5 Compelling Ways Why Your Agency Needs Home Healthcare Software

Now that people are getting inclined to getting personalized services because of quality and performance considerations, many entrepreneurs are taking advantage in establishing home-based and localized businesses such as home health care agencies. Opening a home health care agency is rewarding. Although it capitalizes basically on labor, it is not without challenges, especially at the time that your patients grow in number.

Opportunities and Challenges in the Home Health Care Industry

How did home health care begin? Care and companionship are natural human tendencies, but a variety of factors changed the way it is expressed nowadays. From cradle to grave, people are more specific about the way they want themselves or their family members to be taken care of. There are certain preferences that would entail a custom fit service. There are also special needs that can only be attended by 24/7 with dedicated services and attention.

Why choose a home health care? Consequently, here are more opportunities for home health care agencies and their services:

1. When do you need home health care? There are more diseases that needed a more personalized medical attention, and it is challenging for some family members to meet this since they need to attend to their own lives’ important activities like school and work.

2. Why is home health care a cost-controlling strategy? Because placement fees in nursing and retiring homes are getting expensive each year, home-based health care thus became a popular alternative.

3. Who qualifies for home health care? The same goes with hospital-based after-care services like rehabilitation therapies, which are also getting more expensive, and to the piling hospital bills and medicines, people either send them to hospitals continuously or place the family member or themselves to home health care to continue treatments.

4. Some patients, especially the elderly, thrive in more familiar environments like their own neighborhood. This is why some families get the services of home health care agencies for their loved ones.

5. What does home health care provide? Technology paved the way for medical equipment – both the general and special ones – to be portable and operable even in homes. Homes can now avail these facilities and operate like larger nursing homes do.

Discussions concerning home health care are ongoing. Though the demands are increasing, medical professionals are questioning the competence and capabilities of these home health care agencies to meet the varied needs and conditions of their patients. Health care is not a generalized service, especially that it concerns life and death. But availing such is a personal choice. These home-based health care agencies might be taking advantage of the demand and the opportunity for profit, but we cannot deny how they helped a lot of families and patients all over the world.

Although the opportunities are good, establishing a home-based health care agency is also met with the following challenges:

1. Increasing demand

According to the Administration for Community Living (ACL), the population of the aging Americans is 46.2 million in 2014 and is expected to double by the year 2060. The increasing demand for personalized and affordable health care does lie not only in patient volume but also in other reasons like increasing hospital care fees, more complex medical conditions, and the discriminating preferences of some patients. The aging population wanted more independence and prefer to stay close to their families. Thus, people tend to flock home-based health care facilities because of these advantages.

But as we know, home-based health care agencies have more limitations than its bigger professional nursing home counterparts and, of course, hospitals. There are a limited number of hospital beds that can fit in smaller nursing homes. And there is also a shortage of professionals who can do home health care on a regular basis.

2. Staffing

Staffing is probably one of the most challenging aspects of starting a home-based health care agency. For it to be adequate, it should have a staff of no less than the following:

1. Registered nurses or licensed practical nurses
2. Licensed nursing assistants
3. Social workers
4. Physical therapists
5. Occupational therapists
6. Kitchen and administrative staff
7. Personal care service providers

Finding qualified staff entails looking for abled and skilled individuals, but it is challenging to look for a combination of both. Many licensed health care workers prefer a career in a professional setting that they prioritize working in hospitals and licensed nursing homes. The younger generation may not have enough patience to deal with some patients, especially the elderly. Most home health care agencies are under-staffed, contributing to the work pressure.

Another pressing challenge is a high rate of employee turnover. Professionals seek a career, and some don’t see that in home-based health care agencies. According to NCBI, employees in nursing homes experience high turnovers as early as the 1970s, which ranges from 55 to 75 percent. As the years pass by, the rate increases, which can go as high as 100 percent for certified nursing aides. There are a variety of reasons for them to leave the field, which include:

1. Increasing opportunities outside their profession, particularly in the service sector
2. High job demands and pressure but lower wages and most of the time, there are also no benefits
3. Lack of growth opportunities and incentive system
4. Unstable industry
5. Unattractive work environment
6. Standard training and certification

Because of the opportunities surrounding the increasing demand for home-based health care, many start the business without prioritizing getting professionals. Some turn to false advertising and market their staff as “licensed and professionals”, but in reality, they are not. Hiring staff for home health care facilities isn’t standardized either, and some are considered freelancers in some cases. The government doesn’t impose regulatory standards considering competency and skills of health care workers working in home-based health care facility.

Certification and regulation can increase the competencies and credibility of home-based health care facilities. Why it is not happening in full force just yet, it is increasingly challenging for other “sincere” home health care providers to market their services when there are doubts and misinformation surrounding the industry.

4. Lack of patient-centered services

The human-based aspect of taking care of a patient in a home health care agency is at times challenging to meet. Families have certain expectations for their health care providers, but it should be understandable that not all aides and workers can extend the depth of compassion and care as families supposedly could give their loved ones. Caregivers are also subjected to pressures from their jobs, which make them less affectionate, at least unintentionally. Thus, it is difficult to meet varying standards and expectation, much more render a patient-centered service consistently.

5. Finding a compromise between professional and human-centric services

Home health care agencies are expected to give home-like services, but ironically, this is not usually met. Challenges surrounding them continue to rise in numbers, and owners may have desperately put their ears to the ground just to know some magic formula from people concerned. But getting some hearsays and baseless opinions about how home health care facilities should be will do no good at all.

Meeting the demands of human-centric health care approach and the business side of home health care agencies and services is a daunting challenge. But you have to know that surrounding every industry of today is a technological revolution that permeates every aspect and process involved in it. When it comes to health care, there are quite a number of technological advancements it did experience, especially in the fields of medicinal research and equipment breakthroughs. Are we expecting something for home-based health care agencies as well?

How Technology Can Help Home-based Healthcare Agencies

The good news is that there are many health care and cure equipment that used to be only operable and sustainable in the hospitals that were now made with portable versions. Modern medical equipment is now easier to use and more intuitive in terms of functionalities and operability. This is helpful for home health care businesses because they can serve their patients with more or less the same line of equipment and tools that hospitals use.

Another technology that slowly penetrates the health care industry is the use of the medical software. But with home health care agencies, it is best to adopt a software solution as well. Especially now that the number of home health care providers is increasing, there is a growing demand for gaining a competitive advantage. And as the patient demand itself is also increasing, it is time to establish a standard in order to uplift the dignity and reliability of the industry.

While it is still challenging to address all the above mentioned concerns directly, establishing a systematic and orderly system in operating home health care agencies is a good start. The growing number of patients is an indication that you need a technology-based solution to manage them and give the appropriate care that the patients seek in the first place. You can check a comprehensive list of home health care agencies through this link, https://www.crowdreviews.com/best-home-healthcare-software.

Here are some of the benefits of getting home health care software:

1. Improved efficiency

In all aspects, the software is capable of automating certain time-consuming tasks like reconciling a comprehensive patient database, medicine in-take schedules, employee time tracking, payroll management, and compliance management. You can also track patients that needed therapies by requiring your staff to log in them to the system. Doing so will help you monitor progress, which you can also report to their families and encourage them as well.

2. Compliance and certification

With its data capturing, processing, and sorting capabilities, you will have no reasons to miss out on tedious compliance requirements. You can also experience more benefit by complementing your home health care software with document management software.

3. Reduce operating costs

Some cost overheads are caused by inefficiencies in the way the home health care agency is run. But now that the powerful features of the home health care software are here to start revolutionizing the industry, we can expect to see more cost reduction, innovative solutions, and business development anytime soon.

Software for home healthcare is an indispensable tool for home health care agency owners. CrowdReviews.com and its best home health care reviews can help you make that critical decision of choosing the right one for your needs and business direction.