Importance Of Chronic Disease Education To The Homecare World
Kenyon HomeCare Consulting • March 15, 2021
Managers and business owners have discovered that basic training doesn’t always prepare students for work in the real world. Is that to say required training isn’t important? Not at all. It simply means that caregivers need continued disease education to stay a breast of constant changes, new medical discoveries and proven outcomes. Then these caregivers will truly impact the world of homecare!
Fortunately, chronic disease education exists to meet this pressing need. The right disease education program enhances every aspect of homecare – your clients, caregivers, and organization.
Chronic Disease Education and Clients
If you haven’t heard, chronic diseases are on the rise. The CDC reports that these conditions (think diabetes, heart disease, COPD, cancer) are the leading cause of disability and death in our country. And our healthcare system as it stands, isn’t as prepared to care for those with chronic diseases as it needs to be. But the homecare industry, together with chronic disease education, has the ability to change that.
Clients are being released from hospitals and rehab facilities with no plan for continued care that prevents them from ending up in the same predicament again. These individuals desperately need care and education focused on managing their specific conditions. Caregivers educated in chronic disease management provide clients with the specialized care they need. Caregivers then help educate clients/families on self care allowing for as normal of life as possible.
Chronic Disease Education and Aides
With an economy that’s up and down, people are constantly seeking ways to secure their futures. Job stability isn’t as common as it once was, and no one is promised a bright job future.
Chronic disease education provides homecare aides with a secure career path. This advanced training goes above and beyond the basic requirements for caregivers, leaving aides with a specialized skill set that pushes them ahead of their job market competition. Basically, advanced disease education supplies homecare aides with a career safety net.
Chronic Disease Education and Your Organization
Getting reimbursed for your services is complicated, time-consuming, and often frustrating. To make matters worse, having client re-hospitalized leads to decreased revenue, unmet goals, and unsatisfied clients. With chronic disease education, your aides become equipped to recognize symptoms of worsening conditions preventing those profit-stealing re-hospitalizations.
Providing chronic disease education allows you to create an elite staff able to provide specialized chronic disease care. This affords you a new revenue stream and to “one up” your competition.
Choosing Kenyon’s Aide University
Aide University gives homecare aides the tools and skills needed to succeed in their careers. In turn, your aides are able to give clients the specialized care so badly needed. Additionally, when courses are complete, aides receive a certification documenting their proven ability to provide chronic disease services.
This certification doesn’t just benefit aides and clients – it has a huge impact on organizations. By employing chronic disease-certified caregivers, homecare agencies experience these perks:
The ability to bill for specialized services
Increased client satisfaction
An increase in client and professional referrals
Improved employee retention
When you’re ready to take your organization to the next level with chronic disease education for aides, schedule a free consultation with one of our experts. Together, we can change the course of healthcare and impact the homecare world.
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HOPE Question and Answer Repository
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.