by Terence Blackwell Jr on April 8, 2025
Direct support professionals (DSPs) serve as vital resources for assisting with activities of daily living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
Still, workforce shortages and retention issues persist. A National Center for Health Workforce Analysis report, for example, projects the demand for long-time support workers to grow by 44% by 2035. Yet, in a 2024 survey of IDD service providers, 69% of respondents said they had to turn away new referrals due to staffing challenges.
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Amid this environment, many organizations are weighing whether to add new technology, factoring in issues like IDD software cost. When IDD technology is leveraged as a recruitment and retention tool, many are finding a high return on their investment. If organizations want to solve retention issues and build a strong workforce for growing IDD needs, they need the technological infrastructure that automates manual processes and enables providers, staff, and DSPs to do their best work.
IDD Software and Widespread Staffing Shortages
The direct support workforce crisis is primarily attributed to an inability of providers to offer competitive wages and benefits, notes the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR). Stagnated wages have not only led to large numbers of professionals leaving the DSP workforce but also impeding existing providers' abilities to purchase equipment, hire and train additional personnel, or effectively handle administrative tasks, ANCOR says.
With 90% of IDD providers reporting moderate or severe staffing challenges, it’s little wonder why 68% report difficulties achieving quality standards and 45% have seen upticks in reportable incidents.
While facing such upheaval and staffing gaps, providers who use DSPs must make the most of their limited staff and adopt systems to ensure continuity of services. Compared to time-consuming paper-based systems, IDD software with embedded artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools can ease the burdens on staff, support direct support professional duties, and aid in effective care delivery.
Top IDD EHRs, for example, offer AI-backed documentation capabilities that use natural language processing to help identify IDD needs and save providers considerable time on charting and reviewing session notes. Other AI tools can help spot symptoms, pinpoint anomalies in administrative notes to avoid clinical errors, and support evidence-based practice workflows — essential benefits that streamline care and support delivery amid staffing shortages and ease staff burden to support retention.
How EHRs Can Improve Care Delivery
When weighing IDD software cost and ROI, consider these EHR features and their impact on staff retention and operational efficiency and effectiveness:
Ease of Use
IDD practices should look for software that is intuitive and designed specifically for IDD service settings. Systems with integrated AI solutions enable staff to quickly record notes and find information while also providing the best user experience.
Look for role-based workflows that make sure information is available at the right time, with prompts for decisions to occur as needed. Technology that uses configurable templates and modular design is preferable, as they allow organizations to create custom workflows that fit their organizational and client needs. This setup also makes it easier for users to teach others in the same role and to adjust templates over time.
If your IDD agency supports employees with limited English proficiency (LEP), find a solution with integrated translation functionality. With this capability, staff with LEP can dictate information in their native language and create notes in English. Conversely, staff can translate English documents into other languages to ensure all staff are on the same page. This functionality not only helps ensure documentation is accurate and consistent, but also strengthens the staff experience and facilitates effective communication across staff and clients.
Streamlined Scheduling Capabilities
IDD and direct support professional duties involve keeping up with constantly shifting schedules across providers and clients. Manually monitoring and adjusting schedules can be incredibly taxing on an IDD agency, often leading to errors that impact reporting and billing procedures. Having a standalone scheduling system, on the other hand, means spending administrative time juggling multiple technologies.
While, as noted, IDD software cost is a consideration, it's also important to look at how an EHR with integrated scheduling tools can deliver a strong ROI with its ability to enhance provider efficiency by enabling customized appointment scheduling based on availability, visit type, and other factors. Meanwhile, DSPs can use the technology’s scheduling portal to manage client appointments. More streamlined scheduling means better service provision, more time to spend with clients, and reduced administrative burden.
Task Management
In addition to providing tools for building and adhering to service and support plans, IDD EHRs should also provide an easy-to-use dashboard that allows staff to track task progress, completion of assigned tasks, and how long tasks take to complete.
Having access to this information can help staff quickly identify areas of concern and take corrective action. Providers and staff should be able to customize alerts and notifications directly through their EHR. This might include reminders to staff when a task is nearing completion or when a service plan needs to be updated or changed, or supervisory alerts when certain tasks haven’t been completed by the intended deadline. Having these automated notifications can help make sure tasks are completed on time and that service plans are kept current.<
Care Coordination and Communication Support
The best way to facilitate effective staff communication is through a secure platform with data-sharing and communication capabilities. With end-to-end encryption, secure cloud storage, and embedded compliance tracking tools, for example, staff can rest assured that their organization aligns with federal, state, and local data privacy regulations.
Improved care coordination requires nonprofit organizations to adopt EHRs built with interoperability in mind, enabling various systems across the care continuum to work together seamlessly. This makes it easy for providers to securely exchange progress notes and care plans with one another, as well as with parents, guardians, and caregivers.
Person-centered support is a cornerstone of effective IDD care delivery and coordination, and strong IDD software can provide the foundation needed to enable it. Integrated telehealth capabilities, for example, can help providers reach clients in care shortage areas and support care delivery in understaffed organizations. Mobile features enable providers and staff to securely access the EHR platform and share data even when they’re offline.
Moreover, AI-powered, evidence-based workflows support providers’ collaborative decision-making and give coordinated team members clear role expectations via interactive task checklists. These features help reduce provider turnover and support care coordination by automating data-sharing processes and enabling real-time communication.
Goal-Setting Insights
Many DSPs and providers get into the IDD field because they want to help people. When they’re spending more time on documentation than on client care, something is out of balance. That’s why adopting IDD technology that can empower staff to feel like they’re making a difference is critical to retention and recruitment efforts.
Choose IDD software that makes it easy for staff to document and track progress consistently. Having consistent, measurable progress points facilitates better outcomes and is rewarding for both the service provider and those receiving services.
Maximizing Your ROI With the Right IDD Technology
When evaluating IDD software cost, it's essential to consider the return on investment. Choose an EHR that not only supports effective care but also enhances direct support professional duties and workflows while automating routine tasks — improving both care quality and staff retention.
Designed to streamline operations and enhance care delivery, Core Solutions’ Cx360 EHR empowers today’s IDD providers to do more with less. Role-based workflows, built-in interoperability, and tailored tools are just a few of the extensive features that will empower your team to boost efficiency, reduce administrative burden, maximize resources, and improve outcomes. Reach out for a demo of the Cx360 platform today.
