Operational Data a Critical Tool Home Care Providers Often Overlook

Home care providers looking to use operational data to grow will need to learn how to sort through the clutter.

Simply put, operational data is the data that is gleaned from an organization’s day-to-day operations.

While data can be a useful decision-making tool, it’s important for providers to understand the information they’re looking at in order to get the complete picture, Jeff Wiberg, CEO of Family Resource Home Care, said during a panel discussion at Home Care Pulse’s 2022 Home Care Growth Summit.

“You could end up making decisions that are based upon half-truths, and that could send you down expensive rabbit holes, or cause you to miss a few things,” he said. “Deliberately and thoughtfully collecting data that helps you to drive decision-making is huge.”

This is because data allows home care leaders to narrow their focus and work on the area of the business that will move the needle the most. Data can be applied, for example, when trying to address recruitment and retention challenges.

“Hiring has become tough; you could see application volume shrinking,” Wiberg said. “You need to identify whether or not additional investments are working in your application volume, but unless you look at the full picture, you may miss that conversion of applications is maybe a better data point. Identifying exactly what are the right data points to be looking at is what’s going to empower you.”

Spokane, Washington-based Family Resource Home Care is one of the largest independent personal care companies in the Pacific Northwest. The company now has 25 locations mostly focused in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Data also comes in handy when home care leaders need to validate the decisions they have already made.

“Did your volume go up?” Wiberg said. “Is it in concert with the return-on-investment for the dollars that went to generating more applications, for example? Then looking at the quality of hire — ensuring that you’re getting the right kind of caregivers that stick around and are doing a good job. Those data points combined really help you to validate your decision to maybe invest into sourcing more applications.”

Recruitment and retention are just some of the many data points that home care leaders should be focusing on.

Client satisfaction, caregiver satisfaction, revenue goals, gross profit, caregiver training hours and weekly scheduled caregiver hours are other data points that should also be top of mind for providers, Tim Murray, CEO and co-founder of TeamElderCare Consulting, noted during the discussion.

TeamElderCare Consulting is an elder care consulting company based in Cary, North Carolina.

Murray pointed out that caregiver satisfaction, in particular, is an often overlooked data point.

“This is a people business and if you don’t have it right, you’re not going to have a sustainable business,” he said. “Caregiver satisfaction is overlooked when it should be No. 1.”

There are plenty of skeptics still in the home care world when it comes to data. For instance, only 18% of agencies tracked client readmissions last year.

“I think that some of the naysayers regarding data might say, ‘I don’t like looking at data. I manage with my gut,’” he said. “I love the quote that says, ‘The gut is for digesting food. It’s not for managing a business.’ … Data is meant to influence you.”