Remind Me Again Why I Got Into Home Care

It can be surprisingly easy to forget why we got into the home care industry in the first place, with such fierce competition for customers and employees, yearly increases in insurance rates, and more and more regulations.  We are always under pressures–to hire and retain better employees, to meet payroll, to grow census, to increase profitability, to keep clients and referral sources happy, to perform.  Even our elected officials often treat us with hostility, sometimes appearing as if they think that the home care industry is a license to steal or commit fraud.

I have had to remind myself and my staff what a privilege it is to be chosen–to be trusted–with the health and welfare of families’ loved ones.  This is a difficult and challenging business we are in.  It requires continuous attention to a myriad of details and needs that make each client unique, and that make each case uniquely challenging.  Of course, it not only involves providing the direct services, but following all of the countless policies and procedures exactly as written in order to receive reimbursement.

In the course of our day we do so many things at many levels.  For example, when we apply an attendance policy, it is not just to keep employees in compliance; it is to assure that we are doing what we say we will do.  Our clients depend on us being there to help them with their daily activities.  These policies are in fact our values in action.

We agree to take on these tasks because it is our jobs to do so, but couldn’t we find an easier way to make a living?  Of course we could.  We all know how difficult this industry is to perform well.  I am in awe at the sales skill that national franchises display in their abilities to sell so many overlapping private duty business franchises (more on this later).  They promise some big returns, and with a lot of hard work and the right attitude, all things are possible.  But I think that many of these entrepreneurs go into the home care industry because underneath they have a need to do some good in the world, and they have no idea how hard it can be.

But it can feel great!  What home care owner/manager has not experienced the feeling of complete satisfaction in knowing that all of our hard work, all of our careful selections and training hours and check-up calls have resulted in happy and safe clients?  The work that we do really matters.  What we do is not only rewarding for us personally—it is important.  Hundreds of thousands, probably millions of seniors count on us to help them with their housework, a bath, a hot meal, and a friendly smile.

Knowing at the end of the day that what we have done—despite all of the frustrations and the energy-sapping challenges—has served people who need us and that we have made a difference, is really quite a return.  And you and I can take that to the bank.