Case Study

Client Profile:

• Type of Organization: Home Health & Hospice
• Location: Midwest, USA
• Featured Administrator: Bobbie Thompson
• Number of Staff: 20
• Census Number: 350
• Services Provided: Hospice & Home Health

Hospice Faces Sudden Staffing Crisis

A hospice and home health provider in the Midwest faced unprecedented staffing concerns. “there were four people positioned for retirement,” Bobbie Thompson, the Manager of Clinical Office Operations, recalls, “And we weren’t in a place to replace them.”

With another nurse on FMLA leave, the pending departures of some of their most senior nurses left the already resource-thin hospice team feeling uncertain about the future. With over 75 to 100 daily calls, one on-call nurse wouldn’t be sufficient. “We were under minimum staffing,” Thompson explains, “It was a stressful time for nursing and staff leaders.”

Thompson said they considered several options to bridge the gap. She asked the Human Resources department to help with their hiring effort. They combed the database of over 6700 current nurses but couldn’t find the needed replacement quickly. Thompson and other administrators considered cross-training the current team, but that didn’t seem ideal. “We weren’t sure what we were going to do,” Thompson remembers.

Growing Patient & Caregiver Experience Concerns

Staffing concerns only compounded the existing challengers with patient and caregiver experience during the evening and weekend hours. Nurses relied on the support of a non-clinical answering service to help answer caregiver calls, but there had been growing concern over long wait times of up to twenty minutes.

The on-call nurses struggled to keep up with the volume of calls, and it would be more challenging without their veteran nurses. Thompson knew that any solutions they found for the staffing crisis also had to address the challenges they were experiencing with their answering service—no easy task. Thompson remembers the overwhelming challenge: “Things started to become more urgent. We are in a perfect storm.”

An Unexpected Solution

Something had to be done—and fast. Thompson hadn’t found the ideal solution to her staffing and patient experience challenges when she received a call from CareXM specialist Michelle Olsen.

“Michelle listened to my concerns,” Thompson remembers, “and was able to present creative solutions.” A few months later, when the situation had become urgent, Thompson remembered her call with Olsen, and she knew CareXM had the answer.

CareXM offered the additional clinical support the Midwest Home Health and Hospice organization needed. Registered nurses with hospice training would answer calls, unlike the operators at her current answering service. The CareXM nurses use a higher level of clinical thinking to receive, assess, and triage the calls appropriately, which Thompson and
the others at the organization saw as invaluable.

Additionally, Thompson appreciated that CareXM offered scalable services based on demand. Because this partnership was intended to be short-term until they overcame their staffing crisis, she needed a partner who could begin providing value immediately without long-term requirements.

CareXM worked with the IT department to integrate the CareXM call and documentation platform with the existing AllScripts ™ platform. Thompson said they went above and beyond to get the systems in place: “They amazed me. They were problem-solvers. They were idea people.”

CareXM responded quickly to the specific needs of the Midwest Home Health & Hospice organization. “If you are going to try something in the toughest of scenarios–it has to work,” explains Thompson.

Reinforcements Arrive

Only days after signing up for service, the organization began sending its calls to CareXM. Thompson remembers the quick turnaround time: “They received the information one day and started helping us the next.”

Thompson says the Midwest Home Health and Hospice organization’s go-live with CareXM was like a sigh of relief: “There was an element of relief,” she says, “it was like special forces were coming to help.” The nurses now knew they had backup when they needed it the most.

Thompson and her staff soon discovered that CareXM was more than a service provider—they were a true partner in care. “They went above and beyond in effort, took everything to heart, and were willing to watch and learn,” Thompson explained.

Together, the CareXM team and the Midwest Home Health and Hospice organization’s team addressed every challenge the hospice provider had been facing; with the additional support from CareXM, the busy hospice provider had the time they so desperately needed to begin rebuilding their team without jeopardizing the patient and caregiver experience.

Superior Patient Care

Thompson explains that although the relationship with staff was important, the quality of the patient and caregiver support was most critical. She says of her confidence in the caregiver and patient experience with CareXM, “My patient wouldn’t have gotten this kind of customer service from anyone else.”

The Midwest Home Health & Hospice organization’s team quickly saw the nursing triage provider’s skill difference from traditional answering services. With clinical training, CareXM could resolve non-emergent calls while properly triaging calls to the Home Health & Hospice organization’s on-call nurse when appropriate. Patients and caregivers could talk to a registered nurse within seconds without ever experiencing a disruption in care.

“We wouldn’t have been able to handle the call volume without CareXM,” Thompson admits, “It could have resulted in delay or patient risk.” In fact, they found the call volume was nearly cut in half with CareXM support, reducing the total call volume to the organization’s on-call nurses to less than 50 calls per day. This ensured the most emergent calls received the attention they needed.

Thompson believes the partnership with CareXM increased patient satisfaction scores because patients had support within seconds. “The transition care from our organization to CareXM was as seamless as possible,” she adds.

State-Of-The-Art-Technology

In the healthcare world, where documentation is so essential, the CareXM software platform was another benefit. The Home Health & Hospice organization’s staff members found it was easy to use and navigate. Even nurses with limited technological experience could use the system on the first day of logging on. The Patient Documentation Portal (PDP) allowed Thompson and her team to access all information easily and quickly, allowing for a seamless transition of care.

The Daily Call Log gave Thompson the oversight she had hoped for. Reports were printed every morning to provide a concise ‘snapshot’ of everything that happened during the night. And she knew she could listen to the calls whenever she wanted.

The advanced call recording technology also gave Thompson and her team peace of mind. Because all CareXM calls are recorded, there was never a question about how certain patient/caregiver calls were handled. Thompson explains how the call reporting feature was used: “If we had questions about a patient call, I would request the recording. I would have the recording within minutes, and a CareXM nursing manager and U would listen to the call together to problem solve.”

Bonus Benefits

Partnering with CareXM had another positive effect that Thompson didn’t anticipate. She says the partnership provided a “jumpstart” in the efforts to document and streamline the Home Health & Hospice organization’s internal policies and processes.

Having relied on veteran nurses for years, the Midwest Home Health & Hospice organization hadn’t had an eminent need for clearly written guidelines. However, writing policies to facilitate the partnership with CareXM helped them better define organizational standards. “It allowed us to self-reflect on improving processes and communication,” she says, “which has greatly helped us in the training efforts.”

Crisis Averted

With CareXM support, the Midwest Home Health & Hospice organization overcame its staffing crisis. The partnership gave it the critical time it needed to hire and train new nurses while simultaneously addressing how to improve patient and caregiver satisfaction and its own processes.

Thompson says she wouldn’t hesitate to recommend CareXM to other Hospice Home Health companies. “In our experience, CareXM was a team saver,” she explains, “CareXM delivered on everything they said they would do.”

After six months with CareXM, the Midwest Home Health & Hospice organization was positioned to handle all its incoming calls again. But Thompson says she will never forget how appreciative she was for CareXM: “The partnership with CareXM had multiple benefits for us: they care for our patients, gave our team the hope to get through a difficult time, gave us space to improve and process—you can’t put a monetary amount on that.”

Partner with CareXM

If your hospice team is experiencing nursing or patient satisfaction concerns, we may be able to help. Our hospice triage experts can provide you with a plan, including solutions personalized for your organization.

Contact Us Today:

• Website: www.carexm.com
• Email: hello@carexm.com