Leading economists are predicting a gradual improvement in our economy this year. This could bode well for all of us in Home Health, Hospice and Home Care (Private Pay). As our economy improves, so will the financial status of many of our Home Health, Hospice and Home Care (Private Pay) clients.
So how do you take advantage of the resurgence of the market and the opportunities that this brings to your agency? Some already have a plan and we applaud you for that. Every year should start with a plan for the year that includes where you are headed, your goals and your expected outcomes. The plan should also include how you are going to achieve those goals. Now more than ever those plans should include diversification strategies.
Home Health & Hospice Executive Coaching
Coaching support may be needed for some Home Health, Hospice and Home Care (Private Pay) agencies. Being able to look at your communities with a seasoned Home Health, Hospice and Home Care (Private Pay) Coach can make the difference between smashing success and mediocre results. Having someone look objectively into your agency from the outside brings fresh insights and illuminates new opportunities that those inside the agency do not see or recognize.
As you start the new year, perhaps it is time to engage Home Health & Hospice Executive Coaching to assist you towards success in 2011. To discover how, contact us.
Invariably, new clients ask why I include an extensive orientation program into the systems I design for them. Often they are confused as to why I put so much time into it and don’t understand why they should pay for something that seems so obvious. Orientation is much more than just familiarizing a new employee with the tasks you expect him or her to perform. It is a tremendous opportunity to build staff loyalty, promote your public image, and help your business grow.
As the saying goes, you never have a second chance to make a first impression. Your orientation should start with who you are, the philosophy that drives your organization, and the belief that the people you have just hired are like gold to you. In years past when I was running my own agencies, orientation was always a special day. We created employee-specific handbooks for all new hires and made sure their name was on it. For added flair, we placed a red rose on each book. Continue reading “A Strong Orientation Program Lets Home Care Agencies Know Where They Stand” »
The contributions nurses make to the health and wellbeing of the patients we serve has a long history of positive results and outcomes. Prior to the early 1920s, nurses worked with physicians as independent practitioners. Nurses were sovereign in their decision making, and performed their jobs without interference or governance from any other discipline.
In the early 20s, the American Medical Association (AMA) began to see nurses as a threat to the fiscal stability of their medical practitioners. Paul Starr’s enlightening book, “The Social Transformation of American Medicine,” outlines the purposeful and direct effort by the AMA to pass state and federal laws that put nursing under the direct control of doctors. They were successful, and these laws, and more, are still in place today.
Yet, this stronghold is beginning to weaken. As modern healthcare puts more and more strain on our resources, nursing is reestablishing itself as a viable, strategic, and independent profession. At the heart of this trend is the push for nurses to take their rightful role, in tandem with doctors, in the move to improve medical care in this country. Continue reading “Nurse Power: The New Voice In Home Health.” »
Are you beginning to feel like it is never going to end? Guess what? It isn’t. The latest data coming out of CMS indicates there has been a decline in the functional domain points that agencies are earning. The general feeling among OASIS-C experts is that when OASIS –C came out, most of us were so focused on the major changes in the wound care sections that we failed to pick up on the smaller changes in the functional areas.
While much of the wording looked the same, upon closer scrutiny it turns out these minor changes make huge differences in the scoring and, consequently, the points and the dollars. For those of you who read the Home Health Line newsletter, the July 12, 2010 issue gives excellent examples of how substantial these changes really are.
What is clear to me is that an assessment is not an interview. Our nurses and therapists must read the responses and be clear on the intent and meaning of each response. Most importantly, the assessing home health clinician must watch the patient demonstrate their functional ability. Continue reading “Surprise! CMS Did It Again and What We Need To Do To Fix It.” »
As we all know, Medicare is cutting back and there are continued issues with Medicare-Advantage and other insurance plans. This means home health agencies need to do everything possible to get the maximum allowable from Prospective Payment System (PPS) episodes. However, when I review the financial practices of many of the home health agencies I consult with, I invariably find my clients are leaving good money on the table because of inadequate assessments and coding errors. These mistakes or inadvertent omissions score patients for less than they should be scored. Undercoding takes away valuable resources yet is a relatively easy issue to fix.
In my own work, helping clients realign for financial and organizational growth invariably involves some degree of education and training. Making certain your entire staff is well versed in proper assessment and coding practices is an extremely effective way to ensure cash flows. Using a professionally designed dashboard will further help to align reimbursements. Continue reading “Home Health: Don’t Leave Good Money On The Table (Making the most out of PPS episodes)” »
Quality can be elusive. Definitions tend to vary from person to person, and often what is considered excellent by one is just a variable in perception by another. Yet we all know quality is a key ingredient to business success. Years of experience have taught me that even elusive concepts can be corralled into tangible results, and quality, particularly in Private Pay, actually has a lot to do with having expectations that can be delivered upon.
To build quality into your organization, you must have a clear idea of what your customer wants from you. The initial intake and assessment visit are critical to identifying your customer’s desires and needs. Failure to identify what they are looking for often leads to unmet expectations and an unhappy client or family. Whenever I’m brought into a Private Pay agency to help build their business, I always do a review of their intake practices. Often it’s just a matter of rewriting the questions so that they better reveal desires and outcomes. Once that is accomplished, the plan for implementation becomes much easier and has a higher chance of success. Continue reading “Quality: Worth the Extra Mile In The Private Pay Marketplace” »
Remember the days when the customer was always right? This bending over backwards to please a customer yielded mountains of good will for a company. Sadly, in the United States today, customer service has fallen off the radar of many good businesses and, sadder yet, customers don’t even expect good service anymore.
But that doesn’t make it right.
Great customer service is one of the basic rules of good business. Honestly, I’m a bit fussy about customer service, and my expectations are high. If a company doesn’t perform as it should or if an item isn’t delivered when promised, I always get on the phone and give them a chance to make it right. If a customer service department is nice and helpful, I’m a customer for life. On the other hand, they get one chance to fail and then I’m gone.
The same holds true for a home health agency. Think what happens when your homecare aide is late or doesn’t show up at all. Most customers are forgiving the first time but if this is repeated, they will probably go elsewhere. How many customers have you lost to poor customer service? Do you even know? Continue reading “Customer Service: It Can Make or Break a Home Health Agency” »
When I started out as a home healthcare consultant, the last thing I ever expected is that I would become a culinary expert. Well, that is exactly what has happened, and for a very good reason. It turns out that in the new era of home health, one of the most common requests for services, besides personal care, is cooking. Unfortunately, cooking has also become one of the most common topics of complaint.
In my capacity as a home healthcare consultant, I’ve read hundreds of agency evaluations where clients go on and on about how fantastic their caregiver is and openly state how grateful they are to have such a loving and sweet person in their life. And then comes that final punch: she cannot cook to save her life.
Aides with adequate cooking skills are far and few between. Last year, when I was working with a client who runs a very successful home health agency, I heard what I believe is a very common complaint. A client’s daughter had asked the home care aide to broil her father a steak for dinner. Instead, the aide boiled the steak, which is how steaks are cooked in her native country. After some thought and discussion with the administrative staff, I decided it was time to develop a culinary arts program for the aides, particularly for those who live in, as they are almost always required to cook. Continue reading “… But Can She Boil Water Without Burning It?” »
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” »
