|
Private Duty Today
Welcome to Private Duty Today, the bi-weekly electronic newsletter for Private Duty Home Care Leaders from Leading Home Care ...a Tweed Jeffries company. In this issue, we bring you ideas, information, and insights to help you grow your Private Duty Home Care business.
Private Duty Today is a permission-based newsletter. It is only sent to our recent customers and those individuals who have requested it, or who have given permission for their address to be included on our list of subscribers.
I'm Jason Tweed, Director of Business Development for Leading Home Care, and Editor of Private Duty Today.
Private Duty Today is published every other Wednesday, and currently goes to over 6000 subscribers. |
|
Practical, Proven Tips and Techniques
to Grow Your Private Duty Home Care Business
|
|
|
|
|
Happy New Year
I hope you all enjoyed Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Ramadan. I hope you all celebrated New Year's Eve and got a kiss at midnight!
Now let's get back to work! |
|
|
The Three Pillars of Private Duty Home Care
In 2008, Private Duty Today will focus much of our time on the Three Pillars of Private Duty Home Care.
The three pillars are Promotion, People, and Profitability!
Promotion - Better known as sales and marketing, this is the process of getting your phone to ring! In 2008 we will look at all the techniques to grow your business. Increasing your revenue gives your business the power to do more, serve more, employ more and yes, profit more.
People - I've said it many times, people are your inventory; people are your product. We talk about selling hours of service, but what we are really selling is people. Improving the quality of your people improves your business. Recruiting more people increases your inventory. Selecting the best people improves your quality and reduces your risk. Retaining good people, and keeping them from your competitors, is a significant competitive advantage in the marketplace. In 2008 we're going to broaden our description of "people" to not only include caregivers, but office staff, executive staff, and yes, even customers and referral sources. A growing trend in Private Duty Home Care is to find the right people for the right job. This means matching good caregivers with the customers who will benefit from them the most.
Profitability - The business of caring for people is, first and foremost, a business. When your business ceases to be profitable, your business ceases. Growing your revenue and hiring the best people are only part of the equation. Private duty businesses don't always become profitable simply through economy of scale. There are very small private duty businesses that generate significant profits. Additionally, there are extremely large private duty practices that are marginally profitable or even operating in the red. In 2008 we're going to look at a wide variety of operational best practices. We want to make sure that scheduling, billing, payroll, risk management, and office expenses aren't taking too large of a bite out of each unit of care you provide.
The Three Pillars of Private Duty Home Care are going to be your foundation for everything that you do in this business. Not only must they each be solid, they must all grow together. Controlled growth and balance is critical to your success as a private duty home care agency. |
|
The Solutions Group
I don't know about you, but shopping for insurance is one of my least favorite activities. It ranks right up there with pre-planning for your funeral and creating your living will.
I know some of you feel the same way because I get several calls and e-mails each month from private duty owners who feel like they've been taken for a ride on the liability insurance roller coaster.
It seems like we write a check every month, and nothing bad ever seems to happen. Not only do we have to write the check, but we aren't absolutely sure that if something bad does happen we will be covered.
The most difficult part is the uncertainty that our insurance company understands our company, and truly has our interests at heart.
I sat down over the Christmas break with David Dickie, President of The Solutions Group, an insurance company that specializes in providing coverage to home health agencies and non-medical home care companies.
I asked him to share his knowledge on a couple of questions.
What is a typical private duty agency liability insurance package?
"A comprehensive package includes the following coverage:
· Professional Liability: Provides liability protection in the event of damage to a client while providing services in connection with your operations.
· General Liability: Provides liability protection in the event of an occurrence arising out of your organization's operations:
- Bodily Injury and/or Property Damage
- Personal Injury and Advertising Injury
- Fire & Water Legal Liability Hazard
· Hired & Non-Owned Auto Liability: Provides liability coverage to protect your organization from loss arising out of the use of a non-owned vehicle being operated by an employee of your organization while conducting official business. (Non-owned vehicles are typically the vehicles of your caregivers and clients)."
Tell me more about the coverage available for transportation of a client.
"We provide non-owned auto coverage that extends to damage to a client while providing transportation services. Transportation services must be as an adjunct to a caregiving relationship; we cannot cover public livery in our non-medical program."
What are the most common and most severe liability claims for private duty agencies?
"Our most severe claims are auto accidents resulting in client damage and scalding burns while bathing. Both type of claims occur rarely - 3 or 4 claims per year amongst our 1,700 client pool - but when they do occur tend to be very costly.
Our most frequent claims are damage to a client's property and theft of a client's property. Almost 5% of our clients had these types of claims in 2007."
Agencies often advertise 'Insured & Bonded'. What is 'Bonded' referring to?
"Bonding refers to commercial crime coverage designed to respond to claims of theft from a client's home by an employee. Extending coverage to a client's home requires a special endorsement to the standard bond; agencies need to make sure that they have the proper coverage."
If you'd like to learn more about The Solutions Group, we've added a webpage about their company to the Private Duty Today website. It also has contact information if you'd like to get in touch with them directly.
The Solutions Group |
|
Your Homework
A new feature in Private Duty Today is simply going to be called Your Homework. Each week I'm going to make an assignment based on the topic of each issue.
The assignment:
Create a list of three things you can do better in 2008. Okay, there are 50 things I can do better in 2008, so let's make this a little tougher. The three things must apply, one each, to Promotion, People, and Profitability.
Additionally, these three areas of improvement should be personal, not corporate. What can you personally do better as part of your daily work that will have a positive influence on Promotion, People, and Profitability?
This assignment is probably the only assignment that the CEOs amongst you are going to have an easier time. CEOs have to look at the big picture. But I know there are schedulers, marketers, salespeople and administrative assistants among our readers. This assignment applies to every one of you, because when we think about our role within the big picture, that's when we positively impact our company.
Flood my e-mail! I expect by tomorrow morning that all 7000 of our subscribers will have sent me a bullet list. (If that happens, I'll be working late on Thursday!) I'm going to hand pick a few of the best and publish them in the next issue as well as on our website. We will also look at trends industrywide, so it's important that all of you participate.
Make sure to include a note at the bottom of your e-mail stating whether or not you give us permission to include your homework in our next issue. | |
|
|
|
