Overview:
2020 and 2021 have been challenging years for home care agencies across the United States. The devastating impact of 2020’s COVID-19 lockdown meant that home care agencies faced a problem they had not experienced ever before. On one side, more patients prefer receiving care at home, on the other side, there are staffing challenges of finding the caregivers to help them cope up with the demand.
At CareVoyant, we stand with you in your efforts to return stronger and provide exceptional care to your clients. We have put together this guide to help you prepare for the future. This guide includes strategies and tips to help you do more with less, meet your agency's operational challenges and financial goals. We hope you find this guide useful and wish you a great 2022.
Baby Boomers and Growth in Demand
According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the current number of 14 M people receiving some sort of long-term care will double by 2050. The average annual cost of a private room in a nursing home was $102,000 in 2019, according to a survey by Genworth, an insurance company, yet over 45% of baby boomers have no retirement savings. Patients’ preference to receiving care at home and cost of providing care in institutional setting have pushed payers to prioritize providing more home and community based services. COVID-19 has accelerated this trend. The demand for Private Duty and Home and Community Based Care will continue to grow.
Embracing digital strategies in care delivery
While many of the caregiver services provided by home care agencies require physical presence, some of these services can be shifted to the digital mode. Dealing with seniors can be tricky as they may not be conversant with the technical elements of using IoT-enabled medical devices. This may create challenges in shifting a significant number of services to the digital mode. Yet, as technology becomes simpler and labor shortages across healthcare make it challenging to deliver in-person caregiver services, digital health provides a credible alternative.
Telemedicine and Virtual Nursing
The pandemic has forced the healthcare industry and consumers to adopt telemedicine and virtual care. With the proliferation of medical devices and wearable devices offering anytime, anywhere monitoring, we anticipate a reduction in length of stay in hospitals and post-acute care shifting to virtual care models.
These trends will create the need for home care agencies to adopt flexible delivery models and offer caregiver services in remote as well as in-person modes. Even though Telemedicine is not reimbursable at this time, we believe that it will change. Adopting flexible home care software that can accommodate this trend is an important element of your services delivery design for home-based services.
Combating labor shortages and retaining staff
Let’s face it. A caregiver’s life is tough. They need to travel to remote locations to deliver services and need to constantly respond to changing schedules due to critical care needs. A strong home care software can help you manage schedules as per the local area preferences of the caregiver, support them in documenting clinical notes and manage payroll.
Create a sense of teamwork and belonging to boost morale. Recognize that caregivers have a choice of other jobs and improve engagement with them. Choose software that helps you manage operational and financial elements as well as enables you to create a sense of inclusion and belonging.
Modernize your agency operations
Agencies will be forced to adapt to newer ways of delivering care and must focus on wellness rather than just caregiver services. Across the world, the focus has shifted to wellness and your agency should also evolve to offer multiple services, conveniences, and technology to offer an array of services
Invest in marketing
Caregiver services are typically local area services and having a strong brand name in the communities you serve is important. Build a good website, write original and high-quality content, invest in search engine optimization, and social media marketing. Ads on social media engines -Facebook or Instagram – or search engine (Google or Bing ads) are recommended for small to mid-large size agencies. Create a strong referral program.
Make Patient Experience a priority
In inpatient and outpatient settings, patient experience is a priority. In-home care you must go beyond patient care, you must engage with the family as well. Invest in software that provides strong engagement features to involve the family. Create alerts and automated emails to the patient as well as the family members.
Consolidation in the Industry
In 2022, you are likely to see tremendous consolidation in the industry, backed by private equity investments flowing into the space. As agency owners, we believe the choice of becoming a part of a nationwide franchise is personal to you. Be willing to consider and wait for the right opportunity. Remember the task of selling a business is emotional and integration is not without its challenges. Evaluate the pros and cons well. Should you choose to align with a national agency, develop a plan for people, process, and technology integration so that your efforts enhance market share.
Better still, spend some time each week to develop and execute strategies to expand your business’ reach and create your own national/regional franchise models.
Recruiting Caregivers
Remember that home and community-based services space is evolving rapidly. Create a strong brand as an employer. Be willing to consider a flexible workforce for non-clinical, companionship care services. Create an evaluation and feedback mechanism for caregivers and ensure your operations leaders understand caregiver performance and satisfaction well. We believe that caregiver services will take on a “consumeristic” fervor shortly and realigning your delivery engine accordingly will ensure long-term success.
Choice of Software
The agency operations management software should help you serve your patients better, enable you to create a happy team of caregivers, create better engagement with families, and manage the operations of your business well.
Conclusion
The business of caregiving is about caring. Make your patients your top priority and you will always win. Adopt new-age strategies to improve utilization of your caregivers, embrace innovative models, and engage better with employees, families, and patients. Focus on getting your processes and systems right, invest time to execute business growth strategies, and implement brand management strategies akin to a consumer brand.
At CareVoyant, we believe in equipping home care agencies with the right technology tools to help them do more with less and deliver superlative care experiences.
About CareVoyant
CareVoyant is a leading provider of cloud-based integrated enterprise-scale home health care software that can support all home-based services under ONE Software, ONE Patient, and ONE Employee, making it a Single System of Record. We support all home based services, including Home Care, Private Duty Nursing, Private Duty Non-Medical, Home and Community Based Services (HCBS), Home Health, Pediatric Home Care, and Outpatient Therapy at Home.
CareVoyant functions – Intake, Authorization Management, Scheduling, Clinical with Mobile options, eMAR/eTAR, Electronic Visit Verification (EVV), Billing/AR, Secure Messaging, Notification, Reporting, and Dashboards – streamline workflow, meet regulatory requirements, improve quality of care, optimize reimbursement, improve operational efficiency and agency bottom line.
For more information, please visit CareVoyant.com or call us at 1-888-463-6797.
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