While the quality of care delivered to patients is always the most critical component in a home healthcare provider鈥檚 business, in today鈥檚 ever changing environment, operators need to rely on their software vendor as a 鈥榖usiness partner鈥� to help drive the success and growth of their business. But not all home health software vendors are created equal. Following are some indicators that your software vendor may not have your best interests at heart:
- Not customer-focused. Is their customer support staff comprised of former clinicians, agency owners, etc? If not, you may not be getting insightful assistance with your issues. Or you鈥檙e in the Call Center cue so long that you forget why you called. If customer service were a priority, they would staff appropriately.
- Focused internally. They focus more on growing their own business than on helping you grow your business. They don鈥檛 increase their product offerings or employee base organically, but rely on acquisitions or outsourcing, which may take the focus away from existing customers and cause price increases and/or disruption to your business.
- Slow to upgrade for regulatory changes. If your software vendor wasn鈥檛 ready for the new OASIS-C1 on January 1, what are the chances they鈥檒l be ready for ICD-10 on October 1 or other future, frequent regulatory changes coming down the road?
- Major software issues. You regularly have issues logging into the software or submitting a claim, which causes a cash-flow concern in terms of lost productivity. Or the software is creating dissatisfaction among your employees, which affects staff retention and turnover.
- Older technology. Your home care operations workflow is not fully integrated in their software system. A portion of the workflow may even rely on paper-based tasks. Their software continues to be server-based instead of accessible from the cloud for anytime, anywhere access to information and processes. Or their mobile offerings do not cross all platforms (Apple iOS and Google Android) and devices (SmartPhones and tablets) to accommodate user preference and convenience.
If you can relate to any of the above situations, your home health software vendor could be holding your business back from achieving optimal success. What鈥檚 more, they could be hindering your business from moving forward as a leading contender in the industry. Check out your options to determine which software vendor is right for your business.