Lessons in Leadership from NutriSystem

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What I learned about Home Health Care by losing 18 pounds

May 14, 2008

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In this issue...

-- Lessons in Leadership from NutriSystem (R)

-- Applying the NutriSystem (R) Lessons to Home Health Care

-- Grow Your Agency with Certified Sales Professionals

-- The Academy for Private Duty Home Care in Maryland

-- Strategic Staffing: Finding and Keeping the Employees You Need in Home Health Care

-- New BLOG Postings on the Home Health Care Leadership Minute

-- About the Author

-- Permission to Reproduce

Welcome,

. . . to Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report, the premier online newsletter for CEOs and executives of America's leading home health care agencies. (For strategies and insights on how to grow your Private Duty non-medical home care business, we invite you to subscribe to Private Duty Today, our newsletter for non-medical home care.)

Lessons in Leadership from NutriSystem (R)

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Help me celebrate! I've lost 18 pounds since the second week in January. HoooooRaaaay!

After the new year, I couldn't stand it any longer. I have been going to Blairwood Tennis and Fitness club three or four mornings a week when I'm in town for years. The last couple of years, I had put on some weight and I just couldn't seem to get it back off.

You can identify with that if you're over 50, right?

There I was on the elliptical trainer watching Fox & Friends in the morning and I kept seeing Don Shula and Dan Marino telling me about how much weight they had lost using NutriSystem. And they showed the before and after pictures to prove it.

Now, like you, I've tried many of the past diet fads and most worked for a little while but then I lost interest and put the weight back on. But I thought I'd try one more time.

Long story short, I bought the package of food, followed the instructions, kept track of every morsel I put in my mouth, and logged my weight daily. And it worked. Ten pounds in the first two weeks. Then I began traveling and it got harder, but I persisted. My goal was to lose 20 pounds.

Here's what I Learned . . . again!

1. It takes focus and discipline to stay with the program.

2. You need to start with a goal.

3. You need to track your results regularly.

4. Eat small portions six times a day instead of three bigger meals.

5. Eat the right foods and drink lots of water.

6. Exercise regularly.

7. Enlist the help of those around you.

You've heard me say over and over again, "What gets measured gets managed, what gets rewarded gets repeated."

It's working for me. I feel better. I look better (according to my wife and staff.) I'm more alert at work. I have more energy. I feel healthier.

And, I'm not done yet. I set a goal to lose 20 pounds. I got to 18 and then got stuck. I put on two pounds over this past weekend when Elizabeth and I went to Chicago for a family gathering. Food is love in the Nardi family, and I got lots of love over the weekend. But it was only 2, and I can get those off again with focus and discipline. I already got rid of one, and it's only Wednesday.

I got stuck when I stopped writing down my daily intake and weight every day, and when I got distracted from my meal routine. I knew it at the time, and I knew what would happen. And I did it anyway. And I'm paying the price.

"What gets measured gets managed."

Visit NutriSystem

Applying the NutriSystem (R) Lessons to Home Health Care

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I'm always looking for lessons from life experiences. As I lost weight with NutriSystem, I began to pay attention to the lessons I was learning. Now, let's apply those lessons to home health care.

Do you want to make a change in your agency? Let's say you want to improve the quality of care around Acute Hospitalization of patients during an episode. Let's say your current rate of rehospitalization is 32%, the national average is 28%, and your closest competitor is at 26%.

There are three good reasons to do this. One, it's good for your patients. Two, better quality will help you be more competitive in the marketplace. Three, acute care hospitalization will probably be one of the factors in Pay For Performance in the future. What can you do to get your rate down?

1. Focus on the problem. Define specifically what the problem is that you want to address.

2. Set a Goal. If your closest competitor is at 26%, set a goal for 25%.

3. Set up a scorecard to measure your progress. Track every single patient that does go back into the hospital during an episode, and the cause.

4. Identify the common causes of rehospitalization. Gather data to understand the most frequent reasons why patients go back into the hospital.

5. Look for small changes you can make. Regular quality improvement comes from a series of small steps taken regularly and consistently. It's not one big leap.

6. Provide education and training for your team members. Don't assume that your people know what to do and how to do it to achieve the goal. New knowledge and skills are needed to make meaningful change.

7. Enlist the help of your whole team. Even the staff members who are not directly involved in the project need to understand the goal, and the importance of this effort. It's takes the support of the entire team to achieve meaningful change.

For the last several issues of Leading Home Care Report we've been talking about the Six Pillars of the Agency Of The Future. This is an example of how three of those pillars - Quality, People, and Finances come together to guide change and growth in your agency.

The Home Health AOTF is one that pays attention to life's lessons and applies them in order to grow the business and get ready for the future.

Grow Your Agency with Certified Sales Professionals

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One of the big challenges facing home health care executives who want to grow their businesses is finding and training sales representatives. Our research shows that the number two most effective and most frequently used technique for bringing in referrals that turn into admissions is "Direct Selling", having feet on the street calling on physicians and other referral sources. (Number 1 is networking in the community.)

If you are serious about growing your home health agency in 2008, then you need to look at your sales process, and at the training and coaching of your sales representatives. Sending sales reps out into the field to make calls without training and coaching is like sending nurses into the field to care for patients before they have completed their nurses training. You'd never do that.

To solve that problem, Leading Home Care has teamed up with Decision Health, publishers of Home Health Line and Private Duty Insider, to offer our Certified Home Care Sales Professional^TM workshop. This program is designed specifically for sales professionals working with home health agencies.

(The Certified Private Duty Sales Professional^TM workshop that we ran two weeks ago in San Antonio was designed specifically for those selling non-medical home care. We'll repeat that program again in 2009.)

The Certified Home Care Sales Professional^TM

This certification is designed specifically for sales professionals representing Certified Home Health Agencies, calling on hospitals, physicians, and other skilled care facilities. This workshop is designed specifically for those selling home health care. We have also had participants from hospice, medical supply companies, home medical equipment, and home infusion pharmacies.

The Certified Home Care Sales Professional^TM
June 11, 12, 13, 2008 - Charlotte, NC
September 17, 18, 19, 2008 - San Antonio, TX

Join Dr. Tray Dunaway, Michael Giudicissi, and myself for two and one half days of high-impact sales training, and earn the CHCSP designation.

See you in Charlotte or San Antonio.

The Academy for Private Duty Home Care in Maryland

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Many of you who are leaders of Home Health Agencies also have a Private Duty Home Care business. If so, you're probably looking for new ideas and information to grow that business and increase its profitability.

If you're on the East Coast, you'll want to consider sending your Director of Private Duty to The Academy for Private Duty Home Care being held in Columbia, Maryland on Wednesday, June 4, 2008.

Sponsored by the Maryland-National Capital Home Care Association, this one-day program will cover sales and marketing strategies, and recruiting and retention techniques to grow your non-medical home care business.

Based on significant research that began in 2003, The Academy for Private Duty Home Care has been designed as a one-day institute expressly for CEOs and owners, administrators, sales and marketing staff, financial and personnel officers, and other senior staff of Private Duty Home Care companies. This is your opportunity to come together in an intimate, high-impact learning environment to share strategies, ideas, and insights on how to grow your business, multiply the performance of your team members, and increase your income.

Objectives:

As a result of this intimate, high-impact learning experience, leaders in Private Duty Home Care will be able to:

Put the Three Key Elements of a successful Private Duty Home Care business into practice.
Implement a focused sales & marketing plan to ensure a steady flow of clients.
Develop specific action plans for immediate and long term growth.
Find and keep the caregivers you need to grow your business and serve your clients.
Develop and implement your Personal Private Duty Scorecard.

Plan now to attend:

June 4, 2008 - Columbia, Maryland
8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

The Handelman Learning Center
The Beacon Institute, Inc.
10280 Old Columbia Road, Suite 215
Columbia, MD 21046
410-381-2401

Strategic Staffing: Finding and Keeping the Employees You Need in Home Health Care

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Our work with home health care agencies across the country suggests that the your ability to attract and retain capable people can be a major source of competitive advantage in your marketplace. We are convinced that your ability to grow your business and get ready for the future will be based on your ability to recruit people and market your business. The key to your success will be to keep your recruiting and your marketing in balance.

As a leader in home health care, you recognize the importance that staffing plays in the growth of your company. Your ability to serve more patients will be determined by your ability to attract and retain capable staff - particularly nurses and therapists.

For a complete guide to finding and keeping the people you need, you'll want to own a copy of Strategic Staffing: Finding and Keeping the employees you need in Home Care, by Stephen Tweed and Catherine Fyock. Download this eBook from our web site into your computer immediately. Then print a copy and get to work finding the people you need.

More Information on Strategic Staffing

New BLOG Postings on the Home Health Care Leadership Minute

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Here are the most recent postings on our BLOG:

Dental Care at Home
Home Health Companies Report Higher Than Expected Profits
Shortage of Home Care Workers threatens our elderly population - "No Kidding!"
Telehealth as a Sales and Marketing Tool in Home Health Care

Click here to visit our BLOG

About the Author

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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 homecare 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

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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 2008 Stephen C. Tweed. To receive a FREE subscription to this newsletter, log on to www.leadinghomecare.com."

Contact Leading Home Care

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email: stephen@leadinghomecare.com

phone: 1-866-209-5101

web: http://www.leadinghomecare.com

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