delivery. Anyone holding it can open the page and nobody else can guess it. That is a real trade, and it is worth naming: a link that is forwarded has been shared with whoever it was forwarded to. Which is why the page is built to be safe to forward.
Safe to forward means the page carries no address, no phone number, no other patient, nothing about the business, and no figure in rupees. It shows a first name, a schedule, and whether the work happened. A stranger who somehow obtained the link learns that somebody named Kamala had help with bathing at ten in the morning. That is genuinely all there is.
It is also never indexed. Search engines are told to stay away, it appears in no sitemap, and it does not carry a referrer to anywhere it links. A page keyed to a vulnerable person’s daily routine, findable by searching their name, would tell a stranger exactly when they are alone in the house. That was worth being careful about, so we were.
And when a family does need to be told something, the owner writes a short note that appears at the top of the page with a date on which it removes itself. Notes that never expire are how a family learns to stop reading the banner.
Questions home care owners ask
How does a patient’s family see who is visiting?
The care agency creates one private link for that patient and sends it to the family, usually on WhatsApp. Opening it shows who is coming today, at what time, whether they have arrived and started, and what was completed. There is nothing to install and nothing to log in to.
Do relatives need an app or an account?
No. The link opens in whatever browser is already on their phone. That matters more than it sounds: the person who worries most is often the one living furthest away and least willing to install anything, and an account is exactly where these things stop being used.
Can the family see how much the visit costs?
No, and it is not a setting that can be turned on. Charges, staff pay and the agency margin are removed before the page is built, not hidden in the browser. A relative can read every byte the page is made of and still find no money in it.
What exactly can somebody with the link see?
The patient’s first name, today’s visits, the attendant’s first name, the planned times, whether a visit has started or finished, and which tasks were ticked off. They can open a list of earlier visits going back three months. They cannot see addresses, phone numbers, other patients, or anything about the business.
Are photos shown to the family?
Only if the agency turns them on for that patient, and they are off to begin with. There are two separate switches: the attendant’s photo, so the family knows the face at the door, and the photos staff take to prove a task was done. Either can be left off without affecting anything else on the page.
What happens if a carer is running late?
After fifteen minutes past the planned time the page says the visit is running a little late, rather than showing a countdown. A family reading a minute-by-minute delay counter phones the agency; a family told plainly that somebody is late and still coming usually does not.
Can a link be stopped once it has been shared?
Yes, at any time, and it takes effect immediately. A stopped link stops opening for everyone holding it. If a family situation changes and only one person should still have access, the agency can stop the old link and create a fresh one to send to whoever should keep it.
Is the link findable on Google?
No. Each link carries a long random token, is served with instructions telling every search engine not to index it, and is not listed in any sitemap. A page keyed to a vulnerable person’s routine has no business being searchable, and delivery trackers work the same way for the same reason.
Can the agency tell the family something on the page?
Yes. The owner can write a short note that appears at the top of the page, and every note must carry a date on which it disappears. That is deliberate: a note nobody remembers to remove stays up for a month, the family learns to ignore the banner, and the next real message lands where nobody is reading.
Does the agency know whether the family is actually reading it?
It sees how many times the link has been opened and when it was last opened. That is the difference between a relative who is reassured and one who is still going to phone at nine at night, and it tells the owner which families were never really reached.
Part of the home care add-on. From 999 rupees a year for the platform.
All platform features ·Who Shiftelio is built for ·Staff across many locations ·Plans and pricing
Get started free