Versions keep the past as it was
Why forms, living documents such as a plan of care, and a client's task list change by new versions instead of being edited in place.
Several things in CareComplete are changed by making a new version rather than editing the old one: forms, documents kept as one living copy per person, such as a plan of care, and each client's task list. The idea is the same each time. What someone filled in, signed, read or worked from must stay exactly as it was when they did it.
Forms: change in a draft, publish when ready
You change a form in a draft that nobody filling it in can see, then publish it as the next version. Every response already completed still shows and prints on the version it was filled in on, so a signed service agreement from last year reads as the client signed it, not as this year's form looks.
Publishing does not cut off the old version. A response already started on it, perhaps on a caregiver's phone with no signal, can still be finished. When you no longer want the old version used at all, retire it.
Living documents: one current copy, every revision kept
Some forms are kept as one living document each: a person has one current copy, such as their plan of care. Changing it makes a new revision that replaces the current one, and the earlier revisions are kept.
Acknowledgements belong to a revision. When a caregiver acknowledges a client's plan of care, they acknowledge that revision; when it changes, they are asked again. You can always tell whether someone has read the plan as it stands today, not just some earlier version of it.
Task lists: a new version takes effect at a moment
A client's Tasks tab holds the tasks caregivers are asked to do and record on each visit. The list is versioned as a whole. You prepare a draft and publish it with the moment it takes effect, such as Monday at 8 am. Until then you can still change it; from then on it is locked, and a further change is a new version.
Nothing is copied onto visits. Each visit reads the version in effect when it starts. So:
- a visit already under way keeps the tasks it started with, and the caregiver's screen never changes mid-visit;
- every visit from the new moment on, including those already on the calendar, gets the new list without anyone touching them;
- a visit in the past always shows the tasks it was actually given.
Tasks themselves are kept steady in the same way. Once a client's list uses a task, its name and answers do not change; to change it, retire it and make a new one. That keeps earlier answers meaning what they meant when they were given.
concepts-task-list-versionsA client's Tasks tab in the demo agency Riverside Home Care (Dorothy Hartley; the demo does not yet seed task lists, so add two versions first): the current version in effect since last month, and a published next version taking effect next Monday at 8:00 AM, with a few tasks grouped by category.For forms, see Publishing a form and its versions and Who can use a form, and My Forms.