Today's episode focuses on the critically important topic of Achieving Balance in managing your home care agency.  Our guest, Becky Reel is the Executive Director of For Papa's Sake Home Care, an agency that she created to honor her grandfather. Becky reflects back on a time when her life was out of balance and running her agency was creating anxiety for her and putting stress on her most important relationships.  Not only has she overcome these challenges, her agency was chosen as the Top Agency of 2022 by Home Care Pulse.

For Becky, achieving balance made all the difference. This talk covers the following critical topics:

• Why talk about balance?
• How to set boundaries and stick to them
• It's OK to say no
• Hiring right and setting expectations
  (also how to "hire" the right clients)
• Two great books by Starbucks founder Howard Shultz

Links to the two books are as follows:

• It's not about the Coffee: Putting People First, and
• Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time

Becky kindly offered to help agency owners and welcomes you to reach her via email at [email protected].

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

By any measure, Queen Elizabeth lived a noteworthy life. She was vibrant and influential in all but the last few months of her 96 year lifetime.  Today on Home Care Heroes, we talk about why...

Our fantastic guest is Jennifer Brine, the CEO of  ANeuFit (pronounced "A New Fit"). Jennifer is a mechanical engineer turned entrepreneur who helps individuals 50 and older to live richer lives by helping them increase their capacity for movement. 

Although we touch on movement, the episode covers so much more, including the following:

• How can we show dignity and respect in the way we describe and address the clients we serve.
• What is aging and how is it different for each person - a clear picture
• Zooming in on the principals the result in a rich life
• Striving for an individual's "healthspan" to match their lifespan

If you are inspired by this episode (and I know you will be), you can connect with Jen by visiting https://aneufit.com, calling 617-681-4776 or emailing [email protected].

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

Today's guest, Miki Rosanis, is an Occupational Therapist working for an artificial intelligence (AI) company called SENSI.AI. They have created the world's first Virtual Care Assistant.  If you have no idea what this means, then you definitely need to check out this episode.

Sensi's technology has been specifically developed to assist home care agencies in the US. The Artificial Intelligence technology senses sounds in the care environment and provides sights to the home care agency and to the client's family. 

A few examples shared by Miki are as follows:

• Falls can be detected via sound
• Similarly a client can ask for help and be heard even thought they're not wearing a PERS device
• By sensing excessive toilet use, the technology has been able to identify a Urinary Tract Infection
• When caregivers are present, the technology can sense joyful interactions between clients and caregivers

Let's face it, few home care agencies feel like they're ready for AI, but we're probably more ready than we think. The recommendations of what to watch next on Netflix  and suggestions of the best product to buy on Amazon.com are AI. Other examples are the fingerprint and FaceID we use to get into our favorite apps and the way that gmail and Microsoft Word make suggestions on how to finish our sentences.

Agencies can use SENSI as a first step to better assess an individual's need for care and with the shortage of caregivers, SENSI can put us in a position not to have to staff shifts when the client is normally sleeping.

You can learn more about Sensi by visiting their website https://Sensi.AI.

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

Whether we agree with it or not, there is a perceived canyon between what we do in non-medical home care and what happens in the "healthcare world." We're generally not reimbursed like healthcare is. Even in the Medicaid world where there are government payments, they're called "waiver programs."  But while non-medical care is often shunned, we know that an individual receiving our care will have better outcomes than  someone who doesn't. Without going on too much of a tangent, there's a growing body of evidence to that effect that you can learn about by Googling "Social Determinants of Health."

BrightStar Care, a $700M national home care franchise set out to prove that their interventions not only result in comfort and quality of life improvements for their clients, but also generate hard healthcare cost savings. They hired a top healthcare research firm, Avalere, to compare the healthcare costs of Medical Care recipients receiving care from BrightStar Care to others who don't.

The results were resoundingly positive showing that on average, BrightStar Care recipients had over $8,000 in healthcare savings, and in some cases the savings were almost $30,000.

In this episode of home care heroes, BrightStar Care Founder and CEO Shelly Sun explains why they did the study, what they learned, and how this has effected their work and approach at BrightStar Care. 

You can learn more about the study entitled at this link.  You can learn more about BrightStar Care here.

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

Gregg Mazza is one of the top home care growth coaches in the industry, and he got there the hard way. Gregg started an agency and like many, he struggled early on. He was spending too much time and not succeeding and this was putting stress on his well-being and relationships. Happily, he figured it out and now he helps others to do the same.

In this episode, Gregg outlines the framework for building an agency that can run without it's founder, as follows:

• Getting the right foundation in place (Positioning, Goals, Key Measurements, the Right Team, and Culture)
• Two Primary Drivers - Recruiting/Retention and Growing your CLient Base
• Leverage - working with partners

Gregg is quick to point out that it's hard and that you need to celebrate incremental wins, but that when small improvements are made throughout the organization, that the overall gains are "greater than the sum of their parts."

A great way to connect with Gregg is to go to his website, www.homecarebreakthrough.com and search for the free resources. You can sign up for email updates and join a Facebook Community of your peers. You can also call 813-785-3851 or email [email protected].

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

Let's face it, our primary focus areas are recruiting and retaining great caregivers and growing our businesses. These are the topics we cover the most on Home Care Heroes.  Today we're going in a different direction, but an important one just the same.

Our guest is Temperance Bruder. Temperance is a home care veteran with many skills. She is a nurse, she works as a case manager for a Medicaid Managed Care Organization (MCO), she's a consultant and she runs a home care agency in Virginia.

The topic of the episode in how to get your Medicaid Documentation right. Temperance speaks in the context of Virginia Medicaid  documentation that includes an assessment and a plan of care.  Whether you work in Virginia, another state or even in Private Duty the teaching is important.  Note that Temperance doesn't go into detail on the specifics of the documentation, but instead she focuses on some key universal strategies, as follows:

• Understand the importance of your documentation
• Review your plans of care at least every 90 days
• Make sure to meet your staff face to face at least every 90 days
• Make sure that your documentation is always accessible

If you'd like help with your documentation compliance, or if you're starting an agency and need help with a strong foundation such as policies and procedures, you can reach temperance on 804-286-9176 or via email at [email protected].

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

Today's guest Nick Bonitatibus runs a company called The Digital Champs, which is dedicated to helping home care agencies to create content (mostly easy to make videos) that can attract both clients and caregivers to your home care agency.

Within the episode, Nick takes us through all the steps (which are easier than you think), but most importantly he tells us what clients and caregivers want to hear. The messaging is incredibly important, and it's NOT that you do med reminders and light house keeping. Instead, it tells your home care prospects (usually the daughter of the client) how you're going to give them peace of mind, reduce their stress and have them know that their mom is receiving great care.  When it comes to caregivers, it's about giving them a sense of purpose and letting you know that your job is to get them hours and help them advance.

I met Nick when he was the master of ceremonies for the most recent "Steve the Hurricane" conference. He's a bundle of energy and you'll enjoy him immensely.

To learn more, go to his site TheDigitalChamps.com.  An even greater way to start is to go to "theDigitalChamps.com/social where there are free resources for you.

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

Melissa Bagley is one of the astounding home care coaches from Steve the Hurricane's team, and the topic for today is Adapting Your Home Care Agency for the Future.

Interestingly we start with Melissa sharing that the Hurricane organization is adapting as well. They've historically been known as the experts in Home Care Marketing, but now they've expanded their scope to include coaching in marketing, sales,  caregiver recruiting and retention, growth, revenue optimization and even selling your agency. Their new brand will be Home Care Evolution and the new website will be HomeCareEvolution.com.

The podcast covers three key topics related to Adapting your Agency, including the following:

1. Managing by the Numbers: Tracking hours, revenue, gross margin and more
2. Collaboration: It's  critical that all team members, regardless of their function in the organization are striving for the same goals.
3. Thriving: Agencies that thrive have strong operational processes that pull it all together.

Hurricane Marketing will give you a free strategy consulting session with Melissa or one of their other amazing coaches. You can reach them on 848-444-9865 or at HomeCareMarketing.net (soon to be HomeCarEvolution.com).

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

Home Care agency owner and consultant Kinshawda Daniels has a great story! She is a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) who was working as a nurse case manager and she realized that there weren't enough strong home care agencies in her area so she started one.  After gaining strong expertise, she started consulting.  

We've talked a lot about networking in the context of community outreach, but today Kinshawda goes deep into B2B (business to business) networking.  She takes us through 3 models:

1. Colaboration
2. Partnership
3. Affiliate 

You can reach Kinshawda on the web at https://www.virtualhomecaresolutions.com/, via email at [email protected] or by calling 877-272-4011.

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

In today's market, your home care website is critically important. To be effective, it needs to attract visitors and then get them to engage with you. We have two fantastic experts to tell us how to succeed: Jason Chagnon from Providentia Martketing and Kamran Nassar from AideQuest.

Key topics covered are as follows:

• The importance and benefit of attractive both potential clients and caregivers to your website
• How to design your site to be found on Google with Search Engine Optimization  (SEO)
• How to keep people on your website when they get there and have them connect to you via Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

What's great about this episode is that both experts explain difficult concepts using simple language and stories.

Jason also shared that Providentia Marketing would be happy to have a free no obligation call with your agency and that if you just have a quick question, you can email him on [email protected].

Kamran Nassar has started a new company called AidQuest that helps agencies to quickly engage with website visitors (both prospective clients and caregivers) 24 hours a day. 

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.