As several challenges bedevil the healthcare sector, developing and implementing a potent strategic plan becomes essential for home care organizations who intend to create a balance of effective patient care, employee well-being, and meeting their bottom line, Anchor Group Corp & its CEO, Kevin Howell,  invited a panel of three top experts in the industry to discuss the challenges and best practices for a scalable and effective strategic planning ahead of 2023. The virtual event was titled “Assessing and Revamping Your Home Care Strategy Ahead of 2023,” and sponsored by the Anchor Group.

Opening the session, the moderator and CEO, of Anchor Group Corp, Kevin Howell, MBA elaborated on the importance of effective strategic planning for home care organizations saying “a business strategy is a roadmap that links a company to its destination. The strategy relies on both foresight and goals and encapsulates the company’s vision and mission.”

“The more specific, measurable, timely, and realistic, the greater your chances of achieving results. Your strategic plan should be to strengthen your talent and satisfy your client. It’s not about ‘I’ve done it before’ but about are you doing it right?”  Learn more about the Anchor Group can help your organization with its strategic plan.

In his introductory speech, Kevin stated that “Health care organizations and homecare providers continually have to pivot and adapt to the change in regulations. Many LTC and MTCs are looking for the best agencies to work with. A great agency of the future is an agency that has an integrative approach to care and that could be through partnerships.”

Client Experience

In our fast-changing world, customer experience is integral to any business’s success. Statistics show that the healthcare sector has one of the poorest reputations for customer service. Many clients have previously recounted their bad experiences with healthcare agencies thereby heightening the need to build quality patient communication and emphasizing the fact that its pertinent home care leaders strengthen their cords by prioritizing excellent client experience if they want to stay ahead in 2023.

For home care agencies to achieve a satisfactory client experience, panelist Andrea Brown, CEO of AB Coaching and Consulting stated that client experience must be a “clear goal”. Home care leaders need to define and communicate the agency’s goals.

The question is, are your goals clear enough? Are you communicating them to staff well enough? Are you monitoring performance and holding staff accountable? Are you collecting the right data? What approach are you using? Is it client-centric, or patient-focused?

Andrea pointed out what home care leaders should watch out for and key things to do to spin the wheel in your favor. Leveraging new technology(s) is the first step.

When was the last time you completed a thorough client survey? Click here to get more information on our client experience survey services.

Develop a strong people culture, and leverage stakeholder relationships to support the delivery of consistent quality service

At the center of home care agencies’ success is the caregiver workforce. Recruiting and retaining caregivers has become more expensive due to the competitive nature of the market right now. As the home health sector continues to suffer a huge turnover rate, that heart-tugging question surfaces, what can leaders do to mitigate this? How can we keep our workforce from quitting in search of better opportunities in other sectors? Why are they leaving? How do we invest in our workforce without costs skyrocketing?

Thomas Cocozza, Director of Operations, VNS Health Personal Care explored three major components for powerful employee investment and engagement while reiterating the need for home care agencies to improve their people culture, a culture of valuing the caregivers as a vital part of the organization. “You’re modeling the communication, respect, and care that you want your characters to demonstrate in the home. You’re making people feel they are part of an organization that values them and requires who they are and not how many shifts they can do. If your workforce feels valued and recognized, they are going to be your biggest recruiters in a way no HR can be.”

“They’re going to feel incentivized and empowered not to represent your company but their company. And that’s a powerful tool to have to your advantage. Having a cadre of caregivers who are dedicated and engaged is key to successful client outcomes and a stronger bottom line.”  Click here to learn about AnchorWise survey software—a tool you can use to get continuous feedback from your staff.

Compliance challenges, and how to tackle them

A lot of times, home care agencies are aware of existing compliance policies and new ones being developed, however, some struggle to understand these compliance regulations and how to adopt them.

Emina Poricanin, Founder and MD of Poricanin Law, P.C. speaking on this topic mentioned the three biggest risks and key compliance categories as labor and personal compliance, clinical compliance and best practices, and Medicaid compliance and billing integrity. “Policies and procedures must be in place to ensure someone is monitoring, checking, and self-auditing to make sure you’re not billing the state more than you’re entitled to the bill. Every single unit of care that you provide comes with conditions. Conditions that you have to meet before you’re entitled to bill for them or keep that money if it is paid.”

“Medicaid corporate compliance and billing integrity is a big issue that will become even bigger in 2023 as OMIG finalizes their proposed regulations. You’re going to need people to oversee these compliance areas, and if you’re accused as a provider for not doing them correctly, you’re going to need to retain an expensive legal counsel to get you through that storm.”

“Compliance must be part of the organization’s culture and fabric.” The question is, how do you ensure everybody understands these terms, and how to implement them? Emina provided several recommendations for tackling compliance challenges. One of them being staff training and engagement surrounding compliance.

Digital Transformation

Despite technological advancement, some healthcare agencies still ‘use paper” (manual processes) for data management. And that is poor for business. Technology is advancing every sector and making work easier. How do healthcare organizations harness digital solutions in boosting business operations and growth?

Digital transformation in healthcare’s primary objective is to adopt cutting-edge healthcare IT solutions in order to streamline key workflow procedures and regulatory requirements, enhance patient care, and cut costs.

Kevin Howell, the Anchor Group’s CEO, explaining its importance, stated, “Digital transformation in an organization is critical. Healthcare data must be leveraged to strengthen business growth, advocacy, and patient-centered processes. Growth is impossible without client experience, talent management, and data management.”

“How do you increase revenue? The customer drives revenue. Customer price x quantity = revenue. If you have extreme overtime, or when you have costs in your organization you’re not maximizing, it’s a problem. When you’re not maximizing talent, that’s a problem too.”

“Find your KPIs in finances and create customer-centric KPIs. To be successful, you must build systems to support processes, be effective in data management, and monitor KPIs.”

UPCOMING EVENT: Webinar on Digital Transformation on January 11^th, 2023.

KEY QUESTIONS – FIRESIDE CHAT

How are you LEADing your strategic planning and data management culture? What are some of the measures to be taken to ensure the workforce excels?

Need assistance with client experience, strategic planning, or compliance? Reach out to us today.