3 Things Your Agency Should Consider Doing Before 2023
Author: Hunter Sorensen
Posted: September 6, 2022
There’s a lot home health agencies have to consider as we inch closer to another year. With CMS commencing the HHVBP Model nationwide and payment cuts in 2023, agencies are expected to deliver high-quality care or face a devastating financial penalty. The potential financial hit could force agency doors to close. Add a nationwide workforce shortage and the lingering effects of a pandemic on top of that and it’s no wonder why agencies are panicking. This panic has caused many to look inward and figure out how to centralize operations and become more efficient in daily workflows and processes.
With already limited staff and resources, agencies struggle to get anything done. Agencies’ quality of care suffers because more field staff are stuck working with inefficient processes and even experience more turnover because of this.
1. Seek out and leverage industry expertise
I’ve heard this line a lot in the industry: “Our executive team has decades of experience and are considered industry experts. Why would we need your expertise?” The answer is simple: because you don’t have the resources to carry out some of these important initiatives. Rather than just hire new directors or project managers, it’s better to leverage outside experts to take on the lift and focus on these initiatives. There is no question each leadership team of an agency is already working hard for their teams and patients. However, they have many things on their plates as it is. Leveraging an agency like Maxwell Healthcare Associates (MHA) is a smart investment to create a team dedicated to a project. MHA works with your team to accomplish your goals and recommends outside solutions vetted through our vendor partner program to give you as many tools as possible to make you successful.
2. Leverage automation
Automation is a red-hot topic in the post-acute space. Advancements in technology, although useful, are not always time-saving or easy to sort through important data. There are still lots of manual workflows and tasks that need to be completed daily for agencies to stay afloat and provide the best care. Robot Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and machine learning are popular terms to describe automation solutions. All these solutions are aimed at saving your agency time and effort in certain workflows and tasks so your agency can get ahead in allocating resources, scheduling visits, documentation, and providing the right care at the right times to the right patients.
You’re already behind if your agency hasn’t investigated automation solutions. Automation is key for optimizing your operations. Without it, agencies go back into that cycle of panic where they are either forced to hire more employees (which is hard enough already) or risk more turnover from frustrated and overworked staff due to inefficient processes and tools to complete their work every day.
A quick Google search will show you many options of automation solutions. MHA partners with industry-expert-leading organizations that offer niche automation solutions. These offerings range from EMR workflow automations to care coordination tools to coding. And we’ve seen the results. It’s amazing when you see an agency accept some of these solutions and watch the real-time ROI. Agencies experience immense time savings on lesser priority tasks, so their current staff can focus on more important ones. The cost of these solutions is less than hiring more people when you include salary and benefits.
3. Invest in your agency
In troubling financial times, it’s a normal thing to hold your money until the market gets better. However, the post-acute space is not the economy, and the market will not “get better”. Everything talked about so far in this article costs money to execute. You must be ready to spend on your agency now, to seek out industry experts and automation solutions. These investments get you ahead of the game going into the new year. Your agency will be more optimized and centralized, retain more staff, and have a clearer vision for the future of your agency. A small investment today will make a better tomorrow.
Don’t sit back and wait for the new year. Do something about it by seeking out industry experts, like us, to help optimize your agency and centralize operations. Investigate automation solutions to free up your staff to focus on higher-priority tasks. This can be accomplished and leveraged through MHA’s trusted list of vendor partners. Let’s work together to put your agency on the right track to succeed in 2023.
Contact:
Hunter Sorensen
Vendor Partner Manager
Phone: 612.986.6583
Email: [email protected]