HHT #152 - Release Your Brilliance in Home Health Care

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Release Your Brilliance in Home Health Care

Insights from the Mouse House for Home Health Executives

January 21, 2009

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In this issue...

-- Release Your Brilliance

-- Changing Our Look and Title

-- Join us in the Home Care Sales Professional Winner's Circle

-- Building Relationships with Physicians

-- About the Author

-- Permission to Reproduce

Welcome,

... to Home Health Care Today, the leading electronic newsletter for home health care in America. This special report for CEOs and senior executives of America's leading home health care companies 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 health businesses.

For ideas to grow your Private Duty Home Care business, subscribe to Private Duty Today, the bi-weekly newsletter for non-medical home care CEOs. Your complimentary subscription is available at www.privatedutytoday.com.


Release Your Brilliance

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Release BrillianceI'm writing to you today from Phoenix, Arizona where I am speaking at the Private Duty Home Care Association leadership conference sponsored by NAHC. The opening keynote for this conference was a dear friend of mine from the National Speakers Association, Simon T. Bailey. Simon has had an exceptional career in the hotel industry and then with the Walt Disney Company at Walt Disney World in Orlando, before venturing out on his own to create the Brilliance Institute.

Simon opened the conference on Monday with a brilliant presentation based on his newest book, Release Your Brilliance. As I was listening to Simon, and absorbing his insights, I found a couple of key concepts that have great application for executives in leading home health agencies.

To help you be inspired as you move forward in 2009, I'd like to share some insights from Simon, and some thoughts about how they apply to us as leaders in Home Health Care.

"Brilliance is released through adversity."

Simon gave us a series of examples from the decades of the 20th century about how America has responded in times of adversity. We've all seen examples of people who have demonstrated brilliance in times of adversity.

In home health care, we have been through many times of adversity and have survived and prospered. Perhaps the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and the Interim Payment System represented the most significant time of adversity for many of us in home health care. Yet we survived and prospered, and out of that have come many brilliant leaders of highly successful home health agencies.

"Change is friend, not faux. Change is a brilliant opportunity to grow."

We've all been through a lot of change in home health care. How have you used change in our industry as an opportunity to grow? An opportunity to grow your business? An opportunity to grow professionally? An opportunity to grow personally?

"Customer Service is not a department, it is a mind set."

Over the past year, I have had a number of requests from our clients for "customer service training." Certainly, training for your staff in the techniques and behaviors of superior customer service is helpful. But creating exceptional customer experiences in home health care begins with the vision and values of the executive team. Your home health team member will give great service to your customers, patients, and referral sources when you create a culture of service, and when you develop a mind set of the Ritz Carlton --- "Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen."

"Hire for Attitude, Train for Success."

When Simon uttered this phrase, I said, "YES!" Our experience and research in home health care has clarified for me a growing awareness that selection is the key to your success in building a high performance home health team. I am more and more convinced that you need to focus on selection in your hiring process in order to get the high performance team members you need to serve your patients.

Whether you are hiring nurses, therapists, clinical managers, or senior executives, the selection process is critical.

"The secret of your Brilliance is in your daily routine."

You've heard me say it before. A mediocre strategy executed with excellence will always beat a brilliant strategy executed with mediocrity. The things that you and your home health team do on a daily basis will determine the brilliance of your agency. Simon said to us, "You don't create your future. You decide your habits and your habits decide your future."

What are your habits? What are your daily routines? What does your process look like for selecting exceptional people? What is your customer service mind set? What is your attitude about change? What is your approach to adversity?

As you move forward in 2009, Release your Brilliance.

Read Simon T. Bailey's book, Release Your Brilliance


Changing Our Look and Title

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Beginning with the last issue, Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report has become Home Health Care Today! The purpose for the name change is to more clearly focus the audience and content. The rapid growth of "private duty home care" or "non-medical home care" has created some confusion in the industry. Many people think the label "home care" means private duty.

To make it more clear, this newsletter will be focused on providing ideas and information for CEOs and executives of Medicare Certified Home Health Agencies. We'll do our best to provide you with the latest ideas and information to grow your business.

Our sister e-newsletter, Private Duty Today! will continue to serve CEOs and owners of non-medical, private duty home care companies.

If you are a leader in a private duty home care company, and are not interested in home health care information, please let us know and we will adjust your subscription. You are also welcome to receive both newsletters.

Please don't "unsubscribe."

As a word of caution, if you are a subscriber to this newsletter, and you do not wish to continue to receive it, please hit reply and let us know. DO NOT hit the "safe unsubscribe" button at the bottom of the page. It will permanently remove your current email address from both mailing lists, and you will not be able to subscribe again using that email address.

Thanks so much for being a subscriber, and we hope you will find added value in the new name, new focus newsletter ... Home Health Care Today!


Join us in the Home Care Sales Professional Winner's Circle

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Derby Twin SpiresThere's no place like Louisville, home of the world famous Kentucky Derby, in the spring time. This year, you and your sales team will want to come to Louisville in April.

The 2009 Certified Home Care Sales Professional workshop will be held in Louisville, Kentucky on April 1, 2, and 3, 2009 at the luxurious Brown Hotel. If you, or someone in your agency, wants to participate in the most in-depth sales training program in the home health care industry, you will want to be in Louisville in April.

Participants who complete this 15 hour training program will be on their way to earning the Certified Home Care Sales ProfessionalTM designation. This is the only earned designation for sales professionals in the home health care industry.

Learn more about the 2009 CHCSP workshop in Louisville!


Building Relationships with Physicians

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We know from statistics that 75% of home health care referrals come from hospitals and physicians. It may vary in our marketplace, but in most cases successful home health agencies get many new patients from physician referrals.

Home health care is a relationship business. People like to do business with people they like. Physicians like to refer patients to people they like, trust, and respect. To build your skills in building relationships with physicians, we turn to the expertise of our friend and colleague, Dr. Tray Dunaway.

To learn from the insights of Dr. Dunaway, here's an opportunity to listen in to a series of conversations I had with him. This audio CD set was recorded during a series of live teleseminars focusing on home health care sales and marketing. You'll get great benefit from having your sales and marketing team tap into the wit and wisdom of Dr. Dunaway.

Order the CD set today to grow your business


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 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 38 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 2006 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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phone: 1-866-209-5101

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