Efficiency is central to growth across the home care sector. Agencies can utilise care management software solutions to maximise their marketing opportunities and capacity, allowing them to work with more clients and ultimately secure higher revenues.
CareLineLive explains how home care agencies can leverage technological advantages to improve competitiveness, enhance visibility in the local communities they serve, and precision-plan to match their capacity with demand, identifying where they have the scope to accept new clients.
Creating a Home Care Agency Strategy for Growth
One of the fundamental objectives of any home care agency is to increase the number of clients, service users or families they support. Economies of scale and cost-savings created through efficiencies help agencies to recruit more care and support staff, take on additional clients, and better accommodate HR requirements such as cover for illnesses and annual leave - all of which lead to higher profitability.
While advertising can be useful, the nature of home care means that prospective clients are less likely to rely on promotional materials to make decisions about the care provision they organise for themselves or their loved ones. They tend to look at other factors, such as quality and reputation.
Software can provide several tools to improve service delivery, build strong credibility, and showcase exceptional standards that attract new clients through word of mouth, brand awareness and testimonials.
Examples include:
- Using software to achieve robust regulatory compliance through automation, reporting, record-keeping and communications – a positive CQC rating in England (or the relevant regulator in other parts of the UK) can make a tangible difference to the way a home care agency is perceived. The government and local authorities are encouraging care agencies to embrace digital processes, in line with targets to digitize health and social care records by March 2024.
- Implementing cohesive dialogues with families, friends, support services and other care providers. The CareLineLive Care Circle Portal is a great example where organisations in the community and public sector health workers are actively involved, and families are kept in the loop with up-to-date information. Care agencies can also introduce communications access with emergency services to expedite response times and information-sharing where an individual needs urgent care or medical attention.
- Adopting advanced rostering, scheduling and capacity monitoring care rota software to maintain high levels of reliability, allocating appropriately skilled home carers to the relevant clients, and ensuring visits are logged and tasks completed. Agency managers can avoid duplications, missed visits or staff shortages.
Home care agencies with a proven track record in high-quality care, conscientious family support systems and fully compliant protocols are considered safe, credible and trustworthy and often a first choice for new clients or families looking for those same standards of care. Advanced software can promote person-centred care through personalised record-keeping, real-time care checklists, and logs of requests, meals, medication administered and other interactions.
The Link Between Efficient Home Care Agency Management and Increased Clients
Running a home care agency involves multiple spinning plates, combining client needs with carer availability, managing changing schedules, keeping pace with regulations, safeguarding checks, staff appraisals, professional training and development, HR and payroll.
Software can offer fantastic efficiencies, reducing the admin burden and allowing care coordinators and managers to focus on client retention and recruitment, service promotion, carer supervision, carer support and career development and expanding on the unique selling points that make their agency stand apart.
Integrated solutions developed specifically for the sector are ideal and provide important tracking and analytics to identify risks and opportunities, saving cost and time and gaining insights into where more progress is needed to meet organisational targets.
One option is to look at a complete marketing, sales and customer relationship management (CRM) package, where managers can handle all of their functions, such as:
- Monitoring new enquiries, tracking referrals, logging calls and meetings, and pinpointing where the agency receives the most client recommendations.
- Ensuring all calls and leads are followed up on, storing details of each enquiry to customise and tailor further communications to the individual client.
- Running advertising campaigns, tracking performance, ROI and outcomes to better inform future marketing activities.
Busy care agencies can inadvertently miss opportunities to onboard new clients when their administration processes can't keep up with demand. Using software to streamline these aspects can be hugely beneficial.
Implementing Care Management Software for Client Retention
Focusing solely on new client acquisition can be tempting. Still, agencies can use the same software solutions to balance this drive against the need to retain existing service users and ensure clients are happy with every aspect of the service they receive.
Long-term clients are ideal, where carers can develop trusting relationships, provide familiarity and continuity, and upscale the care services provided where the individual’s needs change.
For example, visiting care may need to be adjusted to live-in or overnight care where a person or family wishes to increase the weekly care offered and ensure older loved ones or those with developing conditions have the support and companionship necessary.
Home care agencies can adopt varied strategies to enhance client satisfaction, using software to reduce the time and cost necessary to monitor services and respond to shortfalls while easily adjusting billing details to reflect changes to the hours of care provided.
Straightforward software applications make a marked difference in the way home care service users rate and recommend the care agencies they use, for example:
- Scheduling regular calls or check-ins with the individual or family to ensure they have everything they need, are comfortable and content, and feel valued and supported by their care agency.
- Providing better matches between clients and carers, concentrating on personal preferences, interests and availability.
- Seeking feedback from both clients and their families to ask for input into where services can be improved, where they are working well, or anything the agency can do to resolve queries.
Real-time communication portals, customised care delivery plans, and automated rostering can achieve all of these additional service tweaks without commanding high additional costs while helping to meet the needs of every client more effectively.
How to Confidently Assess Home Care Capacity to Take on New Clients
Once an agency has built a solid reputation, with outstanding standards of care and communication, a further use case for technology exists when monitoring capacity, making it easier and faster to onboard new clients.
Capacity planning tools can swiftly determine whether the agency has the space, carer availability and skills necessary to take on new service users or can evaluate the training needs required to meet demand or requests.
Similar advantages apply when working with new clients following a hospital discharge, where coordinators can make expedited decisions by cross-checking their capacity, ensuring they have carers with the right knowledge and qualifications to meet the client's needs, and supporting smooth transitions from the hospital back home.
Read more about CareLineLive - CareLineLive Advocates For Digital Home Care Agency Management To Address Sector Staffing Shortages
About CareLineLive
CareLineLive is an award winning UK care management software system that delivers complete functionality for home care businesses. Set up in 2014, CareLineLive has used the latest technology to develop for agency owners and managers an innovative, easy to use, cloud based home care management system that is truly fit for purpose.
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Source Company: https://carelinelive.com/
