A founder with a vision — build the platform that homecare agencies actually need
ConnectAide started with a clear problem: homecare agencies in the US were running their operations on phone calls, paper schedules and disconnected tools. Matching patients to caregivers, scheduling visits, tracking ongoing care and managing a roster of hundreds of caregivers — all being done manually, at scale, every day.
The founder came to Staffinc with a specific brief: build a complete homecare staffing platform that agencies could subscribe to and run their entire operation on. Not a generic scheduling tool. A purpose-built homecare platform — with a patient-facing app, a caregiver manager app and a full agency dashboard, all connected to the same backend.
The platform needed to handle the full homecare workflow: patients browsing and booking caregivers, live visit tracking with real-time timers, caregiver invitation and matching, in-app chat, visit history, calendar management and a complete agency-side operations view across patients, caregivers, visits, invites and scheduling. Three products. One platform. Built from scratch.
Homecare agencies were running complex operations on tools built for something else
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Patients had no way to find and choose their own caregiver
In most homecare agencies, patients are simply assigned a caregiver. There was no platform that let patients browse caregiver profiles, see ratings, check languages spoken and choose who comes into their home — the way you'd expect to be able to in 2024.
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Visit scheduling was manual and error-prone
Scheduling recurring homecare visits — with specific time windows, caregiver preferences and patient requirements — was handled through phone calls and spreadsheets. Changes, cancellations and last-minute swaps created constant admin overhead.
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No real-time visibility of ongoing visits
Once a caregiver left for a visit, the agency had no live view of what was happening. Patients and families had no way to see that a caregiver was en route or track the visit in progress. Missed visits were only discovered after the fact.
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Communication between patients, caregivers and the agency was fragmented
Messages went via personal phones, WhatsApp groups and phone calls with no record kept and no single thread. Important care updates were lost. The agency had no visibility of what was being communicated.
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Agencies had no unified operations view
With data spread across tools, agencies couldn't see caregiver utilisation, staffed vs missed visits, invite acceptance rates or patient activity in one place. Operating blind made it impossible to scale or improve.
A complete homecare platform — patient app, manager app and agency dashboard.
We built ConnectAide entirely from scratch — three connected products on a shared backend, covering every part of the homecare workflow from patient onboarding to visit completion to agency reporting.
Patient Mobile App — iOS & Android
Patients onboard, browse caregiver profiles by rating, distance, language and availability, schedule recurring or one-off visits, track ongoing visits in real time with a live timer, view visit history and chat directly with their caregiver — all from one app.
Caregiver Manager App
The manager-side app gives caregivers and supervisors visibility of their assigned visits, patient details, schedules and communications. Connected to the same backend as the patient app and agency dashboard in real time.
Live Visit Tracking
Once a visit starts, a real-time timer runs in the patient app showing elapsed visit time, caregiver name, rating and distance. The agency dashboard reflects visit status live — ongoing, completed or missed — across the entire operation.
Caregiver Matching & Invite System
Patients browse caregiver profiles and send invites directly. The agency can also invite caregivers to cases from the dashboard. Invite status tracked in real time — accepted, declined, pending, responded, ignored — visible across all three surfaces.
Agency Operations Dashboard
Full web dashboard covering: live KPIs (caregivers without schedule, open visits, invites awaiting response), visits bar chart (staffed vs missed over 6 months), case invite status donut chart, patient and caregiver management, browse, invites, chat and admin modules.
In-App Messaging — All Three Surfaces
Patients chat with their caregiver through the patient app. The agency has a full chat module on the dashboard. All communications go through the platform — no personal phone numbers, full message history, complete audit trail.
The homecare experience patients actually want — on their phone
The ConnectAide patient app puts the patient in control. Browse caregivers like you'd browse a service — see their photo, rating, distance, languages spoken and availability. Schedule a visit, track it live and chat directly with your caregiver. All from one clean, purpose-built mobile app.
Find & Book a Caregiver
Browse caregiver profiles by rating, distance and language. Send an invite, schedule a recurring or one-off visit and confirm — all without a phone call.
Track Visits Live
Once a visit starts, a real-time timer shows elapsed time, caregiver name and details. Patients and families see exactly what's happening, when.
Chat & History
In-app messaging with the caregiver. Full visit history — scheduled, completed and offline — with caregiver ratings and visit details.
Three products built simultaneously — on one shared backend
Homecare workflow and product scoping
Deep dive into the homecare staffing model — how patients find caregivers, how visits are scheduled and tracked, how agencies manage rosters and compliance, how the invite and matching flow works. Mapped every user journey across all three surfaces before writing a line of code.
Weeks 1–2Shared backend — one data layer for all three products
Built the entire backend first — patient profiles, caregiver records, visit data, invite status and messaging as a single source of truth. All three surfaces (patient app, manager app, agency dashboard) read from and write to the same layer in real time. This is what makes the live visit tracking and instant invite status updates possible.
Weeks 3–6Patient mobile app — iOS and Android
Full patient-facing app built in React Native: onboarding, caregiver browsing and selection, visit scheduling (recurring and one-off), live visit tracking with real-time timer, visit history, caregiver ratings and in-app chat. Fortnightly demos throughout.
Weeks 5–13Caregiver manager app and agency dashboard
Manager app built for caregivers and supervisors to manage their visits, patients and communications. Agency dashboard built with full operations visibility: live KPIs, visits charts, case invite status tracking, patient and caregiver management, browse, invites, chat and admin modules.
Weeks 10–18Multi-agency SaaS architecture and launch
Platform architected for multi-tenancy — each subscribing agency gets their own isolated environment with their own patients, caregivers and data. Subscription and onboarding flow built for the client to bring new agencies onto the platform independently.
Weeks 17–20A production-ready SaaS platform — three products, one system
Connected products on one backend
Patient app, caregiver manager app and agency dashboard — all live, all reading from the same data layer. A visit booked by a patient appears instantly across all three surfaces. No sync delays, no data duplication.
Live visit tracking across the operation
Patients see their visit timer running in the app. The agency dashboard shows every ongoing visit live — who is staffed, who is missed, caregiver status and visit hours across the entire operation.
SaaS-ready from day one
ConnectAide is architected for multiple agencies — each with their own isolated data environment. The client can onboard a new agency onto the platform without any development work. Built to scale as subscriptions grow.
End-to-end homecare workflow covered
From the moment a patient finds a caregiver to the moment a visit is completed and logged — every step is handled in the platform. Browse, invite, schedule, track, chat, review. Nothing falls outside the system.
"ConnectAide was the most complex build in terms of surfaces — three connected products that all had to work in real time. The patient app, the manager app and the agency dashboard all share one backend. When a visit starts on the patient's phone, the agency sees it live on their dashboard. That kind of real-time consistency across three products takes careful architecture to get right."
Built for multi-tenancy, real-time data and HIPAA compliance
All three products share a single Node.js + PostgreSQL backend on AWS US infrastructure with HIPAA-compliant data handling. Multi-tenant architecture isolates each agency's data while sharing the same platform. Real-time data sync across all three surfaces uses WebSockets for live visit tracking and instant status updates.