Many care at home organizations operate with clinical teams providing patient care and teams focused on organizational growth. The collaboration between those teams may not come naturally if individuals tend to stay within their own scope of work. However, cross-team collaboration is key to serving more patients with the best care.
Like The Legs of a Chair
Care at home organizations are like a chair with four legs, supported by the operations, finance, clinical and growth teams. All of these legs support the organization’s mission to provide competent, high-quality care to patients. However, it’s up to organizational leaders to foster a collaborative culture so each leg carries the weight equally.
A Culture of Collaboration
Organizations can benefit from collaboration between the clinical manager and the growth or sales leader. Together, they can ensure both the clinical team and the sales team understand a patient’s journey from referral to discharge. This also helps the sales team articulate how the organization can help patients with different needs, assist with transitions of care and provide positive outcomes. The clinical team should also learn about the sales team’s operations, such as referral patterns, top partners and new opportunities. When education and collaboration flow both ways, everyone involved can buy-in to the process.
Practical ways to implement this culture of collaboration include shadowing opportunities on different teams for new employees and team leaders joining other team meetings. A sales leader joining case conferences or interdisciplinary group meetings can speak with the clinical team about opportunities to improve the referral to admission process. Clinical managers joining sales team meetings can offer suggestions to improve relationships with referral sources.
The Role of Technology
Together, the alignment of clinical and growth teams can help organizations build their service lines and referrals. However, this expansion can be difficult, especially with staffing challenges.
There are several areas where technology can solve those gaps.
For example, technology can enhance training and onboarding. Whether an organization is bringing on new graduates or seasoned clinicians transitioning from an acute to post-acute environment, online programs such as the Axxess Training and Certification Program can support accurate and up-to-date onboarding and training programs.
Easy-to-use technology that incorporates clinical intelligence drives both staff engagement and retention. Ease of use affects the time clinicians spend documenting and how much they can spend with patients providing direct care.
Business intelligence tools bring together meaningful data and highlight clinical gaps of care, rehospitalization and adherence to discharge instructions. Clinical and growth teams can use this data to ensure competencies to address the community’s needs, building the clinical brand on the needs assessment.
Engage the Team
A care at home organization’s success is dependent upon the teams’ success. Organizations should engage current employees to ask what they see as opportunities for improvement and how technology can support those endeavors. Learn more by listening to the “Aligning with Growth Strategies” episode of The Clinical Manager Source Podcast.
Want to learn more about growth and innovation? The Axxess Growth, Innovation and Leadership Experience, also known as AGILE, will bring together the brightest thought leaders, policymakers, technology innovators and care teams to envision a shared future of healthcare at home. It’s more than just a user conference. Save your spot today.
