This article was originally published on LinkedIn.
The demand for home care isn’t slowing down, but as more people need care, providers are facing a big question: Will they have the workforce and resources to keep up?
A new report from PHI National shows that the direct-care workforce has grown to nearly 5.8 million workers. But with America’s population getting older, the long-term-care sector will need to fill an estimated 9.6 million direct-care job openings over the next decade.
For home care organizations, that growth comes at a time when many are already dealing with staffing shortages, rising costs, and the pressure to do more with the resources they have.
“It’s clear from this report that the expansion of the home care workforce will create strain on the system,” says Alex Pelaez, CEO of 5e Analytics, pointing out that “retention will become the critical metric for ensuring consistency and quality of care.”
“The providers who treat their workforce data as seriously as their financial data are the ones who will still be standing, and growing, a decade from now, because behind every one of those numbers is a caregiver, and a family counting on them.”
That’s where data can make a difference.
Home care organizations already collect a lot of information. Client and care data may live in one system, scheduling and workforce information in another, and financial data somewhere else. The problem isn’t necessarily a lack of data. It’s being able to see what all of that information is telling you.
For example, where are overtime costs going up? Which locations are seeing the most caregiver turnover? Are unfilled shifts affecting the number of clients you can serve? How are staffing costs impacting revenue?
The answers may already be there. But when information is spread across different systems and reports, spotting patterns and acting on them can be difficult.
Technology alone isn’t going to solve the workforce challenges facing home care. But having the right information can make it easier to decide where to focus your people, time, and resources.
At 5e, we help organizations get more out of the data they already have. Our Memphi platform brings information from multiple systems together and turns it into easy-to-understand dashboards, giving leaders a clearer picture of what’s happening across their organization.
As demand for home care continues to grow, simply having data isn’t enough. 5e can help you understand what your data is really telling you and what you may be missing.