The 1900s is an interesting time period to study in terms of demographics. The few decades following World War II saw an unprecedented increase in births that had never occurred before and will likely never occur again.
Baby Boomers were born some time during 1946 – 1964. This means that since 2011, approximately 10,000 baby boomers have been turning 65 every year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This will continue through 2029, at which point more than 20% of the United States’ population (or 60 million people) will be 65 years or older.
With the number of senior citizens growing in our country, home health care has become a crucial sector within the healthcare industry. As the business continues to grow for home health care providers, so will the influx of incoming calls and family communications. Anserve can help your home healthcare business stay on top of the call volume and documentation requirements with home healthcare answering services.
The Home Healthcare Industry is a Competitive Market
Like other sectors in the healthcare industry, the home health care market is a competitive one. Business Insider estimates that home healthcare will grow approximately 7% annually to a $173 billion industry by 2026. That rate of growth is significantly faster than other healthcare professions including hospital care (estimated to grow 5.3% per year) and physician services (estimated to grow 5.6% annually). Needless to say, as the population ages and life expectancy grows, the competition will certainly rise to meet the market demands. Anserve can help home healthcare providers manage the volume of calls brought on by growth.
In the 1960s and 70s, three factors caused the senior care industry to begin growing:
- Government support for aging Americans increased (Medicare),
- The National Institute on Aging was formed, and
- Life expectancy increased, meaning there were more elderly people needing care.
In an article on Franchise Help about its analysis of the senior care industry in 2016, 90% of seniors surveyed expressed wishes to remain in their homes for as long as possible rather than move to an assisted living facility, nursing home, or other type of care facility.
Research suggests the number of people requiring daily at-home living assistance will reach 27 million by 2050. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects job growth for home health and personal care aides of to increase 25 percent over the next ten years.
The U.S. home healthcare services market is expected to increase from $94.17 billion in 2022 to $153.19 billion by 2029.
In-Home Health Agencies Can Provide Competitive Customer Care with Healthcare Answering Services
The baby-boomer generation is aging, and the demand for elderly care is growing. Subsequently, competition for offering the best quality care will intensify. The aging population is looking for services that best match the help they need while giving them the opportunity to maintain their lifestyles as closely as possible.
Many children of aging parents don’t like the idea of having to place a loved one in a home, or have a hard time finding a nursing home or retirement facility that can meet the needs of both parents. Your in-home health agency can provide an attractive alternative. By using a healthcare answering service that is knowledgeable about your operation and your clients’ needs, your in-home health service can boast exceptional customer care to attract and retain potential and existing clients.
Healthcare answering services for in-home health agencies can help you better respond to emergency situations. Set up protocols for triaging urgent calls. Your answering service representative will follow the steps you set up to handle emergencies the way you would like your agency to manage these situations.
Improve communication with your clients and their family members. A representative from your answering service will quickly provide accurate information when clients or their family members call to pose frequently asked questions about the ins and outs of your services. This will be especially useful to new clientele when they initially sign up with your service. Knowledgeable representatives can help newcomers become better acquainted with the way your organization runs its services thus providing your clients with a seamless transition into their new routines.
Offer fast and simple scheduling services for activities or appointments such as: general transportation, grocery/pharmacy and other errand services, physical therapy and other doctor appointments, church functions, family gatherings, visiting friends, and more. A healthcare answering service can help make scheduling appointments easy and straightforward so that your clients don’t have to sacrifice their social lives or too much independence.
Provide guidance for clients as their care needs change. As your clients continue to age, it is likely that they will need to adjust their level of care. A service representative can provide guidance to clients so they can receive greater assistance as needed.
If you’re running a home health agency and don’t have an answering service, it could be a valuable addition to your business. Anserve’s home health care answering service can help you provide better service to your customers. As the industry changes as a result of medical advances and an aging population, our home health answering service will be able to grow with your business. Our representatives are highly trained to deal with the unique demands of a home health agency. Contact us today to learn more.
Why is Customer Satisfaction Important In-home Healthcare?
Customer satisfaction in-home healthcare is important because it is a reflection of the services provided by the facility. It’s not uncommon for potential families to use customer satisfaction reviews as a measure of the quality of the services rendered. In other words, if customer satisfaction drops, not only will the facility lose those unsatisfied families, but also will likely lose prospective families because they believe that the facility is not able to provide adequate services. Plainly put, if a home healthcare agency wants to stay in business, they need to make sure that their customer satisfaction is high. Anserve can help make a good first impression with trained friendly representatives to provide home healthcare answering services for first-time callers and existing families.
How is a Home Healthcare Answering Service Important in Connecting New Families with Healthcare?
When families seek out home healthcare services, they are doing so because they likely feel overwhelmed by trying to provide adequate care for their loved ones. New families will likely have several questions and concerns that will need to be addressed before they land on a provider. These first interactions are a home healthcare’s best opportunity to make an excellent first impression. Combine these needs with your audience; usually, a loved one seeking help from a home care agency and making contact after-hours to accommodate their availability. Anserve’s home healthcare answering services can help make a good first impression by providing information to incoming callers based on an approved script your company settles on. This opportunity to make a good first impression is lost if the call is missed or if the caller is met with a voicemail. A home healthcare answering service ensures that none of these crucial calls are missed.
How can Anserve’s Home Healthcare Answering Services Help Home Healthcare Providers?
Home healthcare providers are busy people. Not only are they occupied with ensuring that their clients are healthy and happy, but also spend much of their day out in the field. The nature of this job makes it difficult to field incoming phone calls because there are so many other things that need attention. Should your employees be calling out of their case, an answering service ensures someone is there to route the important message and have a replacement professional assigned. Anserve’s home healthcare answering service can alleviate that burden of balancing health care with administrative maintenance by taking the excess incoming phone calls to your facility. This frees your staff from having to field these calls in their personal time and allows you to remain focused on the other aspects of the business while still maintaining excellent relationships with your families.
What does Anserve’s Home Healthcare Answering Services Provide that are Especially Important Home Healthcare?
Anserve’s home healthcare answering services promises no missed calls, quick response times, and the ability to communicate with families, and your staff, at all hours. But there are other benefits that our answering service can provide. Our agents are multilingual and can field calls from non-English speaking clients, thereby expanding your customer base. We can also be available to field calls during emergency situations for both families and employees, such as assisting during a medical emergency or in the event an employee needs to find shift coverage. Our training and experience gives us an edge at handling calls with a positive attitude while also respecting patient confidentiality, HIPAA regulations, and other home health regulations. We will also timestamp all of our calls to help document communications and information relayed during that conversation.
Anserve provides a great home health answering service user experience for home health care businesses and their clients.
Home healthcare facilities that use Anserve’s answering services are able to stay connected with their clients and remain reputable in their communities. Customers are more likely to report a positive customer service experience if their calls are answered promptly and if their questions are answered with thoughtful and knowledgeable responses. This allows clients to feel reassured in their decision to place their trust in a home healthcare agency and feel confident that they are receiving the medical attention they need. Contact Anserve today to discuss how our home healthcare answering services can help your home healthcare facility.
A home healthcare answering service that can provide you with well-trained staff that will learn your business is an excellent way to distinguish yourself through quality of client care. For more information, call Anserve at 800-980-9770 or contact us.
