The best way to stand out in the home care industry is by focusing on both quality and client connection. Conduct a competitive analysis to see what services others offer and identify any gaps you can fill.
Consider specializing in a niche area like dementia care or pediatric support. Invest in technology like telehealth for remote check-ins and client portals to easily communicate.
Further, prioritize exceptional caregiver training, emphasizing compassion and cultural competency. Cultivate a strong company culture that values caregiver well-being, leading to lower turnover and happier clients.
Also, build trust within the community by hosting educational workshops or partnering with senior centers. Finally, weave these elements into a clear and compelling message that showcases your agency’s unique ability to provide exceptional, personalized care.
To shed some light on the same, we interviewed a home care industry expert to bring her perspective on giving your home care agency a competitive edge.
Who Did We Interview?
Candyce Slusher owns Compassion Care at Home, which provides personalized and compassionate care for seniors. The agency specializes in assisting clients in their homes, assisted living facilities, or skilled nursing facilities.
Candyce has 28 years of experience in various long-term care settings, specializing in non-medical home care since 2004. She is proficient in counseling clients and families on care needs, fostering a culture of accountability, and ensuring regulatory compliance.
Let us now delve into what she has to say about giving your home care agency a competitive edge:
I have been in the business since 2004 and have been a nurse since 1995. I found non-medical home care the most rewarding as I can spend more time with clients in their homes. It is what’s missing in healthcare, especially for seniors — quality time.
When I was a home health nurse, I had to complete the entire process in around 45 minutes. The documentation and the assessment took so much time that I could barely have a discussion.
Also, I started working with an agency In 2004 and was the director for 15 years until the owner sold it. Then, within a year, I started my agency and incidentally ended up consulting.
By then, I’d noticed, all the women who had worked for me for those 15 years were running their agencies in the city. That is when I realized that I am a pretty good teacher when it comes to home care.
You know, we only know what the client’s family tells us. So, we need to keep an eye out for any potentially dangerous situations. In my experience, some agencies approach it this way: they send paperwork to the families who fill it out, and then the caregivers start the work. But I think the right approach is to first visit the home and the client and gauge the situation as an owner or administrator.
You cannot just take the family’s word for what the environment is like because there’s a chance it may be incorrect. And based on that, the caregivers could feel misled about the situation.
Also, agency owners should feel free to take on the client. If the situation is prohibitive to the safety of their staff or their business in general, just say no.
In other words, don’t start an agency just for the money. Prioritize staff safety first, and the money will follow. After all, if the staff does not feel safe, your turnover will be too high, and you won’t be able to scale your business.
Agencies that once only relied on private pay clients may now also need to consider state-funded programs. So, agencies need to diversify payer sources, maybe even add other licensure categories like hospice.
Next, they need to create specialty programs to stand out in the market. The old standard of care just doesn’t cut it anymore. Besides adding specialized programs and diversifying, primarily they need to ensure that they are consistently delivering quality care.
You must take hardcore measures to be better than your competitors.
The biggest challenge is finding staff that is qualified and, more than that, reliable. Skills can be taught. So even if a caregiver has basic qualifications, they can be taught to do a great job; what matters the most is they show up consistently and deliver quality care.
The next challenge is retention. When I ran the agency, we celebrated 10-year anniversaries at least twice or thrice a year. But now, I hear agency owners say they do not even do any annual evaluations because no one stays a whole year.
That is just heartbreaking. It all comes down to culture. The most lucrative way to retain caregivers is to create a good culture so professional caregivers want to work for your agency and are proud to work for your agency.
My advice is to be prepared for the first year or two. You really can’t treat this like a job. It is a lifestyle. You must be consistent and love this profession because when you get bad customer reviews, you’ll need to work hard to keep things going.
Also, if your goal is just to earn money, there are easier ways to do this than starting an agency. Of course, there is money in it but there is also a lot of commitment, dedication, compassion, and passion for the work.
It is a money maker, but it is so much more. It comes with a noble cause and a huge responsibility.
In a competitive home care market, Candyce Slusher, a long-time industry expert, emphasizes the importance of a two-pronged approach: exceptional client care and a focus on caregiver well-being.
Her recommendations include niche specialization, technology adoption, and top-notch training that fosters compassion and cultural competency.
Building a strong company culture that prioritizes caregiver satisfaction is key to staff retention, ultimately leading to happier clients and a thriving agency.
Our users reported 95% customer satisfaction in 2023. Schedule a personal walkthrough to see CareSmartz360 in action.
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