“We do feel that the DementiaWise program is a differentiator,” Stephanie Wierzbicka, director of strategic health programs at ComForCare, wrote in an email to Home Health Care News. “The program is designed to equip caregivers with the tools and knowledge to provide a high level of care to the clients that are living with dementia.”

ComForCare is a home care franchise organization that has hundreds of locations independently-owned and operated in Canada and the U.S. ComForCare operates as At Your Side in Houston, Texas, and under the umbrella company Best Life Brands.

Launched in 2013, DementiaWise was a training program for ComForCare caregivers and the family members of patients with dementia. The program centered around a 8.5-hour dementia best practices course, which aims to help seniors age in place longer.

The original DementiaWise received recognition from the Alzheimer’s Association for its focus on evidence-based dementia care practices. Plus, in 2022, researchers at Duke University found that caregivers who went through the program felt better prepared, and experienced more job satisfaction.

DementiaWise 2.0 is an advanced version of the program that aims to provide a deeper understanding of the stages of dementia. This is meant to make sure that an individual living with dementia is receiving the right kind of care based on the stage they’re at.

“DementiaWise 2.0 teaches that the progression of dementia is like a journey with road signs signaling changes that require home care teams to adapt with every individual they care for,” Wierzbicka said. “It’s expected for a person’s need to change with a progressive disease. DementiaWise teaches caregivers to collaborate with the entire care team when facing new challenges, rather than addressing challenges alone.”

The program will be available through the Relias platform, and consists of five additional hours of training spread over eight training modules. It includes new staging guides, caregiver daily schedules and a DementiaWise 2.0 manual.

Overall, ComForCare’s program is addressing an issue that is prevalent in the U.S., as the amount of individuals living with dementia continues to skyrocket.

Almost seven million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease and this number is slated to triple by 2060, ComForCare noted in a press release.

ComForCare, in particular, has seen an uptick in dementia patients.

“The majority of clients that the offices see have some stage of dementia,” Wierzbicka said. “The statistics overall show that dementia is on the rise and this aligns with the increase of the aging population overall. For these reasons, we knew it was important to develop DementiaWise to ensure caregivers are able to provide the best care to clients.”

The post ComForCare Ups The Ante On Caregiver Training With ‘DementiaWise 2.0’ appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Announced Monday, the Troy, Michigan-based company has acquired Next Day Access, which is a provider of residential and commercial home access solutions in the U.S. and Canada.

Now, Best Life Brands boasts a personal home care brand, a home health care brand and a home accessibility solutions brand. The acquisition is in line with a larger trend of home care-focused brands trying to become one-stop shops for senior care.

“We are thrilled to welcome Next Day Access to the Best Life Brands family as this strategic acquisition aligns perfectly with our vision of empowering aging individuals to live their best lives, regardless of mobility challenges,” Best Life Brands CEO J.J. Sorrenti said in a statement. “As the population of older adults steadily rises and the desire to age in place remains prevalent, we’re positioned to enhance our ability to provide comprehensive accessibility solutions and support services to individuals and families across the nation and Canada.”

Next Day Access provides wheelchair ramps, stairlifts, grab bars, bathroom updates and other modification services.

Prior to the acquisition, Best Life Brands already had more than 600 franchise locations in the U.S. and Canada.

“We are excited about the opportunities that joining Best Life Brands presents, as together we can leverage our respective strengths to make a positive impact on the lives of even more individuals in need of accessibility solutions,” Dave Clark, the co-founder of Next Day Access, said in a statement. “This acquisition represents a significant step forward in our mission to provide reliable, efficient and compassionate care to those we serve.”

The company also announced that Michele Popelka will become the new brand president of New Day Access.

Ideally, Best Life Brands will now have three brands that will refer to each other. Home care clients may need home modification services, or vice versa. The same goes for Boost’s home health clients.

Other franchise brands have made similar moves of late. For instance, Evive Brands – which owns Executive Home Care – has a portfolio that includes Assisted Living Locators and Grasons Estate Sales & Business Liquidations.

The Massachusetts-based Best of Care, too, recently acquired the move management company Moving Mentors.

This business setup allows home care providers to keep clients under their umbrella, while also making the aging process as seamless as possible.

The post Best Life Brands Latest Acquisition Bolsters Home Care Referral Opportunities appeared first on Home Health Care News.

In order to be ranked on the list, a franchise company needs to be courting new franchisees in the U.S. or Canada. Companies that made the list also need to have had at least 10 units open and operating as of July 31, 2023, with at least one U.S.-based franchise.

Factors such as franchise cost and fees, size and growth, network support and brand strength determined each company’s evaluation.

Companies like Interim HealthCare, Home Instead and Senior Helpers ranked the highest of the home-based care franchises that managed to grab a spot on the list.

Interim HealthCare

— Rank: 59

— 2023 Rank: 55

— Units: 655

— Based in Sunrise, Florida, and a part of Caring Brands National, Interim is a franchise that provides home health, hospice, palliative care and other services across locations in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

Home Instead

— Rank: 149

— 2023 Rank: 155

— Units: 1,217

— Home Instead is a Omaha, Nebraska-based personal care franchise company that has locations in over a dozen countries. In 2021, the home care technology company Honor acquired Home Instead.

Senior Helpers

— Rank: 172

— 2023 Rank: 172

— Units: 361

— Maryland-based Senior Helpers has a national personal care network, as well as adult day centers. The company was acquired by Advocate Health Enterprises in 2021.

Homewatch CareGivers

— Rank: 222

— 2023 Rank: 208

— Units: 222

— Denver-based Homewatch CareGivers is a home care franchise company that operates in over 30 states and seven countries. The franchise employs over 4,500 caregivers.

Griswold Home Care

— Rank: 252

— 2023 Rank: 267

— Units: 186

— The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based Griswold is also a home care franchise. It provides personal care services in 30 states.

ComForCare

— Rank: 254

— 2023 Rank: 402

— Units: 229

— ComForCare is a home care franchise organization that has hundreds of territories independently-owned and operated in Canada and the U.S. ComForCare operates as At Your Side in Houston, Texas. ComForCare operates under parent company Best Life Brands. Another Best Life Brands company, Blue Moon Estate Sales, also ranked on the Franchise 500 list.

BrightStar Care

— Rank: 279

— 2023 Rank: 141

— Units: 373

— Chicago-based BrightStar is a provider of home care, senior living and supplemental staffing. The organization has been deliberately increasing its company-owned footprint of late.

Assisting Hands Home Care

— Rank: 280

— 2023 Rank: 229

— Units: 193

— Assisting Hands Home Care offers both medical and non-medical assistance for seniors, including meal preparation, companionship, chores and more.

HomeWell Care Services

— Rank: 283

— 2023 Rank: 347

— Units: 136

— HomeWell is a Burkburnett, Texas-based home care franchise that operates across the U.S. The company offers companion care, personal care, as well as specialty care.

Right at Home

— Rank: 318

— 2023 Rank: 260

— Units: 716

— Omaha, Nebraska-based Right at Home is a home care franchise company with locations in the U.S. and six other countries.

Nurse Next Door

— Rank: 418

— 2023 Rank: N/A

— Units: 183

— Vancouver, Canada-based Nurse Next Door is a home care franchise system that operates in the U.S., Canada and Australia. As an organization, the company provides personal care, companionship care, homemaking services, dementia care and more.

FirstLight Home Care

— Rank: 438

— 2023 Rank: 327

— Units: 197

— Cincinnati-based FirstLight Home Care is a provider of non-medical home care. The company also has a specialized care program aimed at seniors with dementia.

Synergy HomeCare

— Rank: 449

— 2023 Rank: 483

— Units: 453

— Synergy is a Gilbert, Arizona-based non-medical home care franchise. The company offers companionship services, in addition to personal assistance, housekeeping, live-in care and 24-hour home care services.

Home Helpers

— Rank: 475

— 2023 Rank: 396

— Units: 308

— The Cincinnati-based Home Helpers is a home care franchise that provides personal care, nutrition and companionship services, among others. It serves over 1,000 communities in the U.S.

Visiting Angels

— Rank: 479

— 2023 Rank: N/A

— Units: 692

— Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania-based Visiting Angels is an in-home senior care company that provides companion care, personal care services and more.

The post 15 Home-Based Care Providers Rank On Entrepreneur’s Annual Franchise 500 List appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The list is based on last year’s global systemwide sales — total sales for both franchise and company units — performance.

In order to earn a spot on the list, a company needs to be a legal U.S. franchise. It should also own at least 10% of the company’s total units.

At-home care franchise companies Home Instead Senior Care, Right at Home and Interim HealthCare managed to crack the top 100 portion of the list, alongside big name companies like McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD), Dunkin’ (Nasdaq:DNKN) and The UPS Store (UPS:NYSE).

Home Instead Senior Care

— Rank: 44

— System Sales: $2,400,000,000

— Total Locations: 1,217

— Home Instead is a Omaha, Nebraska-based personal care franchise company that has locations in over a dozen countries. In 2021, the home care technology company Honor acquired Home Instead.

Interim HealthCare

— Rank: 65

— System Sales: $1,288,000,000

— Total Locations: 655

— The Sunrise, Florida-based company – a part of Caring Brands International — provides personal care, hospice care, palliative care, pediatric care and staffing services.

Visiting Angels

— Rank: 90

— System Sales: $900,000,000

— Total Locations: 697

— Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania-based Visiting Angels is an in-home senior care company that provides companion care, personal care services and more.

Right at Home

— Rank: 100

— System Sales: $778,386,711

— Total Locations: 712

— Omaha, Nebraska-based Right at Home is a home care franchise company with locations in the U.S. and six other countries.

BrightStar Care

— Rank: 117

— System Sales: $653,907,370

— Total Locations: 370

— Chicago-based BrightStar is a provider of home care, senior living and supplemental staffing. The organization has been deliberately increasing its company-owned footprint of late.

Comfort Keepers

— Rank: 124

— System Sales: $625,000,000*

— Total Locations: 645

— Irvine, California-based Comfort Keepers is one of the largest personal home care providers in the U.S. It recently was acquired by The Halifax Group.

Senior Helpers

— Rank: 176

— System Sales: $387,243,000

— Total Locations: 327

— Maryland-based Senior Helpers has a national personal care network, as well as adult day centers. The company was acquired by Advocate Health Enterprises in 2021.

ComForCare Home Care

— Rank: 225

— System Sales: $238,000,000

— Total Locations: 223

— ComForCare is a home care franchise organization that has 270 territories independently-owned and operated in Canada and the U.S. ComForCare operates as At Your Side in Houston, Texas.

Home Helpers Home Care

— Rank: 230

— System Sales: $231,856,454

— Total Locations: 304

— The Cincinnati-based Home Helpers is a home care franchise that provides personal care, nutrition and companionship services, among others. It serves over 1,000 communities in the U.S.

Synergy HomeCare

— Rank: 236

— System Sales: $223,257,894

— Total Locations: 417

— Synergy is a Gilbert, Arizona-based non-medical home care franchise. The company offers companionship services, in addition to personal assistance, housekeeping, live-in care and 24-hour home care services.

Always Best Care

— Rank: 245

— System Sales: $212,591,506

— Total Locations: 232

— Roseville, California-based Always Best Care is a home care franchise company that operates across 225 territories in 30 states and Canada.

Homewatch CareGivers

— Rank: 246

— System Sales: $211,550,548

— Total Locations: 224

— Denver-based Homewatch CareGivers is a home care franchise company that operates in over 30 states and seven countries. The franchise employs over 4,500 caregivers.

Griswold

— Rank: 251

— System Sales: $199,100,000

— Total Locations: 178

— The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based Griswold is also a home care franchise. It provides personal care services in 30 states.

FirstLight Home Care

— Rank: 257

— System Sales: $188,207,247

— Total Locations: 195

— Cincinnati-based FirstLight Home Care is a provider of non-medical home care. The company also has a specialized care program aimed at seniors with dementia.

Assisting Hands Home Care

— Rank: 299

— System Sales: $124,305,162

— Total Locations: 175

— Assisting Hands Home Care offers both medical and non-medical assistance for seniors, including meal preparation, companionship, chores and more.

Caring Senior Service

— Rank: 475

— System Sales: $35,050,000

— Total Locations: 51

— San Antonio, Texas-based home care franchise company Caring Senior Service offers personal care, meal preparation, transportation, companionship, housekeeping and more.

The post 16 Home-Based Care Companies Earn Spots On The Franchise Times’ Top 400 List appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Providers have also capitalized on secondary and tertiary benefits of virtual care, like those that come with marketing and staff retention.

“Our staff has really appreciated us investing in the tools for them,” Matthew Fenley, chief business development officer at the Allure Group, said during a Home Health Care News webinar Thursday. “Everyone wants to take pride in their workplace and for them to see the investments were made to give them the best tools, I think it really has gone a long way.”

The New York-based Allure Group is a network of skilled nursing facilities with six locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

In 2019, the company started to introduce telemedicine services to supplement care that was being delivered during the day.

Not only was the company able to show lower readmission rates to its hospital partners almost immediately, but the forward-thinking moves allowed the Allure Group to be better equipped during the pandemic.

Now, Fenley said the company is starting to see those secondary benefits.

“That pride from our caregivers obviously trickles down to patient care,” he said. “It gives our staff more confidence so they’re not automatically calling 911 anytime there’s something moving off the baseline. There’s a moment to pause and actually contact the provider. It’s really allowed us to recognize key staff who have embraced the product and the technology.”

Home-based care providers have made similar efforts, especially due to their inability to be in a patient’s home 24/7.

“Clinical partners are looking for solutions for older adults and partners like us who understand the future of home care requires taking that blended approach,” Best Life Brands CEO J.J. Sorrenti said. “This technology opens new doors for us and enhances relationships that we already have, because we have solutions that bridge care gaps.”

Best Life Brands is the platform company above ComForCare. ComForCare is a home care franchise organization that has 270 territories independently owned and operated in Canada and the U.S.

The company recently announced a partnership with Connected Home Living to launch Connected Care, its remote patient monitoring (RPM) program for seniors.

Sorrenti said these established partnerships, and the success that telehealth has helped them achieve, have gone a long way from a marketing perspective.

“That technology helps drag attention to our solution — Connected Care — and it helps partners achieve the aim of care that they see this concept operationalized inside their practice,” Sorrenti said.

The next possible step, Sorrenti said, is having telehealth and virtual capabilities help fill the gaps in staffing.

“We haven’t really had families want to replace our in-home care with technology, but I imagine we might see that down the road,” he said. “Right now it’s augmenting the night hours when families can’t afford 24/7 care. It’s also an entree into the home when older adults aren’t ready for care. I do believe that in the future, due to home care costs and staffing shortages, we’ll begin to sell services in more of a package-type model where we’ll be selling sort of a blended package.”

The post The Unexpected Benefits Of Telehealth, Remote Patient Monitoring In Home-Based Care appeared first on Home Health Care News.

“This is a transformative step for our business as we think about delivering comprehensive and compassionate care to our clients,” Best Life Brands CEO J.J. Sorrenti told Home Health Care News. “This technology is proactive care.”

Best Life Brands is the platform company above ComForCare. Backed by New York-based private equity firm Riverside Company, ComForCare is a home care franchise organization that has 270 territories independently-owned and operated in Canada and the U.S. ComForCare operates as At Your Side in Houston, Texas.

Connected Home Living is a RPM and telehealth services company with more than 400 home health, hospital, home care, and independent and assisted living clients operating in Canada and the U.S.

Through the partnership, RPM technology will be implemented in ComForCare and At Your Side’s care delivery model in order to monitor vital signs, alerts, medications, as well as the mental and physical state of seniors.

It will also help the company monitor a change in activity in the home, which can indicate a change in behaviors, according to Sorrenti.

“For example, if there hasn’t been any movement in a certain time in the morning, or in a certain room, that might be inconsistent with the client’s normal routine, all that gets monitored through this new system,” he said.

Connected Care will focus on improving care services through a number of key areas: fall detection, wellness monitoring, daily virtual calls and chronic disease management.

Fall detection, in particular, is top of mind at ComForCare.

“One in four older adults fall every year,” Sorrenti said. “The result of a fall can be physical, such as a hip fracture, and it can be emotional with the fear of falling again. Both of those can reduce quality of life. Falls don’t have to be a normal part of aging. No fall can be totally prevented, but there’s a lot that can be done to reduce the chances of it happening.”

ComForCare clients will now have access to a unique radar-enabled device, which detects falls without cameras or wearables.

The daily virtual call element also allows the company to deepen connection with clients.

On the chronic disease management end, the company utilizes bluetooth-enabled pulse oximeters, blood pressure monitors, weight scales and tablets.

“The seniors can record and track their own vital signs, and then put them into the system, ensuring that medical conditions are stable and not declining,” Sorrenti said. “I know there are questions about, ‘Can the senior actually do these things?’ With a little bit of training from our caregivers, we’ve seen success.”

While ComForCare franchisees at some of the company’s locations have utilized RPM as part of their care services, this is the first time the organization is implementing it across the larger franchise network.

“We saw it as an opportunity to provide a tech-enabled human touch to the services that we provide,” Sorrenti said.

Ultimately, ComForCare wants to ensure the continuity of care, and allow caregivers to be more proactive.

“It helps us monitor when we’re away, but it also gives the in-home service that we provide more tools to be more effective,” Sorrenti said.

The post ComForCare Partners With Connected Home Living To Roll Out RPM Service Nationally appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Among those are an increase in franchising, more private equity involvement and innovation to keep pace with higher costs.

Consolidation in home care has lagged compared to home health care. One of the reasons why is that PE involvement in personal home care has also lagged.

“There are a lot of competitors who can enter [home care] and then there’s the ability for franchisees to expand and take share in the market,” Matt Sears, vice president of Bain Capital Double Impact, said at Home Health Care News’ Home Care Conference last week. “That makes it difficult for owned operations to drive scale. I also think how local the growth engine is in home care [makes it difficult for PE involvement]. You’re dealing with individuals who are making that buying decision and you’re recruiting in local markets. That forces a lot of separate market decision making and it’s hard to consolidate that into a corporate operation.”

Bain Capital Double Impact is a private equity company that has invested in the home care company Arosa.

J.J. Sorrenti, the CEO of Best Life Brands, believes that franchising may even see an uptick this year due to economic conditions. Generally, economic ups and downs increase franchising interest.

“When the economy sort of levels out, whether it levels out low or levels out high, franchising usually booms,” Sorrenti said at the Home Care Conference. “In our economy now, if we extend our toes, we could probably touch the bottom. While there may not be as much consolidation or M&A activity, I think you’re going to start to see some pretty significant growth from franchising because the economy is kind of settling.”

Best Life Brands is the parent company of the home care companies ComForCare and At Your Side, as well as the home health care company Boost Home Healthcare and other senior-focused franchise brands.

Franchising was almost non-existent in the months following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sorrenti said. Now that there is more clarity in the market, he expects franchise activity to pick up.

“I think 2023 will be a big number, from a unit growth perspective, of franchising for all of us that are franchisors,” he said.

A further PE entrance

In 2018, Bain Capital Double Impact acquired Arosa and LivHome, taking two regional health care companies and creating a national in-home care provider.

While similar, large-scale investments by PE might not be in the cards for home care in 2023, the industry can still bank on the tailwinds that come with increased demand.

Devin O’Reilly – managing director at Bain Capital – told Axios this week that private equity funding is following the innovations that come with home-based care as opposed to nursing homes and long-term-care facilities.

Coming out of the pandemic, investors are now focused on funding care delivery and technology companies that address the need for people living independently and for longer.

“I think in the long-run in personal care, home care, there’s an advantage to having 20 or 30 locations, having a scaled operation, having a little more leverage when it comes to driving growth,” Sears said. “There’s also this massive tailwind behind this industry that’s constantly attracting investors. I think you’ll continue to see dollars come in to support companies like Arosa or other semi-scaled or scaled home care providers and that’s going to more gradually drive the consolidation. It’s just not happening as quickly as other industries.”

Arosa – the home care provider that has 28 locations across eight states — is led by CEO Ari Medoff. In order for home care agencies to be more attractive to private equity, Medoff believes there needs to be some innovation implemented in how agencies do business.

“I think it is bananas that there are 40,000 or 50,000 home care companies out there in the country, and how many of those are trying business models that are not billing 2X and paying X?” Medoff asked. “Less than 1%? The lack of innovation around business models in our space is devastating.”

That model doesn’t serve enough clients because bill rates are too high, Medoff said. At the same time, the pay rates are not high enough for caregivers to afford a living wage.

“I think we desperately need new business models in our space,” Medoff said. “I’m not just talking about trying to figure out how Medicare or some other third party payer will pay the bill. A lot of energy goes into talking about that and dreaming about that, but I think it is incumbent upon us to think about how we bring value to clients in a different way that can lower bill rates and can raise pay rates.”

Partnering with private equity can solve some of those problems, Medoff said. He’s seen that firsthand. However, it’s also an expensive partnership to maintain.

“Having the access to capital and the ability to get towards a scale where you can have a management team and a leadership team make these changes is crucial,” Medoff said. “But let’s also be honest — it is expensive to be a multi-state provider and it is expensive to partner with private equity. For example, we didn’t used to get audits that cost six figures with accounting firms.”

For providers, there’s no denying that having financial backing — whether that be from PE or a franchisor — helps alleviate some of the stressors that come with running a business.

Sorrenti learned that lesson years ago when he was working for a different company at the closing table as he and his colleagues were buying a founder-led business.

“They were converting their business into our franchise, and as soon as he [signed the papers], he looked over at me and said, ‘Thank God, now I can start making all the investments in the company because it’s your money, not mine,’” Sorrenti recalled. “I was kind of offended by that at first, but he was so risk-averse because he was holding on to this beautiful business that he had built for 20 years. But now the reins were off, he had somebody else’s capital and the business flourished.”

The post What More PE Involvement Could Mean In Personal Home Care appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The top-15 home-based care organizations on this year’s list include ComForCare, Senior Helpers, 24 Hour Home Care, Compass Care and Reliant at Home. SCAN Health Plan was also included.

Every year, Fortune puts together a list of the best places to work that is based on the “Trust Index,” which helps measure workers’ views and opinions about their employers by filling out 60 statements using a five-point scale and answering two open-ended questions.

The list — compiled by Activated Insights, a subsidiary of Great Place to Work — was created with feedback from more than 140,000 U.S. employees.

The group of 15 organizations included a mix of franchise networks and independent home care providers. Several of the organizations – like 24 Hour Home Care and Senior Helpers – have been on the list for multiple years in a row.

ComForCare — a Best Life Brands company — was also included with At Your Side.

Company sizes range from businesses with under 100 employees — like Apex Home Health & Hospice based in Santa Ana, California — to some with more than 12,000 like the Maryland-based Senior Helpers.

According to survey results, 91% of employees at Senior Helpers said it is a great place to work. That same number was 92% for ComForCare, 86% for 24 Hour Home Care, 90% for Compass Care and 89% for Reliant at Home.

The full list of home care organizations is below:

– White Glove Community Care
– ComForCare / At Your Side
– Senior Helpers
– Apex Home Health & Hospice
– Amada Senior Care
– Care to Stay Home
– Butte Home Health and Hospice
– Care Indeed
– Sunland Home Care
– Assistance Home Care
– 24 Hour Home Care
– Compass Care
– SCAN Health Plan
– Elite Home Health Care
– Reliant at Home

The post Home-Based Care Organizations Grab Spots On ‘Best Workplaces in Aging Services’ List appeared first on Home Health Care News.

At a time when the home care industry is plagued with workforce shortages, Senior Helpers, 24 Hour Home Care and ComForCare have made a name for themselves as best-in-class employers.

Among common retention tactics, all three organizations actively elicit feedback by surveying staff on a regular basis. Senior Helpers, 24 Hour Home Care and ComForCare have all carved out company-specific methods for becoming successful employers as well.

In some cases, their unique strategies revolve around giving employees access to various health and wellness offerings. In others, they’ve focused on ensuring fair wages and opening up opportunities for specialized training.

While investing in workforce culture can be costly, the three home care providers have seen strong ROIs in the form of more job applicants and stable retention rates. The investments likewise helped Senior Helpers, 24 Hour Home Care and ComForCare each earn spots on Fortune’s 2021 “Best Workplaces in Aging Services” list.

The top executives of each organization recently gave Home Health Care News an inside look at how they built an attractive home care workplace.

Senior Helpers’ paradigm shift

At Senior Helpers, the ability to stay in tune with how employees feel is the result of going straight to the source. The company has long implemented “Listen 360,” a program that surveys clients, caregivers and other staff on a monthly basis, co-founder and CEO Peter Ross told HHCN.

“That has worked wonders for us because we get such a great feedback loop from all of that,” he said. “We also get to react to anything that isn’t positive. A lot of times, organizations put their head in the sand and say, ‘No big deal. I’m good almost everywhere else.’ We want to learn so we can be proactive.”

Maryland-based Senior Helpers has a national network of more than 300 franchise locations. The company was acquired by Advocate Aurora Enterprises, a subsidiary of Advocate Aurora Health, earlier this year.

Something else that has been important for Senior Helpers is a paradigm shift when it comes to prioritizing clients over caregivers.

While Ross believes clients’ needs are paramount, it’s also important to cater to caregivers. In recent years, Senior Helpers has been intentional in its efforts to do so.

“I think a lot of industries look at their customers as job No.1 — most important,” Ross said. “I think that’s been an error by our industry for years. One of the things that we’ve done is to view our staff and caregivers on the same level as our clients. They’re not more important or less important. In our business, you can’t have one without the other.”

Along these lines, Senior Helpers has turned its attention to its employee perks and benefits offerings. Full-time caregivers at the company, and their families, have access to telehealth services through Teladoc Health (NYSE: TDOC), for example.

Additionally, Senior Helpers offers a pharmacy discount card for drugs.

The company is also looking into offering free access to popular streaming services such as Netflix (Nasdaq; NFLX) or Amazon Prime, as well as discounts for cell phones. Creativity is key when trying to think up possible perks, Ross explained.

Establishing Senior Helpers as a desirable workplace has meant a spike in interested applicants. In the last nine months alone, the company has driven over 100,000 applicants to its franchisees and corporate stores, according to Ross.

“As an industry, we’ve always tried to hire experienced caregivers; that’s just not possible anymore,” he said. “You have to be able to train people to be caregivers. A lot of times, you’re walking away from people that would be great caregivers. They just don’t know how to be a great caregiver until you train them.”

24 Hour Home Care measures and manages

Ryan Iwamoto, president and co-founder of 24 Hour Home Care, has used the saying “what gets measured, gets managed” as a guiding principle with regards to keeping the company on track as an attractive workplace.

24 Hour Home Care does quarterly engagement surveys for all employees, as well as monthly surveys for its caregivers.

“The monthly survey is one question: How happy are you with 24 Hour Home Care,” Iwamoto, told HHCN. “If they’re not at a [five out of five], they can give some context on how we can improve. This is all taken in real time, and we can respond pretty quickly, or use that information to help us strengthen ourselves as a company.”

Los Angeles-based 24 Hour Home Care is an independent, non-medical home care provider with 20 locations across California, Arizona and Texas.

One area that has become a key focus for 24 Hour Home Care is ensuring that caregivers are being paid a fair and livable wage, according to Iwamoto.

“Every year, we make sure our caregivers are making above-market rates in every territory we operate in,” he said. “Now, typically, that’s done on a yearly basis, but with everything going on, we’re actually looking at that on a monthly basis. There are some territories where we are not hitting our goal of being above market rates, so it’s really making sure that we have an eye on that.”

In general, the median wage for caregivers in the U.S. is lower than that of other jobs with similar entry-level requirements, such as janitors, retail salespersons and customer service representatives.

Direct care workers earned a median hourly wage of $12.80 in 2019, a meager improvement from $12.61 in 2009, according to PHI data.

Like Senior Helpers, 24 Hour Home Care has also embraced creative perks. The company partnered with Calm, a meditation app, and offers this to employees. The company also offers discounted pet insurance and a guaranteed off day on birthdays.

Plus, the company offers full comprehensive medical benefits to all 24 Hour Home Care caregivers.

“During a pandemic, you want to make sure that your caregivers are well taken care of physically, obviously mentally as well,” Iwamoto said.

In terms of retention, the company hit a record low point in 2020 due to the COVID-19 emergency, when its rate reached 43%. Since then, 24 Hour Home Care has been able to improve its retention rate to 48%.

“The goal is for that number to go up even more to about 50%,” Iwamoto said. “Right now, that’s where we’re at for 2021. ‘Progress over perfection’ is what I always say.”

ComForCare keeps employees engaged

For ComForCare, its “CaregiverFirst” program has been a major benefit to the company. The program gives the company’s franchisees innovative strategies, resources and tools for caregiver recruitment.

“We invest hundreds of thousands of dollars at the corporate level to help our franchisees with the recruiting process. There are best practices. There are special programs, information on how to work with some of the recruiting tools that are out there in the marketplace,” J.J. Sorrenti, CEO of Best Life Brands, told HHCN. “All of these things are tools that we use throughout the network to help.”

Owned by New York-based private equity firm Riverside Company, ComForCare is a home care franchise organization that has over 200 independently owned and operated locations in the U.S. and Canada. Best Life Brands is the platform company above ComForCare.

With regard to ComForCare’s caregivers, the company keeps its employees engaged by offering opportunities for additional training and education. The company’s dementia program certifies caregivers to work with seniors with this condition, for instance.

“It creates loyalty, a purpose and a mission for our caregivers when they’re able to help patients that are struggling with dementia,” Sorrenti said.

Another ComForCare program teaches caregivers how to identify fall risks and sharpen their prevention skills.

While ComForCare couldn’t share specifics, Sorrenti is happy with its retention performance across the company.

“The hard part for any company, not just home care, is to make sure that upon recruitment, they’re keeping that person engaged, excited and helping them orient themselves to the work that they’re about to do,” he said. “That’s why we give a lot of focus on making sure they’re engaged.”

The post How Seniors Helpers, ComForCare and 24 Hour Home Care Are Building Great Places to Work appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Released Friday, the Best Workplaces in Aging Services list is put together each year by Activated Insights, a subsidiary of Great Place to Work. The ranking is based on the “Trust Index,” which helps measure workers’ views toward their employers by asking dozens of key questions.

Overall, there were 15 at-home care organizations that cracked the 2021 list. The group included a mix of franchise networks and independent home care providers, with company size ranging from businesses with under 100 employees to some with more than 12,000.

The five top home care organizations on this year’s list included ComForCare, 24 Hour Home Care, Senior Helpers, Care to Stay Home, and Butte Home Health and Hospice. ComForCare — a Best Life Brands company — was ranked with affiliate At Your Side.

J.J. Sorrenti, CEO of Best Life Brands, attributed landing on the Best Workplaces in Aging Services list to his network’s “outstanding leaders” on the local level as well as its innovative corporate team. A specific program that has helped attract and retain caregivers has been Best Life Brands’ “CaregiverFirst” program, Sorrenti noted.

“Our CaregiverFirst program is a proprietary program that focuses solely on providing unique strategies, resources and tools to support our owners with caregiver recruitment, engagement and retention,” the franchise leader said in a response shared with Home Health Care News. “We put our caregivers first and focus on taking excellent care of them so that they can provide excellent care to our clients.”

ComForCare and At Your Side have 3,931 employees, according to Great Place to Work. The organization was not ranked on the 2020 list.

With 12,358 employees, 24 Hour Home Care made it on the 2021 list at No. 2 largely due to its ability to support caregivers’ passions while making new employees feel welcome. Last year, 24 Hour Home Care — an independent provider — was ranked in the No. 5 spot.

“Each and every team member at 24 Hour Home Care makes an impact every day and is the backbone of what makes us stand out as a home care company,” David Allerby, co-founder and CEO of 24 Hour Home Care, said in another response shared with HHCN.

Also with over 12,00 employees, Senior Helpers earned the No. 3 spot on the Best Workplaces in Aging Services list for the second year in a row. Led by CEO Peter Ross, the franchise company was acquired by Advocate Aurora Enterprises in the spring.

“Constant feedback, the ability to quickly pivot to provide caregivers the necessary support and resources to properly care for our seniors and treating staff with great respect has helped us tremendously in the past year,” Ross said in a response.

Outside of the top five, the remaining 10 home care organizations were: Sunland Home Care, Grandcare Health Services, Sunshine Homecare, SCAN Health Plan, CareCentrix, Compass Care, Hospice of Southern Illinois, Alleo Health, Avow Hospice and Visiting Nurse Association Health Group.

In addition to home care organizations, Best Workplaces in Aging Services list also has rankings for skilled nursing operators and senior living providers. In total, nearly 228,000 employees took part in the annual project.

The post ComForCare, 24 Hour Home Care Among 2021’s ‘Best Workplaces in Aging Services’ appeared first on Home Health Care News.