Manage the Technology for Your Home Care Agency

  

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These days it seems that just about everything is done on computers. Your technology is essential to your day to day operations and if it goes unmanaged it can spell trouble for your home care agency. Slow computers can often be sped up by cleaning out old programs that are no longer used and running some system programs included with Windows and Mac computers.  

For Windows Computers:

The most useful Windows programs in your computer system's arsenal are Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter. Both of these tools can be found in Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools.

It is a good idea to run these tools once a week to keep things running smoothly.

For Apple Computers:

The most useful Mac utility program is called Disk Utility which can be found in Applications -> Utilities.

More and more computers are integrating themselves in our every action. With these few easy steps your computer can run at its best and keep you from getting frustrated. 

Here at Shoshana Technologies, we are dedicated to your business and want to help you succeed. Jeff Yoder is director of our computer support business (TechA2) and prepared this post to give you some helpful tips on getting the most out of your tech gear. For more help with your computers please visit our computer support website www.TechA2.com. We would love to help you solve your tech problems with expert technicians so that you can be as productive as you need to be.

Don't let your technology weigh you down, it is here to help you!

If you need help right now please click the button below!

Moving to a Better Home Care Software

  

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For many individuals, changing to a new home care management system can be pretty intimidating.  Believe it or not, this is true of just about every industry.  It doesn't matter if the software deals with home care or if it deals with putting out a newsletter.  The simple truth is that many people simply don't like the thought of having to learn a new system.  

However, it is also equally true that many people and businesses, once they are familiar with a new system, often find themselves wishing the changes had been implemented sooner.  Many people are resistant to change, but once the change takes place, often readily accept it.

One of the most difficult aspects of implementing a new change is to get the staff onboard with the new way of doing things.  In order to make the transition as painless and simple as possible, management should meet with the staff and explain the benefits of the new system.  At the same time, the company should be open to any concerns the staff may have. By allowing staff to have input, even if the input is negative, the staff often feels much more like a part of a team, resulting in an increased willingness to work with the company and implement a different way of doing things.  At Shoshana Technologies, we are available to help answer any questions that you or your staff might have about the benefits of using Rosemark.

Another concern about home care software is data migration.  If an agency has built up years of data in a previous system, it is probably not going to want to manually move the information into a new system.  Some software companies won't offer migration of the data into the new system, while others can "massage" the old data into the new system.  Data migration is a very important factor as to whether or not an agency can hit the ground running with a new home care software system.  Shoshana Technologies can provide any level of migration that your agency needs.

Establishing the right comfort level between the homecare scheduling software and a company is vital. Shoshana Technologies has built itself on the concept of helping every company implement a system that works the way you work. We are well aware of the frustrations that can occur when making the transition to a new system and we are here to work through any and all issues that might arise.  Unlike other companies that are concerned simply with selling software technology, Shoshana Technologies is concerned with establishing a long-lasting relationship with all of our customers. View our white paper on how Rosemark handles the migration process.

Home Care Matchmaker: The Right Caregiver, the Right Client

  

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Finding the right caregiver for a client is perhaps THE core function of a home care agency. Good matches lead to greater client satisfaction with the service and greater retention of high-quality caregivers. On the other hand, bad matches lead to high turnover and low satisfaction on both sides of the equation, as well as hassle and strife for agency staff.

It's important to recognize that a good match is a two-way street. It's not just about a caregiver being good or bad: often the client is the bottleneck, as they may have difficult-to-meet expectations or just be unreasonable, through no fault of the caregiver.

Historically, getting this right has been mostly an art: a good scheduler can keep a tremendous amount of detail in her/his head about dozens (if not hundreds) of clients and caregivers, their personalities, preferences, pet peeves and all the subtle queues that go into these "matchmaking" decisions. Notebooks, sticky notes, white boards and spreadsheets were pressed into service, but the real data management was happening inside the scheduler's brain.

While there's no substitute for a people-person in the equation, technology has a place in enhancing those skills and spreading the knowledge and detail among all the staff. With the right tools in place, you don't have to risk making an obvious mistake, like sending a caregiver who is already known to not get along with a client.

In order to serve in this role, the software has to have some particular characteristics.

1. It must provide a way to indicate preferences, both positive and negative, and match caregivers based on those preferences.
2. It must be able to block a known bad match.
3. It must be flexible and customizable in what things can be matched.

When a caregiver & client get along well, it's not just pleasant, convenient and profitable: it can make a huge difference in the quality of life and, in some cases, even the longevity of a client.

Do you have tips or tricks about this topic? I'd love to hear from you!

The Rosemark Scheduling System is designed specifically to manage the caregiver and client relationships and skills matching. View our demo video that shows you how Rosemark can help your schedulers more easily find the perfect match.

Report from the 7th Private Duty Home Care Leadership Summit & Expo

  

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I just got back from exhibiting Rosemark at the 7th Private Duty Home Care Leadership Summit & Exposition in Las Vegas, NV. This is the first time that we've exhibited at this show and it was a very interesting one. There were about 250 people at the show: small by general trade show standards but respectable for a Private Duty show.

I had many great conversations with Home Care agency owners and operators. It's always very interesting what things people are focusing on in their operations. Of particular interest at this show seemed to be enhanced communications between staff & caregivers and ways of managing ADL's (Activities of Daily Living).

Rosemark User's Group

I started the conference with a Rosemark User's Group. It was a great opportunity to get some facetime with some of our Rosemark customers, as well as a number of other people interested in learning about Shoshana Technologies and Rosemark.

During the session, most of the time was spent in group conversation, brainstorming together about ways agencies can use Rosemark better, as well as ideas about how Rosemark can grow to meet more of their needs. 

A big theme was communication. Using Pending & Completed actions, many of these tasks can be handled very well. There needs to be more interplay between Actions and scheduling. For example, a scheduler should be able to text or email a Shift Offer right at the time of offering, but also have the option to do several at a time. Perhaps this could take the form of a shifts list of ShiftOffers, with the option to pick and choose which ones want to be sent out in one motion. 

Presentations

While I mainly stayed on the exhibit floor, I did get the opportunity to poke my head in on a  couple of the presentations.

Humana acquires SeniorBridge

The first was a talk about the pending acquisition of SeniorBridge by Humana. There was some buzz about it on the floor, as it represents a big influx of capital and potential influence in the Private Duty market. I think there is some nervousness about such a big player getting into the Private Duty pond. With all the changes going on in the Health Care world, there's bound to be a lot of unpredictable turbulence ahead.

Humana had two different speakers there: Dr. Lance Secretan who helps them with their visioning and team-building efforts, followed by Paul Kusserow the Chief Strategic Officer for Humana. Both speakers were quite interesting, though Paul's powerpoint was extremely hard to see, it was so packed with detail. The overall impression I got was that they want to reassure everyone that they mean business, but they mean to do good work as well.

New Rules Of Home Care Growth in the Post Recession Age

Pat Drea is the Chief Operating Officer of Visiting Angels. In this presentation, she gave her perspectives on the changing realities of home care business. She has been in the industry for a long time and continues to be in a position to see and experience the changes close at hand. Much of her advice to agencies centers around how to stay positive, motivated and active in improving your marketing, operations and business processes.

She had lots to say! Here are a few take-aways that struck me in particular:

• Engage in "Disciplined Optimism" to keep on the right side of the attitude coin.
• "Help people say yes to what they really need".
• Keep and share an accomplishments list with your staff.
• Continually monitor and improve business processes (pick something and improve it, but don't ignore it after it's "fixed", or it will go back to not being fixed)
• Consistently communicate the culture of the company to new caregivers & staff
• Celebrate victories, large & small
• Check out Daniel Pink's book Drive

Software Speed Dating

I also participated in a new event that they were trying out this year called "Software Speed Dating". The event consisted of four software vendors in four corners of a room; participants would start at one, listen to a 15 minute presentation about their product, then move on. The idea is to give a quick burst of information for those agencies who are looking at different software packages.

Attendance wasn't great but those who were there seemed to find it very useful. I used it as an opportunity to refine and clarify my ideas about what makes Rosemark the best agency management system available, so it had a lot of value for me, personally. I think with some tweaks, this could be a very powerful way of helping agencies "shop around" and find the tools they need.

Conclusion

All in all, it was a very good event for us. While we hardly ever get people actually signing up during conferences, the conversations and connections that happen are invaluable. I'm sure we'll be exhibiting and participating as fully as possible next year.

Word is that next year's conference will probably be in Washington, D.C., possibly a little later in the year in order to try to avoid bad weather. I hope to see you there!

If you have any comments or feedback on what you've read here, or if you were at the conference and want to add anything, I'd love to here from you.

Managing your Home Care Referral Source marketing activities

  

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Designated Marketer 

Having a designated marketer for your agency has been suggested by many of our successful customers as being an essential component in developing and managing a healthy marketing program and growing business. Established Home Care agencies may already have one or more marketer in place, while in a smaller agency, the marketing activities may be just another hat the owner wears.

A good marketer should be knowledgeable about your business, home care services generally and be a pleasant and energetic person that can put a great face on your agency. That is so important for growing your business and maintaining your good reputation in the community.  A marketer is really an extension of you, serving as your ambassador to the community when you are unable to be there. This will enable the human interaction component to thrive and keep your agency in the forefront of the minds of the people who can really feed your agency with new business.

Giving them the right tools and training (and utilizing the tools yourself) can keep things organized and fluid. A marketer should be able to access any necessary information as well as adding new information to your agency's records in order to keep the process efficient and organized.

This also ensures that you can get in there and see what's going on. You certainly don't want to micromanage, but it's important to have visibility on the processes.

Some agency owners prefer to keep roles segregated so that marketers aren't wandering into client & caregiver information. Others prefer an "open book" approach, even after they get larger. To some extent this is a matter of personal preference, style and corporate culture. In any case, it's good to know what options the homecare ssheduling software you are using give you, so you have the freedom to change course as things develop.

Get the Right Tools

A good homecare agency management system will provide tools for managing your referrals and marketing activities. Here are some basic things to keep in mind when choosing software for this job:

• Can it record and track all marketing activities?
• Does it have any customizable options?
• Can it associate Client(s) with a Referral Source?
• Can it track people within an organization (e.g. individual staff persons in a hospital)?
• How is the data backed up and secured?

I hope this has given you some helpful perspectives if you are considering improvements in marketing your home care services. If you have comments or thoughts about any of this, I'd love to hear from you!

The Rosemark Scheduling System has an area designed specifically to manage the referrer relationships. View our demo video that shows you how Rosemark can help your designated marketer manage relationships to generate business.

Referral Sources: Why they matter so much for Home Care Agencies

  

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Why do Referral Sources matter to Home Care Agencies?

The simple answer to the question is: Financial Success for my agency. Referral sources are a critical part of building and maintaining a healthy home care business because that's where new clients will come from.

In the 2011 Annual Private Duty Home Care Benchmarking Study (jointly sponsored by Home Care Pulse and the National Private Duty Association), the top strategic priority for Home Care agencies was "Increasing the number of clients". To grow your business, you must continually bring on new clients to offset the effects of attrition, legislation, competition and economic downturns. Here are a few great tips!

It's about Relationships

In the same study, the top 5 Referral Sources* for Private Duty Home Care Agencies were:

1. Clients/Families (Existing & Former)
2. Networking (overall)
3. Hospices
4. Medicare Certified Agencies
5. Search Engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc.)

* In the study, the top 10 are given, along with a long list of additional sources. I just picked the top 5 for illustration purposes.

All of these top referral sources are about relationships (yes, even the Search Engines!).

Where advertising is an outgoing activity, referrals are inbound, and only happen when there's something (usually someone) external directing clients your way. Even for the Search Engine source, as many as half of the searches may come from people who have been referred by actual people: they were just using the search engine to find your information on line.

Reputation Capital

The most important component is Trust. People won't refer potential clients to you unless they can trust that you will take good care of them. I refer to this as "Reputation Capital". Every time you recommend someone, you are spending some Reputation Capital. If you refer someone and it doesn't work out, the value of your own reputation goes down a bit. If they come through, the value of both parties' reputation capital goes up. The people you want as referral sources have a sense of this, even if it's unconscious. If they recommend you and you don't come through, their own reputation will be damaged, and you'll never get a referral from them again. For them to stick their necks out, they have to trust you.

Volunteer!

You must establish trust with people in your community that you will provide great care. One great way to build and enhance this trust is through volunteering opportunities. Host a blood drive, collect clothes for the needy, volunteer at a soup kitchen: whatever you are called to do that gets you visibly out in the community and interacting in a caring, compassionate way. In my experience, the agency owners who really become active in their communities are the most successful.

Exceptional Care

Of course, the main ingredient is actually providing exceptional care to your clients and caregivers. We know the old adage that "the customer is always right" which means that you have to do all sorts of things that add to and preserve the strength of your reputation. If the mission of your agency has the above as it basis you will find the that referrals will flow in on a regular basis. Then it is just a matter of taking the next set of steps and tools to build your referral sources. As long as it doesn't break your back, bending over backwards is great for your flexibility! 

If you're interested in knowing more about the benchmarking study referenced in this article, click the button below.

I hope you found this article interesting & useful. I'd love to hear your thoughts about it, so feel free to leave comments.

Next time, I'll talk about some of the operations aspects of managing your referral sources.

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Home Care Pulse provides a powerful way to measure, improve and leverage Client and Caregiver satisfaction. They perform regular interviews with Clients' family members and Caregivers to give you a candid, clear view of how your agency is doing in different areas. This allows you to continually improve your services and market yourself as an agency that really cares about the quality of care. The connection with Rosemark means you don't have to manage two separate databases.

Tips for your new tablet computer (A photo guide)

  

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With the holiday season recently passed, many of you may have received a shiny new tablet computer (or maybe you had to gift it to yourself...). They can be very exciting to use and they have great portablility, but I have seen plenty of evidence to indicate that there can be a slight learning curve for these devices.

I'll be addressing a number of things that can help you get better use of these devices over the course of the next weeks and months. In this article, I'll give you a few tips that might help you get started. In each case, I will first go over Apple devices first, then go over Android.

Today we'll cover the following tips:

• Capitalization
• Adding a Bookmark to your Home Screen
• Force-closing misbehaving apps

Capitilization

One good thing to know is that when you are trying to log into sites as you normally would on a standard computer, you may get tripped up by auto-capitalization. Most tablets, regardless of the brand, will auto-capitalize the first letter. If your username or password are case sensitive this could create a problem

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small Business Trends 2012: takeaways for Home Care Agencies

  

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Photo by Hakan Dahlstrom

Dave Haviland's company Phimation works with small and medium-sized businesses (specifically, Stage 2 companies) to improve their executive leadership. Each year, they produce a Small Business Trends report that presents an overview of their findings in working with many small business owners.

I've just read a preliminary version of their report: Small Business Trends for 2012 (The Top Trends Impacting Second Stage Companies) and thought I'd offer you some impressions. There is also a link here and at the end where you can download the short version of the report yourself. When the full report is available (by the end of the year, Dave says), you can order the full report from their website. Note that the full report will include some recommendations as well as the basic findings.

While not specifically focused on Home Care Agencies, I think the report is useful to any small business owner, including those in Home Care.

Some take-aways:

• "Small businesses are operating in an environment of extreme change."

• Keep costs low but don't skimp on the things that will actually make your business work better and grow. Sounds easy but really requires flexibility and an attitude of nimbleness and being open to new possibilities.

• Leverage web technologies to accomplish process and marketing efficiencies. This includes everything from email and other communications to your agency management software (hey, that's us!).

• Stay light on your feet but don't jump at every trend.

• Implement "traction control systems" to allow you to respond to changes in your business climate without spinning out of control.

• Make use of the knowledge and understanding of your younger workers who often have a better handle on new things than we more experienced (that is, older) owners and managers. Remember, doing things the way you do them won't always be the best choice; let them have some influence over things (as appropriate, of course).

The coming year is bound to be an adventure! I'd love to hear your comments about what you think about the unfolding business climate. Please leave comments and get the conversation started!

Other things you can do:

• Download the short version of the report.
• Visit the Phimation website.
• To order the full report from them, visit this link, fill out the little form at the bottom and submit.

Happy Holidays From Shoshana Technologies!

  

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Yesterday was the first day of Winter. It is 40 degrees here in Ann Arbor and has been raining. The forecast looks almost spring-like for the next week, 35-42 degree highs. Where the heck is our snow?!?

On Wednesday, we paused for our annual office holiday celebration.  We had the whole crew, and a couple extra family members too. We turned on the music, opened the eggnog and just relaxed with some games, good company and good food.

Linda made delicious sugar plums and thumbprint cookies and also brought in a crockpot full of sweet and sour venison meatballs: YUM! We had chocolate pie, shrimp cocktail, chips and dips and Linda and Tom's homemade eggnog! We played (yes, played) Popcorn and had a company-wide dart competition (Kevin emerged victorious).

Occasionally during the party we turned off the music and answered calls from customers. Home care is not a profession that has an off switch; it is an industry full of amazing, caring individuals, so we are happy to help whenever you need it.

While most of Shoshana Technologies' staff will be staying in Michigan for the holidays, Bill will be heading to New York to visit his sister and Nate & Kevin were able to get tickets to go see the University of Michigan football team kick butt in New Orleans at the Sugar Bowl!  Have fun at the big game!

Though the weather forcast may be a little gloomy, the outlook for Home Care looks bright, as the need to take loving care of our nation's elderly increases.

We hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season this year, and that your homes are filled with love and laughter. And eggnog.

Software for Home Care: Building Your Company from the Ground Up

  

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Eventually they realize that this is costing them lots of money!  They need to make the office more efficient, they need their client base to not be dependent on the available wall room.  They need a Scheduling and Office Management System.  

Other Home Care Business Building links you might find useful: