As many as 9 out of 10 aging Americans prefer aging in place, giving home health and hospice agencies an excellent opportunity for growth. However, providers’ ability to scale is often limited by repetitive administrative tasks and high staff turnover that fuel decreases in patient satisfaction (JPSM). On top of this, there is a clinician gap, particularly among nurses, with a projected shortage of 1.2 million nurses by 2030 (NLM).
To address these challenges, top-performing agencies use innovative home health triage services, such as on-demand triage services, smart technology, and proactive programs, to care for more patients with the same or fewer resources, empowering providers to focus on growth and quality improvement.
The Challenge of Scaling Census & Home Health Triage Services
The traditional approach to scaling census in home health and hospice often seems simple: add more patients while hiring as few new staff as possible. As patient loads rise, however, healthcare providers face heavier workloads and more pressure, resulting in diminished job satisfaction, higher turnover rates, and, ultimately, a lower quality of care. Even worse, this approach increases the risk of widespread burnout–a difficult situation to break out of.
Instead, providers should invest in proactive home health triage services to manage patient volume through innovative technology and patient-focused solutions. Embracing these triage resolutions and flexible management practices is essential for agencies hoping to grow their census sustainably while retaining staff and ensuring their workforce has a healthy work-life balance.
Analyzing Call Data with Home Health Triage Services
Understanding why patients call is essential to improving home health and hospice care and scaling your organization. Tools like automated voice assistants (AVA) for non-clinical calls and more robust triage care coordination platforms with analytics help providers triage patient calls more efficiently, code the types of calls coming in, and collect other call data systematically.
Empowered with this kind of interaction-level patient data, agencies can quickly identify patterns and trends such as excessive after-hours medication refills or equipment orders, which could be filled instead during regular business when there’s more staff to handle them with much less expense.
Implementing Proactive Triage Programs
Proactive triage programs are a result of a continuous quality improvement cycle that includes a systematic analysis of patient interactions and call data. They significantly reduce the call volume per patient by addressing common concerns before they become emergencies, anticipating patient needs for early intervention, and fewer missed calls.
Providers can proactively contact patients with routine weekend tuck-in calls and daily medication reminders, educational videos, and articles about their health conditions. They can also assess patient concerns and care satisfaction levels through automatic patient surveys, letting providers know how to address quality issues long before patients complete CAHPS surveys and while there’s still time to make changes for the better.
With fewer emergency calls, after-hours staff can devote more time and care to critical cases, reducing visitation stress and burnout. Home health triage services offer a proactive approach, creating a gateway to preventative, personalized care and allowing timely interventions to help improve patient and staff satisfaction.
Smart Routing Technology
For home health triage services, innovative, smart routing technology is a powerful tool for optimizing resource allocation. As part of care coordination platforms, including mobile apps, smart routing technology can streamline administrative tasks using algorithms and collected data analytics to direct calls and tasks to the most appropriate staff members based on their expertise, availability, and location. Agencies can also enhance patient care and satisfaction by ensuring the right clinician handles each call or visit.
Additionally, intelligent routing helps staff smarter according to incoming patient call volume. It dynamically sends calls to available staff based on real-time data about patient needs and staff capacity. For example, during peak times, smart routing can automatically send calls to available field nurses’ mobile devices to ensure that handle times are faster and staff workloads are balanced. This flexibility prevents staff burnout and ensures patients receive timely and appropriate care, leading to better health outcomes and a more efficient organization.
Leveraging On-Demand Triage Expert Nurses
For times when provider staff is maxed out, home health triage services provide a highly trained team of backup clinical and non-clinical professionals who can quickly and easily provide immediate, round-the-clock patient support. Thanks to provider EHR integration, backup staff can follow your protocols and sync patient notes for less time wasted on duplicate charting and act as an extension of your care team. Whether you’re noticing an elevated number of patient emergencies or oncoming symptoms of staff burnout, on-demand triage nurses are here to help create a more efficient approach to care.
CareXM‘s home health triage services and team of on-demand triage nurses provide flexible and highly skilled resources to enhance home health and hospice care delivery. Expert triage nurses handle patient concerns and emergencies as they arise, offering immediate, professional support and faster first-call resolution–leaving the provider’s in-house team to focus on the patient in front of them, confident that other incoming patient calls are being handled correctly.
Real-World Impact: Bristol Hospice & Home Health Triage Services
Since implementing services with CareXM, Bristol Hospice, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, has managed to reduce expenses, keep costs flat, and achieve a 10 percent growth rate overall. According to Bristol Hospice CEO Hyruum Kirton, “Once fully adopted, we’re expecting to save about 30 percent over our prior triage and call expenses”.
One of the significant improvements has been the reduction in after-hours call volume, which has greatly enhanced staff satisfaction. Using CareXM’s team of on-demand triage nurses, Bristol Hospice has efficiently handled the increased census without overwhelming its in-house staff. This strategic move has alleviated the pressure on their team and ensured that patients receive timely and professional care at all hours. With reduced call volumes and better allocation of resources, Bristol Hospice has maintained high standards of care while improving operational workflows.
Thanks to CareXM, Bristol Hospice has effectively scaled its services, demonstrating how home health triage services and strategic resource management can drive growth and improve the quality of care in home health and hospice settings.
Scale Your Census with CareXM’s Home Health Triage Services
Here at CareXM, we’ve become an invaluable partner for home health and hospice agencies looking to grow and improve their services. As a leader in home health triage services, we’ve become an invaluable partner for agencies looking to grow and improve their services. With our innovative solutions, including on-demand triage expert nurses and smart routing technology, agencies like Bristol Hospice have successfully managed increased patient loads, reduced after-hours call volume, and enhanced staff satisfaction. Whether you need support with triage staffing or patient engagement solutions, CareXM will transform your patient care approach. Let’s elevate the care experience together.