Running any kind of business means that the best way to ensure higher profitability is to cut operating costs. However, when it comes to service-user care, that may lead to dangerous ground.
You can’t very well, cut costs in medical supplies and there are other administrative fees necessary to running any kind of business, let alone one as vital as home health care. That being said, there are ways in which you can cut costs effectively without reducing the quality of care you provide for your service-users. Here are just four of those ways.
Free Care Management Software Systems
If you have read anything on how large construction companies reduce operating costs when managing several projects all at the same time, you know they accomplish this with project management software or online platforms. Home health agencies can also avail themselves of this same type of platform and in many cases, entry-levelplatforms are free to use.
An example of an excellent home care platform available at this time is the Log my Care web-based care home software that enables administrators to do everything from registering carers to registering service-users and all pertinent information necessary for their care.
This particular software platform enables management to assign tasks so that carers can pick them up with their mobile device and log completion, which then becomes part of a service-user’s records. This is a free platform, but there will be advanced utilities in the future that cost a fraction of what other programs cost. Not only does this kind of platform cut administrative costs but it also cuts the amountof time carers spend on each service-user, freeing them up to see to others who need their services.
Work with Families for Routine Tasks
Sometimes, families are simply afraid of doing something harmful to a home-based service-user. Usually,this is seen when geriatric service-users and special needs children are kept at home instead of at professional care facilities. One thing care agencies can do to reduce their own costs is to teach family members to do some of the routine tasks a care worker normally does. Perhaps this means learning to feed, bathe or groom a service-user. While some agencies charge per hour, some have set fees per visit.
Those agencies that set fees based on the average length of a home visit would most benefit by working with service-users’ families. The quicker they can get their duties done, the quicker they can move on to the next service-user on their schedule. This would also enable that carer to spend a better quality of time with service-users they are charged with caring for.
Go Green
When it comes to going green, there are multiple ways in which a care agency can cut back on the use of resources that will also save them a great deal of money. Of course, you know that you should be using energy efficient office equipment and lighting and that keeping the office thermostat set appropriately by the season should cut back on operating costs, but what about all those paper documents you print day after day?
This is yet another reason to research a care management software platform. Not only can you communicate quickly with carers out in the field, but all medical and care services records will be kept in digital format. From paperless billingto EHR (Electronic Health Records), you could saveyour agency a heap of money while ensuring that you are doing your part to conserve all those forests being depleted by the day.
Don’t Send Overqualified Carers into the Field
One last thing you might like to look at is when assigning tasks to carers. You may have some carers who are aides while others are nurses overqualified for routine tasks like bathing or feeding service-users. Since service-users are generally charged on a task-based scale, it doesn’t help to send someone making a sizeable salary into the field for these duties.
Always ensure that you are using the right professional when assigning tasks through your care management platform. If you find that you lack aides, hire more so that your nurses can be assigned to tasks only licencednurses can perform. You are saving nothing by using their services below what they are qualified to do!
Expenditures vs Profitability
In the end, it’s all about looking at ways to cut back on administrative costs while maintaining a high level of care to the service-users signed on with your agency.
As you continue saving money, you can begin to reinvest in such things as growing your caseload or updating equipment in use. Any business is usually only as profitable as the money they aren’tspending unnecessarily. If you want to run a profitable home health agency, start by looking at realistic cuts you can make today.
