So the first part of the care coordination role is to start up a new case. This right here is probably the biggest game-changer, for most people. ‘Cause most people do not meet at the office, most people meet at the client’s house. And you ever eat a slice of humble pie, when you show up at a client’s house and the caregiver doesn’t show up. Has that ever happened to anybody before?
So instead, you have the caregiver meet you at your office because you know they know how to get there. We used to have, at CareChoice, two designated start times. Unless it was an overnight or something of that nature, we always had two designated start times. Every case started at either 10:00 am or 1:00 pm.
Why?
So the caregiver knew they had to be at the office at 9:00 am or 12 noon. If they don’t show up and it’s 9:15 am and we can’t get a hold of the caregiver, we have plan B in place to be able to show up and start this case accordingly. That’s huge. You need that! You need that plan B in place, ’cause when you show up at a clients house and the caregiver doesn’t show up, the case is over. You look horrible. All right, and you feel it.
Like I would feel bad when it happened right. So you have the caregiver meet you at the office. Now when the caregiver meets you at the office, this is one of those touches. How do you keep caregivers? It’s all about the touches.
Meaning not like, touches physically touching, but managing and seeing them face to face. For the most part, with the exception of orientation and interviews, we don’t really see our caregivers after that case gets started up. And so, as a result all of our communication is texting, email or phone calls. That’s how we communicate. And that’s what leads to the turnover rate that we currently have as an industry.
The care coordinator process gives us an opportunity to increase those touches. When a caregiver is sitting in my office, waiting for me to go to a case. Or waiting for a care coordinator to take them to a case, and I happen to come into the office.
Here’s an example:
“I’m Steve. I’m the Vice President of CareChoice, and I just wanted to tell you a little bit of information about the patient that you’re going to be seeing. Mrs. Smith, I met with her the other day, she had a stroke, she’s paralyzed on the left side. She’s very very very dependent on you, but she wants to get better. She’s agreeing to follow through her physical therapy exercises, and so, I think this will be a good long term case for you. Help her however you’re supposed to, our nurse is going to meet you at the house in a little bit, and she’ll go over a plan of care with you. But give her everything you have. But before we do that, I want to ask you, how are you doing my friend?”
“I am good.”
“You’re a good caregiver?”
“Yes.”
“Awesome. Well thank you so much. I appreciate that. And I just want to say thank you, for taking this case. So as the Vice President of CareChoice, my job is to grow our company. So I have all these relationships with our hospitals, all these relationships with our rehab centers, all these relationships with our assisted living communities, and so on. And right now we’re taking care of over 100 people in the home.
Now all I ask of you, is that you do the very best you can. And when you do the best you can, that family member, they tell the person that referred them and sent them to us, and then that allows me to keep all of our caregivers here, working. We’ve got 150 people currently working in the field right now. And when you do a good job, you help me keep them working. Now a commitment from me to you Edith is, for as long as you wanna work here at CareChoice, I will make sure that you always have work. That is what I do, I appreciate you, and I’ll tell you what, here’s my card, if you need anything, here’s my card, you can take it. My cellphone number is on there, just give me a call and let me know, because I’m here to help you, all right.”
“Thank you so much.”
“Thank you so much, take it, do a good job. Again, if you need me, let me know.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you Edith.”
“Thank you.”
You see what I just did?
That’s what I used to do every time I came into an office with a caregiver that was about to go out on a case. Now, Edith let me ask you, how do you feel right now? Even though it was a role play. How do you feel? Do you feel important? Edith? Do you feel important right now?
“Oh yeah.”
“How did you feel when I did that with you?”
“I feel awesome, you know. I feel very important. And to be a part of your job or your team, I would be happy.”
“Awesome.”
That’s exactly it! Now, the only takes 3 or 4 minutes and it made her feel important.
Remember I talked earlier, what’s the most valuable asset in our business? It’s our caregivers. That little role play that I just did, makes a world of difference. You also like the way I said that last part? What was one of the last things I said? For as long as you are looking for work, you will always have a job here at CareChoice. I just gave her a commitment and a promise, from me to her.
Boot Camp Testimonial
“Take the time. Give yourself the break from your office, turn over the reigns to someone you trust, to come and just be ready to deep dive, and to learn and to commit and to be inspired. The moment that we met Steve, we just knew that this was someone that knew the business, he worked in the business, so he’s an expert, and coming to a boot camp will get you energized about your business. You’ll be going back to the offices, a bunch of ideas, probably too many ideas, but if you just implement a few of them, you’ll see a difference in your business. And you’ll be so grateful, and then you’ll wanna come to the next one. They all different and every single time it’s different. There’s always something that I’d leave that I’d take away, that it’s like, “Oh yeah, I’ve gotta go back and do that for my business”, and it all works.” – Franny
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