In order to provide more effective care, it’s imperative that home-based care providers tap into the individual needs of their clients.
That was one key takeaway from a recent CareScout and Home Health Care News webinar.
Life Foundation Home Care is one company that has prioritized identifying the unique needs of each client, as well as the needs of its caregivers.
Asif Jiwani, managing partner at Life Foundation Home Care, emphasized the importance of serving both.
“What we need to do is understand what is the motivation for them,” he said during the discussion. “What is it that drives them? What is it that they’re looking for from the system, and once we know, and once we start appreciating what their drivers are, then we can start looking into what are the things that we need to do to help each of those segments.”
Life Foundation Home Care is a privately owned home care agency that operates in Texas. The company serves the Greater Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Beaumont Triangle area. The company offers dementia care, companion care, respite care, post-surgical care and more.
Similarly, TheKey has taken a dual-focused approach to serving the needs of both its clients and caregivers.
“Where we’re focused is — what are those training and education programs that we can provide not only to our caregivers, but also families that are making these very big decisions for their loved ones,” Melissa Reyes, president of the west division at TheKey, said during the discussion. “Providing the ongoing training education programs to equip caregivers with necessary skills in the home, but also to equip the buyer and help them understand the system a little bit more, it goes hand-in-hand with helping shepherd them through the process.”
Delray, Florida-based TheKey provides home care, memory care and specialized care services in more than 100 markets throughout the U.S., Canada and Australia.
In addition to training clients, their family members and caregivers, TheKey has also set its sights on strengthening its collaborations across the care continuum.
“How are we collaborating [with] physicians, hospitals or other specialists that are involved in the care, so it’s really coming full circle,” Reyes said. “We’re focusing on how we can be that subject matter expert for these individuals in their time of need?”
On its end, Life Foundation Home Care has adopted what it describes as a high-tech and high-touch business strategy.
“We have to make sure that we are looking at our data, [and] we are looking at our annual performing analytics to see what’s working, [and] what’s not working for us and making sure that we are again, adjusting based upon the very various data points that are coming our way,” Jiwani said. “Whether it’s feedback coming from our customers, it’s surveys coming from our caregivers.”
Jiwani also noted that tracking this information leads to the lowering of operational expenses, which allows the company to better compensate caregivers.
Ultimately, it’s important for providers to remember that creating value starts with even the earliest interaction with the client or their family.
“When you get that phone call from the daughter or the son, how are you making that connection from the very first conversation, so that you really set yourself apart as the expert,” Reyes said.
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