Ep:33: 5 Secrets to Master Home Care Scheduling

Miriam Allred (00:08):

Welcome to Vision | The Care Leaders’ Podcast. I’m Miriam Allred with Home Care Pulse. My guest today is Olivia Jones from Care Advantage. She’s the Executive Vice President and has been with Care Advantage since 1998. Olivia, welcome to the show!

Olivia Jones (00:24):

Oh, thank you, Miriam. It’s my pleasure to be here. I’m totally excited to join you today!

Miriam Allred (00:29):

Yes, I can’t. Wait. You have been in personal care for over 23 years. You lead your team and caregiver recruitment, scheduling resource management, client satisfaction. You have a wealth of knowledge. And today we’re going to talk about scheduling. It’s a big topic and we get a lot of feedback time and time again about scheduling. So if you’re ready, let’s dive into this conversation.

Olivia Jones (00:51):

Absolutely!

Miriam Allred (00:52):

So first let’s talk a little bit about the root issue or challenge behind scheduling. Like I said, so many providers, you know, what are their biggest headaches they usually say is scheduling. So just kind of opening, opening it up to you. What, what do you feel like is the biggest challenge or the root of the challenge with scheduling?

Olivia Jones (01:12):

Yeah, so, you know, as, as you mentioned, Miriam started with Care Advantage in 1998. My first role actually in the home care industry was as a scheduling coordinator. And to this day it remains my favorite position. It’s, it’s the best role I’ve ever worked. I’ll always hold it near and dear to my heart. And as the Executive Vice-President, it’s not lost on me, that critical role that our schedulers play. I often refer to them as the heartbeat, so they they’re really the front line for both our caregivers and our clients. And I think what you’re getting at is it’s a rewarding job, but it is a challenging role as well. And I think that challenge that really, since I started 23 years ago, what hasn’t changed is access. And actually it’s probably become more challenging access to quality caregivers dependable caregivers that say what they mean, mean what they say. And you know, I think the scheduler, the schedulers role is so critical to coaching up and mentoring those caregivers and helping to solve for that capacity issue. Once you get them hold on to them. And the scheduler is definitely the linchpin when it comes to that.

Miriam Allred (02:34):

Yeah. I love what you just said about hold on to them. You know, they’re so valuable to our agencies and we’ve got to make sure they have complete job satisfaction and feel good and confident in their role so that we can maintain them because they do so much. Absolutely. So, so let’s talk about what you’ve learned, you know, some secrets to scheduling and how you’ve mastered it there, you know, with care advantage, let’s kind of break down five secrets or tips for our listeners today. You’ve kind of mapped out some of these, the secrets and let’s talk about them. So what’s the first secret you want to share with our audience?

Olivia Jones (03:12):

Yeah, so the first, and in my opinion, most important aspect of mastering home care scheduling is definitely the ability to build relationships. As I mentioned earlier, scheduling is the nucleus of any home care operation. So you have to connect with the client very early on. You have to listen, be in tuned to what their needs are and then work with your caregivers to solve for that need meeting the clients is a great way to build that relationship. It also helps to get a full understanding of what the client’s needs are, their likes, their dislikes. And in addition to building a relationship with the client, you must also have a great relationship with your caregivers. They need to know that you are working for them as well, that we’re going to set them up for success. They’ve got someone there to listen when they need an ear to mentor them, empower them and keep them working with the clients that they’re well-matched with.

Miriam Allred (04:18):

Do you have any specific examples of, you know, a relationship that you saw developed and what it, you know, transpired in or turned into?

Olivia Jones (04:27):

Yeah. Oh man, I have so many, but you know, I’ve personally experienced this as a scheduler just a few years ago and I’ve witnessed it work across 27 locations on a daily basis. So you know, I think one Testament is it’s not uncommon for clients or their family caregiver to come into our branches with special recognition for their scheduling coordinator. I’ve seen flowers, sweet treats like cake, fresh fruit, and even on one occasion, a full lasagna meal for the office team to share. So while that recognition is not necessary, I do think it’s a Testament to the relationships that our schedulers have with the clients. So one that really an example that really stands out to me as when I was a scheduler. We had a client and I’ll call her Mrs. P. Mrs. P was such a sweet lady. Our caregivers loved working with her.

Olivia Jones (05:23):

Her daughter was under a lot of stress as the family caregiver, and sometimes that would create some staffing challenges. I reached out to her daughter and set up a time for us to meet we interacted all of the time on the phone multiple times a day, but it’s just different when you meet someone it’s more personal. So we met, I also got to meet Mrs. P the client. I got to meet her grandsons and the family dog. So it, it was a wonderful visit. But from that point forward, there was a transformation, things went much more smoothly. We had truly, I guess, for lack of a better word humanized one another. So for me as a scheduler, it was a good refresher on the why our purpose and, and I learned early on how important it is to keep that top of mind because it’s so easy to get into that day-to-day cycle and you feel like it, it can become very transactional and keeping it relational is so important, but for her, I wasn’t just the voice behind the phone receiver. She knew I cared and, and a few years after Mrs P passed away, her daughter actually joined our company as a caregiver. And we remained connected for over 15 years after I served her mother as a scheduler.

Miriam Allred (06:47):

Oh my goodness. Great story and great example. And I love what you said. It’s so easy to get in the mode of operation every day, just kind of grinding and getting things done, but I love what you said about, we’ve got to keep the human element there. You know, we’re all individual people and we’re providing this personalized care and we’ve got to take a step back and remember how important each individual is around us.

Olivia Jones (07:10):

Yes, absolutely. It’s so critical. And when you’re behind the phone all the time, it’s so easy to lose that.

Miriam Allred (07:18):

We’ve definitely experienced that more so in 2020 than, than ever before. Yeah.

Olivia Jones (07:22):

Technology, the great connector, but can also cause some disconnect.

Miriam Allred (07:28):

Absolutely. Well, that was a great response. Let’s move into the second secret. What do you have for us?

Olivia Jones (07:33):

Yes. Client and caregiver compatibility would be the second secret. In my opinion, you can’t just send a warm body out to serve a client in need. And I think this starts with the very first interaction with the caregiver when they apply with your organization you know, learning why they chose the caregiving profession, what are their strengths? How long have they been a caregiver et cetera. And so I think it’s also important to involve your scheduler in the interview and or the onboarding process. It plants the seed for what will hopefully be a longstanding relationship. And the scheduler and recruiter should work in sync around recruiting for the highest needs and in matching the clients and caregivers. We actually use a tool from home care pulse not, not a shameless plug, but we do. We’ve actually used the client caregiver compatibility form. And it highlights those key points as it relates to compatibility.

Miriam Allred (08:39):

Oh, awesome. That’s what I was going to ask. How do you, you know, what process do you have in place or what documentation do you use? That’s great to hear. We’ll have to share that with our network after this episode. Talk to me a little bit more in detail about that, you know, you’ve got the form maybe that your caregiver fills out, you have probably a client intake form, you know, how do you match those? Is it, is it up to the scheduler to piece some of that together or just kind of walk me through high level? That whole part.

Olivia Jones (09:04):

Yeah. Sure. So so, you know, there’s the intake process where you gather the information, there’s the interview process where you learn about the caregiver? We are lucky these days. We have a lot more technology than when I first started out. Most software systems, scheduling software programs have some sort of matching built into them which is basically the, the caregiver compatibility automated. We, we have our software system we use Kaleida Systems ERSP and we can hit recommend, and it will pre propose all of the caregivers that live near the client that has skillsets that match the client’s medical needs. It’ll even highlight those that have been there before, which makes the scheduling a bit bit easier because, you know, they’re familiar with each other. And yeah, it also looks at their availability. So that’s a great tool if you have that technology at your fingertips you know, otherwise there are other ways that we use, if you don’t have the software those compatibility sheets you know, just really getting to know your caregivers and keeping that sheet at your fingertips.

Miriam Allred (10:31):

Great response there, any specific examples of, you know, compatibility gone right or compatibility gone wrong?

Olivia Jones (10:40):

Yeah, I think I think there are quite a few for all of those situations. I mean, when I think of compatibility gone, right, we’ll start there, I’m a glass half full kind of gal. One example that comes to mind for me is a caregiver that she’s actually worked with our company for 30 years. And her earlier years, she took care of a young boy, I’ll call him Joe. She literally became a part of Joe’s family. She went on vacations with them. She attended holiday gatherings. And to this day he’s a grown man now she remains connected with that family. She no longer works for him as a paid caregiver, but she still attends their family events and that’s truly heartwarming. And, and that’s when you know, you’ve gotten it right when they become a part of that family. Conversely, if you get that wrong I think what stands out to me is at one point we had a retired attorney obviously, you know, intelligent man, very well-read. He wanted a caregiver that could come and carry on dialogue at his intellectual level. I’m not sure I could have quite frankly you know, he, so that was probably one of the most challenging situations. And I think in those cases, there’s a little bit of compatibility mixed with managing expectations.

Miriam Allred (12:17):

Great example and super unique example. I love that. And with compatibility, you know, comes the issue of retention and turnover. Some caregivers you may lose because they don’t have a good experience with that specific client. So any specific outcomes or numbers that you could tie, you know, indirectly compatibility to around turnover or retention?

Olivia Jones (12:43):

Oh, shoot. I am terrible at pulling these numbers off the top of my head. I do know, I don’t know this specific number off the top of my head. Now we’ll draw a blank, but I do know that as an organization because I tell this frequently, so I can’t believe I can’t pull it, but we do exceed the industry as far as retention. So our turnover rate is at least 10% lower than the industry standard. So, you know, there’s, there’s definite if you match your caregivers up, right, they’re going to be happy. I think most importantly, be prepared to solicit feedback from both the client and the caregiver after that first shift. I mean, the communication is really the key. You can make a bad match, but then find out early solicit that feedback because they may not be comfortable telling you. And then you have a much higher chance of retaining caregiver and or client with the result of that communication.

Miriam Allred (13:50):

Yeah. I’m putting you on the spot there, but really good feedback there in, you know, solicit that feedback early on, you know, you don’t want to wait or, you know, a push for them to stay or keep going with that client when it’s not a good match. So, so really good commentary there. And yeah, sorry everybody on the spot, but,

Olivia Jones (14:10):

And I should have, I should have pulled some of those numbers because, you know, not only do you retain those caregivers, but you were taking clients longer, their average length of stay goes up as well.

Miriam Allred (14:21):

Absolutely. Well, still really good comments there. Let’s talk about the third tip.

Olivia Jones (14:28):

All right. So third tip would be simplified, accessible processes that help your schedule or with managing what is a really complex puzzle. So we have developed what we call our staffing solution set, and it’s a step-by-step tool to walk through options, to take, trying to cover a shift. There are 10 different steps and in our solution set and it includes things like breaking up larger shifts. So you have a 12 hour shift and you’ve got someone from seven to three, but you can’t get someone to work seven to seven. So can you work with the client to send two caregivers and have a seven to three and then a three to seven to get the same hours covered? You know, think of services such as Uber health or Lyft to help with staffing challenges. So, you know, if the, if there’s not a mass transit infrastructure in the area you’re serving, what other ways can you help get caregivers to and from clients because that transportation can be one of the biggest barriers and, connecting the caregivers with the clients that need the care.

Miriam Allred (15:49):

So elaborate on that for me, that’s kind of a new concept to me. You help facilitate that transportation.

Olivia Jones (15:56):

We do. Yeah. So we we actually use Uber health. So it’s a HIPAA compliant platform for healthcare companies. And our schedulers can write from an app on their company. Phones can dispatch an Uber to a caregiver’s home address to pick them up and deliver them to the client’s address. You can schedule it in advance, it’s billed to our company account and, you know, the caregiver is, they love it. In some cases we even used it as an incentive to get them to go to work, even if they don’t necessarily need a ride. How about I show for you to work tonight? It’s a nice selling point. Yeah.

Miriam Allred (16:44):

That, okay. Yeah. I’m familiar with Uber health, I guess. I didn’t realize that the agency could oversee and facilitate that transportation beause that’s a whole nother piece of this very complicated puzzle. Like you mentioned, it’s not only figuring out the schedules, but it’s ordering the transportation and figuring out all those additional logistics. That’s a lot to oversee.

Olivia Jones (17:05):

Absolutely. And, and yeah, you can schedule it out in advance and it’s, it’s been quite the lifesaver for us on more than one occasion.

Miriam Allred (17:15):

Yeah. I can only imagine yeah, really good information there. Any other specific examples of, of that topic that you want to hit on?

Olivia Jones (17:26):

Yeah, not, not, not really. I mean, I guess you know, if you do have a home care company that has multiple locations, or if you have a great what we call power partner another company in the same area that you work well together. Right. I think we all do that as a general role pretty well we compete, but at the end of the day, we’re all here because people need care. So can you partner up with other branches in your company or partner agencies to help with scheduling gaps as well on a contract basis? You know, that’s, that’s also something that we do. We plug into the power of regionalization often and use caregivers from different territories to cover things that may be a little bit further away. And often Uber helps us facilitate that.

Miriam Allred (18:23):

Do you have really good points there? Before we dive into the next tip, let’s give our audience a little bit of perspective care advantage. Has how many locations across your area?

Olivia Jones (18:35):

27 branches across Virginia, DC, Maryland and Delaware.

Miriam Allred (18:42):

Okay. And this might be putting on the spot a little bit. Also just kind of a perspective question. How many schedulers do you have typically at one location and about average, how many caregivers are they overseeing or, you know, or how many clients and caregiver caregivers are they scheduling for typically?

Olivia Jones (19:03):

Oh, that, that’s a great question. And we we’ve actually developed a staffing matrix over the years just to kind of gauge what that should look like. So in an office that staffs 4,000 hours or more, for example we would have two schedulers that work the schedules in those branches. 4,000 hours, it’s typically between a hundred and 115 clients depending on, you know, the utilization or, or what the needs are of each client and usually 130 to 150 caregivers out of an office of that size. So we, we built our staffing matrix around the number of hours provided every week.

Miriam Allred (19:56):

And that 4,000 is a weekly number?

Olivia Jones (19:59):

Yes. 4,000 hours a week. So in, in a, in a smaller branch which we have in our footprint so 1500 or, or less hours a week would be one scheduler and anywhere from, you know, 30 to 30 to 40 clients and those branches and maybe up to 50 caregivers.

Miriam Allred (20:24):

Okay. Yeah. I love that. Thanks for getting granular, you know, every agency operates slightly differently, but I think it’s really good to hear those numbers firsthand so people can kind of visualize, you know, what it looks like at other agencies. Absolutely. So let’s dive into the next tip. What do you have

Olivia Jones (20:42):

So for the next tip, I have had a great scheduling and use that technology to create efficiencies in your scheduling. You know, we, we went from in 2008, we were on paper. We invested in a scheduling system. There were some minor bumps and bruises along the way and getting folks on board with that. But what a game changer some, some examples of things you can do, you can broadcast shifts out to your entire available caregiver population. So if you’re in a time crunch and making a call out to, you know, 50 caregivers is not an option you can text it out to 50 caregivers with the click of a button. I also mentioned earlier that automated compatibility check which is in our system called mass recommend where it’ll you click on the open shift and it’ll show you who’s a good match for that particular shift. Automatically building schedules out, you know, so many efficiencies you can gain from a great scheduling system and a lot of information and reporting at your fingertips.

Miriam Allred (22:05):

Oh my goodness. And you said 2008, you’re using paper. Can you even imagine where we would be if we were still using paper for this type of scheduling?

Olivia Jones (22:13):

I can not, as I’m still amazed that we were all, so many of us were able to do it for as long as we did on paper. I mean, that’s incredible,

Miriam Allred (22:23):

Well, 4,000 hours a week, and to think hundreds of clients and caregivers, it would just be an absolute nightmare, but I love what you said, those other features that you have to text out or broadcast the schedule to, you know, automate the, the compatibility. Those features are game changers.

Olivia Jones (22:41):

Absolutely. Yeah. You can get information to your caregivers and in real time across the entire footprint, consistent messaging you know, rewards and recognition. That’s easier to do when you’ve got that access at your fingertips and, and now we’ve pretty much gone to a total electronic medical record system through that. So again, real time information at the schedulers fingertips when they are staffing a client.

Miriam Allred (23:18):

Yeah, absolutely. Oh my goodness. W was that the last tip? Am I right? Was that five, that was five. Wow. That went by lickety split, but really good information. I, we can’t stress enough, the importance of these schedulers, maybe just kind of one question in closing, you mentioned a little bit at the beginning, but how do you reward or, you know, really make sure your schedulers are set up for success.

Olivia Jones (23:46):

Yes. So we do at least once a quarter, we do some really fun contest. And they love it. They love to compete against each other. So across the branches they’re very competitive in nature. We have a lot of fun with it. We had a September to remember contest and, and the outfall of last year, and it was all based around the dude. You remember? So we have a lot of fun. We get together weekly and post updates and it’s, it’s based on, you know, who’s scheduling, who’s getting their shifts covered. Who’s got the least amount of unfilled shifts and which all ultimately leads to growth for your organization. But most importantly ensures that everybody remembers why we do what we do, which is providing that coverage for those clients. And we just, we have quarterly meetings where now we do it by zoom, but we bring our schedulers together as a group so that they can share best practices concerns kind of lean on each other. If they’ve got a real challenging case, they come together, they talk about it and they meet for less lengthy of a time on a bi-weekly basis, every scheduler across the company together on one zoom.

Miriam Allred (25:12):

Yeah. That’s awesome to share experiences, you know, maybe to vent, maybe to talk, share best practices. That’s so good that they have kind of a community of support and network where they can share honest and open feedback and get, you know, tips from each other. That’s so important.

Olivia Jones (25:28):

Yes, absolutely. Yes.

Miriam Allred (25:30):

Well, Olivia, that was great. Thank you so much for sharing all of this information care advantage is such a good example of an organization that’s doing this right. You know, you’ve taken a lot of time and learned a lot over the last 20 plus years and it’s paid off. You know, you’ve been able to talk about some of these outcomes you’ve derived from using and utilizing your schedulers to, to the best of your abilities. And I just appreciate everything that you’ve shared today.

Olivia Jones (25:57):

Well, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to share it, Miriam. I don’t know if you can hear it, but staffing and scheduling that. That’s my passion. It’s still very near and dear.

Miriam Allred (26:10):

Thanks for listening to this episode of Vision. If you’d like to access the resources that Olivia talked about, head over to our website, homecarepulse.com/podcast to download them today. Thanks again and we’ll see you next time!