Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

4 Healthy Choices a Care Manager Needs to Partner With A Private Duty Home Care Agency

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When a geriatric care manager partners with a private duty home care agency they also partner with the agency staffing coordinator. That person feeds them the right food so they can grow. The diet is healthy choices of care providers who meet the needs of each case.
Diet menu

1.Healthy Choice 1
To get that healthy diet the GCM must create a relationship between themselves and staffing coordinator, just like in marketing and love and marriage. No relationship – no referrals, a divorce or in you getting fired by the clients representative.
To sweeten that relationship, tell the staffing coordinator what you want – in writing. Create a form that is a care provider order – like a prescription, with exactly what you want for each client like:
Driver,
Speaks Mandarin
Lifting
Overnight
Can cook Thai food

2. Healthy Choice 2
Each time you change your care plan, send the care plan changes over to the staffing coordinator so they can train the care providers in the job changes.
Example problem new dairy allergy” solution “nondairy at meals” problem cataract surgery,” “do not allow to bend over for 2 days”

3. Healthy Choice 3
Before you partner with a PDHC, read the staff coordinator of description. Know what they presently do and then add what they need to do to partner with you. Make sure the director of the PDHC approves of this and the staffing coordinator buys into it. Working with you puts an extra layer of duties on the staffing coordinator. Will they do an exceptional job– because that is what you need.

4. Healthy Choice 4
Formalize your relationship with the staffing coordinator.
Define how you let them know your staffing care need-s phone call, paper order both are needed
How does the staffing coordinator let you know about staffing changes and problems?
How do you let them know about staffing issues example care provider late when you get there, not preparing non-dairy meals like you order in your care plan?
¬ Create a check list of reasons staffing coordinator must contact you
¬ Example
¬ care providers is sick – replace
¬ care providers permanently replaced
¬ care provider having problems with client you need to know
¬ How will they alert you in care providers receiving counseling and discipline?
¬ care provider having problems with family you need to know.

Remember you are only as strong as your weakest link. If the care provider does a poor job- your client’s family may fire you. This is why you need the staffing coordinator at the PDHC to do an extraordinary job. Create a healthy diet so you do get fired from your case.

12 Demands a Geriatric Care Manager Must Make of a Private Duty Home Care Partner

photo.JPGBefore you partner with a private duty home care agency-make sure they agree to what you need as care provider access and supervision. Their share of the partnership is getting PDHC cases and making money from them. Your share of the partnership deal is you need these 12 requirements met. You are representing the older client’s representative in getting the best care as part of the concierge service you offer as a geriatric care manager.
You sell your client a Sandwich. The meat is your geriatric care management of the older client. The bread is all the secondary services you extend – like arranging the best PDHC, and then checking the quality of that care on a regular basis so that PDHC care is the very best that can be offered. Here is the PDHC’s end of the partnership. 12 points that the PDHC agrees to are how you measure that their care is the very best.
¥ Willing to Partner with you.
¥ Willing to allow you to interview the care provider before placed
¥ Allows you interview the care providers they send you and accept or reject
¥ Allows you to monitoring weekly or per contract on top of their supervision
¥ Can staff same day with right care providers, can staff 3 shifts and down
¥ Have Care Staff staffing data base
¥ PDHC Care Staff data base can search for your specifications
drivers, lifting companion, speaks other languages, works with dementia, grooming, bathing,etc,
¥ Accepts co-supervision of client
¥ accepts you co-managing care providers at the site
¥ Will replace care providers if you request
¥ Will, allow you to do care providers training about care management
¥ Will agree to a memo of understanding on exactly how you will co-manage the client and care providers at the site

5 Check points a Care Manager Should Know Before Partnering With a Private Duty Home Care Agency

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Before you partner with a private duty home care agency, check out these 5 items
1.Before you partner with a private duty homecare agency, as a geriatric care manager, know if your state requires they be licensed .If so ,you want to know if they meet licensing requirement in your state and are they licensed.
2.You want to know the pool of care providers they have available is adequate for your needs.. How many do they employ in their pool. You want to know ,as your caseload grows they have at least 100 care providers to draw from because you will need at least 100 care providers to choose from if you have 10=-15 cases with at least 5 with 24-hour care.
3. Do they have care providers who are bi- lingual several languages. If the aging population you serve has clients who want care providers who speak Mandarin, Spanish or any other language, you need bilingual care providers. Do they have care providers who can drive, lift, transfer, work with Alzheimer’s clients – in other words multiple skill levels that clients may need and demand.
4. Is the salary they offer care providers a living wage? The work of care providers is incredibly hard and low paid. Care provider’s lift more than truck drivers, work long hours and sometimes have to work 3 jobs just to support their families on the low hourly pay. . If the care providers they use are low paid you will get what you pay for , which can be clients firing you for poor care.
5. Do they have a staffing coordinator or is the owner or an aide doing the staffing. If they have no staffing coordinator do not use them. This person schedules and coordinates day-to-day activities staffing for clients. This job is the lifeblood of the agency and of your clients. They must find and deliver, these care providers through a ccomputer program designed for staffing to come up with the right care provider, with the right skills at the right time in as many as 25 cases at a time. They replace care providers who call in sick, quit and are fired on a regular basis and keep the stream of staffing steady so your cases are staffed and your clients are happy. You are only as strong as your weakest link and that is both the care provider and the staffing coordinator.
So, the agency must have a staffing coordinator and she or he must have a staffing data base or do not use them.
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Beware of Starting a PDHC & Geriatric Care Management Agency- Real Shortage of Care Providers Nationally

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Startup geriatric care managers or existing GCM’s considering adding private duty home care agency to their practice, should think twice. There is a perilous present and future shortage of homecare aides to employ for the business- the very product of PDHC. Better to partner with a good fully staffed PDHC.

It is a country wide challenge for private duty home care agencies to find staffing, for many reasons. Despite growing demand, caregiver shortages remain as the top problem agencies face today. A whopping 70% of agencies said this was their biggest hurdle in 2016, followed by caregiver turnover, which 53% of agencies agreed was a top threat.
Rising wages for care providers has recently become a more significant problem for home care agencies, when it comes to recruiting. A lack of qualified candidates is the next reason
Another big problem in recruiting was finding caregivers who are within close proximity to clients, yet the problem still paled in comparison to the recruiting factors .
Trumps ban on Muslims affect ‘s health care in general
Recent immigrants from other countries will be kept out. Nurses and doctors who cannot yet practice in the US and care providers in general, who cannot come into the US ,will sorely affect the private duty home care industry on top of the present need for staff in our own country. Any care manager or private duty home care agency will tell you that recent immigrants are a great resource to PDHC and make excellent hard working care providers. Along with nurses they represent 1.5 million workers in healthcare today.

The potential demise of the ACA will affect the number of homecare aides as 1 in 5 depend on the ACA for insurance. If the ACA is changed as threatened, homecare aides may be too sick to work the brutal hours they must work in the PDHC industry.

Geriatric Care Manager beware-better to partner with a private duty homecare agency at this point in the geriatric care management business.
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10 Steps Geriatric Care Managers Should Avoid To Start PDHC– Instead- Just Partner with one

photo.JPGGeriatric Care Managers, who are not highly capitalized should be cautious to start a private duty home care business and a geriatric care management business at the same time. There are 10 both legal and business steps you must take to start the private duty home care
These include:
Determine the method of your startup
Create a business entity and meet licensing requirements
Develop your policies and procedures
Set up your financial systems
Recruit and hire office staff
Develop a recruitment and retention plan for caregivers
Set up your office
Set up scheduling, billing, and time keeping systems
Develop your sales and marketing plan
Measure the success of your business

1. Meet licensing requirement in your state and pay the fees for licensing. Several states including California, where I live, require licensing
2. Create a business plan for your non-medical home care business. In the business plan, you must outline your mission as well as the structure that you plan on using for your business. In the business plan, include financial projections with realistic estimates of expenses and income.
3. Develop a policy and procedure operations manual for your business including Administration and office management, finance, human resources, record keeping, quality assurance, risk management, legal issues, and education
4. Set the policies for how you will care for patients in the home. Your employees must have clear guidelines as to how they should treat patients and what types of services they will provide. This means creating a policy manual for caregivers and then a complete training program with modules on require client and caregiver safety plus, timecards, disaster techniques, working with dementia etc.
5 Recruit caregivers for your non-medical home care business, which is incredibly hard now in this industry .There is a nationwide problem in recruiting caregivers In the home care industry and your caregivers are your only product to offer your customers. Because of this, you should develop a recruiting plan that involves seeking out high-quality caretakers who enjoy helping others. You will need to offer a competitive compensation and benefits package as well. Retaining your caregivers is also important, so introducing an incentive program can assist you in keeping your good employees over the long term.
Since you will be doing many of the same steps to start your own geriatric care management business, excluding recruiting and employing caregivers, it is best to just start with an aging life or geriatric care management and partner with a PDHC. Find out more below.

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