6 Useful Homecare Start-up Lessons: Dancing With The Stars
Kenyon HomeCare Consulting • July 20, 2020
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“Dancing with the Stars” has been blowing viewers away for 21 seasons. What’s their secret? It’s hard to nail down one single factor that contributes to the show’s success – there are numerous things that go on behind the scenes, things we as viewers can’t even comprehend. Just as with all the great shows on television, embarking on a homecare start-up takes time, dedication, and a whole lot of work. But the return is well worth the investment.
Comparing “Dancing with the Stars” and a Homecare Start-up
To get you headed in the right direction, here are six lessons from “Dancing with the Stars” that can be applied to your homecare start-up efforts.
Lesson 1: Production Begins With a Plan
Behind every amazing production – whether it’s a million-viewer show or a homecare start-up – is loads of planning. For a show like “Dancing with the Stars,” that planning includes finding the right cast, staging, practicing and much more.
When launching your homecare agency, planning means determining the services you’ll offer, finding a place to hang your hat, meeting licensing requirements and hiring staff. But before you do any of that, it’s crucial to perform adequate market research. This research will help you make the rest of those important decisions.
Lesson 2: Promotion Creates Buzz
A show – and a homecare agency – can’t succeed without the proper promotion. With a major show, promotion is TV ads and social media. But how do you promote your homecare start-up before it’s even launched?
Creating a buzz around your agency before it opens is one of the best ways to ensure success. Here are a few ideas:
Network with medical professionals in your community and let them know about your plans
Place ads with your launch date in local publications
Speak with an industry expert for more ideas
Lesson 3: Community Is Key
Ever heard the expression, “it takes a village”? That’s not only true about raising a child; it’s also relevant to putting on a TV show and starting a homecare organization. TV shows require camera crews, actors (or contestants, in the case of “Dancing with the Stars”), directors, producers, and musicians.
For the best chance of success with your homecare start-up, surround yourself with plenty of behind-the-scenes support. What does this look like? Basically, it’s your staff. Managers, office assistants, aides, and others supporting roles all have a huge impact on the way your organization is run.
Lesson 4: Practice and Perseverance Make Perfect
We’ve all been told practice makes perfect, but that’s only partly true. Any successful producer or business owner will tell you it’s not just the practice that gets results – it’s the perseverance.
Whether it’s a big-time TV dance competition or a homecare start-up you’re pursuing, there will be times you want to give up. But the only way to attain your goals is to keep pushing. Even when that means working on your business plan past midnight!
Lesson 5: Everybody Needs a Coach
If you’ve watched “Dancing with the Stars,” you know each star gets paired with a pro dancer – a coach. These coaches not only teach their partners dance steps and correct form, but they also serve as a foundation of encouragement. Coaches push the beginners and celebrate when goals are obtained.
Engaging a coach or expert in the homecare industry to guide you through all phases of a start-up is a very powerful tool. Their knowledge and experience will pave your way toward success.
Lesson 6: The Show Must Go On
In show business, there’s a popular saying: “the show must go on.” No matter what happens offstage, the audience is waiting for a performance.
In homecare, focus on your clients – the frail and elderly – that depend on your services. No matter the effort or delays, focus on your goals. With planning, promotion, perseverance and an experienced coach your homecare start-up can be a reality!
Achieving Homecare Start-up Success
At Kenyon Home Care Consulting, we’ve got the experience and the know-how to guide you on the path toward homecare startup success. From customized forms, to recruitment strategies and aide education, we’ve got you covered. Contact us to get started now!
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Today, this article will look at little different than out typical articles. We all know the costs of losing employees and trying to hire and train new ones. It is exhausting and expensive. So, we think about our wages and benefit packages all the time. What can we do differently that makes people stay? We can’t change the job and we don’t want to keep people that don’t like the work itself. So, how do we acknowledge employees in a way that is valuable to them and that our businesses can afford to do? 5 Things To Consider About Employee Recognition At Your Christmas Party: 1. Years of Service: These can be based on milestone work anniversaries (5, 10, 15 yrs, etc.). If a person has been at your agency 11 years, you pull them up and acknowledge them in the group of employees who have been there at least 10 years up until the time they hit the 15 years landmark. This way longevity is recognized yearly. 2. Special Employee awards: Now, this may be difficult if your staff is very small, but acknowledge the employee who has gone the extra mile in the job they do. Tell the story. The employee needs to know when the employer is proud of the work that has been done. Consider a plaque or certificate. Don’t minimize the value of the employee having them to display. 3. Acknowledge all employees in the mix: Because we are a clinical industry, the administrative staff is often overlooked on day-to-day operations. Ultimately, don’t miss the chance to acknowledge the employee who was able to catch billing errors or collect on a large account. Staff doesn’t like to hear about money, but those types of collections keep Christmas bonuses in place! So, make sure the other staff knows the accomplishments of the finance department or the office manager that every caller loves to speak to. Don't ever forget the IT staff that is on call more than any clinical person in your agency! 4. Letters from the administration: Add a personal note to your staff either collectively or individually depending on the size of your agency. If you are larger, there are employees you don’t often see or get to talk to on a regular basis, so take the time so send a note with that Christmas bonus. 5. Consider the Christmas bonus: Listen, some of you can afford to do substantial monetary bonuses and that is fantastic. However, if you are not in that position, consider something in its place. Maybe small gas cards go with the letter from administration. With the cost of groceries, consider something that helps with the costs of daily living for employees. Big box gift cards in your area will always be used. You may do a lot of these things on a yearly basis to employees. All this being said, it doesn’t mean there aren’t reasons for acknowledgement throughout the year. However, your annual Christmas party is a good way to do it collectively. Between your annual party, write the individual cards to employees when you hear a patient interaction worthy of praise. Or, maybe you buy a gas card for the employee who has picked up extra shifts and always shows up on time. Ultimately, employees will feel valued. You will not regret the time, effort, and energy put into these efforts. Merry Christmas! If you want help with recruitment and retention strategies for your agency, please call Kenyon Homecare Consulting at 206-721-5091 or contact us online today.
When you think in practical terms, what does your ICD 10 coding mean to the clinicians in your agency? It probably isn't as important as you would like. Realistically, your nursing staff cares about hands on patient care. If you want the code itself to be more meaningful, then you need to attach the concepts of patient care to the ICD coding. You may think the code itself goes hand-in-hand with the care, but this is not always true. As a clinician, there are concepts within the nursing care plan that are automatic and some that are instinctual based upon the body system causing the need for care. It's a given that medication, diet, and disease process teaching are going to be in the care plan (or should be). When you get to disease process, our experience shows the clinician doesn't always run deep into the specifics of the disease when it could lead to valuable interventions being included in care. For example, when clinicians do a care plan related to cardiac disease, are the interventions very broad to include all things related to any type of cardiac disease? If you have a patient with right sided heart failure versus left sided heart failure, how many nurses would assess the patient differently? Would your nurses change the frame of mind to look for distended neck veins or anorexia and nausea if the patient had right sided failure? Would they be in the head space of considering whether the patient's appetite changes are more about just having been in the hospital than about potential venous stasis in the abdomen? The point is that although there are certain interventions that would be the same regardless the type of heart failure, picking up on different symptoms and critically thinking through the cause is often missing in the hustle and bustle of the day-to-day. This is not a judgment on the capabilities of the nurses but more about how our nurses are trained to consider care planning and assessment. We have people for ICD 10 coding now. Most nurses are not in the ICD coding manual looking up their own codes anymore because of the specificity that wasn't the same 25 years ago. So, the nurses go out with an H&P from the hospital or doctors office and develop a care plan. It isn't necessarily with the coding in mind. So, we need to get back to basics when it comes to coding and clinical care. We need to train out staff to look harder at the coding. Our coding departments need to have open communication with clinicians and understand the concepts of care planning to understand if things are missing in the care plans. What about your clinical manager's role? Are these things considered when reviewing care plans? What about your record review process? Are your ICD 10 coders nurses that understand care planning and is it part of the coding process to review the care plan? These are things to consider when you look at your clinical practice as well as your coding solution. At Kenyon Homecare Consulting , we have a comprehensive ICD 10 coding department that can provide education to clinicians, accurate ICD 10 coding, care plan and Oasis review. Call us at 206-721-5091 or contact us online to see if we can help you merge the code with the clinical practice in a way to improve your outcomes and your bottom line. We will offer 5 free recodes to any agency that would like us to check the efficacy of their current coding system or talk about becoming your coding solution.