industry & policy
interests. Where case managers also represent services from their organisation, or feel pressure to push their organisation’ s services, care recipients may form perceptions that their goals are not aligned to organisational objectives.
For case managers to truly optimise services and the budget for a care recipient, they need to consider all supplier options and manage them at arm’ s length, regardless of the owner of these services.
6CONSIDER VOLUNTEERS FIRST IN PLANNING With the goal of maximising an individual’ s welfare, it’ s important to get free stuff first, then use the budget for the rest.
Care planning needs to challenge the case managers to build in activities and support that do not necessarily cost money. Organisations might have their own volunteer networks or ability to tap into others. There are also family and friends.
Case managers can make willing family and friends accountable for certain activities, in the interest of maximising a budget. A good plan will have all relatives knowing what is expected of them and when. There are even opportunities for family and friends to take on case management duties for a lower fee.
7COMPLETE A REAL CARE PLAN A real care plan is not just a summary of services and cost. It should be more like a formal business plan that requires a qualitative and quantitative document that outlines where an individual is, where they want to be, and how they are going to get there.
A plan is a document that stands on its own, with such strength it doesn’ t even need to be linked to a home-care package to be of value to the individual. In fact, it might recommend other options, such as private care arrangements, house sharing, village environments, or the Commonwealth Home Support Programme in the initial instance.
Just as the travel agent industry had to justify charging directly for its services when commissions were cut and direct internet bookings appeared, approved providers will be judged on their care plans and assessed on what they cost.
8ENCOURAGE‘ CO-OPETITION’ AND NETWORKING Quality at any cost will not keep an organisation in business. An organisation’ s gardeners might be very good but does a client want to pay $ 50 an hour or would they rather pay $ 35 an hour for someone without the bulletproof gardening quality checklist?
Further, is a client willing to pay a premium for an overqualified carer, or will the carer’ s organisation pay the difference?
No organisation can be good at everything. Being good means not only having the best staff, it’ s having the best price, or mixing the two – best value for money. Approved providers and service organisations will need to network and work together, including organisations paying their competition to service their clients. Networks with local senior citizens clubs, councils and general community happenings will also become increasingly important.
9KEEP IT LOCAL Approved providers of tomorrow will need to source carers locally to minimise travel. Except for isolated regional areas, travel costs cannot be passed on to clients.
It’ s nice to send your own care staff to a client; however, not when they have to drive 20km. Travel is dead money and there is the cost to the staff member and the cost for the transport itself.
Where tight scheduling with route optimisation is not possible, the use of other home-care organisations( co-opetition) and innovations with semi-formal carers will become necessary.
PUT THE CLIENT FIRST
10Consumer-directed care means consumer control. Organisations that fight the desires of consumers with restrictive work practices will lose customers.
Minimum shifts, demarcations of types of work and traditional rostering don’ t necessarily meet care recipient needs and are administratively costly. Further, workplace award structures and on-cost demands are not necessarily valued by carers.
Only the largest care providers, with a willing full-time, locally based workforce on tight scheduling and a large number of clients could possibly meet CDC client needs. Even then they would still be at a cost disadvantage to nimble new operators emerging to give carers independent access to clients in a way similar to what Uber has done with the highly regulated taxi industry.
Bottom line, clients will not pay for inefficient work practices they don’ t want. Most organisations will need to embrace innovative methods to legally use contractors, casuals and even neighbours and family who have passed provider standards. ■
Ross McDonald is the founder and director of Capital Guardians. � ross. mcdonald @ capitalguardians. com
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