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Operations leaders roundtable: Top trends, challenges & opportunities facing home-based care today [webinar recap]
From dwindling resources and decreasing referrals to payment delays and payer difficulties, you name it, and today’s home care agencies are facing it. Most often, it is operations leaders who are tasked with balancing these various market constraints, all while improving internal business efficiencies and enhancing caregiver and patient satisfaction.
AlayaCare is no stranger to the challenges of home-based care — nor opportunities for growth. We gathered a panel of home-based care operations leaders, including Jeff Salter of Caring Senior Service, Eddie Morris of Avid Health at Home, and our SVP of RCM and Transitions Products, Scott Overhill, to discuss how to maximize resources and minimize inefficiencies.
Standardize processes, streamline operations
It’s no secret that the home-based care market is surging, due in part to increased Medicare and Medicaid coverage, as well as thriving patient demand. Throughout the on-demand webinar, our panelists shared how reliable standard operating procedures (SOPs) are integral to scalability.
“We find that scaling, the ability to add locations, bring them on quickly, and have them meet expectations is made so much easier when you have a solid operating practice for as many things as you can,” explains Jeff Salter, the CEO and founder of Caring Senior Service. “If you’re in one location or you’re in 50 locations, you’re going to need that discipline of having operational practices.”
Jeff also points out that reliable SOPs are equally as important when tackling recurring operational challenges in home-based care, such as acquiring new caregivers and navigating recruitment.
“In the past, it was hard for a caregiver to apply. You put an ad in the newspaper and caregivers had to come in and fill out an application. But today, it’s not. They can apply for 10 jobs in 10 seconds, and so they are. That means that companies have to be really, really quick on their processes. … If you’re not on top of the [recruitment] process, you’re going to get left behind.”
Jeff Salter, the CEO and founder of Caring Senior Service.
Home Health 360, Episode 53
A guide to back-office operations in home-based care with Amy Knight
Treat technology vendors as business partners
In addition to dependable procedures, our panelists identified technology partners as fundamental components of operational efficiencies. Advanced systems help to recognize hidden opportunities in your agency’s data analytics as well as simplify new hire onboarding and caregiver retention.
“Talk to your technology partner. Chances are if you’re encountering a challenge or you’re looking to find out what your challenges are, we may have seen that pattern before and we may actually be able to point out, within your existing information system, ways to actively improve upon some anticipated key performance indicators or outcomes.”
Scott Overhill, SVP of RCM and Transitions Products at AlayaCare
In terms of acting on specific challenges, Scott explains that “There are parts of our system that will help detect caregiver churn based on the language they use. It’s called natural language processing (NLP). When caregivers record their progress notes and their visit notes, our system can detect tone of voice and say, ‘Hey, Scott’s having a bad day, might want to reach out to him.’”
Embracing evolution: 4 ways AI and automation are driving change in home care
Leverage company culture to transform retention
While technology has worked to simplify employee retention within home-based care agencies, today’s operations leaders have noticed something else at play — company culture. “If you’re going to try to affect retention, where you can actually impact it is along the culture line,” Jeff points out.
Eddie Morris, VP of Growth at Avid Health at Home expands on the importance of company culture.
“All the CEOs and execs, they want to see all the growth charts going [up]. But it was really important for Avid to get our staff across different markets in a similar mindset, which is a particular challenge that maybe a lot of people overlook. Culture is a tough thing to quantify, right?”
“For the leaders and executives on this call, are you having those management meetings with just the three or four that are sitting at the top? Are you having open discussions with the rest of your team? How are you disseminating that message throughout your organization? Ultimately, from the top down all the way to your caregivers, that’s going to resonate with your clients, your referral sources, and how you’re perceived in the community. Cultivating culture is hard to quantify, but you have to make sure it’s a part of your core competencies as an organization.”
Eddie Morris, VP of Growth at Avid Health at Home
Looking for expert tips to craft a company culture that not only works in your company’s favor but also safeguards your operations from the above challenges? Tune in to the webinar on-demand!
Leverage fully end-to-end home care software to achieve better health outcomes
With AlayaCare, you have the power to collect data across locations, service lines, and payer types to create the experience you want for your team and clients. From back office filing to patient interactions, our platform’s product features give you the tools you’ll need to seamlessly administer care in the home.
Consider the difference we could make to your operations as we automate repetitive tasks and put all your data at your fingertips.
