Case Study
How Integrity Home Health Services enhanced operations and partner engagement with AlayaCare
The Bottom Line
Integrity Home Health Services integrated AlayaCare’s platform to streamline operations, enhance staff engagement, and grow revenue sustainably. This digital transformation has not only optimized operational efficiency but also empowered the agency to increase service delivery and support more meaningful collaboration with provincial healthcare partners.
As a result of this partnership with Alayacare, Integrity has achieved:
- 21% growth in overall home care service hours delivered.
- 300% growth in revenue from non-Social Development programs.
- 360% return on investment leveraging reassessments.
- 79% more client reassessments.
The Company
Founded in 1996, Integrity Home Health Services is the second-largest home health care agency in New Brunswick, with a mission to empower lives through compassionate, personalized, and reliable care. The agency provides a wide range of private and government-funded home support services such as the Disability Support Program and the Long-Term Care Program under the Department of Social Development. Their tailored offerings include daily living support, personal care, and long-term care for individuals who wish to maintain their independence while living at home.
Integrity’s philosophy emphasizes the importance of treating clients with respect and dignity, ensuring they receive the support needed to maintain a high quality of life in their own homes. Their commitment to prioritizing the safety and comfort of New Brunswick residents has led to the agency’s continued growth.
Operating seven office locations across the province, including three in bilingual or Francophone-majority regions, Integrity strives to become New Brunswick’s largest go-to home health care provider — which led them to AlayaCare.
The Challenges
Integrity is committed to going from the second largest home health care provider to the top choice agency in the province for both employees and clients. The agency’s strategic growth plan included increasing their privately billed hours to complement their government-funded services and standardizing operations across all branches.
Optimizing business practices for continuous growth required Integrity to implement a comprehensive solution for improving service delivery, increasing employee retention and satisfaction, and streamlining internal processes.
However, Integrity faced three main challenges in achieving its goals.
Challenge 1: Post-pandemic staffing shortages
Integrity struggled to recruit and retain qualified long-term and home care workers to meet New Brunswick’s high demand for health care. The COVID-19 pandemic amplified existing staffing shortages, leading to delays in care delivery and inconsistent service for aging and vulnerable populations.
Staffing challenges were particularly pronounced in Francophone and Acadian Official Language Minority Communities, where three of the agency’s branches operate. The lack of bilingual caregivers created language barriers, further impacting the quality and timeliness of care.
Moreover, New Brunswick is facing a projected shortage of almost 300 social workers by 2030, based on the pre-pandemic demand for service. This will further widen the existing gap in essential healthcare services.
Recognizing the importance of attracting and retaining staff, Integrity focused on fostering a positive work environment built on trust, collaboration, and professional growth. This approach aimed to reduce turnover and inconsistent workflows and improve overall service delivery.
Challenge 2: Unmet home care needs
42% of New Brunswick citizens requiring home care services are not receiving them, according to the 2017 Primary Health Survey.
“The goal is to keep seniors in their home, and I think the need is just becoming higher and higher. We perform a reassessment for every client once a year because there tends to be a lot of change during that time. So we want to make sure that the client is receiving the proper care and that the care plans are updated with the most up to date and pertinent information.”
– Michele Mercer, Integrity Home Health Services, Fredericton Branch Manager
To address these unmet needs, Integrity prioritized strengthening its relationships with public sector partners to ensure timely annual client reassessments. These would be critical in updating client care plans, increasing eligible home care service hours, and delivering more personalized care for residents in need.
Challenge 3: Operational inefficiency
Fragmented operations across Integrity’s seven branches created inconsistencies in scheduling, billing, and care coordination. Without standardized procedures, the agency struggled to scale the business efficiently and provide consistent, high-quality care across all locations.
“There was a time prior to adopting AlayaCare that we found intercommunication a struggle among the branch locations. It was challenging to implement operational change when not physically present on site and ensure the accuracy of the processes. AlayaCare allowed us to build out workflows that were easily accessible no matter the location of an employee, and gave management the tools to monitor the workflows to evaluate efficiency.”
– Michele Mercer, Integrity Home Health Services, Fredericton Branch Manager
Identifying the impact of these inefficiencies, Integrity required a scalable platform to align processes, support growth, and deliver more reliable home care for New Brunswick residents.
The Solution
In response to these challenges, Integrity sought to innovate its operations, strengthen service delivery, and support sustainable expansion by embracing a digital transformation. After working with a legacy system, the agency decided to partner with AlayaCare’s cloud-based platform in 2021 to achieve these objectives.
AlayaCare offers a suite of advanced features that align with Integrity’s goals of improving operational efficiency and staff empowerment. They worked together to automate internal processes, improve staff engagement, and enhance communication both within the agency and with external stakeholders such as provincial health care partners.
Standardization of operational procedures across all locations
Integrity used AlayaCare’s end-to-end home care software to automate electronic assessments, care plans, and client intake tracking. This digitized approach streamlined the flow of information between branches and reduced manual and repetitive tasks, enabling standardized care delivery across all seven locations.
AlayaCare also transformed the workflow of initial assessments — completed within 72 hours — reassessments, and care plans. Care workers were enabled to start home care services within 24 hours of completing initial assessments, significantly improving previous service timelines and ensuring clients received prompt care.
Enhanced staff engagement and experience
Implementing AlayaCare empowered Integrity staff to make informed decisions by offering them greater visibility into client needs. The focus on improved accessibility to vital information resulted in enhanced and consistent care coordination.
Leveraging AlayaCare’s mobile app features enabled streamlined communication between field workers and office staff. Field staff gained real-time mobile access to client files, route details, time tracking, and work schedules, eliminating the need to return to office locations between home visits.
In 2023, Integrity integrated Caribou, a software platform that helps home care agencies recognize, reward, and incentivize their employees. This initiative contributed to Integrity’s ability to build a positive work culture and improve staff retention. By providing instant recognition, Integrity saw an increase in referral hires and shift coverage support.
Overall, these key improvements led to elevated levels of job satisfaction and service delivery.
“The differences are amazing between before and after AlayaCare. Especially coming from our old software, small details have really made a big difference here and in all the other offices as well. It is a full 360. I felt like after AlayaCare came in, my job got easier. I feel like everything is more accessible.”
– Danielle Howe, Integrity Home Health Services, Saint John Branch Manager
Improved collaboration with provincial partners
Integrity plays a vital role in updating health records for New Brunswick’s Social Development Health Services, which provides residents without health insurance coverage access to specific services. The agency not only conducts mandated initial client assessments, but also annual reassessments, setting the agency apart from others in the region. Promptly sharing these updates with Social Development Health Services ensures residents receive appropriate care as their needs change.
AlayaCare’s real-time data sharing and tracking capabilities improved communication with provincial partners, enabling faster and more accurate updates to health records. This strengthened Integrity’s ability to collaborate on informed, data-driven decision making with public sector stakeholders, improving resource allocation and service delivery.
“I’ve gotten a lot of really good feedback from the social workers saying that other companies do not follow up with them to give them client reassessment information. So they’re very appreciative of that. We’re taking it upon ourselves to do it.”
– Michele Mercer, Integrity Home Health Services, Fredericton Branch Manager
The Results
Integrity Home Health Services delivered significant improvements across several key performance areas after implementing AlayaCare.
1. Elevated operational efficiency: 79% more client reassessments
By standardizing care plans and streamlining the information-sharing process, Integrity greatly improved coordination between all seven office branches. Key information and updates became accessible instantly, resulting in reduced delays, service gaps, and reliance on manual tasks.
The transition to AlayaCare enabled more efficient, accurate client intake and reassessment processes. Integrity experienced significant improvement in the number of client reassessments, surging by 79% year-over-year. In fact, within two years of rolling out AlayaCare, 100% of Integrity’s clients have received an updated assessment.
Increasing from 354 reassessments in 2023 to 632 in 2024, this remarkable rise in reassessments demonstrates the agency’s ability to meet increasing demand, decrease wait times, and ensure clients receive prompt, consistent care based on updated information.
2. Sustainable business growth: 360% return on investment
After implementing AlayaCare, Integrity saw an impressive rise in eligible service hours and revenue.
The massive growth in reassessments directly contributed to an increase in weekly home care service hours, increasing by 4.99% in 2023 and 5.88% in 2024. On average, this led to an additional two hours per week of eligible home care service per client after each reassessment.
Over two years, these improvements generated a remarkable 360% return on the agency’s AlayaCare investment and 300% growth in revenue from non-Social Development programs.
3. High staff satisfaction
The real-time capabilities of AlayaCare’s mobile app allowed field staff to access and update client information while on the go, leading to more efficient service delivery and workflow. As a result, staff are much more satisfied and experience significantly improved travel time and reductions in off-the-clock mileage costs.
The launch of Caribou in 2024 also significantly enhanced caregiver engagement by:
- Recognizing 914 caregivers through 3,506 events.
- Encouraging 95% of caregivers to regularly log into the system.
- Hiring 138 of the 1,931 referral candidates — making up approximately 15% of Integrity’s caregiver base in less than a year
- Contributing 65,772 hours of home care service.
- Incentivizing coverage of 1,524 shifts, ensuring consistent client care while cultivating a strong culture of collaboration and support.
“I love Caribou. It has been one of the best features that we’ve added to all of our branches. We’ve had a lot of great hires referred from our staff through Caribou.”
– Danielle Howe, Integrity Home Health Services, Saint John Branch Manager
Additionally, the ability to access accurate information in a timely manner empowered staff to make informed decisions, improving care quality and coordination.
“Previously, with the old software, we would have to save the care plan to our computers and send it to our field staff’s email, or they would come into the office, and we would have to print it out. We had employees driving 45 minutes there and back to pick up care plans and schedules. It was very tough to manage. Whereas now, with AlayaCare, it’s right on their phone. They can view everything that they need to see on the app.”
– Danielle Howe, Integrity Home Health Services, Saint John Branch Manager
4. Enhanced relationships supported 21% overall growth
AlayaCare improved transparency and real-time data sharing between Integrity and its provincial partners. This facilitated better decision-making and ensured that services were delivered more efficiently and equitably, which helped address growing staffing shortages and increased demand for home care services in New Brunswick.
Integrity’s digital transformation empowered the agency to achieve an overall growth of 21% in eligible home care service hours and revenue, solidifying its expanding role in the community and deepening trust with public sector partners.
“Having the ability to report on data within AlayaCare and then share that information with our partners has been essential to the success and growth we’ve seen. Integrity can present social workers, family members, government partners, and internal management teams with the real-time data needed to make empowered decisions. The impact of this operational change alone has been invaluable to our growth and improved the quality of service delivery. If you had told us five years ago we’d be servicing this many clients within our communities, I don’t think we would have ever believed you. AlayaCare has given us the tools to grow beyond our expectations, and we continue to find more ways to utilize the features and improve year after year.”
– Brandis Moran, Integrity Home Health Services, Vice President of Operations and Strategic Management
Conclusion
Integrity Home Health Services has successfully navigated several challenges through an outstanding digital transformation. The agency’s ongoing partnership with AlayaCare has not only vastly improved operational efficiencies but also revolutionized work culture for staff and supported better collaboration with provincial partners.
By streamlining processes, enhancing care coordination, and increasing access to annual reassessments, the agency has solidified its status as a leader in New Brunswick’s home care sector while positioning the agency for continued growth.
Integrity is bridging the gap between public sector and private providers, ensuring that more New Brunswick residents receive the care they need to live independently and with dignity.
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