Setting Standards for Home Care Onboarding
Chapter 7 of 'From Healthy Aides To Healthier Agency'
Implementing Changes
It would be an understatement to refer to the home care industry as sluggish.
It’s an industry slowed down by constant changes in compensation models, mountains of paperwork and an increase in demand no one can keep up with.
Amidst this environment you might be feeling apprehension to making such big changes all at once. After all, instilling a new drug free policy for example doesn’t just involve you. It also means training your team, including it in your HR manual, listing it on your website and finding a vendor you can trust.
Each change brings with it a list of to-do items before they can be properly integrated which stops many agencies before they even try. But you didn’t work this hard to finish in the back of the line.
You intend to retire on this job, not in it, remember?
Like anything else change is best handled when broken down into increments.
Sit down with your team and prioritize the changes you would like to make. Start by breaking them up over a long period of time. For example, give yourself six months to instill that all new home care workers must pass a PAT exam before placement on a case.
Then list all the steps that need to happen for this to be successful. Who will be responsible for scheduling appointments? Who will compare quotes from different vendors? How will you explain this new policy to recruits?
Delegate these responsibilities to the right individuals.
It’s important to give precise instructions and clear deadlines to your staff so they can report back to you in a timely manner that keeps you on track.
Make sure to keep checking items off your list and set a clear date of when new exams will start being administered. Stay diligent and change is sure to follow.
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Getting your team on board
It’s no secret that in order to excel at any endeavor in business you need help along the way. Getting your team as passionate as you are about these new changes is going help push your agenda through faster than you imagined.
It’s important to get them properly motivated however and not just hand them a to do list. Empower them to see the future of the home care industry and how these changes will increase your chances of getting a bigger share of the 88 million people who are soon to be in need of your services.
We recommend you share this guide with your team and then schedule a series of lunch & learn conferences to go over the information.
Odds are your staff will each have a different opinion
on how to move forward, which changes can make the quickest impact to your bottom line and what they see as a priority.
Together, craft a time timetable of when you would like certain changes to happen and then delegate the middle work (as mentioned above) as needed. Just remember, this is like Captain America, you are stronger when working together.
Congrats on finishing the Best Practice guide to onboarding!
Schedule a 30 minute free call to explore how to start implementing these new onboarding exams seamlessly within your organization with one of our knowledgeable account managers. Keep in mind, it’s not just new recruits that need exams but current hires as well.
Annual exams make sure you maintain the level excellence that gives you those five stars on the medicare website and boost your referrals. In general, annual exams for home care workers should include a physical, TB test (either PPD or QuantiFERON) and a drug test.
We wish you the best of luck on your journey to dominating the home care industry.
It’s thanks to agencies such as yours, who are not scared to raise the bar on what they see standard practices should be, that the positive changes in quality of care actually take place.
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