Diversification, efficiency are keys to success
Diversification, efficiency are keys to success
When costs can't be cut, improve productivity
Surviving current reimbursement cuts and preparing for potentially more cuts with health care reform can be accomplished with careful planning and a willingness to make tough decisions.
"Diversification is the key to success," says Brent Tow, president and CEO of Community Health Professionals in Van Wert, OH. "We offer Medicare home health, private duty nursing, home hospice care, and inpatient hospice care," he says. The range of services enables his agency to continue caring for patients as they move through the continuum of care, he points out. "We don't have to discharge them to another provider," he adds.
Management of chronic care conditions is another way that home health agencies can expand services, suggests Mary Newberry, RN, BSN, president of the Illinois Homecare Council and director of home health and outpatient infusion for Riverside HealthCare in Kankakee, IL. "There are many opportunities for home health agencies to provide care for the chronically ill using the same staff and expertise in outpatient areas," she suggests. "Chronic care programs can also help agencies meet their goals of keeping patients out of the hospital," she adds.
"It will also be important for agencies to become as efficient as possible," says Tow. His agency uses telemonitoring to increase efficiency and patient care, as well as cross-training of all nurses. "Because we are a rural agency, it makes sense that a home health nurse be able to visit a hospice patient that lives close to the home health patient that she has driven 40 miles to see," he says. Although some home health and hospice managers say that it is difficult to find staff members who want to care for both types of patients, Tow says he has no problem finding staff members. "In fact, the opportunity to see a variety of patients reduces staff burnout," he says. "If we do have someone that wants to only work with hospice patients, they have the opportunity to work in our inpatient hospice facilities," he adds.
Newberry's managers and supervisors will be evaluating staff productivity on a daily basis, she says. "We have to keep tighter reigns on productivity without making the workplace a disagreeable place to be," she admits. "We know that patients cancel visits, so we're telling staff members to pick up an extra visit the next day if it is not possible to add a visit when the patient cancels," she explains.
Keeping productivity high is important, because there is not a lot of room for cost cutting at most agencies, says Tow. With salaries and benefits making up the majority of expense for all agencies, it is frustrating to see potential reimbursement cuts that might affect an agency's ability to offer raises, he says. "In order to get good people, we have to pay competitive salaries, but if Medicare doesn't allow for cost of living increases, then we may not be able to offer them to our staff."
Surviving current reimbursement cuts and preparing for potentially more cuts with health care reform can be accomplished with careful planning and a willingness to make tough decisions.Subscribe Now for Access
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