The Caregiving Organization's Dilemma

Business owners are rightfully concerned about the bottom line. If you aren’t profitable, you can’t grow. Maybe more pressing, if you don’t make money, you can’t serve the people you are trying to serve, you can’t pay your employees…. you certainly can’t pay yourself! So, it makes sense that when business people encounter new potential costs, they want to avoid them (no matter how small). But what happens when the avoidance of perceived costs leads to avoidance of innovation and new solutions? When long term financial gain is sacrificed over fear of up-front investment? How does that effect long term goals, growth, finances, and values of an organization? Examples of the consequences of short sighted or fear-based decision making in business are not hard to come by, and trust me, I’ve been there myself. It’s hard to look towards big goals and the future when you’re drowning in day-to-day tasks and bills are on the way. Home or senior care organizations are frequently so buried ...

  As many senior care organizations work to win market share in an increasingly crowded marketplace, many are trying to distinguish themselves by focusing on a certain type of client, or opening themselves to clients with significantly more complicated needs. That might be folks with dementia, Parkinson’s disease, serious injuries, stroke survivors, etc.  That is a great strategy to get clients "in the door," but it causes problems when caregivers don't actually have the skills necessary to care safely for these increasingly complex clients.  It can also place well intentioned senior care organizations in an awkward position. Advertising and marketing trumpet specialty services to care for clients with greater needs. At assessment, there is discussion and promise of a custom care plan. Meanwhile, the care coordinator or manager has sweaty palms hoping they can actually match needs to a caregiver with the right skill set…. For multiple shifts. This all leads to one o...

  Question: Who is the most important person in your organization? You? Your scheduler? Your marketer? Your front desk, HR, or care coordinator? If you’re reading this blog post, I’m guessing you already know the real answer. The most important member(s) of your organization are your CAREGIVERS. Your caregivers are the ones who are DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for the quality of care your organization provides. They are there, day in and day out, deep in the weeds, making the thing your organization gets paid for HAPPEN. They also tend to have the lowest level of education, the lowest pay, and the least amount of resources to help them meet the varied and complex needs of their job. Here’s the thing though. I don’t believe for one second that organizations don’t care or don’t want to offer something better to their caregivers. Call me naïve, but I just don’t. There are honestly way easier ways to make a buck than to own a caregiving organization, so it stands to reason that the vast...

  The average cost of turnover for a home care organization with 50 caregivers is $86,710/year. Holy smokes Batman. For a small business, that is a LOT of money. The above number is based on a couple of different numbers. The American Center for Progress estimates that for employees making less than $30,000/year, the cost of replacement is 16% of their annual income (see it in the formula below). The average percentage of turnover, according to the 2018 Homecare Benchmark Report, is 66.7%. So, depending on the rate of turnover for a company, that big number could get much smaller…. Or also much worse. Here's how to calculate your yearly loss due to turnover: Average yearly caregiver earnings x .16 x Your total number of caregivers x Your percentage of annual turnover = Annual cost of caregiver turnover (*notice this formula does NOT include potential lost clients or hours related to lost caregivers) The great news is that home care organizations don’t have to just accept...

  Let me preface this blog by stating the obvious: Losing clients is not good for organizations in the caregiving business. Duh, I know. Don’t tune out yet, I promise to say something of value soon. While there is one obvious circumstance where losing clients is a natural part of the caregiving world, losing clients outside of that natural process is more than just bad for the bottom line. It’s a sign that there might be bigger problems within the organization. In order to identify those problems, their causes, and their solutions (they won’t all be what you think), let’s take a closer look at four main reasons caregiving organizations lose clients. In no particular order, they are: death, admission to a hospital or higher level facility, leaving due to issues with quality, and inability to manage the complexity or acuity of the client. (What about money? Clients might say they are leaving for financial reasons, and, of course, sometimes that is true. It’s more likely though that...