HCAW Webinar – Managing the Other 128 Hours: Best Practices for After-Hours Patient Care

June 25, 2026 | 8:00 – 9:00am PST

After-hours care is one of the most operationally complex and emotionally critical parts of home health and hospice. Nights, weekends, and holidays often become the moments when patient anxiety escalates, caregivers need reassurance, and clinicians are stretched the thinnest. In this educational session, experts from the triage industry will explore best practices for managing after-hours patient care from triage communication and escalation protocols to staffing models, nurse preparedness, documentation workflows, and caregiver experience. Attendees will gain actionable strategies to strengthen continuity of care, reduce unnecessary disruptions, improve patient and caregiver confidence, and better support clinicians managing after-hours demands. Designed specifically for Washington state home health and hospice providers, this session focuses on real-world operational and clinical considerations that impact quality, workforce sustainability, and the patient experience across all hours of care.

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Learning Objectives:

– Identify core clinical and operational challenges that impact after-hours patient care management in home health and hospice.

– Apply communication and triage best practices that improve patient and caregiver experiences during after-hours encounters.

– Evaluate staffing, escalation, and workflow strategies that reduce clinician burden while maintaining safe, timely patient care.

Audience Takeaways:

– Practical strategies for improving after-hours communication with patients and caregivers.

– Best practices for determining when issues can be resolved remotely versus escalated to field staff.

– Guidance for developing consistent triage protocols and workflows.

– Ideas for supporting nurse sustainability and reducing unnecessary overnight interruptions.

– A framework for evaluating the effectiveness of their current after-hours processes.

– Operational insights into balancing patient experience, staff wellbeing, and clinical responsiveness.

About the Speakers:

Mike Brents, PT, DPT, MHA

Mike Brents, PT, DPT, MHA is the Vice President of Business Analytics at IntellaTriage, where he leads the strategy and execution of data analysis and insights that drive business decisions and performance across the organization. With more than 20 years of healthcare experience spanning post-acute and acute-care settings, Mike has served in diverse senior leadership roles, including Chief Clinical Officer, VP of Business Intelligence, and Managing Director of Technology Consulting. As a data-driven leader, he has provided a variety of clinical, operational, and quality oversight functions while serving as product owner for multiple EHRs, associated applications, and analytics platforms.

Bernadette Smith, MS Ed

As Vice President of Marketing for IntellaTriage, Bernadette Smith leads strategic marketing initiatives and oversees marketing operations that drive meaningful impact across the hospice and home health industry. She leverages her multifaceted professional background to elevate education and thought leadership nationwide, advancing conversations around patient experience, nurse wellbeing, and post-acute innovation. Bernadette currently serves the National Alliance for Home Care on the Education Work Group and as Vice Chair of the Philanthropy Council. Before joining IntellaTriage, she led marketing and communications at QIRT (now McBee, a Netsmart Company) and served as Managing Director of the LTC100 Intelligence Group at Lincoln Healthcare Leadership.