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PDT
#162 -- Turn Quality into Profits
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How the Caregiver Quality Assurance Program Improves
Profitability February
17, 2010
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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.
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 8000 subscribers.
Private Duty Today is
a permission-based newsletter.
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Academy for Private Duty Home Care comes to Seattle in
April
Join us for the next Academy for Private Duty Home
Care in Seattle, Washington.
April 8, 2010
An upcoming academy has also been scheduled in Dallas in
May. Registration is now open.
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In the last issue of Private Duty Today I mentioned
several new and recently updated educational products and business
services. By far the one that attracted the most attention is our
successful Caregiver Quality Assurance Program.
Briefly, Caregiver Quality Assurance (CQA) is for private duty
home care organizations that want to make top quality care a hallmark
of their organization.
The CQA Program does this by:
- Scientifically and
quantitatively aiding caregiver selection
- Definitively improving
client/caregiver matching creating enthusiastic customers
- Improving caregiver
retention through increased job satisfaction
- Demonstrating quality to
customers in a way that clearly differentiates you from the
competition
Diane
West
is the CQA Program Manager. She is actively involved in development of
the program and is an expert on the technology that makes it all
possible. Diane shares three of the most important issues facing CEOs,
and how the CQA Program can improve your company.
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Three Assessments, One Result
-- Quality
 The CQA program improves caregiver quality using online
assessments including three components (Personality, Cognitive and Attitudes),
which have been proven by research to be the most effective in
predicting job performance, job satisfaction and retention of home care
providers.
- Will your caregiver be
dependable, cooperative and stress resistant?
- To what degree can they
problem solve?
- Will you have to worry
that this applicant may not be trustworthy, dependable or
honest?
The
online assessment, if answered honestly, will display any areas of
concern. What if the assessment is not answered honestly?
There is a validity scale built into each assessment that measures the
degree to which the person responded frankly or if they exaggerated
their answers.
The online assessment also produces behavioral interview questions,
based on these results. These targeted questions make the most of your
time if you choose to move ahead to an interview.
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Select the Best, Keep 'em
Forever
By Diane West
Each year your biggest expenses, outside of caregiver payroll, are
probably the total costs associated with caregiver recruitment. CQA
can't eliminate this expense, but by improving retention, you get far
more for your money.
Retention starts at selection. These assessments have been benchmarked
against thousands of caregivers and can quantitatively assign values to
each of the traits needed for a good job fit.
Now you will know to what degree each applicant is a good job fit. You
can choose to hire applicants that are best suited to be a
caregiver.
The Personality assessment will provide you with an overall job fit
score, which reflects how closely the individual's personality and
traits make them a good fit for this kind of work. This score
indicates their likelihood of doing a good job for you and their
potential job satisfaction. Hiring people with appropriate levels of
skill, attitude and aptitude for caregiving creates happier employees
who stay with your company longer.
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Clearly Defining Quality for
Your Customers and Referral Sources
The CQA Program improves marketing in two ways.
- First, using the CQA seal
on your website and printed marketing materials proudly displays
your commitment to quality care.
- Second, linking the CQA
seal to the "About CQA" page shows
potential customers what Caregiver Quality Assurance means to you.
Today's consumers
and referral sources hear the word quality tossed around frequently and
know that it doesn't always mean true commitment.
Your customers will be able to understand clearly how you provide
quality, and have the third party endorsement that will encourage them
to make your company a trusted partner in care.
CQA Program members get a listing in the SelectACaregiver.com Care Locator
which educates consumers about the program, and helps them find
licensed users of the system in their area. If you get one new referral
per year from SelectACaregiver.com, the CQA Program
pays for itself.
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Three Steps to Get Started
with CQA
Three steps will get you started:
- Read an overview of the
program at caregiverquality.com and selectacaregiver.com. These two
websites will help you see the program from the
perspective of the business owner and potential consumer.
- Request
a demo.
Experience the online assessments firsthand and see sample
assessments.
- Get
pricing, and sign up. Annual licenses are based on the
size of your company. Each license allows for unlimited online
assessments. Your cost per assessment is usually less than a
criminal background check, and the information you get is far more
valuable.
Diane West is happy to help. You can reach her by email at
Diane@leadinghomecare.com or by phone
at 1-866-209-5101.
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 Leigh Davis is one of our customers. His company was one of
the early adopters of the system that we now call Caregiver Quality Assurance.
His company has grown, and he attributes much of this growth to their
focus on quality.
Wouldn't it be great to sit down with this business owner/CEO over a
cup of tea? We considered flying Leigh to each of your offices for
half an hour, but this would be cost prohibitive. Plus, he already has
a day job.
We've done the next best thing. We asked Leigh to co-author a book, Get the Best: Nine Steps to Hiring Quality
Caregivers and Improving your Bottom Line in Private Duty Home Care.
Whether you are a member of the Caregiver Quality Assurance Program or
not you'll find his guide to recruitment, selection, and retention of
caregivers extremely valuable. He shows you step-by-step exactly how he
developed a comprehensive program that has turned quality into quantity
and specifically increased revenues and profits.
Leigh Davis and Stephen Tweed, his co-author, show in theory and
practice how improving the quality of your people directly affects your
bottom line.
Get the Best: Nine Steps to Hiring Quality
Caregivers and Improving your Bottom Line in Private Duty Home Care
is available in print format or e-book. Make a cup of tea, spend an hour
reading, and grow your company.
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