Reopening the Senior Care Sector of the Franchise Model

Webinar Summary –

In this Recovery and Reopening webinar, IFA Senior Home Care member companies shared and provided their insights on dealing with COVID-19, and emerging from the pandemic with new adaptations and tools tailored to the home care industry. The panelist discussed what’s changed since COVID-19, strategies to work with other sector partners, and the changing landscape of health requirements, and caregiver/client safety.

Key Bullets –

• Home Care working group worked with Littler Mendelson to create Operational Recommended Practices for the Home Care Sector – critical guidance for companies across the sector
• PPE requirement is biggest shift
• Embrace the change and disruption, and stay attuned to ways, new media your company can leverage to access consumer and respond to new behaviors

Full Bullets –

• Building the Blueprint
  • 300+ different types of business in IFA Membership
  • Blueprint roughly divided into 9 business verticals
  • Working groups within each vertical
  • Worked to identify areas to reexamine
    • Entering & exiting
    • Ordering/queuing
    • Interacting/transacting
  • Franchising is well positioned to implement new safety protocols, given its history of implementing brand standards
• Deploying/Evolving the Blueprint
  • Blueprint sent to Administration Task Force
  • Distributing to Governors and their staffs
  • Distributing to Members of Congress
  • Deploying locally as needed
  • As states reopen, this is intended to be a living document and will continually update
  • As we learn what is working (and what is not) the document will be revised

Home Care Industry – Shelly Sun (BrightStar Care)

• Littler
  • Operational Recommended Practices
  • Working Group
• Brightstar Care Processes/Standards
• Littler has made resources available to Home Care industry
• Updated Recommended operational protocols
  • Updated as things continue to change on a weekly basis
  • CDC changes symptoms
  • CDC extended home isolation period from 7 to 10 days
• Protocol Training “In The Know” – turned it into care giver facing educational program

BrightStar

• Communication Cadence
• Screening and Segmentation
• PPE  - Brand Standard and Fulfillment
  • $2 million PPE investment
• Respirator Program
• Legislative engagement
• Business Management Tools
  • Mix of business
  • Identify lost customers
  • Helping to plan for cash flow impacts
  • Hands-on approach to PPP loans
• Screening and medical evaluation for N95 masks for caregivers

Emma Dickison – Home Helpers Senior Care

• Stayed focus on 3 priorities
  • Supporting franchisees – “sticks in a bundle remain unbroken”
    • Leadership, engagement, collaboration
  • Continue to provide exceptional care
    • Caregiving has been provided through past health crises and pandemics
    • Providing senior in-home care today has never been more critical
    • Securing PPE and other safety equipment
    • Ongoing caregiver training with COVID-19 certifications
  • Advocate for Clients, Caregivers, and Business Model
    • Home care IS Health Care
    • Take advantage of IFA tele-town halls with Reps in your state
    • Take action on Advocacy Alerts
    • Current administration policies do not align with Caregiver retention and recruitment
      • 1 in 4 direct care workers are immigrants, so having a strong immigration system is critical
      • Unemployment insurance extra has also complicated matters
• We are open and hiring!
  • World will be different going forward
  • Royalty deferments and brand fund waivers
  • Purchased the Littler toolkit – resources to complement brand
  • Transparent communication
  • Accelerated marketing with message focused on trust and safety
  • Advocacy
• Consumer, not government, will determine what “normal” means
  • Initial Shock – Coming to Grips – Living a New Normal – Moving to Recovery – Post-Coronavirus life
  • Pay attention to new media and leverage new media that will come out of this crisis to the benefit of organization and to speak to consumers
• Home care industry has meaningful long-term upside
  • Over a 7 week period, the vendor experienced a 50% growth in service inquiries
• Embrace change and disruption
• Advocating for Agencies and Caregivers
  • Worked with IFA, HCAOA, NAHC to coordinate message with Congress
  • Organized, focused advocacy campaigns
  • Letters to Governors
  • PPP reforms
  • State UI programs – protocols to determine qualified unemployed applicants
• Continuing Congressional Advocacy
  • Qualified Immunity
  • Enhanced Pay for Frontline Workers
  • Essential benefits – child care
  • Priority for PPE
  • Enhanced support for government programs
    • Medicaid and VA

Jeff Bevis – FirstLight HomeCare

• What has changed?
  • Even greater need for communications
  • Stay in close touch with every client, family
  • Continual reassurance for every caregiver
  • Call series or frequency with owners
  • Legislative, Financial, PPE, Protocol tracking
  • Referral sources
• What is different since Covid-19?
  • PPE requirements
  • Reporting mechanism and technology for symptoms pre-shift
  • Immediate engagement for all client-facing documents to electronic platform
  • Added internal documentation (Littler Toolkit) for client conditions, caregiver conditions, proper reporting of either for exposures, testing and employment scenarios
• Franchisee Implementation
  • Virtual basis of recruiting and mix of in-person, virtual for future
  • Training is virtual with in person final segments
  • Migration to virtual Networking Groups and mix of in-person, virtual for future
  • Client onboarding process and documentation (paperless)
• What is working?
  • Rise of telehealth (remote patient monitoring)
  • Greater franchisee engagements
  • Added guidance and communications
  • Enhanced infection control protocols (pandemic)
• What is not working?
  • Reliance on pre-Covid-19 approaches
  • Little or low priority on PPE requirements and precautions
  • “Going it alone” without help, information, and strength of industry advocacy efforts

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