Manage Chronic Disease From Head To Toe Within Your Agency To Maximize Use Of Your Clinical Staff
March 21, 2021
Manage Chronic Disease Effectively
There is something missing in chronic disease management today. We educate staff and push chronic disease care during staff meetings. However, the overall improvement in the patient's outcomes aren't what it should be. The problem isn't the clinician staff, but it lies in operations. Let's take a look at what we mean.
What Do You Mean It's Operations?
Let's say you are an agency that focuses a decent chunk of money into your educational programs and quality improvement. That's great, but here is what is often seen:
1. Clinicians have individual trainings (normally just the nursing staff)
2. Clinicians return to seeing patients
3. Back to the same old way of doing things
Here is what it should look like:
1. Clinical Administration has done a SWOT analysis of chronic disease management in your organization.
2. A multidisciplinary approach has been taken to education which includes all clinical disciplines including the home health aides and therapy providers.
3. Once the clinical groups are trained, then the entire clinical staff is educated on the operational flow within your organization related chronic disease management. It is Chronic Disease Management for Agencies training and this is different from the individual clinicians learning about the disease itself.
4. All clinicians will understand the change in their individual roles in chronic disease management. It will be clear to the clinicians that nursing is not wholly responsible for chronic disease management within the care plan.
5. Evaluating the process and making adjustments to improve clinical outcomes will be an ongoing part of the CQI process.
Make the Change To Better Chronic Disease Management
At Kenyon Homecare Consulting
, we strive to help agencies manage chronic disease more effectively. Ultimately, this decreases overall costs made in unnecessary visits and emergent care/hospitalizations. We provide both online and onsite educational services that focus on the individual clinician as well as the agency in operations. Call us today at 206-721-5091 or contact us online
to see how we can help you! And, join us for our free webinar on March 31st entitled, Don't Miss The Forest For the Trees In Your Educational Program Or You Will Lose Time And Money! Register here today!
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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.