Vision | The Care Leaders' Podcast: Recent Episodes
Home Care Pulse
Welcome to Vision: The Care Leaders’ Podcast—a podcast that gives you an inside look at what’s happening in home care, home health, and hospice. Hosts Linda Leekley and Amanda Sternklar sit down with industry leaders to discuss pressing challenges, operational best practices, rising trends, and answer top-of-mind questions from providers across the nation. Catch a new episode of Vision every other Tuesday.
At Synergy Home Care of Carlisle, PA, franchise owner Michelle Lisk’s very first employee is still working alongside her to provide care to their community.
With turnover reaching a staggering 77% in home care according to this year’s HCP Benchmarking Report, how is it possible to retain your staff long-term?
Michelle credits her success to a few simple strategies, and in this live recording of Vision, the Care Leaders’ Podcast, she’ll share them with you. Come prepared with your retention questions for this exciting interactive session.
In our 100th episode, Hospice Pioneer Barbara Karnes shares why it’s important to include hospice holistically across the continuum, the role it can play in home care, home health, and senior living, and why all verticals of healthcare need to be trained on the dying process.
Michelle Cone and Laura Coyle of HomeWell Care Services address why home care plays a crucial role in reducing hospital readmissions, how they're prioritizing this at HomeWell, and what they would suggest as the first step to improving outcomes.
Chris Magleby, COO of HCP, shares 5 proven strategies to keep your people past the first 100 days, and how you can save more than $58,000 per year in recruitment and retention expenses.
John Wilson, Sales Strategy & Account Management at A Place for Mom, discusses what a successful lead generation strategy looks like, how it compares to traditional advertising, and how to select a lead generation service.
Malka Trump, Director of Compliance at Viventium, breaks down why pay is such an important topic in post-acute care, how businesses can stay accurate and compliant, and why it's crucial to stay on top of legislative updates.
Brett Ringold, VP of A Long Term Companion, and Gary Bachrach, Executive Director of Business Development of Home Care Services at the Joint Commission, discuss the importance of accreditation in post-acute care and how it can set businesses up for success with referrals and partnerships.
Emily Isbell, CEO at Emily Isbell & Company, shares the skills that post-acute care leaders need to develop, and how they can set their businesses up for success.
Lindsay Schwartz, Founder & Principal of Workforce and Quality Innovations discusses how the social determinants of health impact employees, and what benefits organizations should focus on to improve their culture.
Chris Bowker and Bryan White, Co-Founders of PreIntent, share their strategies to improve engagement during the hiring process and some of the data and strategies that have made their clients so successful.
Marissa Snook (President & CEO of corecubed) and Anthony Kelker (Search Marketing Specialist at corecubed) discuss the importance of content marketing, how post-acute care businesses can continue to make it a priority, and its impact on search engine optimization (SEO).
Dr. Jennifer Kennedy, Vice President of Quality & Standards at CHAP, discusses what CMS's Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP) means for the care continuum as a whole, and the most important things for providers to be aware of.
Nick Bonitatibus, Owner and Founder of the Digital Champions, discusses the unique challenges of using social media as a marketing tool in home-based care, and common mistakes agency owners are making with their digital presence.
During a 10-minute online survey, agencies were asked to share more about their challenges, successes, and future goals around their employee training programs. Linda Leekley, Chief Clinical Officer, and Todd Austin, President of HCP, recently shared the insights we gained and their advice for the future.
If you'd like your own copy of the report, go to https://www.homecarepulse.com/2022-state-of-training-report/.
Jessica Nobles, Executive Director of Home Care Ops, breaks down her five-step system for taking a step back from daily operations, and what agency owners can do to save more time in their schedule.
Kristen Wheeler, Executive Director of Private Duty at NAHC, identifies five critical issues affecting the industry right now and what providers can do to advocate for change.
Wendie Colvin, Senior Clinical Content Writer at HCP, answers all your questions about OASIS-E, and shares how agencies can prepare their staff for these new regulatory updates in 2023.
Josie and Ron Ross of Avant HR Solutions share how the home-based care industry can truly invest in DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) initiatives, and some of the most important first steps agency owners can take.
As we dive into Season 3 of Vision: The Care Leaders' Podcast, new hosts, Linda Leekley and Amanda Sternklar, discuss how training has evolved over the last 20 years and what care providers need to focus on to provide long-term support for industry professionals.
Melanie Stover, Owner of Home Care Sales, shares everything you need to know about referral sources to set your agency up for success. She answers how to communicate with referral sources, how to promote transparency, and how to engage/empower marketers in your organization.
Miki Rossanis, Head of Clinical Development at Sensi, addresses how artificial intelligence technology can aid agencies in recognizing cognitive changes in their clients, and provide supplemental care for the aging populating amid caregiver shortages.
Wendie Colvin, Senior Clinical Content Writer at Home Care Pulse, discusses how we can prepare clients, caregivers, and their family members for the progression of Alzheimer's, and what agencies need to do to support the millions of people living with this disease.
Barbara Karnes, author of 'Gone From My Sight', 'The Little Blue Book' and 'The 11th Hour' explains the role of an end-of-life doula in Hospice, how they can support patients and their families, and the importance of advocating for the dying process.
Daisy Dalegowski, Director of Nursing at BrightStar Care Central Denver, shares why training is important for morale and retention, the differences between a good and bad program, and how every DON can keep caregivers engaged by making training fun and interesting.
Our new podcast host, Melissa Mendez, joins Miriam Allred to talk about her passions/hobbies, background in home care, and what you can expect in season 2 of Vision: The Home Care Leader's Podcast.
John Bennett, CEO of Sunny Days In-home Care in Pittsburg, PA breaks down his company org chart and shares the reasoning behind hiring on-call supervisors for answering calls after hours and on weekends versus using an answering service.
Tatyana Zlotsky, Chief Customer Officer at A Place for Mom, explains what it means to be focused on quality outcomes, how to re-evaluate your people and tech stack to drive outcomes, and the recent updates at APFM to help providers leverage their data and acheive their growth goals.
Mike McSherry, Director of Partnerships at Hireology shares what agencies should do when they've already 'tried everything'. We discuss back-up plans, flexible schedules, emotional salary, employee recognition, and addressing burnout.
Todd Austin and Tyler Guthrie from Home Care Pulse highlight ten trends we've seen from early analysis of the 2022 HCP Benchmarking Report—to be released mid-April.
Dave Tasto, Owner of Assisting Hands - Boston Northwest and Beau Daggett, Senior Software Advisor at AxisCare cover which client outcomes to focus on, which tools and resouces are being under-utilized, and the value these measurements have for an agency and the industry at-large.
Building a strong value prop that's different than your local competitors isn't easy, let alone selling it to your right-fit referral partners — learn from Michelle Cone, SVP of Training/Brand Programs Corporate and Lou Romano, Owner of HomeWell - Hackensack, NJ with their combined 30+ years experience in home care.
Have you ever wondered how you can use your operational data to find your blind spots and improve your business? Learn from Jeff Wiberg, CEO of Family Resource Home Care and Tim Murray, Founder of Aware Senior Care and TeamElderCare Consulting as they break down how to effectively use data as a part of your growth strategy.
Marissa Snook, CEO and Erica Horner, Home Care Consultant at corecubed shed light on the current landscape of home care sales and marketing and how agencies need to adapt to the upcoming trends in 2022.
Bruce Berlind, President and Chris Trempe, Vice President of SwyftOps highlight five software tips you can use to reset or reprioritize the usage of your EMR at the start of 2022.
Tim Smith, Owner of FirstLight Home Care in Oklahoma City, overviews why having a budget is essential, five tips to better manage your finances, and how to avoid common financial mistakes as a business owner.
Gabby Hoing, Owner of Kore Cares in South Dakota explains how raising client rates incrementally over the last 24 months is helping her agency compete for employees with local competitors like Walmart and Amazon.
Krystal Wilkinson, CEO of Adultcare Assistance shares how to elevate your team by getting people in the right seats, having every person own a number, and creating a mission that unifies the whole company.
Patty Burgess and Sheila Schultz, Co-Founders of LifePath Learners deliver what it means to build a culture of training and why self-care needs to be a part of that culture for your entire team.
Bob Roth, Managing Partner of Cypress Home Care Solutions in Scottsdale, Arizona highlights what's changing in home care and how providers can better prepare for what's coming.
Chris Mercer, Director of Health Care Market Growth at Hireology covers employees top motivators for starting a new job search, what channels and mediums they're using and how to build an employment brand to create the ideal candidate experience.
Lorraine Toderash, Senior Product Manager at AlayaCare discusses how to improve your care plans to increase ongoing engagement and accountability.
Kunu Kaushal, Founder/CEO of Senior Solutions Home Care and Founder of the Independent Home Care Alliance shares his take on providing the right development opportunities for office staff and how office culture radiates into the client/employee experience.
Stephen Tweed, Founder/CEO of Leading Home Care overviews the 'perfect storm' happening in home care in regard to M&A activity, consolidation, and the ever-changing landscape. He'll highlight what you need to be aware of and how the high volume of activity is affecting providers nation-wide.
Kyle Bossung, Co-Founder and President of Senior1Care in Indiana tells his story about starting a CNA school inside of his operation and why they've chosen training as their competitive advantage.
Laura Shaw-deBruin, Executive Director at Norwood Seniors Network explains how she has built and implemented a caregiver mentorship program to retain high-quality caregivers by giving them mentorship roles and how it helps them retain new employees.
Brett Ringold, Vice President A Long Term Companion highlights his agency's process to scheduling—deep dive into pre-scheduling, scheduling, and re-scheduling, then we field top of mind scheduling questions from a live audience.
Dawn Spicer, Caregiver Development Manager at Home Instead-Jacksonville, IL highlights her journey starting as a caregiver climbing a career ladder to her current role. She shares how training, annual reviews, and ongoing mentorship programs help their agency retain more caregivers.
Greg Henderson, HRO Manager at Whirks unloads on what is and isn't HR in home care and which 3 common misunderstandings agencies need to take a new look at.
Jayne Kelleher, Director at Bethany at Home in the greater Boston Massachusetts area is getting creative with employment shortages by keeping a pulse on the local market and finding new ways to recruit.
Rick Dyer and Kate Fraser from InPro Insurance Group unpack the 3 most common claims, why providers aren't prepared, examples from real home care owners, and what you can do to avoid these claims.
Andy Droney, ADT's Senior Director of Health & Innovation Programs discusses how in-home care technology can supplement existing care, reduce outcomes such as readmission rates or falls, and help agencies care for more clients amid caregiver shortages.
Nick Bonitatibus, Owner of Digital Champions covers how to improve your social media strategy to drive engagement from prospective clients and caregivers. He'll deep dive on video strategies, results he's seen from providers using video, and how you can start seeing results from video today.
Gary Vogel, Owner of Bayside Home Care and new CEO of The Senior's Choice answers five questions about biggest challenges, suprises, and failures being a home care leader right now.
Jennifer Michelle, President of Michelle Marketing Strategies highlights what is voice of customer marketing, how to capture it, and the best way to leverage it to bring in new clients for your agency.
Rachel Gartner, CEO of Care Work breaks down what a successful Indeed recruitment strategy includes, the current trends we're seeing on the platform and what social recruitment metrics every agency needs to be measuring.
Peter Ross, CEO of Senior Helpers defines social determinants of health and the role of value-based care in the ever-changing healthcare industry. He'll also highlight how Senior Helpers is tracking outcomes and the results they're achieving.
Miranda Reece, VP of Operations & Patient Experience at Intrepid USA shares which technologies are having the greatest impact on home care and how our clients and employees are responding to them.
Tim and Gina Murray, Founders of Aware Senior Care in North Carolina, recently sold their $4M agency after just six years in business. They’ll discuss:
- What they did over the six years to build an agency that was sought after by acquirers
- What life has been like post-sale
- Why they’re starting two new businesses to give back to the industry
Dawn Blackman, CEO of Home Care 1 in Cleveland, Ohio is here to share what strategies she used to get her business to over 850 billable hours in only 5 months of operation.
Gabby Hoing, Founder and CEO of Kore Cares in Sioux Falls, SD found her love for in-home care back when she started as a CNA 15 years ago.
Gabby's here to discuss:
- Why it's important to conduct 90-day reviews with your caregivers
- How to reward caregivers & office staff with bonuses and additional compensation methods
- How having a community presence has resulted in more client and caregiver referrals
Aaron Stapleton, Founder & CEO of Queen City Home Care in Cincinnati, Ohio explains why he started surveying his caregivers, what insights he's gained in the first three months, and how his agency is using survey feedback to not only retain, but also recruit vested caregivers.
Dustin Distefano, Founder and CEO of A Place at Home highlights the importance of a clearly defined caregiver journey. He breaks down:
- How to engage caregivers through meaningful touchpoints
- How to create opportunities for advancement that ignite growth
- How engagement & professional growth lead to caregiver retention
Lonnie Mayne, Founder of Red Shoes Living is a world-renowned speaker and author on humanizing the experience. He's here to share the 5-step framework of his philosophy: Red Shoes Living.
Learn how to build enriched culture, establish leadership responsibility, develop team accountability or create standout client experiences through this 5-step framework that's designed to help individuals show up and put their best self forward every day.
Todd Allen, CEO of AxisCare and Ari Medoff, CEO of Arosa answer top questions agencies are asking about the current M&A landscape and highlight what executives need to understand about their business to be set up for a future buy/sell.
Steve "The Hurricane" unpacks the three most important things your agency can do today to prepare to sell. Whether you've been in business for a year, three-years or twenty years, it's never too early or too late to have this conversation.
Clint Nobles, Founder of Home Care Ops and Owner of Nobility Care Solutions shares:
- What components a repeatable system needs to have
- How your agency can create or adapt your current systems
- How Nobility Care integrated systems resulting in rapid growth & sustainable revenue
- Why systems are the foundation for long-term success
New HomeWell Care Services CEO, Crystal Franz and Will Childers, leading franchisee in Delaware highlight what they did to achieve a record-breaking year at both the organization and system-level.
Chelsey Ammons, VP of Nursing at Care Advantage Inc. dives into how her team has successfully retained hundreds of caregivers across 25+ locations over the course of the pandemic. She'll share seven tips with derived outcomes and examples that you can implement today to retain caregivers in your home care agency.
Olivia Jones, Executive Vice President of Care Advantage Inc. has been working in personal care for 23 years and is here to highlight five secrets to improve your home care scheduling processes.
In this episode we'll discuss:
- What the five secrets are
- How Olivia has seen these secrets work effectively across their 27 locations
- What results you can expect to see from implementing these secrets
Brett Ringold, Vice President of family-owned agency, A Long Term Companion is here to highlight his decade of experience recruiting and retaining caregivers after having been a recipient of home care himself.
We'll dive into office staff culture, mastering caregiver scheduling, measuring caregiver satisfaction, refining your onboarding process and much more. Tune in to learn tips that you can begin implementing in your home care business today!
Barbara Karnes, author of 'Gone From My Sight', 'The Little Blue Book' and 'The 11th Hour' shares what she's learned from 40+ years of experience educating and training care workers on the end of life experience.
She's known as the pioneer of the hospice industry and with over 30 million copies sold of her books, she's the expert on all topics around death and end of life.
Mitch Williams, Owner of Home Helpers, San Mateo is the only home care agency in California to win the Best of Home Care Leader in Excellence Award six years in a row. He’s here to share when, why and what outcomes they’ve driven while measuring client and caregiver satisfaction.
Kevin Smith, CEO of Best of Care in the greater Boston area shares what's top of mind for him as his multi-million dollar independent agency continues to grow at an accelerated rate.
In this episode, we'll hit on:
- COVID vaccine rollout and messaging
- Scaling your HR Department
- Pressure testing your administrative infrastructure
- Pursuing opportunities: quality vs quantity
- Growing from $5M to $10M and beyond
Amy Selle, Vice President and Erica Horner, Home Care Sales Consultant at corecubed breakdown which sales strategies will continue to work for our industry as remote work, digital communication and COVID still dictate the ongoing landscape.
Marissa Snook, President/CEO and Stacie Gillespie, Director of Search Marketing at corecubed download major trends in digital marketing that home care owners need to take advantage of and watch out for in 2021.
Jessica Nobles, Founder of Nobility Care Solutions and Executive Administrator of Home Care Ops is here to share how to validate and give a voice to your caregivers, the importance of an EVP and what the hierarchy structure looks like for her care team.
Jake Rankin, the Founder and CEO of Talem Home Care & Placement Services out of Broomfield, Colorado addresses the top questions home care providers are asking, including:
- Getting caregivers to show up for interviews
- Progressing referral sources that say they're working with another agency
- What's working in terms of digital communication with referral sources
- Best use of marketing dollars right now
- Strategic planning for 2021, including how to factor in the ongoing effect of COVID-19
Howard Stein, Owner of Home Helpers in Monmouth County, NJ started his agency in February 2020 — here's what he experienced jumping into the industry, hiring his first employees and operating an agency amidst a pandemic.
Aaron Marcum, Founder of Home Care Pulse is here to talk about starting his own agency in 2001, how his experience led him to found Home Care Pulse and why measuring client/caregiver satisfaction will improve the external care you provide and internal culture you create.
Kamran Nasser, Founder and CEO of NuevaCare in San Mateo, California is here to tell us how he built the #3 fastest-growing private company in Silicon Valley back in 2017. He ran NuevaCare very successfully for just 4 years before he sold it — here's the story.
NYSHCP, President Kathy Febraio has developed and secured funding for a peer-to-peer mentorship program for home care workers in the state of New York. They’re four months into a year-long program, working with 6 home care agencies in upstate NY and NYC. Kathy’s here to discuss how she developed the program, the results so far and what they hope to accomplish over the next 6 months.
Dakota Aitken, now Branch Director at Home Helpers in Cour d'Alene, Idaho first started as a caregiver to make some extra cash before and during his time at the University. He quickly developed compassion and a love for the industry, which led him to his current role – here's his story.
Sandi McCann, Founder and CEO of Home Care of the Rockies in Boulder County, Colorado talks about building The HomeCare 100 — a 100-hour caregiver training program custom to her agency. She'll unload why they built a custom program, how they pulled it all together, what's included in the 100-hours and what recruitment and retention results have derived from this exceptional training program.
Gregg Mazza, Founder and CEO of Home Care Breakthrough Solutions is here to talk about the big three challenges impacting the industry: staffing, meeting new client demand and holding your entire team accountable. From growing his own agency to $5M+ to consulting with hundreds of home care providers, he's got a solid understanding of these challenges and new ideas to tackle them in the present day.
David Ellenwood, Founder of Sunny Days in Home Care is here with his son-in-law John Bennett, now the current CEO, to talk about why they started a home care agency and how they've grown it to $14M+ as one of the fastest growing family-owned businesses in Pittsburgh.
Guy Tommasi, Owner of LIFETIME Care at Home is known as the data guru of the industry and he's here to tell us about value-based care, 4 data pillars to focus on and how his agency has managed to stand out from 600+ agencies in CT when it comes to getting referrals.
Emilie Bartolucci, Executive Director of Private Duty Home Care at NAHC is here to talk about her journey to the home care industry and why that's led her to pursue a doctrate in organizational leadership. She's focusing her dissertation on the caregiver experience and the motivating factors that keep caregivers in the industry. Here's what she has learned.
CEO, Neal Kursban and VP of Caregiver Services, Jen Sussman are here to talk about company culture being the foundation of recruitment, how to increase caregiver referrals from current staff and how to decrease your "no-show" rate for caregiver interviews.
Adam Robinson, CEO of Hireology explains why 'jobs are products' as he breaks down top producing job sites, communication with applicants, recruitment strategies that drive ROI and recruitment technology trends to watch out for in 2021.
Andrea Cohen, Founder & CEO of HouseWorks talks about competing with unemployment, which tech tools and platforms are bringing applicants, and how to optimize and set goals that result in new hires.
Brian Petranick, CEO of international home care organization, Right at Home discusses why the consumers mindset has changed, why your agency is more agile than ever, which workplace adaptations are most beneficial and what opportunities you need to capitilize on now.
“It is absolutely going to be a challenge to get all this done,” says Vicki Hoak, Executive Director of the HCAOA. On this episode of Vision, Miriam and Vicki talk about the launch of 2 new Committees formed by the HCAOA, where the industry is heading over the next 12 months and what you can expect at the HCAOA’s Annual Leadership Conference.
Steve "The Hurricane" is here to talk about agency owners biggest challenges with recruitment/retention, sales/marketing and increasing existing revenue streams. He'll share a few of his professional coaching tips that can increase revenue, decrease turnover and boost your team's morale.
Nick Mecham and Garth Crane are Customer Success Managers at Home Care Pulse. Every day they consult with home care agency owners about best practices to grow their business. In the course of their time at Home Care Pulse combined they’ve consulted with over 4,000 agencies. Today, they’re here to tell us about the top 7 habits they’ve learned from highly effective home care owners.
Michael Ferraina, CEO of JEVS Care at Home breaks down how to build a lasting culture, how you communicate and implement culture and why orienting your business around company culture will make the greatest difference to your quality of care.
Merrily Orsini, Founder and CEO of corecubed, dives into the current landscape of all things home care sales and marketing. She'll cover how salespeople can get creative to stay engaged with referral sources and why agencies need to fine tune their digital marketing strategies to increase exposure and draw in new business.
John Bradshaw's, CEO of Georgetown Home Care made the decision to take COVID-positive patients and he's here to tell us his story. We'll talk through his realization point, what his agency needed (PPE, training, resources) to take those patients and most importantly how he got his aides on board with this new game plan.
On this episode of Vision, Brandi Kurtyka will dive into how labor trends are continuing to evolve as we move forward, what the hiring landscape will look like if this recession becomes long-term and what areas of opportunity there are for agencies hiring right now.
Stephen Tweed has been in home care for several economic downturns, including the Great Recession and he's joining us to talk about what he's learned from past economic downturns and what insight that will give agency owners navigating current challenges.
Al Cardillo is one of the brightest minds in home care and currently serves as the President of the Home Care Association of New York State. Al's here to talk about the current state of home care in NY, what the support of PPE supplies looks like with resurges happening, what the fiscal and financial landscape looks like and what the major opportunities are out there for providers right now.
In this episode, we’ll be talking about what operations and protocols Jeff's agency has adopted during COVID-19, which of those adoptions has been most influential and why, and which adoptions we’re making as an industry and which Jeff believes will become mainstream post-crisis.