This article is sponsored by HCP. In this Voices interview, Hospice News sits down with Todd Austin, President of HCP, to learn the strategies that hospice providers can use right now to improve staff engagement, not just with the aim of keeping staff members in their own hospice agencies, but more broadly in the industry at large.
Hospice News: Todd, what career experiences do you most draw from in your role today?
Todd Austin: I’d say this is a unique question for me because I’ve been in the post-acute space for relatively a short amount of time, just under 10 years. Although in previous roles, I’ve always considered myself a servant-leader, I think today as president of HCP, I want to enable others to be successful in their roles. Part of our mission is providing agencies training insights and tools they need to meaningfully improve care in the home.
I would say beyond that, what I really draw from is actually my childhood. My oldest brother was wheelchair-bound from the ages of 5 to 16. We had both home health and hospice nurses in our home consistently, and watching them diligently work and take care of my brother from a car accident until he passed away at the age of 16 is what attracted me to coming to both Home Care Pulse and the post-acute space.
What hacks are hospice agencies missing right now that they could use to improve staff engagement?
Austin: The key in hospice is comfort at the end of life. I think the biggest talent that isn’t being utilized is some of the best training out there from Barbara Karnes, an end-of-life expert, around providing both the clinician and the family member with more comfort around the end-of-life experience. Although some are, not all end-of-life experiences are or need to be negative, and many can actually be an uplifting experience for total end-of-life care.
I think that’s a hack that we’re missing for staff engagement, but also for family members. If we focus just on staff engagement, it takes a special person to help a family navigate that experience. I think if we train more clinicians on a more positive methodology around end-of-life, then more clinicians would be attracted to the work because of how uplifting the experience can be.
What adjustments must hospice agencies make in response to economic shifts, not only to retain staff, but also to keep staff in the industry as a whole?
Austin: I think CMS has always put a high value on patient outcome and the overall impact, whether it’s through CAHPS surveys or others. I think the adjustments that home health and hospice need to make to keep staff engaged in the industry as a whole is to think about employee engagement just like you would your patient outcomes. If we spend as much time thinking about how to improve employee engagement as we do our CAHPS data, pre- and post-submission to CMS, I think we would move the needle.
Going along with that, how can flexible specialty training show staff a path forward in their agency and in the industry?
Austin: I think we’ve got a lot of new excitement around home-based care services, and to build upon that we’ve got to continue to train staff so that they’re comfortable to enter the home. It’s a different environment. Preparing them by offering more initial training, although they’re already certified and they’ve got their license, is a different experience.
Flexible training allows staff to review specialty courses before they meet with a new patient for the first time. It helps them feel more confident in their role and helps create that positive experience that will keep them in the industry. Specialty training can also show employees the value of staying with your agency, how they can improve and potentially move up the career ladder.
When a hospice agency must be more strategic than usual with its budget, how do you determine what’s really, or how do they determine what’s really worth the investment?
Austin: I think in all acute settings, both pre- and post-, we need to start to look at items that could be improving patient outcomes from an ROI perspective. More importantly, I think a lot of the investment over the last two or three years, both during COVID and post-COVID, if we’re post-COVID at this point, have not been vetted as closely as most would.
As everybody’s evaluating budget, as we’re seeing a little bit of a squeeze on reimbursement rates, ultimately we’ve got to start to look at everything from a return on investment standpoint. I think there’s a lot of great solutions out there that show a pretty good path towards how they can help you either retain staff or drive patient outcomes.
How can hospice agencies best communicate their value to clients and staff, and how can they leverage feedback on their performance from clients, patients and staff?
Austin: I think in home health and hospice, there’s a different answer for each one. I would say generally speaking, in home-based care services, we don’t do a very good job of pounding our chest and saying, “Hey! We’re really good at this.” We have a lot of modest, hardworking, dedicated individuals out there. One way I believe that we can do this is by celebrating milestones and wins more frequently.
An opportunity that I’ve seen specifically around communication is tying all of this back to mission, vision and values. Many organizations say they have mission, vision, values, but do not recognize or review based on them. All of those great values should tie back to an outcome or a positive employment experience.
This will help communicate agency value, but it also gives the clients and the patients the ability to understand that they’re being heard, because they’re being celebrated off of a positive outcome or an employee milestone. Agencies need to communicate their value back to the client and the caregiver to consistently articulate how and what they’re doing and how it ties back to their mission, vision and values. They also need to ensure those messages are resonating, and leverage the feedback from clients and patients and staff.
Finish this sentence: “The top strategy that hospice providers should employ in 2022 to best prepare for 2023 is…”?
Austin: Continued monetization. I think we’re seeing care models change. With that change, we’ve got to continue to figure out how to monetize our services to provide good quality care at home, whether that’s squeezing on budgets or changing our models. I think monetization in ’22 will help us prepare for continued growth in ’23.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Whether through its Care Intelligence Platform, annual HCP Benchmarking Report or Best of Home Care awards, HCP — a leader in the home-based care industry in experience management, training and reputation management — empowers providers in home care, home health and hospice to attract and retain employees during workforce shortages. For more information, visit homecarepulse.com.
The Voices Series is a sponsored content program featuring leading executives discussing trends, topics and more shaping their industry in a question-and-answer format. For more information on Voices, please contact [email protected].
