Selling a Home Care Agency - Expert Advice with Mark Kulik from The BRAFF Group (rebroadcast)

Caregiver Recruiting and Retention is the top concern of agency owners and the most-discussed topic on Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars.

In this episode, Nick Bonitatibus returns to the podcast to discuss How to Create an Irresistible offers in the realm of caregiver recruiting.  Guess What? It's not the offer letter (that's far too late) and it's not only about the money.

Your irresistible offer begins long before you meet the candidate.  Some of the key concepts that Nick shares are as follows:

•  Recruiting is Sales and needs to be treated that way
• The one truly unique thing about your agency is your personal story - you need to tell it well
• You need to convey WHY you do what you do. It's means more to candidates than what you do
• Next is culture...  You need to show that your caregivers are happy and well taken care of by your agency
• Your website needs to tell all of these stories
• and more...

You can get in touch with Nick, plus get free resources, by visiting https://www.thedigitalchamps.com/.

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency.. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com. 

Rob Christensen is a home care veteran who has runs 4 agencies and day services. 

Sadly, some clients get to a stage where they need to have 24-hour care and they can't afford to have that service in their home.  Rob learned that facilities are willing to pay a handsome finders fee (generally one-month of the facility fee)  for a new referral.   So Rob added a service for placing clients in facilities.  The results have been highly beneficial in a number of ways, as follows:

• Finding the best facility is a beneficial service for the client and their family
• By building relationships with local facilities, they'll turn to your agency when their residents (e.g., in independent living or assisted living) need services.
• The payoff is both high dollar and high margin. Rob spoke of single placements that paid $8,000.

After making this process work in his first location, Rob went on to improve the process and automate a solution. This includes cataloging detailed facility information for making the best match, the ability to send HIPAA compliant referrals for evaluation, and a tool for tracking all the placements that are in progress.

Check out the full episode to learn more.

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency.. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com. 

The defining challenging of home care, long term supports and services, and day services is recruiting and retaining caregivers.  One of the big recommendations that we hear regarding retention is to create career paths, but at the same time we struggle to make a reasonable margin at the rates that we're able to charge.  

Today's guest, in his 3rd appearance on the Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars podcast, is Steve "the Hurricane" Weiss, the CEO of the consulting firm Home Care Evolution. Steve's organization is one of the preeminent home care coaching and consulting organizations in the US.  I had the priviledge to attend one of Steve's Home Care boot camps and a specific session, on the topic of "Care Coordinators" resonated strongly with me. Today's episode dives into the way that adding care coordinators to a home care agency does three key things: 1) It creates a career care, 2) It results in a differentiated level of care, and 3) It gives you an opportunity to charge more. 

The term "TRIFECTA" comes from betting on horse racing. To win this kind of bet you need to pick the first place, second place and 3rd place horses, in order.  So the connotation is that a Trifecta is a big three-part win.  Some of the key concepts addressed in the episode are as follows:

• Having Care Coordinators creates a career path within your agency for the right kinds of people
• These coordinators ensure that the client's needs are well understood and that the caregiver(s) are well-prepared to do an excellent job
• Since the best home care clients have complex needs, having a coordinator check in regularly makes sure that the care is evolving with those needs as they change.
• Another key benefit is that unlike your competitors who will start recruiting for a caregiver once they close the client, your coordinators have flexibility in their schedules to start care right away and meet families right away when opportunities present themselves
• Yet another benefit is that junior caregivers are supported and know that a senior team member will be visiting regularly to help them. This cuts down on cases where newly trained caregivers feel overwhelmed and quit
• Lastly, having coordinators results in a premium service that you can charge for.  Some agencies justifiably raise their rates when they have care coordinators and others charge separately for the coordinators, and families are willing to pay.

Despite this episode being a deep dive into care coordination, it really only scratches the surface. Home Care Evolution will provide a free consulting session to your agency on this topic or many others.  Plus, as I said, attending one of their boot camps opens your eyes to many ways the best agencies are thriving.

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency.. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com. 

Loneliness and Isolation have been clinically proven to have hugely negative health outcomes. Just because there's a caregiver in the home or the person participates in a day services program doesn't mean that they aren't lonely and feeling isolated.  I lost my Aunt Myrna a few years back and she had in home care for the last years of her life, but while they were there to provide for her needs they weren't having conversations with her.  By contrast, my mom who is 86 and has Alzheimer's disease participates in a day program, but since she has poor hearing her engagement is low.

Today's guest Deb Skovron, created a program called Circle Talk (see CircleTalk.org) which is used in home care and various day programs including PACE programs. She has witnessed many instances where a weekly program that encourages people to form relationships has dramatically improved participants' quality of life.

I'd highly encourage you to learn more about Deb and the  CircleTalk program itself, but we always make sure that when you listen to Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars, that you will come away from the episode with actions that you can put into place right away.  We're going to share this podcast episode via an email suggesting 10 great conversation starters that your caregivers can use to drive meaningful connections with clients.

You can learn more about Deb and CircleTalk by visiting CircleTalk.org.

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency.. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com. 

This episode addresses the most critical concern in home care and day services - recruiting and retention of caregivers.  But as a bonus, it offers a way to improve it with science and artificial intelligence.  And... as if that isn't enough there's an offer to use this technology for free AND to get amazon gift cards for the caregivers who participate...  I'm excited already!

Today's special guests are John Penrose, the CEO of a company called Agile Brain, and one of his chief scientists Dr. JD Pincus.  Most surveys are long, boring and not very accurate. Participants typically respond without much thought or even understanding. AgileBrain is different. It's a 3-minute exercise where you select images that correspond to ways you feel. So, it's fun, fast and easy to do even for caregivers with limited English language skills. And because AgileBrain is grounded in science, the results are astounding...  AgileBrain can predict how long a caregiver candidate is likely to stay and give you early warning about existing caregivers' likelihood to quit. Armed with this information you can take actions to recruit and retain better.

If it sounds too good to be true, they'll let you try it for free AND 25 of the caregivers who complete the assessment will receive a $25 Amazon gift card every time they complete an assessment.  Why would they do this you might ask...  Whether you realize it or not, you are interacting with artificial intelligence (AI) every day. Two simple examples are when Amazon.com suggests "Customers who bought that item also purchased this one," or when Netflix proposes the next movie you might like to watch.  Their models are pretty good and the reason is that they're based on lots of data. Agile Brain is asking for home care agencies, Adult Day Service Providers, and disability server providers to use their technology for free so that they can expand their model to include a rich and diverse set of caregivers.

To participate in the survey go to https://agilebrain.com/homecare.

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency.. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

Today's episode of Home Care Heroes is exciting because we've expanded to include day services (like Adult Day Care and Day Habilitation for individuals with Intellectual or developmental disabilities).  From now on we'll be calling the podcast Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars.

Christina Vlosich is the perfect guest and today's topic explores why home care and day services go together so well.  As a short preview, here are some of the reasons why so many home care agencies are adding day services:

• Client benefits: Day Service Participants benefit from the social aspect of having friends who they can meet with at day care plus the activities and nutrition. 
• Benefits to your agency: In a Day Services setting, you generally only need one team member for each 4 to 5 participants so it's easier to staff and even though the reimbursement is lower, the staff cost is much lower too.
• Secret Benefits to your agency: Two of the biggest problems in home care are 1) Being able to visit with and staff new prospective clients fast enough, and 2) training caregivers who immediately drop out when they get placed in a senior's home. With a day center, you can give your home care trainees hands on experience to better prepare them for their jobs. Plus, you can slightly overstaff your day center such that when a new prospect calls on the phone you can send a team member to meet them right away.

We also talk a lot about the critical topics of branding and differentiating your day center.

Christina Vlosich is the principal of Adult Day Service Consulting (adsconsult.biz). You can reach Christina on 1-330-719-8044​ or via email at cvlosich@adsconsult.biz.

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home that Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency.. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

Today's episode focuses on the critically important topic of Achieving Balance in managing your home care agency.  Our guest, Becky Reel is the Executive Director of For Papa's Sake Home Care, an agency that she created to honor her grandfather. Becky reflects back on a time when her life was out of balance and running her agency was creating anxiety for her and putting stress on her most important relationships.  Not only has she overcome these challenges, her agency was chosen as the Top Agency of 2022 by Home Care Pulse.

For Becky, achieving balance made all the difference. This talk covers the following critical topics:

• Why talk about balance?
• How to set boundaries and stick to them
• It's OK to say no
• Hiring right and setting expectations
  (also how to "hire" the right clients)
• Two great books by Starbucks founder Howard Shultz

Links to the two books are as follows:

• It's not about the Coffee: Putting People First, and
• Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time

Becky kindly offered to help agency owners and welcomes you to reach her via email at becky@forpapassake.com.

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

By any measure, Queen Elizabeth lived a noteworthy life. She was vibrant and influential in all but the last few months of her 96 year lifetime.  Today on Home Care Heroes, we talk about why...

Our fantastic guest is Jennifer Brine, the CEO of  ANeuFit (pronounced "A New Fit"). Jennifer is a mechanical engineer turned entrepreneur who helps individuals 50 and older to live richer lives by helping them increase their capacity for movement. 

Although we touch on movement, the episode covers so much more, including the following:

• How can we show dignity and respect in the way we describe and address the clients we serve.
• What is aging and how is it different for each person - a clear picture
• Zooming in on the principals the result in a rich life
• Striving for an individual's "healthspan" to match their lifespan

If you are inspired by this episode (and I know you will be), you can connect with Jen by visiting https://aneufit.com, calling 617-681-4776 or emailing info@aneufit.com.

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

Today's guest, Miki Rosanis, is an Occupational Therapist working for an artificial intelligence (AI) company called SENSI.AI. They have created the world's first Virtual Care Assistant.  If you have no idea what this means, then you definitely need to check out this episode.

Sensi's technology has been specifically developed to assist home care agencies in the US. The Artificial Intelligence technology senses sounds in the care environment and provides sights to the home care agency and to the client's family. 

A few examples shared by Miki are as follows:

• Falls can be detected via sound
• Similarly a client can ask for help and be heard even thought they're not wearing a PERS device
• By sensing excessive toilet use, the technology has been able to identify a Urinary Tract Infection
• When caregivers are present, the technology can sense joyful interactions between clients and caregivers

Let's face it, few home care agencies feel like they're ready for AI, but we're probably more ready than we think. The recommendations of what to watch next on Netflix  and suggestions of the best product to buy on Amazon.com are AI. Other examples are the fingerprint and FaceID we use to get into our favorite apps and the way that gmail and Microsoft Word make suggestions on how to finish our sentences.

Agencies can use SENSI as a first step to better assess an individual's need for care and with the shortage of caregivers, SENSI can put us in a position not to have to staff shifts when the client is normally sleeping.

You can learn more about Sensi by visiting their website https://Sensi.AI.

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

Whether we agree with it or not, there is a perceived canyon between what we do in non-medical home care and what happens in the "healthcare world." We're generally not reimbursed like healthcare is. Even in the Medicaid world where there are government payments, they're called "waiver programs."  But while non-medical care is often shunned, we know that an individual receiving our care will have better outcomes than  someone who doesn't. Without going on too much of a tangent, there's a growing body of evidence to that effect that you can learn about by Googling "Social Determinants of Health."

BrightStar Care, a $700M national home care franchise set out to prove that their interventions not only result in comfort and quality of life improvements for their clients, but also generate hard healthcare cost savings. They hired a top healthcare research firm, Avalere, to compare the healthcare costs of Medical Care recipients receiving care from BrightStar Care to others who don't.

The results were resoundingly positive showing that on average, BrightStar Care recipients had over $8,000 in healthcare savings, and in some cases the savings were almost $30,000.

In this episode of home care heroes, BrightStar Care Founder and CEO Shelly Sun explains why they did the study, what they learned, and how this has effected their work and approach at BrightStar Care. 

You can learn more about the study entitled at this link.  You can learn more about BrightStar Care here.

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.