Grow your Business ...
Get Ready for the Future
In This Issue
Heroes of Home Health & Hospice in Action on The East Coast
Points of Learning from Disaster Plan Deployment
LinkedIn Update
Quick Links
Leading Home Care

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UPCOMING EVENTS:
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 November Webinar: 

 

"Marketing to Trusted Advisors:

Proven techniques to reach high-potential referral sources"

With Stephen Tweed and Michael Sullivan


November 29th, 2012
4:00 - 5:00 pm Eastern

In this high impact, interactive workshop, Stephen Tweed and Michael Sullivan will share with you the latest insights and strategies from their experience in home care and financial services including trust services.  Then Stephen and Mike will guide you in developing a highly effective bank trust officers marketing strategy to help you create a sales strategy that leads to improved performance, more inquiries, convert more admissions, and serve more clients. 
 
This interactive workshop is loaded with time-tested tips and ideas which the presenters have found useful and usable from their experience, as well as conversations with bank trust officers and other trusted advisors. 
 
Issue: #243
October 31, 2012
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Greetings! 

... to this issue of Home Health Care Today, the leading electronic newsletter for home health care and hospice executives who want to grow their business and get ready for the future.

Please enjoy this newsletter, and join our interactive community.


Best regards,

 

Stephen Tweed
CEO
Leading Home Care ... a Tweed Jeffries company 
Heroes of Home Health & Hospice in Action on The East Coast

As Hurricane Sandy roared ashore just south of Atlantic City, NJ around 8:00 pm eastern time on Monday, the heroes of home health care and hospice across the region were in action executing their emergency preparedness plans.  Most agencies we know of have some form of plan to put into action in the event of a major catastrophe such as Sandy.


We will be bringing you the actual stories as we get details.  I'm writing this to you in early afternoon, about 18 hours into the storm. Power is out over much of the region, and emergency officials are still assessing the deaths and the damage.

Meanwhile, unseen by most folks, home health and hospice nurses have left the security of their own families to go out into their communities to care for their patients, assure safety, and in some cases make rescues.  If you have a personal story about how you and your agency responded to this disaster, please share it with us so that we can let the world know that home health and hospice are there for our patients and our communities.

Thanks to all of you who are out there serving.  We will keep you in our thoughts and prayers.  

 

Share your stories here...

Points of Learning from Disaster Plan Deployment
By Stephen Tweed, CSP  SCT Smal Photo

After the lessons learned by home health agencies in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, state home care associations and local home health agencies and hospices created Emergency Preparedness Plans to deal with future national disasters.  In interviewing leaders in home health agencies whose patients and employees were directly affected by the aftermath of the storm, we were able to document some simple strategies to get ready for the future. 

Here are some things you can learn from their experience: 
  • Maintain a checklist of everything that you might need from your office in the event of a disaster which causes you to work from somewhere else. Make sure you have copies of this list, and all of the information you'll need in an off-site location.
  • You need to be 100% automated, with schedules, patient lists, and staff information complete and up to date. You can't have people working from paper schedules on their desks until they have time to input the data into the computer system.
  • Have your IT system in a secure data center that has backup power and internet connections so you can access the system from remote locations.
  • Maintain an up-to-date roster of all employees with contact information.
  • Have personal cell phone and home phone numbers for all staff.
LinkedIn Update
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The Leading Home Care Network discussion group on LinkedIn has just passed 3,000 members.  Check in to see the latest discussions:

The Leading Home Care Network is a closed group, and we limit membership to active owners, CEOs, administrators, and senior staff members in home health, hospice, and private duty home care.  There's no blatant advertising or unrelated posts to waste your time.  Take a look.


Permission to Reproduce
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Permission is granted to healthcare publications, associations and companies to reproduce this article in your publication, or to distribute copies to your leaders, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Home Health Care Today. Copyright 2012 Stephen C. Tweed. To receive a FREE subscription to this newsletter, log on to www.leadinghomecare.com"

Strategic
Planning
for
Home
Health
&
Hospice
Fall is a time when many executive teams in home health care and hospice begin the process of Strategic Planning.  Some agencies have an annual process.  Others have a three year cycle.  The era of five year plans is pretty much gone.

Stephen Tweed, CEO of Leading Home Care, has been facilitating the Strategic Planning process for  home health agencies and hospices for over 25 years.  Using the Storyboarding technique from the Walt Disney organization, Stephen has developed a proven model of strategic thinking, and a highly interactive process for getting your senior leaders, middle managers, and board of directors involved.  He'll lead you through assessing your current reality, setting a direction for the future, defining your competitive advantage,  developing focused action plans, and measuring the success of your agency and your plan.

If you and your leadership team want to have an amazing experience with the planning process, call us to day to set up a conversation with Stephen Tweed to discuss your Strategic Planning process. 
Visit our web site for more details