The Most Important Thing?

I recently sent a short questionnaire to some of the consultants I know to see what they would answer to these questions.

1. What do you think is the most important thing to be done early on when starting a Home Care business?

2. What do most people wish they had known or done sooner in their business?

Think about how you would answer these questions as well. If you want to respond with your answers, please do. It might make for some lively discussion in our next newsletter.

The answers I received were for #1: What do you think is the most important thing to be done early on when starting a Home Care business?   Strategic Planning: Who is going to do what and when, how much it is going to cost. Identify key roles and people.

Did you wake up one morning and decide to start a business?  How much time have you given to planning and financial costs related to starting your business? You will need to consider all the costs or you could start out having insurmountable problems.

What employees do you need? Are you planning to start with just yourself doing staffing or a very small PD business? Or do you plan to be Medicare Certified or Hospice and need the specialized clinicians and volunteers required for those programs. What are the employee related costs such as background checks, L&I, TB tests, Insurance benefits, vacations and holidays? What back office functions will need to be done? Intake, QI, Billing, Staffing and Human Resources are all necessary functions.

Other costs include licensing and certification fees, insurance for your company, bonding expenses, consultant’s fees, hardware and software to run your business. Advertising can also be expensive. Will you hire a marketer or run ads? One of my leads who said she couldn’t afford software was spending over $5000 a month for radio ads that were not producing any new referrals! Office space and furniture is another expense. Telephone lines, utilities and computers and software are necessities.

I have created a basic template in Excel for your use. Feel free to add or take away as it suits your need. And send me a copy if you like so I can compile the best information in one and share it.

Our number 2 question was: What do most people wish they had known or done sooner in their business?  Electronic solutions. People are finding it difficult to develop all paper processes, and then select software, and change the process. It is much better if they can build their processes around the software they are going to use from the beginning.

This is often the place where I meet you. More and more new starts are looking at software systems before they open their doors. This is a good practice. As you look at different software you will see marked differences is cost, functionality and quality. Price is not the best indicator. I have seen programs that cost upward of a million dollars that don’t have all the functionality of Visit Wizard and are much harder to use. A budget brand may start out fine but become obsolete when you grow past a certain point or want to expand your business. We do a lot of business with agencies on their second or third pass in the software search. Did they really save that much when they have to spend time and money researching, purchasing, implementing and training every year or two? We offer an entry level product that allows you to grow your business efficiently and add to when you are ready.

While you are looking at software, be sure to speak with references. These are the people who use the system every day. They are going to tell you what they like and don’t like about the system. They will tell you how it stands up to the tasks you give it and where it bogs down. They will tell you how good the trainers and support people are and how questions and problems are handled. Prepare before you call. Write down a list of probing questions to ask. Think about what really matters to you. Think about the bottlenecks you face and ask them how the software handles that piece. How does the software fit and assist them in their processes? Does it offer the kinds of reports you need for managing your business wisely, Can you easily compile data to create those reports. Does it do error checking?  In what areas does it save time?  Does the time savings offset the cost? In other words, if I had to have employees do these tasks, what would be the difference in cost?

The interesting thing I have found with good software is that it does change your processes. A paper system requires redundancy of every thing from client name to clinician signature. It requires a lot of back end checking to see that all that redundancy is correct. Scheduling on paper for more than 25 people becomes unwieldy and frustrating. I did this for many years as a Home Health Clinical Coordinator. I also learned that an error on paper can cost hours of time to track down and correct. A lost physician order could cost thousands of dollars when we couldn’t bill for the service. The more completely you can front load your data, the fewer errors you will find when it is time for billing. Fewer errors lead to better and faster reimbursement. Building your processes around a good software program will allow you to be more successful.

My product resource this month was something I just found today. I think it might be worthwhile to show to your clients and families. http://www.carememoryband.com/index.php

With the C•A•R•E Memory Wristband and the Care e-Manager Software, you can take control of your medical history. This powerful and easy to use software allows you to enter your complete personal health history which you can then easily download to the memory device in the band. And because you’ll always have the C•A•R•E Memory Wristband with you, medical staff can quickly and securely view records on the spot, whether in a doctor’s office or an emergency responder’s laptop.

That means your general physician knows the tests your specialist ordered… Your daughter’s drug allergies are listed and available even in the confusion surrounding an accident… When you are on a business trip and no one with you knows your information, the C•A•R•E Memory Wristband has it all recorded.

You can store your entire family’s medical history on one band!  This system allows you to quickly and easily organize the complete personal medical histories of every family member through one simple program.

I hope this newsletter is helpful for you. Please feel free to respond with questions or topics you would like to see discussed.