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...to Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report. This special report is for CEOs and senior executives of America's leading home care companies. This report is published every other Wednesday by Leading Home Care ... a Tweed Jeffries company for our clients, friends, and advocates who want to grow their home care businesses.

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While I was enjoying the sunshine and simply gorgeous fall foliage, several hundred miles to the north in Buffalo, New York, an early fall snow storm had struck the region. Lake effect snow coming off Lake Erie had dumped nearly two feet of wet, sloppy snow on western New York and southern Ontario, Canada. The biggest early fall snow storm since 1870 had devastated the region, bringing down trees, power lines, and telephone service.

The storm came ashore early in the day on Friday the 13th, and quickly brought the region to a halt. Roads were clogged, power was off to 500,000 residents, phones were shut down, and the water system wasn’t working. Home health care patients and their families were in potential jeopardy, except for the preparation and planning of at least one home health care agency.

Catholic Health System Home Care, under the leadership of CEO Mark Sullivan, CHCE, implemented its Disaster Plan. They had anticipated the types of disasters that might occur in their region, and were prepared.

When the snow came, the trees were still full of leaves, and the heavy snow caused them to collapse. The CHS Home Care offices were quickly out of operation, with no electricity, no land telephone lines, the computer ring was down, and jammed cell phone circuits. Sullivan and his team quickly deployed their disaster plan and took immediate action.

They:

• Switched their telephone lines over to their answering service, which is located in northern Pennsylvania, and out of the snow area.
• Established regular cell phone contact between supervisors and the answering center to respond to patient and family calls.
• Moved their office operations to a computer equipped training room in the basement of one of their health system’s hospitals.
• Set up computer connections to their McKesson Horizon server, re-routed telephone numbers, and installed fax machines. Once this was established clinicians could upload schedules and patient info wireless from anywhere and lessened the traffic at the hospital and kept clinicians where they needed to be... caring for patients.
• Identified all of the patients on their service who were listed as “priority 1” and made telephone or personal contact to make sure they were safe.
• Contacted other patients who might be running low on food, water, or medications.
• Worked with their home infusion pharmacy vendor to bring in supplies from Rochester to support the infusion patients.
• Drove to a Cardinal Health warehouse for other supplies needed by nurses and other clinicians in the field.
• Brought in volunteers and staff with four wheel drive vehicles to transport nurses to their patients, and to help bring hospital nurses from their homes to the hospital.
• Brought in fresh batteries for the patients who were on PERS – Personal Emergency Response Systems.

By 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, they had a full emergency operations center up and fully functioning in the training room at the hospital. IT technicians had worked through the night getting computers, phones and fax machines into operation. A supply of flashlights and batteries, spare laptop car chargers and cell phone car chargers were available for field staff.

The intake team was functioning, accepting admissions from the hospitals and from other home health agencies that were not operating. They assisted discharge planners in the hospitals in discharging patients to make room for other patients who were stranded in their homes and had nowhere to go but to the hospital.

Sunday night, the computer network test came back functional so the team planned to move back to its office. By Monday morning, an emergency generator was in place and the home health agency’s main office was back up and running. Even though power was beginning to come back on in the neighborhood, they continued to stay on generator power until Wednesday to prevent any interruption of service as the power company restored electricity to other buildings in their area.

Sunday through Wednesday the agency provided full hot meals and “to go” snacks for field staff given that they too were without power at home.

• Maintain a checklist of everything that you might need from your office in the event of a disaster which causes you to work from somewhere else. Make sure you have copies of this list, and all of the information you'll need in an off-site location.
• You need to be 100% automated, with schedules, patient lists, and staff information complete and up to date. You can't have people working from paper schedules on their desks until they have time to input the data into the computer system.
• Have your IT system in a secure data center that has backup power and internet connections so you can access the system from remote locations.
• Maintain an up-to-date roster of all employees with contact information.
• Have personal cell phone and home phone numbers for all staff.
• Use your telephone contacts and keep in touch with your staff and patients using your telephone tree. Limit use of radio and TV to contact your patients unless all other communication systems are not operable. This can lead to confusion, and given the power outage you can’t always rely on media. The more “business as usual” for the patients, the better. It helps them remain calm.
• Have alternative locations for your emergency operations center identified and prepared in advance. If something happens to your office today, where will you establish your operations?
• Have a master map of every phone line, fax line, and internet connection into your building. Know who to call at the telephone company to re-route each phone line and internet connection.
• Have a plan to access a back-up electrical generator in the event power is out for an extended period. Since the home health agency is in a commercial office park and not near any healthcare facility, they were down the list of priorities to have power restored by the electric company.
• Have a disaster plan for your answering service, and review it with them regularly.
• Keep a list of schedules and patient lists printed out ahead of time. When you know a storm is coming, run the lists and get them off site.
• Have extra car chargers for laptops and cell phones.
• Have wireless internet cards for your laptops.
• Keep your senior leadership team visible at all times during the emergency. Your staff wants to see leadership in action.
• Remain calm and understand the importance of “emotional intelligence.” Keep your leadership team focused on taking action that serves the patients and the staff.
• Supply food. There’s something about having food available that creates a special bond between members of a team working through an emergency situation.
• Remember, home care staff need transportation. With payroll down, mileage checks were delayed, so CHS provided gas cards to staff in need.

We appreciate Mark Sullivan and his team taking time to share with us their experience, and their learning points from this Disaster Plan deployment.

What have been your experiences in implementing your agency’s disaster plan? What points would you add to our list?

Hit reply and email me your comments. We’ll pass your ideas along to our readers.

I was privileged to speak for the first conference, called Private Duty Boot Camp back in 1997. This program has come a long way since then, as it has grown in size and content.

This year's conference runs from Monday, November 13th through Wednesday, November 15th. I'll kick off the last morning of the conference with a program called, "Building Your Private Duty Referrals Dashboard: An Electronic Tool to Gauge Your Success."

In this program, I'll be describing in detail our Private Duty Scorecard and the success we have had with our Private Duty Planning and Coaching clients in measuring the success of their businesses. I'll show you step by step how to set up your Private Duty Scorecard, and how to measure the Critical Measures of Success in Private Duty Home Care. We'll also be sharing some new benchmarking data that we're collecting through our collaboration with Outcome Concept Systems.

There are some other wonderful presentations on the schedule that you'll want to be there for:

• "Build Your PD Business the Right Way" - with Lucy Andrews
• "HR Pitfalls" - with John Gilliland
• "State Law Roundup" - with Tim Purcey
• "Non-solicitation and Non-compete Clauses" - with Liz Zink-Pearson
• "Magical Customer Care" - with Al Jensen
• "The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Home Care Managers" - with Dexter Braff

Don't delay! Make your hotel and plane reservations today for a terrific time in Las Vegas, and come back with some valuable tools and techniques to grow your Private Duty Home Care Business.

Register NOW for the 9th Annual Private Duty National Conference

These are the questions we hear all the time from new AND experienced sales people in home care. Now, we have the answers for you.

I've teamed up with Michael Giudicissi, former Vice President of Business Development for a major home care company, to bring you the latest ideas and information on how to make more effective sales calls in home care. Based on a new book by the same title, Making the Approach: Advanced Sales Training for Home Care Professionals is a three-part audio learning program for your entire sales team.

Session #1 – The First Call – Thursday, October 12, 2006

The first program in the series will focus on what you need to do before you make the first sales call, and how you can turn that first call into more business and more follow up calls. Michael and I will dissect the first 15 seconds of a sales call and give you all you need to know about pre-call planning. Then we will help you design and plan that first call on a new “A” prospect.

You’ll learn about pre-call planning, what to bring – and what not to bring – on your initial sales call, and how to craft your “30 Second Elevator Speech.” Then you’ll get the scoop on how to “set up for the follow up,” and how to close the first call and leave them wanting more.

Session #2 – The Second Call – Thursday, November 9, 2006

Now that you’ve made that first call, what are you going to say or do to get back in the door? In this session, Michael and I will guide you through planning and making the next call. You’ll get great ideas to answer the question, “Why are you calling again?”

You’ll get powerful information on how to build trust, position your company, and handle issues or objections. Then, you’ll hear powerful tips on asking for the sale.

For many new sales reps, making that follow up call is the biggest challenge in home care sales. This teleseminar will give you what you need to know to overcome that hurdle and make the approach you need to get the business.

Session #3 – The Third Call and Beyond – December 14, 2006

In this session, you’ll get ideas and insights on how to feed your referral sources and prospect information . . . NOT with donuts! Too many sales reps in home care fall into the pharmaceutical trap of only being able to get in the door by bringing lunch. Krispy Kremes^® are not the key to a doctor’s heart. There are better ways to get your message across and build customer loyalty.

In this session, Michael and Stephen will give you the tools to build “The Respect Factor – the unbreakable relationship,” and describe how to aim for customer delight. You’ll find out how to make your customers your sales force, and how to “Lock Up Your Territory.”

To participate in this advanced sales training teleseminar series, contact your state home care association, or register directly online at www.leadinghomecare.com.

Register today ... through your state association ... or online at Leading Home Care!

Prefer to read rather than listen?

Now you can order a copy of Michael's new e-Book, Making the Approach: Advanced Sales Training for Home Care Professionals.

You'll learn how to:

• Make a good first impression
• Avoid the "office trap" and "hit the bricks"
• Prospect for new referral sources
• Research potential referral sources
• Write a great "elevator speech"
• Get a follow-up appointment
• Get referral sources to make the switch
• Close more sales

This 92 page e-Book is available for only $149.00 and downloadable instantly. Participants in our teleseminar series have already told us how valuable this e-Book is as a compliment to the audio learning program, or as a stand alone manual.

Become a better salesperson. Build a better sales team.

Please take some time this month to show your appreciation to your home care and hospice team members who make such a difference in the world.

For More Information on National Home Care & Hospice Month

The Academy for Private Duty Home Care

Thursday, November 30, 2006
Indianapolis, IN
Holiday Inn North at the Pyramids

Sponsored by:
Indiana Association for Home & Hospice Care
Michigan Home Health Association
Illinois Home Care Council
National Private Duty Association
Ohio Council for Home Care

The Academy for Home Care Leadership, Executive Institute

Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Holiday Inn Executive Center
Columbia, MO
Sponsored by:
the Missouri Alliance for Home Care

Please support your state and national associations by participating in these and other conferences featuring Stephen Tweed and members of the Leading Home Care Team.

Stephen is a past-President of the National Speakers Association, a 3500 member international society of experts who speak professionally. He is also the father of a 37 year-old son who is physically disabled and uses the services of home care on a daily basis.

Meet the entire Leading Home Care Team