I often wake up in the wee hours of the morning wondering about change. As a professional consultant for the homecare industry, change – and all of its trappings – is often the focal point of my discussions with clients. On any given day, I help any number of agency owners and managers explore what change would mean for their organization.
Often we start by investigating what a Comprehensive Organizational Assessment would look like. Let me say up front that the fee for this type of assessment is worth more than its weight in gold. I don’t say this to drum up business for myself or other consultants. It’s just that change can be tricky, and if you don’t have a clear idea of where you are, it’s difficult to carve out a path to a better future. Continue reading “Organizational Assessment Sparks Your Home Care Agency’s Performance” »
When I was a young mother with four children, I kept logs and target dates to make sure everyone got their immunizations on time. Frankly, I was often so busy, someone invariably slipped through the cracks. Once my children were grown and neatly packed off to college with the last of their shots in place, thoughts of immunization slipped right from my mind. So it came as a bit of a surprise, even to me, that according to a recent Medscape article, California is expecting one of the worst epidemics of Pertussis in years and is targeting, get this, not only un-immunized children, but their parents!
So how did we get from childhood immunizations to adult inoculations? Research is showing that parents and other adults are prime carriers of the disease and they are giving it to the children. While counter intuitive to everything I’ve ever said about kids being little “germ incubators,” it turns out adults often might be the worst offenders. Continue reading “A Challenge for Home Health Agencies: Pertussis, It’s Not Just for Children Anymore” »
Seattle, WA–Ginny Kenyon, RN, MN, Founder and Principal of Kenyon HomeCare Consulting, will be a featured presenter at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Texas Association For Home Care & Hospice in Dallas, Texas on August 10, 2010. A well regarded expert in the field of home health business strategies, Kenyon’s talk, “Merging Geriatric Care Management and HomeCare,” will focus on the steps needed to successfully combine geriatric care management and homecare into a single entity that results in smarter outcomes, better care, and increased financial rewards.
Known for her ability to produce substantial results in a short period of time, Kenyon is highly regarded as a consultant who gives her clients a market advantage while promoting creative growth and development. A well-seasoned veteran in service mergers, Kenyon helps organizations expand their market perspective while providing a dynamic and enlightened approach to business change and development.
The Texas Association for Home Care & Hospice (TAHC&H) is a non-profit association dedicated to promoting quality and economic viability of licensed providers of home and community support services in Texas. With over 1,200 members, TAHC&H joins together home care member organizations and individuals in a shared commitment to every citizen in need of quality, affordable home care services.
Hiring a consultant should be easy. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you know exactly what you want, but even for the most savvy manager or business owner, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Asking for help is at the foundation of any good business growth. Experts will tell you no one can or should go it alone, especially in today’s economy. The question is, how do you get help that is relevant, affordable, and allows you to succeed? Hiring a consultant is a lot like hiring a senior level employee. It’s a very stratified process, filled with nuance and subtleties, and both types of hires should be treated with the same due diligence.
Frequently, people confide in me that they hired a consultant but it didn’t work out the way they planned. The most common complaint is that the consultant wasn’t all that helpful or simply didn’t address the problems of the organization. So the question is, when you need help, how do you find a consultant whose work is both focused and germane? How do you ensure that your experience ends up being exactly what is needed? Continue reading “Preventing Disaster: How to Hire A Home Care Consultant Without Losing Your Mind.” »
