Kenyon Connects

By Ginny Kenyon | Published: May 12, 2012 – 2:00 am

Last week we talked about screening and hiring of home care staff, specifically about home care aides. Given that the schools that train aides are designed for acute arena, we in home care frequently find that we have to “jury rig” our aide’s skills and knowledge to meet the special needs of our clients.

There are some states that have recognized the differences between home care and the acute arena and have added curriculum requirements into the course work that partially address the needs of home care. However, we have found that overall, the skills needed by the home care aides in the home are not adequately addressed.

To remedy this issue, you will need to develop a curriculum that is specifically for your home care aides that met the needs, wishes and demands of your clients. If you regularly do client and staff satisfaction surveys, you will have some of the elements identified that you will need to include in your coursework. Chances are that your clients and staff will have identified housekeeping and cooking as two major areas for instruction. Additional to those are the need to educate your aides in the most common diseases or disorders that your clientele deal with.

Specifically, home care aides will need to be educated in the care and assistance of those with Alzheimer’s and Dementia, CHF, COPD, Diabetes, Arthritis, and Depression. We would also add in understanding of the commonly used medication for the above listed diagnosis and be taught the side effects of each and the appropriate actions to take. Of all the staff who interacts with our client’s, it is the home health aide who spends most of the time with them and the ones who need to be better prepared to meet their needs.

To build a comprehensive curriculum for the home care aides it would look something like this;

1. Fundamentals of caregiving:  the basics

2. Caregiving in the home:

• Housekeeping
• Laundry
• Care of fine carpets and furniture

3. Culinary Arts: buying food, storing food, diets, menus, preparation and presentation. This would be a required for all live-in staff and would be taught with a dietitian and a chef in a commercial kitchen. Course work would extend over the entire year with a day each quarter with reading and homework required.

4. Introduction to disease specific diagnosis, care and treatment: Course work would extend over the entire year with a day each quarter with reading and homework required

5. Medications; commonly used per diagnosis and reportable side effects: Course work would extend over the entire year with a day each quarter with reading and homework required.

6. Customer service: Introduction at orientation and reinforced yearly.

At the end of the year, all home care aides that have successfully passed the course work, would be given a certificate of completion. We would recommend that there be ongoing yearly updates for all graduates of the certificate program to keep them apprised of any changes to either nutrition or medications.

When you have a work force that is trained in the above topics, you have a marketing edge and a guard against legal action taken by unhappy customers whose expectations of care were not met.

Our world is changing, and competition is getting tougher. To stand out above the rest, truly delivering quality high end care, agencies will need to make the special investment in their home care aids to assure that the services expected and paid for are being delivered.

If you have a need for establishing a special curriculum for your aides to meet your special group of clients, and you need some assistance, contact Kenyon HomeCare Consulting. We are here to help.

Filed under: Organizational Restructuring

By Ginny Kenyon | Published: May 5, 2012 – 2:00 am

As we work with home care agencies around the country, we hear this lament all too often. With the increased aging of the population, this cry is getting louder. While different areas of the country have shortages of nurses and therapists, the largest challenge for every home care agency is hiring qualified, caring home care aides.

This class of caregiver has different titles depending on the state. There are designated Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA), which is required for Medicare and organizations receiving federal or state funds, Registered Nurse Assistants, or unregistered caregivers. Since every state it’sits own set of rules, the caregiver designation varies from state to state. You’ll want to check with your state.

In addition to the growing need for home care aides, the biggest challenge is finding the right fit for your home care agency. Although CNA schools are turning out multiple graduation classes each year, many graduating CNA’s do not read or speak English sufficiently enough to work in an unsupervised situation. Additionally, many lack the basic skills to care for the very frail elderly or handicapped and do not always have sufficient knowledge to recognize when the client is having issues that need to be brought to the attention of the home care agency management staff.

With the growing staffing frustration, where do you start to find the skilled, qualified CNA to represent your home care agency? Here are four actions to take today:

1. Assess the needs of the clients your home care agency serves, including identification of the skills and personal attributes the home care aides will need in order to properly care for them.

2. Develop a profile of the ideal aide. Use the home care aide profile you develop to screen all home care aide applicants.

3. Require all applicants to take a knowledge test of caregiving (A 50-question test is available through Kenyon HomeCare Consulting.) Additionally, we recommend hands-on skills testing administered on-site or through a local nursing home to establish the presence of the desired skills.

4. Require the applicant to take an online personality test such a s the one through Steven Tweed Leading Edge to determine the presence of desired personality qualities once it is determined the applicant has the basic knowledge and skill.

If you approach hiring using this proven 4-step process, the home care aides you hire will be superior. They will be able to provide your clients with the quality care you need to protect your clients and your reputation to help your business grow. Building a workforce of knowledgeable, skilled, dedicated, loyal, and dependable home care aides is the way to the future for home care agencies.

Don’t be surprised to find that 60% to 80% of home care applications will not meet your requirements. If you have had a very lenient process for hiring, this may come as a shock to you, and a lament from your schedulers! This is only a short term issue. Over time, the stringent process outlined above produces a workforce of quality, dedicated, and loyal employees that help with your scheduling headaches.

Failure to screen and hire for excellence in home care leads to customer complaints and, in some cases, litigation. In cases where we’ve been asked to provide expert witness services, we did an analysis of the root cause of why the agency was sued. In some cases it was because of the agency’s failure to hire individuals with the knowledge and understanding needed to adequately care for such a frail population. Additionally, the language barrier added to the complexity of the situation, with bad outcomes for the agency, the client, and most of all, the home care aide.

In some situations this 4 –step process can prove to be difficult because of the demand for services exceeding availability of home care aides. If this is your situation, move to plan B, which is to develop your own training school to meet your customer needs. Stay tuned next week for a discussion of building a school for training aides that meet your home care customer needs. And, in the meantime, if you need assistance with recruitment, Kenyon HomeCare Consulting is available

Filed under: Specialized Support, Staffing

By Ginny Kenyon | Published: April 14, 2012 – 2:00 am

Time to Re-envision Your Agency

With continued cuts to Medicare Home Health, we are beginning to see some reputable Medicare Home Health agencies go out of business. To say the industry is in crisis would be an understatement. Living in the Medicare box can be very constraining and inhibits your vision. An inability to “see” beyond today can cause you to miss other opportunities outside the Medicare program.  So how do agencies survive? Perhaps now is the ideal opportunity to spread our wings and expand our horizons. While Medicare reimbursements decline, home health agencies need to look to other sources to make up the lost revenues.

Depending on your state, most Medicare Home Health agencies are already licensed to provide non-Medicare or government reimbursed services to their communities. Unfortunately, because of “Medicare think”, many agencies do not see or visualize other areas of service upon which they can expand. There are multiple opportunities in every community, depending on what the community looks like and what the community will pay for.

One potential profitable service an agency could develop would be an Occupational Health Program aimed at the small to middle sized businesses. Many larger companies already have an Occupational Health Program, or Employee Health program, and sometimes they are looking to outsource this service if the price is right.

To build a comprehensive Occupational Health Program, you need to know what business in your community views as value. To help them decide, you need to develop a catalog of potential services with associated prices that would make up their program. Elements of the program could include, but may not be limited to, the following;

• Monthly or biweekly or weekly Health Clinics for:

o BP checks with consulting and referral

o Diabetes check-ups, with consulting and referral o CHF check-ups with consulting and referral

o COPD check-ups with consulting and referral

o General health issues with consulting and referral

• Yearly flu shot clinics

• Pneumonia vaccine administration

• Health education and training (general)

• Health and safety training specific to the industry

• Health and Fitness classes

• Nutrition education and consulting

• Nurse Practitioner or physician examination and treatment

These are just a few of the services that could be offered through a comprehensive Occupational Health Program. If this is a program that would be viable in your area, you may want to engage the services of a Masters prepared Occupational Health Nurse Practitioner or a physician who specializes in this area of practice. You could add their services to the package which would potentially make the program more valuable to the prospective business owner. As you develop the program, and the marketing and sales plan, do not forget that community colleges are also employers and will sometimes buy some of the services you offer in an Occupational Health Program.

The goal of Kenyon Home Care Consulting is to encourage all Medicare home health agencies to begin to think beyond the Medicare box. Look for the opportunities that may exist in the community that will allow agency to not only survive, but to begin to thrive in the current environment of reimbursement cuts to their programs.

If you have found an opportunity, or need some assistance with identifying potential opportunities, contact Kenyon HomeCare Consulting. We can be reached at 206-721-5091 or by e-mailing gkenyon@kenyonhcc.com. We are here to help.

Filed under: Education & Training, Healthcare Reform, HomeCare Reform

By Ginny Kenyon | Published: April 7, 2012 – 2:00 am

HELP! The Home Care Surveyors are here!

Have you ever said those words or heard them in your home care agency? All too often we are in agencies that react that way when the surveyors show up on the doorstep for the annual or semiannual survey. Panic sets in and everyone is on edge. Why? It’s usually because the homecare management is not sure everything is in order as it should be, and they are afraid they will be cited for deficiencies.  Minimize the “home care surveyor stress” with methodical systems that are maintained with a religious fervor.

Internal systems set up for compliance include:

• chart audits for completion of all required documents; e.g, initial assessment, care plan, signed orders and interim orders if clinical, visit notes that match the scheduled visits, and frequencies that match plan (again if Medicare Home Health).
• pre-billing audits to assure all required documents are in the file before the bills are submitted.
• personnel file audits to assure that all required documents are in the file including updated licenses, auto insurance, etc.

Clinical chart audits include:

• integrity of assessment to diagnosis and coding (if you are a Medicare Agency) and maintaining of the care plan with changes as appropriate.
• required supervisory visits.
• required reassessments especially for therapy (Medicare only agencies).

One of the most frequently cited items in a survey is the lack of congruency between the orders for the home care plans and what the home care aides report they are/are not doing. A home care aide plan of care needs to be followed exactly as written. If a client/patient does not wish a bath on the day it is scheduled, the aide should note that the client/patient declined, and not leave it blank.

The second most frequently cited area of the home care survey is the lack of updates to the plan of care for both the aide and any clinical services being delivered. Even if there are no changes, there must be evidence that the supervising staff member has reviewed the plan and signed and dated to that effect. Additionally, the medication profile requires maintenance. Even if you are only providing medication reminders to the client/patient, the profile must show evidence that it has been updated and is being maintained.

Staff education is another area worthy of attention and an audit system. For Medicare agencies, the required 12 hours a year of aide continuing education must be documented for each home care aide. For states that have mandated continuing education for aides in private duty agencies, there must be evidence that the aides have received the education. Some states require specific types of continuing education. Know your state laws and confirm you are keeping up with the requirements, and that your aides are attending the sessions as required and that the content matches the state requirements.

With strong internal systems in place and field supervisors effectively managing the external services mandated by the rules of the state and/or federal government, your home care survey issues will be minimized. Should you feel you need assistance with establishing any of the audit systems, call Kenyon HomeCare Consulting at 206-721-5091 or e-mail to gkenyon@kenyonhcc.com. We are here to help.

Filed under: Education & Training

By Ginny Kenyon | Published: March 10, 2012 – 2:00 am

Website bounce rate is one of the most important metrics you should be tracking in your analytics. Bounce rates tell you what percentage of visitors click-away after viewing only one page of your website. This is obviously a critical statistic when you are trying to convert browsers into buyers. A simple mistake in your website strategy and design can send visitors away even if you offer the best homecare services in your area.

Here are 5 factors that may be boosting your homecare website’s bounce rate and tips to more effectively optimize your site:

1. No call to action. One of the main reasons visitors bounce from your website is that you haven’t made it easy for them to know what to do next. Attention spans are short (and even shorter online), so it’s important to make their experience smooth and natural to move from browsing mode to action mode. They want and expect guidance. They should know the next step to take within seconds of arriving on your website.

• How to fix it: Place calls to action strategically and prominently in the right places on the page. They should be above the fold and specifically relate to the reason a visitor landed on your website in the first place.

2. Too many options. While the call to action is important, having too many options will compete for visitors’ attention and cause confusion and frustration. This competition for attention naturally causes a higher bounce rate and the probability that the prospect will click-away from your website without taking the desired action.

• How to fix it: Stick to one option per landing page. If you want visitors to subscribe to your blog and buy your eBook, don’t ask for them to do both on the same page. Creating separate landing pages for each offer will reduce your bounce rate and result in higher conversions.

3. Unmet expectations. Visitors expect to see exactly what they asked for when they arrive at your website. If your page is about anything other than what is advertised, you can count on a higher bounce rate and lost revenue.

• How to fix it: Make sure the messaging in organic searches and referring sites is authentic and leads prospective customers to content that piqued their curiosity. Remember that the source of the lead can be just as important as the content on your website, so beware of referring sites that send you unqualified prospects.

4. Bad copy. Engaging, persuasive copy is crucial to reduce your website bounce rate and keep visitors wanting to learn more about your homecare services. The fastest way to lose prospective customers is to have dull, descriptive copy that doesn’t include the benefits of hiring your business.

• How to fix it: Create benefit-driven headlines, subheads, and bullets that make it easy for visitors to quickly scan content to see how your homecare company will fulfill their needs.

5. Poor design. A visually unappealing website is just as ineffective as bad copy. Put them together and you have a page that makes visitors flee to another site almost immediately – even if your homecare services are better than your competitors’. Template sites are the worst and are recognized by savvy visitors right away. An unprofessional design will hurt your credibility and increase your website bounce rate.

• How to fix it: Use high-resolution graphics, maintain your company’s branding, create an easy-to-navigate user experience, and make sure the copywriter and designer are literally on the same page. Your best bet is to hire a Web designer who knows your business and the intricacies of conversion optimization.

Avoid these common usability gaffs and implement these recommendations to reduce your website bounce rate and improve your conversion rate.

Scott Siders is the owner of Novo Writing, a company specializing in SEO (search engine optimization) copywriting and content marketing. Novo Writing works closely with businesses in a wide variety of industries to increase their exposure online, drive more traffic to their websites, and ultimately increase sales of their products and services. Novo Writing’s targeted online marketing strategies include optimized Web sites, article marketing, email marketing, blogs, social media, and much more. Get more information and start building a better brand by visiting www.NovoWriting.com, emailing scott@NovoWriting.com, or calling 714.335.5677.

Filed under: Education & Training, Marketing

By Ginny Kenyon | Published: March 3, 2012 – 2:00 am

How many times do you come to work to find your home care agency in the middle of a crisis? There are times when we begin an interim management contract that it seems the home care agency is in a state of perpetual crisis. While the incidents are all different, in some ways, the response seems to be stress and crisis. Contrast this with a well running home care agency. They still have times of stress and issues that could be classified as a crisis, but the atmosphere and the response is very different. What makes them different?

In our years of experience working with agencies, we have discovered the well running home care agencies have learned from their experience. They anticipate these events and plan and train the staff to handle them as a normal part of business. These home care agencies have well thought-out systems in place to mitigate some of the issues. And, every department has a role in managing events that could become a crisis.

First, the Human Resources department has very clearly defined expectations about who they hire and how employees are oriented and trained. Every position in the organization has a profile of the education, work experience, and personality traits required for the role. The first two are common to HR job requirements and do not vary that much from the efficient home care agencies to the crisis prone home care agencies.  However, the well-run agencies have defined personality traits. Frequently we see traits such as “works well under pressure, outgoing and pleasant, team player, ability to multitask successfully, good problem solver, good interpersonal skills, positive phone presence”, etc. Whatever the position requires in experience also will have the required personality traits to match the home care agency’s culture. In addition to hiring “right”, there is also a plan for cross training for internal positions and a pool of caregivers for the clinical services. Fit and function are addressed in advance, so that at any given moment someone is available to assist with a situation before it becomes a problem.

Secondly, management with an open door policy where concerns are discussed allow for situations that could become a crisis to be identified and planned for, in advance. Additionally, the culture of the home care agency that is inclusive of all staff at all levels and areas of the organization can identify and plan for potential crisis. For example, if there is an issue with timely completion of documentation for field services, someone from the field, management, IT, and clerical support on the planning group may identify potential problems. Any department that has an impact on the issue is part of the group that addresses the problem.

Finally, we find that the culture in the successful home care agencies is one of openness, togetherness, creativity, and learning. Staff feel like they are part of the home care agency and responsible to contribute to the problem solving for the agency. Staff take an active role in problem identification and potential measures that the home care agency can take to prevent or deal effectively with the issue, if it arises. Learning and problem-solving are encouraged and rewarded.

Home care agencies will always have problems and “crises”. It is the nature of our business. However, how you plan and deal with these situations makes the difference between running a crisis-prone home care agency or one that is able to take it in stride as an event with prescribed and thought out plans for how it is handled. Not only does this approach reduce the number of incidents, staff is much less distressed by them as they know how to respond and what is expected.

If you are finding that your agency is running from crisis to crisis, Kenyon HomeCare Consulting can help. E-mail gkenyon@kenyonhcc.com or call 206-721-5091.

Filed under: Leadership, Specialized Support

By Ginny Kenyon | Published: February 25, 2012 – 2:00 am

There’s no end to the information available today on leadership. Typically it is about how important it is. If it is written about so much and seems to be the secret for success, why isn’t great leadership present everywhere? Many people in management may manage processes and systems well, but they may not be great leaders or even leaders at all. So what does today’s healthcare market need in terms of leadership?

The Encarta World Dictionary defines leadership simply as “somebody who people follow, somebody who guides or directs others”. It sounds simple, but in working with groups and asking names of leaders that come to mind, there seems to be a void – few if anyone can come up with a name.

How we have led up to this point prior to health care reform isn’t necessarily going to work in the future. We will need to shift from managing an admission, episode or patient event to managing a population and achieve a quality, outcomes driven system. That means managers need to embrace leadership and be equipped with a different set of tools and skills in order to transform the healthcare system.

It is a time to reflect on oneself as a leader and improve any area that might prevent us from leading well. Are we leaders? If yes, how effective are we? How effective are we at embracing this new world? Do we know what the “new world” in healthcare might look like? How good are we at implementing new things and achieving a target, and sustaining it for months and years? How good are we at hiring well and systematically hiring for fit? How good are we at engaging people and having them enthusiastically follow you to achieve a goal? Are you an authentic and transparent leader? Are you a truth teller or do you tend to skirt away from an answer or bend the facts just a little toward your benefit? Are you able to speak up in opposition, respectfully? Do you have to be right? Do you take credit for wins or do you shine the light on others? Do you take feedback well that helps you improve?

Upon reflection of these questions, there is probably at least one each of us can identify with as an area and opportunity for growth.

No matter what healthcare arena we serve in, home health, homecare, hospice or another area, we need to be part of the solution in transforming the system. The start of transformation starts with good leadership.

We must be able to crystallize a vision of the future with the caveat that it requires revisiting since today’s leaders must be able to embrace ambiguity and uncertainty. What is clear is that tomorrow’s healthcare dream is to truly achieve a quality, value based system that is economical. Only courageous leaders will get us there. So what is needed?

First, find a trusted colleague or coach who can hold up the mirror and give you honest feedback to help you grow as a leader. To lead others well we must develop the habit of working harder on ourselves than others. While we must become masterful at coaching and mentoring others, it starts with ourselves. While in graduate school a few years ago, one instructor poignantly articulated the reality of the higher one goes up the hierarchical ladder in an organization, the less likely people will be honest with you. In positions of authority, this truth can’t be over-emphasized. I learned this the hard way and found it to be true.

Since all of us have strengths and weaknesses, it behooves us as leaders to know them and be good at improving both. The quest to become an effective and great leader can be lonely at times, eye opening in terms of other people’s perceptions of you compared to your own, a constant learning journey, highly rewarding if you listen and put what you have learned into practice.

Frankly, these transformational times are exciting. To think that at even government levels we are embracing the word “innovative” is unprecedented and should give hope. It is an opportune time to challenge current thinking. It is a time to lead with courage into a future that doesn’t have known details. The only known is that we have the requirement to provide a quality service with defined outcomes. Our customer’s lives depend on us succeeding. What a laudable goal to achieve. As leaders, a goal such as this doesn’t get better, does it?

Terri Wallin, CEO and Consultant Wallin Enterprises,
Transforming the way you do business.

Wallin Enterprises formed because of Terri’s drive to help organiza­tions succeed with culture and sys­tem transformation. With extensive experience in clinical, adminis­trative and executive operations, Terri is highly skilled in leading system design. Terri is sought out by leaders to speak to and coach others on improved business and system/process implementation. She is a published author on ar­ticles related to quality and busi­ness outcomes as a result of system transformation changes. She can be reached at terri@wallinenterprises.com or 206.755.7747. You can connect with Terri at www.linkedin.com/in/wallinenterprises

Filed under: Healthcare Reform, Leadership, Organizational Restructuring, Transition

By Ginny Kenyon | Published: February 18, 2012 – 2:00 am

There’s a lot of discussion about the education and learning needs of the home care caregiver staff; sometimes because it is required by law, and other times it’s because home care owners and administrators believe strongly in caregiver continuing education. However, how often do you hear about continuing education and training for the internal home care office staff? There are at least two major reasons to invest in the continuing education of your internal staff – a better educated staff means better service to customers and your continuing education investment goes a long way toward retention of this valuable resource.

One of the major challenges home care owners and administrators experience in providing this education and training is the lack of available courses or trainings that relate to the job the individual performs within the organization. That was one of my biggest challenges as a home care executive. It does require managers to employ creativity. Sending the receptionist to courses on “How to deal with difficult people”, as well as, courses on selling and phone presence was a real positive. The receptionist is the first contact with your agency and, therefore, creates the first impression. The old saying “you never get a second chance to make a first good impression” applies . A caller to your home care agency will make a decision about your agency in the first five seconds on the phone with your receptionist. If the exchange is less than positive, it takes an additional five to ten minutes with another person to revise a bad impression. Training your first line of contact is both desirable and critical to success of your agency.

The next position that is most frequently ignored is the billing and payroll clerical staff. If you do not have tenured payroll and billing staff in your office to train new employees, the employee will have to learn by trial and error. You want to avoid this if at all possible. What do you do if you are a new agency, or have no tenured staff, and your payroll and billing staff is new to their role? One of the more creative solutions I have seen is to negotiate some time with a respected home care agency for your new employee to shadow the payroll and billing staff of their agency. Frequently the financial software company you use will have other users who are tenured business owners and can provide you with a contact for setting up the learning experience. There should also be training for the billing and payroll software that you acquire. The software companies usually provide direct training on-site for the software which is something you want to take advantage of even if it costs more to do so.

The next biggest challenge for continuing education for the internal home care staff is to find on-going courses or classes that will keep your employee engaged and learning. One of the things we did when I was a home care executive was to make selected in-services mandatory for all employees annually. The in-services included the internal home care staff. This achieved two things: it provided inclusiveness for all the staff, and it signified to the internal staff that we valued them and their contribution to the agency success. Some of the mandatory in-services included customer service updates, safety in the workplace, and the staff “Brain Storming for the Future”. “Brain Storming for the Future” was an opportunity for all the staff to dream about the future of the organization, where they would like to see it go, and how that future would look and feel. All staff participated and contributed from their perspective position in the organization. It is a great way to build your teams and your home care organization.

The bottom line for your home care organization is that you recognize and invest in the internal staff of the home care agency. Undoubtedly, other home care agencies have other additional creative training and education opportunities for the internal staff. We would love to hear about them from you.

Each member of your home care is a valuable asset. To keep them interested and growing, learning opportunities must be provided for all. If you need assistance in designing an in-service training for your internal staff, or assistance with the overall management of the home care agency, call Ginny Kenyon at 206-721-5091 or e-mail gkenyon@kenyonhcc.com. We are here to help.

Filed under: Education & Training, Orientation, Specialized Support

By Ginny Kenyon | Published: February 4, 2012 – 2:00 am

Nothing is more unsettling to a home care organization than the loss, or impending loss, of an essential leader. Home care agencies that fail to plan for this event experience major disruptions in their business; initiatives lose momentum or are completely lost, uncertainty increases staff resignations, and business drops off causing a decline to the bottom line. To avoid this problem, a home health, or hospice organization must have both an emergency succession plan, as well as an established succession plan.

What is a Succession Plan? A sound home care succession plan is an ongoing process that contains the following:

1. Identification of critical positions needed for your home care agency.

2. Determination of the requisite skills needed for those positions.

3. Identification and assessment of potential successors or sources capable of providing individuals with the requisite skills.

4. Management and leadership involvement at all levels throughout your home care agency in developing the plan.

5. Ongoing commitment to developing internal talent and monitoring their progress.

A successful home care agency leadership succession plan identifies the environment, prepares for contingencies, and minimizes disruptions. Therefore, effective succession planning must be an ongoing process of regularly identifying, assessing, and developing talent to ensure leadership continuity for all key positions in a home care agency. The process must be in keeping with your home care or hospice agency’s ongoing strategic goals and objectives. This may mean that the kind of leadership style, skills, and behaviors needing to be developed and promoted might be different in the future from those in the existing culture. Therefore, the plan must be visited yearly and updated to match what your home health or hospice agency needs going forward.

“It must be understood that “succession planning is not a “replacement” strategy. A properly prepared succession plan is a proactive, systematic effort designed to ensure the continued effective performance of an organization, division, department, or work group.”

Christopher Simoneau, The Business Review

With an up-to date succession plan, a situation creating one or more vacant leadership positions is less of an emergency for your home care agency. If, however, individuals within your home care agency are not capable of taking the helm and leading your organization, an alternative will need to be implemented as soon as possible to prevent damaging disruptions to your business. This replacement frequently is an interim home care manager with the requisite skills to fill the position.

With both an emergency and a succession plan in place, the selection of an appropriate interim home care manager is considerably easier. The requisite skill sets have been identified and updated, and the essential work elements are in place with all staff on board with their identified responsibilities during the interim home care manager’s time with your agency.

As with all things in our lives, planning makes a big difference. We never want to think of disasters occurring, but we all know that they do. People experience fires at their homes and business, hurricanes occur, earthquakes happen, and people become ill or die. How we plan to meet these times dictates the outcome. As interim home care managers, we too often see the failure to plan.

Kenyon HomeCare consulting can assist agencies with succession plans that help them through leadership transitions and lay the groundwork for when an interim manager is needed to fill the gap until a permanent leader can take the helm. It you need assistance with either developing succession plans or interim management, call Kenyon HomeCare Consulting at 206-721-5091 or e-mail gkenyon@kenyonhcc.com. We are here to help.

Filed under: Interim Management, Specialized Support, Transition

By Ginny Kenyon | Published: January 28, 2012 – 3:00 am

You have just experienced the loss of the top leader of your home care agency. There in no one in the organization with the skill set or leadership to temporarily take on the role. What to do? Some agencies turn to consulting firms that offer interim home care managers. However, not all interim home care managers are equal. To assure you are getting the right fit for your organization, there are several factors to consider in your selection of the interim manager.

First, what is the reputation of the consulting firm or interim home care consultant? If you’re working with a consulting firm, you will want to know how they vet their interim managers. What are their requirements for the position? And, how does the home health consulting firm assure the associates have the requisite home health and hospice background, experience, and competency? A quality consulting agency should be able to address all of these concerns with an accurate description of the process and how they determine which interim associates best fit your needs. If you are thinking of using an individual who does interim home care management, you will want to do the vet them like you would a permanent replacement.

Secondly, how much actual experience does the potential candidate have in a leadership position for either home health or hospice? How current is that experience? If your agency is both home health and hospice, do they have experience in both? Do you have multiple offices? If so, has the potential interim home care manager managed multiple offices? What do their references look like and, will the home care consulting firm share that information with you? A good home care consulting firm will have already checked their references and be able to provide those to you if you wish. Most firms we are familiar with do a good job of vetting their consulting associates and this may not be a necessary step for you to take.

Thirdly, you will want to interview the candidate(s) for a fit with your needs and your agency staff. A home care consulting firm will usually have a couple of potential candidates for you to interview. Interview the interim candidates as you would the permanent replacement. Sometimes the interim home health or hospice manager will, in fact, turn out to be your replacement, so it is important that you approach the interviews in the same manner as you will for the permanent replacement. You may want the middle managers and selected field staff of your home care agency to also be involved in the interviews to assure this is someone they can respect and follow.

Finally, even the best interim home care manager will have difficulties initially if you do not have a clear plan for them to follow. Place any major initiatives on the list of objectives for them to achieve. If you are engaging a consulting firm, allow them to do a full organizational assessment that will provide identified issues and areas that the interim home care manager must address and resolve, as well as, the identified initiatives that the agency is working on. We all know that the objective of the home care agency is to find a replacement as quickly as possible. We also find that most home care agencies can take anywhere from 6 to 10 months to find that permanent replacement. In the end, no matter how desperate you are to fill the position, be sure to select the interim home care manager carefully.

View the time you have the interim manager as an opportunity to clean up the agency and set a course for the future with an expert at the helm. Rather than viewing the interim as “just a fill in”, an expert from the outside can take a new look at your agency, upgrade your agency and systems, and prepare you for your next adventure.

Filed under: Interim Management, Specialized Support