Breaking the Mold: Why Traditional Training Methods Don't Work in Home Health
When it comes to onboarding and training clinicians new to the practice of home health, many agencies have relied on traditional classroom-style or generic pre - recorded online education that focuses on theory and abstract concepts. However, home health is a unique healthcare setting with its own set of challenges and considerations, and traditional training methods are not always effective. This blog will highlight why traditional training methods are not ideal for home health and provide strategies for home care providers to implement in their orientation that enhance learning in the field instead of the lecture-based classroom settings only.
The Challenges of Traditional Training Methods in Home Health:
Traditional training methods fall short in preparing clinicians for the unique challenges presented by home healthcare setting. Unlike other healthcare environments, home health care is delivered in the patient's home, requiring clinicians to possess a deep understanding of the...
How Some Home Health Agencies are Over Promising & Under Delivering!
Home health care is a popular option for patients who prefer to receive medical care in the comfort of their own homes. However, many home health agencies are not adequately preparing their new nurses for the unique challenges of this field. This lack of proper training and support can lead to new nurses feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, causing them to quit the agency and the field of home health altogether.
Although many agencies advertise that they are open to hiring new nurses, without proper training and onboarding, new nurses are left to navigate the complex environment of home health care on their own. This can be especially challenging because home health care is vastly different from other healthcare settings, requiring nurses to manage multiple patients in different locations, coordinate care with family members and other healthcare providers, and navigate complex regulatory and financial requirements.
Agencies that are committed to supporting their new nurses must...
Streamlining Homecare Training and Orientation with HOP's Calendar Functionality
As a home health agency leader, you understand the importance of a well-structured orientation and training program for your clinicians. Ensuring that your clinicians are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge is critical to providing high-quality care to your patients. However, managing an orientation program can be a daunting task, especially if you have a large team with multiple disciples, employment status and spread across different locations.
This is where HOP - the Homecare Orientation and Training Platform - comes in. One of the key features of HOP is the calendar functionality, which allows your agency to monitor the duration of your orientation period and track trends specific to disciplines, level of home care experience, teams, agencies and regions.
With the calendar functionality, you can easily track multiple calendars for multiple disciplines and assign modules, one-on-ones, and in-house sessions that are required before a clinician is "field ready."...
Redesigning Onboarding Process for a Homecare Agency: A Lean Case Study
As the homecare industry grows and faces increasing challenges, it becomes more important to provide efficient and effective onboarding processes for new clinicians. In this case study, we explore how a corporate agency with seven branches across the east coast improved their onboarding process and outcomes using lean methodology.
The Challenge
The agency had been struggling with high turnover rates among newly hired clinicians, as well as inconsistent outcomes in Oasis Assessments (a standardized assessment tool used to measure patient outcomes in home health care). The onboarding process was largely unstructured and lacked standardization across branches, which led to confusion and inefficiencies.
The Solution
To tackle the challenge, I implemented a lean methodology that included Kaizen, value stream mapping, and standard work. I analyzed the current onboarding process and identified areas for improvement, such as standardizing the training materials and providing more...
Staying Safe in Homecare: Identifying Risk Factors & De-escalating Tense Situations in Home Care
Home care and hospice clinicians provide vital care to patients in their homes. However, these clinicians also face unique safety challenges, including the risk of violence from patients, family members, or others. Let's explore how home care clinicians can identify potential risk factors for violence, how to de-escalate tense situations, and how to recognize the warning signs of a potentially dangerous situation.
Identifying potential risk factors for violence
One of the most effective ways to prevent violence is to identify potential risk factors for violence. Some of the most common risk factors include:
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History of violence: Patients with a history of violence or aggression may be at a higher risk of acting out again. This is especially true for patients with a history of drug or alcohol abuse.
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Mental illness: Patients with mental illness, especially those with a history of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or personality disorders, may be at a higher risk of acting...
Bridging the Gap: Improving Home Health Care Orientation and Education Program
The success of a home health care organization depends on the quality of its staff, and this quality is often a direct result of the organization's orientation and education programs. Unfortunately, many home health care organizations struggle to provide effective orientation and education programs that adequately prepare new employees for the unique challenges of the industry. In this blog post, we will explore the documented gaps in home health care orientation and education programs and discuss solutions to bridge the gap.
Documented Gaps in Home Health Care Orientation and Education
One of the biggest gaps in home health care orientation and education programs is the lack of comprehensive training on regulatory compliance. Home health care is a heavily regulated industry, and it is essential that new employees are well-versed in these regulations to avoid costly fines and legal issues. Another significant gap is the lack of training on clinical skills, particularly when it comes...
The Hidden Costs of Employee Turnover in Home Health Care
Employee turnover is a significant challenge for home health care organizations, and the costs of turnover can be significant. While it may be tempting to focus on recruiting new employees to fill open positions, the reality is that the costs of turnover are much higher than the costs of retention. In this blog post, we will explore the hidden costs of employee turnover in home health care and the benefits of investing in employee retention programs.
The Direct Costs of Turnover
The direct costs of turnover include recruiting, hiring, and training expenses. According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management, the average cost-per-hire for a new employee is $4,129, and it takes an average of 42 days to fill an open position. The cost of onboarding and training a new nurse can range from $30,000 to $60,000. These direct costs can quickly add up and put a strain on an organization's budget.
The Indirect Costs of Turnover
In addition to the direct costs of turnover, there...
Why HOP into Homecare! Part 2
After graduating from medical school over a decade ago, I have been working with home health agencies of all different sizes and needs. I observed that onboarding was extremely challenging, regardless of the size or resources of an agency.
Educators & Clinical Management were “recreating the wheel” every time a clinician was onboarded. There was no standard process or content that was in-place. Content had to be updated every time regulations changed, due to competing priorities, content was always lagging regulations and evidence-based practices.
Gap in communication between different functions meant either the new hire was released too soon, or not soon enough. Both scenarios created disengaged new hire who is likely to quit within first 90 days!
I searched for content already available that could help me onboard clinicians and streamline my department's processes. I reviewed content libraries provided by the biggies (Elsevier, Medbridge, Relias)...
Home Health Value Proposition Frontline Training
In healthcare delivery sequence, home care services are situated downstream from acute and post-acute care (skilled nursing facilities.) One of the primary goals of home care is to help patient transition back into home environment. Nurses, Therapists, Home health aides and other interdisciplinary team members such as Social Workers, Nutritionists work together to coach patient and caregiver to adjust to their "new normal." This interdisciplinary team also teaches patients and caregivers a very important skill of self-triage - Who to call when (nurse versus a physician or 911.)
I believe that the value proposition of home health services is not highlighted sufficiently when patients are initially setup with home care services.
I hypothesize that patients who discontinue home care services within the first week do not fully appreciate the value of home care services. My advice for healthcare systems and home care agencies is to build...
Home Health Clinical Strategy Based on Referral Source
More than ever, Covid-19 crises has demonstrated the value of having a holistic approach to patient management. Covid-19 crisis has shown how age, underlying chronic conditions, socioeconomic status, and other risk-factors can influence mortality of a patient.
In my prior post, I talked about how home care agencies providing high-quality, cost-effective care can position themselves as value-adding entities during this pandemic. All patients being admitted into home care are not alike, agencies must develop clinical training and management strategies that help clinicians case manage patients coming from different referral sources with different referral source based risk factors.
Since majority (>75%) of home care patients admitted into home care services are from in-patient settings (short term acute care hospital, Skilled Nursing Facility, inpatient acute rehab) it is paramount for home care agencies to develop a specific clinical assessment focus and clinical...
