December 13, 2006

Welcome Diane,

...to this edition of 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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Nursing Seen as the Most Ethical Occupation

The annual USA TODAY / GALLUP POLL measuring honesty and ethics among 23 occupations puts nurses at the top of the list for the sixth straight year. Eighty four percent of Americans say standards for nurses are "high" or "very high."

Other healthcare professionals, such as pharmacists, veterinarians, medical doctors, and dentists are high on the list as well. In the middle of the list we find college teachers, police officers, and bankers. And down near the bottom, members of congress, insurance salespersons, HMO managers, and car sales persons. Here's the list according to USA TODAY and GALLUP:

• Nurses - 84%
• Druggists, Pharmacists - 73%
• Veterinarians - 71%
• Medical Doctors - 69%
• Dentists - 62%
• Engineers - 61%
• Clergy - 58%
• College Teachers - 58%
• Police Officers - 54%
• Psychiatrists - 38%
• Bankers - 37%
• Chiropractors - 36%
• Journalists - 26%
• State Governors - 22%
• Business Executives - 18%
• Lawyers - 18%
• Stockbrokers - 17%
• Senators - 15%
• Members of Congress - 14%
• Insurance Sales Persons - 13%
• HMO Managers - 12%
• Advertising Practitioners - 11%
• Car Salespersons - 7%

This new data, released in the December 12, 2006 issue of USA TODAY, raises some interesting questions for us as home care executives:

• How can we capitalize on the positive image of nurses?
• Since we are in the "home nursing" business, what marketing messages can we use to promote this image?
• How can we share this message with our nurses as positive feedback and encouragement?
• How can we position our sales representatives and marketers to be seen more positively than insurance salespersons and car salespersons?
• What can we do with this information in our negotiations with HMOs?

How Medicare Certified Home Health Agencies Can Capitalize on Private Duty Home Care

The fastest growing segment of healthcare in America is non-medical home care with trained caregivers providing assistance with activities of daily living to elderly and disabled persons. Non-medical home care is an incredible business opportunity for Certified Home Health Agencies that want to grow, and that want to make a bigger impact on the lives of the elderly and the disabled.

After working with hundreds of Private Duty Home Care companies over the past 25 years, and spending countless hours with executives in CHHAs who are struggling with their Private Duty businesses, I've identified The Big Three Barriers to success in this business.

1. Overcoming the Medicare Mind Set

Your agency is focused on serving Medicare and Medicaid. Private Duty is a much simpler business . . . not necessarily easier! Too many agencies make the business more complicated because of the "Medicare Mind Set."

2. Overcoming the Nursing Mind Set

The second big barrier is thinking that your private duty business has to be run by a nurse. This is not the case at all, and the most successful private duty businesses are run by non-nurses.

3. Overcoming the Back Office Integration Mind Set

This is the belief that since you already have certain functions in your agency such as human resources, marketing, and finance, those departments can also serve the private duty business. In most cases, it doesn't work that way.

To get more details on how you can capitalize on this tremendous business opportunity, join me in Scottsdale, Arizona on Monday, January 22, 2007 for the Private Duty Home Care Leadership Summit sponsored by the Private Duty Home Care Association, and the National Association for Home Care & Hospice.

For More Information on the Private Duty Home Care Leadership Summit, Click Here!

Grow Your Business with Private Duty Planning & Coaching

Want to grow your Private Duty Home Care business? Work with the experts!

Leading Home Care is the country's leader in helping our clients grow their Private Duty Home Care business. There is no other organization in the country that has conducted the research, developed the resource materials, and created a business growth model for Private Duty Home Care like Leading Home Care.

For more information on how we can help you grow your Private Duty business, call us today at 502-339-0653 and set up an appointment for a personal conversation with Stephen Tweed.

Or click on the link to see more details on our Private Duty Home Care Planning & Coaching Process.

Give Your Sales & Marketing Team a Christmas Gift

As we work with sales & marketing directors for home care companies across the country, the one thing they are always asking for is more information for their sales representatives. There are three things home care sales representatives need to be successful:

1. Knowledge - they need to know how to sell home care services
2. Ability - they need the skills and the interpersonal abilities to sell home care services
3. Willingness - they must want to sell your services; having a positive attitude is critical

Make this a joyous season for your sales representatives and marketing team. Give them the gift that keeps on giving throughout the New Year. Give them new ideas and information how to grow your business and bring in more referrals that turn into admissions.

During the past three years, we've presented over a dozen audio teleseminars, published two e-manuals, and sold hundreds of books and marketing e-tools. If you were to purchase all of our marketing products at full retail price, you'd pay well over $2,000 for them.

Because we want you to grow your business more quickly, we've put together a special "value pack" of some of our programs. This Mega Marketing Power Pack contains:

• One Soft Cover Book on Home Care Marketing
• One Manual on Home Care Sales & Marketing
• 12 Audio CDs totaling more than 14 hours of content
• Over 50 pages of support materials for the audio learning programs
• Our Lunch 'N Learn Facilitator's Guide
• Continuing Education Contact Hours for nurses and other professionals

The retail price of this powerful package is $1,734. As a faithful reader of this newsletter, we want to give you an opportunity to provide this valuable information to your sales and marketing team for the low price of only $999 a savings of $735 - Such a Deal!

Purchase this Power Pack today, and we'll add an Audio Teleseminar CD, "Building Relationships with Physicians Office Staff" with Stephen Tweed and M. Tray Dunaway, MD. This is a $149 value for you at no extra cost.

Order the Mega Marketing Power Pack Online Today!

About the Author

Stephen Tweed, CSP, is Chairman and CEO of Leading Home Care ... a Tweed Jeffries company. For nearly 25 years he has been a recognized leader in strategy and leadership development for home care companies and associations. He is the author or co-author of five books, four of which were written specifically for the home care industry. He has served on the boards of directors of three not-for-profit home care agencies, and has served as interim President & CEO of a $25 million home care company.

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

Permission to Reproduce

Permission is granted to healthcare publications, associations and companies to reproduce this article in your publication, or to distribute copies to your leaders, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report. Copyright 2006 Stephen C. Tweed. To receive a FREE subscription to this newsletter, log on to www.leadinghomecare.com."

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