Amidst the staffing challenges that the industry faces today, training and professional development have become more critical to overall home care operations. However, according to the recent Home Care Staffing and Professional Development Survey 2022, only a little more than half of providers have established professional advancement programs for their staff.

Continued professional development plays a vital role not just in employee retention, but also in improving patient care. This contributes to the personal and ongoing relationship between the caregiver and the patient. Therefore, providers must take advantage of available support solutions and technology to help address staffing and professional development issues.

Key Takeaways

Only half of the respondents reported having a professional development strategy in their organization. Many still have not established a career path for their staff and lack education resources to support such.

The online survey provided insight into three valuable areas: leveraging technology to overcome staffing challenges, in-house training, and professional development, and prioritizing tools and tactics for recruitment and retention.

Findings of the Survey

Training and Professional Development

A little more than half (51%) of the survey participants have defined career paths and educational resources to support advancement through an established formal and internally developed program for their staff, as reported by 52% of the surveyed organizations. 28% indicated peer-to-peer on-the-job training as another effort. For those who do not provide training and professional development, 28% cited a lack of internal resources as the main reason, followed by cost, their health system driving all educational decision-making, and employees lacking the time to complete such training—all at 18% each.

Recruitment

34% reported that web ads are the top channel that organizations use for recruitment, followed by employee referrals and social media at 18% each. A staggering 69% said that online job sites are the most used digital tool in their staff recruitment strategy.

Staffing

When it comes to staffing, more than 45% of participants sought temporary caregiver staff support at least once within the last year. Nearly half of them cited “independent contractors who work for more than one organization” as the top consideration for hiring support. Moreover, providers are slowly getting more comfortable with tech solutions such as an Uber-like platform to source available nurses and caregivers. Employing nurses who just graduated from nursing school is also among the most preferred methods for addressing home care staffing challenges today.

Leveraging Clinician Education

The survey results underscore the need for professional development and more efficient staffing utilization. With the increasing complexity of documentation and compliance, such as in the Value-Based Purchasing and OASIS-E, clinician education becomes very crucial amidst the still ongoing staffing challenges. Taking advantage of tech solutions and back-office support to promote clinician education can significantly benefit your agency in accomplishing your patient care and business goals alike. Develop your strategies with the bigger picture in mind and work with partners who can provide sustainable solutions for ongoing process improvement and growth.

Access the full survey report here >

Home Health Care News conducted the survey on staffing and professional development in partnership with Dallas-based home care technology company Axxess from July 25, 2022 to August 22, 2022. The goal of the survey, which showed results from the views of 135 professionals from home health organizations, was to investigate how home health organizations are approaching training, professional development, and staffing in today’s landscape.

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A recent survey for the home health and home care professionals provided insights into the present staffing situation of the industry. It revealed some key staffing pain points and opportunities in home-based care for 2022 by asking how home-based care providers are mitigating employee churn, maximizing the efficiency of their operations, and navigating labor shortages.

Hurdles in Staffing

Staffing continues to be a significant pain point as home-based care providers shift their focus to growth in 2022. Recruiting and hiring, followed by employee retention and churn, were identified as the top inefficiencies among survey respondents. Below are some insights:

• Government vaccine requirements fuel employee churn
  21% of the respondents identified the government’s vaccine requirements as the top reason for employee turnover. This is closely followed by ‘Inconsistent schedules’ at 18%, and ‘Lack of proper training, development and/or growth opportunities’ at 15%.

• Staffing shortages are leading to higher care costs 
  75% of respondents reported an increase in the cost of care due to staffing shortages amplified by the pandemic.

• Referrals lost due to capacity
  80% of the respondents agreed that they turned away referrals due to high capacity or lack of resources on top of managing employee churn.

• Preventing employee churn
  To prevent staff burnout and employee churn, 36% of the respondents said they are increasing training and development opportunities, 34% said they are hiring more staff, and 19% said they are investing in technology to improve employee experience.

Strategize Towards Your Advantage 

Providers need to optimize their resources during this critical turning point for home-based care. With the need for greater efficiency and innovation in the current staffing climate, providers should be more resourceful in tackling these challenges.

While others are resorting to contract staffing at higher costs to mitigate staffing shortages, another smart strategy agencies can take advantage of is outsourcing clinical back-office functions to maximize in-house clinicians for patient care. This will allow for time and cost savings in recruitment for back-office positions, provide support to reinforce clinician training and development and help improve employee experience. There are significant benefits that outsourcing can give, especially when it comes to staffing challenges.

The online survey was conducted between December 15, 2021 and January 10, 2022 by the Home Health Care News and home care software, AlayaCare. It shows the views of 145 home health and home care professionals polled. Download the full survey results here>

The post A Look at the Home Health Staffing Landscape in 2022 first appeared on Qavalo.

How Staffing Remains to Be a Challenge

Results from a recent online survey on home health staffing that was conducted between July 21 and August 6, 2021 have been released. 

When the year started, staffing was identified as the top challenge for home health according to the 2021 Outlook Survey by Home Health Care News. As a follow-up, the recent survey specifically on staffing provides a deeper understanding of the impact of this year’s staffing challenge and how agencies are dealing with it.

Key Takeaways

1. Staff shortages outweigh other staffing pain points. 62% say their top challenge is recruitment and fulfillment for open positions; superseding retention, training, and remaining competitive.

2. There is a direct correlation between staff shortages and business loss. 74% of respondents said they have had to turn patients away due to staffing shortages. In turn, loss of referral business is the third most significant impact of staff turnover.

3. 25% of respondents said census decline is the most significant impact of staffing turnover, followed by 23% identifying increased costs to replace staff as the second most significant impact.

4. Nurses, caregivers, home health aides, and certified nursing assistants are the disciplines that have been most impacted by staff shortages. 

5. Aside from meeting staff needs such as work-life balance and increased compensation, home health providers are also prioritizing growth and professional development, with more than 77% of survey participants saying that their organization could benefit from investing in staff training and development.

Addressing These Challenges

Home-based care has always been proactive in confronting employee turnover and staffing challenges. However, staff shortages have reached an unprecedented high during the pandemic resulting in new hurdles that need to be resolved. Traditional recruitment strategies like compensation increase and benefits enhancement may not be enough to overcome these obstacles. To support these, innovative solutions and approaches are needed. 

Partnering with a contractor that is flexible and can support your business growth objectives could be the sustainable solution to addressing the challenges brought about by staffing shortages. Accepting more referrals and increasing your census will also mean needing more field clinicians and an increase in documentation burden. Hence, you will need a structure that can function as a back-office extension of your clinical team to help maintain the accuracy and compliance in the documentation.

An outsourced documentation team, for instance, can not only assist with compliance but can also work hand-in-hand with your in-house team, improving the work experience and supporting re-education and career development.

Overall, making strategic partnerships is an efficient and sustainable strategy that positively impacts any business organization. For home health, it is difficult to juggle pursuing business growth, onboarding enough workforce, and maintaining clinical compliance simultaneously. The key is to focus on what matters most and delegate other non-core functions.

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Staffing Is Home Health’s Biggest Challenge

The 2021 Outlook Survey by Home Health Care News (HHCN) revealed that 59% of the respondents said that staffing remains their single-most challenging aspect of home health operations. 

With the onset of COVID-19, healthcare demand has increased drastically, overwhelming the supply of clinicians. Home health providers have struggled with employee retention. Many are retiring early, taking time off to care for family, or leaving the workforce due to health concerns. 

There has also been a shortage of nurses in the U.S. due to many factors like low pay, poor working conditions, and COVID-19 burnout. In addition, other catalysts such as not having enough nursing school faculty members, rising nurse retirement rates, and the aging population in the U.S. have also contributed to this shortage, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Staffing Challenges in Home Health

Smaller pool of nursing candidates
Typically, home health does not have a lot of nursing candidates to choose from. Many nursing programs prioritize institutional settings. Even before new nurses officially begin job hunting, they have not been trained as students to work in the home. Because of this lack of exposure to home health, many do not see it as a career path.

Competition with other healthcare sectors and unemployment benefits
One common way to improve recruitment is to increase wages, hence the stiff competition with other healthcare sectors like hospitals. They are larger and have a better paying ability. Some operators have also reportedly lost workers to pandemic-related unemployment benefits granted by the government that are stronger than employees’ regular pay.

With the abovementioned in mind, the ultimate challenge here is how to maximize your skilled clinician workforce for patient care. Agencies must find solutions to utilize their clinicians to focus on patient care, which is the top priority.

Maximizing Your Skilled Clinician Workforce for Patient Care

Outsourcing administrative tasks
While patient care is important, home health agencies also cannot compromise documentation quality, as it equally impacts patient outcomes and business profitability. Documentation, including QA review, clinical charting, and medical coding, require clinical knowledge, which outsourcing providers can assist with. Partnering with the right one can help maintain the clinical accuracy in your documentation, so that your in-house team can focus on patient care.

Reeducation and career development
Opportunities for reeducation and career development are an effective way to attract new talent and retain skilled employees. Specialized training programs and professional development initiatives can create efficiencies in patient care and the documentation process by helping improve clinician charting, among other things.

Streamlining EMR documentation
A recent study found that U.S. clinicians spend 50% more time on an EMR than those in other countries. When clinicians improve their clinical charting skills through continuous reeducation, significant amounts of time and resources can be saved. This can lead to opportunities of maximizing staffing utilization and increasing clinician patient load, while preventing burnout.

Getting The Help You Need

While staffing is a serious concern, home health providers are still hopeful about the year ahead. In the HHCN survey, 44% said staffing utilization has the greatest potential for efficiencies, while 34% identified “skilled home health care” as the greatest growth area for 2021.

These findings give way to opportunities for growth for home health agencies and providers. Many are embracing outsourcing as their ally in forward-thinking efforts, particularly in staffing utilization. By addressing the biggest challenge head-on with solid outsourcing support, agency clinicians are empowered to devote themselves to patient care.

Resources:
2021 Home Health Care News Outlook Survey and Report >
Home Health Providers, Hospitals Are ‘Fishing in the Same Pool’ for Nursing Talent >
Staffing Reclaims Title of Home-Based Care Industry’s Biggest Challenge >

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A recent survey covering the home health industry reveals the greatest challenges in the year ahead, areas of expense specifically related to the COVID-19 pandemic, technology adoption, and areas of growth and efficiency, among other findings.

Key takeaway

Staffing remains the single most challenging aspect of home health. It’s been a top concern for a few years now, but the pandemic has intensified the challenges of sustaining a clinical workforce. Because of this, many agencies are looking into finding efficiencies in their staffing utilization.

Other highlights

• Getting on top of changing payment models was reported to be the second greatest challenge faced by the home health industry.
  
  
• The survey shows that staffing and PPE are expected to garner the greatest expense in 2021.
  
  
• Despite the projected expenses, many home health organizations still expect their revenues to rise in 2021.
  
  
• The most cited reason for prompting a shift in technology was improving patient outcomes, followed by the need to reduce operating costs and payment/reimbursement issues.
  
  
• Home health businesses are now more open to data sharing across tech platforms to process their information and help them drive business growth and improve patient outcomes. They believe interoperability will have a high impact on their organization’s ability to scale up in the coming year.

Looking ahead: Opportunities for efficiencies and growth

Investments in home health are predicted to reach new heights in 2021, and many home health businesses are now embracing the idea of utilizing third-party solutions, such as outsourcing, to support them for progress. 

When outsourcing covers other key functions, agencies can regain focus on sustainable business growth and leverage the full utilization of their in-house clinical teams to elevate patient care.

Beyond allowing focus on core functions, outsourcing providers can be a rich source of industry best practices. It maintains the high-level clinical expertise needed over equally significant administrative tasks such as coding, documentation, and data analytics, to name a few.

On top of these, outsourcing partners also help ensure that home health businesses meet the CMS guidelines and are on top of the ever-changing systems so they can continue to optimize their revenue and resources.

Where there are challenges, there are also opportunities for growth and innovation, whether it be within the internal processes or in technology. This makes the home health industry a space ripe for growth, where players can flourish and thrive in the years to come. It is now up to individual home health businesses to keep up with the times and be receptive to the changes in order to survive.

Resource:
Download and read the full 2021 Home Health Care News Outlook Survey and Report here>

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