Delta Connect Blog

The biggest obstacle facing private duty owners and administrators who want to grow their business is finding and keeping quality caregivers. Companies who can recruit and retain the best people will continue to be the most competitive in their marketplace in the future.    

Have you wondered how professional resources such as doctors, hospitals, specialists, and care managers can impact your private duty client referrals?

The home care industry is a competitive business. You need to work with these professional resources to attract new clients.  But how can you attract these resources and create a mutual benefit?

This is a guest blog post written by Stephen Tweed, CSP, who is the CEO of Leading Home Care...a Tweed Jeffries company.  Stephen is an internationally known health care and business strategist, award winning professional speaker, published author, and consultant to the home care industry. 

Perhaps one of the greatest delusions in the home care business today is “customer service.” 

Every agency owner, CEO, and administrator truly believes that their agency gives great service and that they give better service than their competitors. Over the years in my seminars and workshops, I’ve asked participants “Who believes your agency gives better service than your competitors?”  Nearly everyone raises their hands.

Psychologists have actually created a name for this delusion, “The Lake Wobegon Effect.”

This is a guest blog post written by Stephen Tweed, CSP, who is the CEO of Leading Home Care...a Tweed Jeffries company.  Stephen is an internationally known health care and business strategist, award winning professional speaker, published author, and consultant to the home care industry. 

Several months ago, I was on a sales call with the owner of a successful home care company in the Midwest.  I was there to lead the home care team through a strategic planning process. The owner called the day before and said he had to set up an appointment with a very important prospect for the next day and would it be OK if we took a break from our planning so he could keep this appointment.

He asked me if I would accompany him on the sales call.

One of the first questions this rather sophisticated referral source asked was, “What makes your company different from all of the other home care companies in our town?”

The owner was caught off guard for a moment, and then gave him several generic responses. The prospect said, “That’s nice, but what really makes you different?  Your competitors say all those same things.”

The owner of the company was totally stumped.  He looked at me for help, but we had just begun our planning and I couldn’t help him very much.

When we got back to the office we spent much of the rest of the day really working on the answer to that question.  “What really makes you different from the other home care companies in town?”

As previously reported by the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), the U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) appealed the decisions of the U.S. District Court that invalidated the new rules issued by the Department that would have redefined the “companionship services” (provided by private duty caregivers) exemption from the minimum wage and overtime compensation requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The court also invalidated the rule change that would prohibit the application of the companionship services and live-in domestic services exemptions to workers employed by home care companies.