It is no secret that the healthcare industry is booming and the home health industry is among those reaping the benefits. But the expansion of the home health industry at an increasingly rapid pace has made it difficult for individuals and agencies associated with home health industry to regulate themselves or to even contribute to regulating the home health industry as a whole. Thus, consolidation and standardization of this industry are dearly required to actually reduce cost, increase operational efficiency and standardize trends that can really help the industry to develop and move in the right direction.
Over the years, quite a few trends for the home health industry such as cooperation between institutions and healthcare trading partners, industry consolidation and partnerships, collaborative approaches to industry issues, and the increasingly common use of technology have all stayed the same because even though the industry is expanding and has easily become an industry that has the most secure job prospects in the US, it still lacks consolidation and standardization. But there are a few standardization challenges that the industry currently faces. Among such challenges is the challenge of consistency in the quality of care. Because healthcare needs to be cost-effective, as dictated by economic pressures, the resources have to be used efficiently and effectively. Therefore, special attention needs to be given to the quality of the care i.e. while using the resources efficiently and effectively, the quality must not decrease and patient satisfaction must be the top-most priority, which is mostly not the case because individuals and agencies associated with the home health industry have failed to find balance between the two.
Another standardization challenge that the home health industry faces is limitations for doctors and patients. With the introduction of standardization due to the increasing economic pressure, doctors may fear that it would limit them in the decisions they make for their individual treatment. Whereas, patients, on the other hand, may feel out of options and restricted to go for receiving much more expensive treatments even if their conditions are not as critical. Thus, to eliminate such challenges, efficient and resolute change management is required. There are specifically three measures that need to be taken to start this stated process of change management, the measures are given as follows:
- Introduction of Patient Engagement Solutions: The first step that would really make a difference in eliminating standardization challenges is to increase communication with patients to make them an active part of their own care. The communication must be maintained both before and after treatments so that a fewer number of patients bail on appointments which negatively impacts the related agency and the home health industry overall.
- Price Accuracy and Collaboration: Another standardization measure that the home health industry need to take is price accuracy and an increased collaboration. Most home health agencies contract the prices of the medical supplies they require and it so often happens that the negotiated price differs from what they actually pay. A great idea would be to make suppliers and manufacturers collaborate directly with home health agencies to ensure a transparent pricing process all across the US to reduce inaccuracies and waste of valuable revenue.
- Purchasing Consolidation: Consolidating purchasing is another great way to ensure proper standardization. When this would be done across multiple facilities, favorable results would start to show.
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