POTENTIAL PITFALLS THAT HOME CARE PROVIDERS NEED TO BE AWARE OF

Here’s a bitter pill to swallow: every home care agency, no matter how successful, has blind spots. To assume that you fully understand your clients and caregivers creates apathy. No matter how successful our agency is, we should constantly be seeking to better understand our clients and caregivers needs. 

Here are just a few reasons for these pitfalls. For one, the same confidence that makes many business owners successful can sometimes blind them to potential problems. Caregivers may be reluctant to speak up about important issues that concern them, or that could improve the service you offer, because they’re afraid they could lose their job or they’re intimidated by their boss. 

Clients may also feel reluctant to speak up for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that sometimes, some people simply don’t mention problems they see unless they’re asked.   

Here are just a couple of the blind spots that have been documented among agencies: 

• Clients’ families who want more frequent or specific updates on the progress of their loved ones, but are more likely to mention it in frustrated conversations with friends than talking directly to the agency

• Unhappy clients who are particular about ways that they want things done in the house, but don’t communicate it clearly to the caregiver 

• Clients who won’t take rides from caregivers and end up quitting services because their caregivers’ cars are filthy 

In order for us to overcome these blind spots, we must constantly be working extremely hard to establish a culture where anyone can respectfully challenge the status quo if they believe there’s a better way to do something. One of the ways to create that culture is by seeking regular feedback through employee reviews, anonymous suggestion boxes, and exit surveys. Even with these processes, there'll probably still be blind spots—but we’ll keep working hard to find them. 

Some of the basic indications that you have blind spots include: 

•  Seemingly happy clients who still need care regularly terminate services without much warning

• You have competitive pay, a great work environment, and other benefits for your caregivers, but still experience unreasonably high turnover

• You can’t remember the last time caregivers came to you with feedback or ideas

• Clients and caregivers rarely seem to offer any sort of ideas or feedback on how things could be done better