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May 8, 2019 Fact Book 2018

Visiting Angels Home Care

Visiting Angels: Improving Services Through Technology

For the last 13 years, Greg Lindstrom has owned and operated Visiting Angels, a premier home care agency serving the greater Worcester county area. The lessons he learned from his parents, who co-founded the agency, serve as the foundation upon which he has built a thriving business that provides quality care at an affordable price, treats both staff and clients with respect and strives to innovate and improve whenever and wherever possible.

 

What new services/programs does your company now offer?

Visiting Angels continually strives to improve the programs and services we offer to our clients. In addition to creating a personalized care plan for elderly and individuals with disabilities that enables them to remain in their own home, we incorporate “Activities of Daily Living” (ADLs) into our services. Our goal is to enhance the quality of life for all our clients.

As we grow at Visiting Angels, we will soon have more than 100 employees, who can offer respite care for families; companionship; personal care; meal preparation; light housekeeping, including laundry; and will run errands. Through the years we have implemented ways to become more efficient, partly through automation. 

 

How is Visiting Angels using technology to further improve your business?

As our business continues to grow, we are looking for ways to maximize our processes and become more efficient. As a result, we have adopted some digital platforms, which will be one of the keys to our continued success. 

In an effort to streamline our operations, Visiting Angels has begun using ClearCare Online, which is a powerful mobile technology platform that facilitates many of the tasks related to the business of delivering quality health care. This technological tool can handle everything to keep our business running smoothly, from staff scheduling that includes detailed assignments, applications and billing. Furthermore, ClearCare Online makes it easy for caregivers and families to stay informed. They have access to a live, secure portal that allows them to view care plans and schedules at their convenience.

ClearCare has also been instrumental in helping us with caregiver retention and recruitment, which has been a concern for us as the business flourishes. The demand is starting to outweigh the supply of good caregivers, but ClearCare has been a valuable tool in helping to identify qualified, professional individuals who share Visiting Angels’ core beliefs. 

Visiting Angels has also gone high-tech when it comes to helping our employees stay current with the latest techniques and methods while caring for those with memory loss. In the past, our employees were required to undergo Dementia Care Training in the office, which sometimes proved inconvenient. To expedite the process, we have initiated online training, which allows us to train more caregivers more quickly and more efficiently. This virtual training also enables us to follow the progress of each staff member until he or she completes the training. 

 

What tools do you use to gauge client satisfaction?

We now use Home Care Pulse Inc., a company that conducts monthly surveys, which collect detailed feedback and unbiased satisfaction scores from our caregivers and clients. The results from those surveys and reports help us identify exactly how we can improve our quality of care. 

Visiting Angels also believes that professional accreditation is important to clients, that it instills a sense of trust in the agency. Massachusetts currently has no licensure requirements for private duty home care agencies so consumers often don’t know where to look for appropriate, quality home health care. 

To offer consumers some guidance, a committee of home care experts established an accreditation system, the Home Care Alliance (HCA) of Massachusetts, which identifies agencies that voluntarily comply with quality standards that are equivalent to licensure. There are approximately 65 agencies in Massachusetts that have earned this accreditation. 

 

What differentiates Visiting Angels from other home care agencies?

Many agencies are utilizing some of the same services, but the key is to use them consistently and back up the services you market.  We pride ourselves on doing two things very well: communicating continually with our clients and strictly vetting our new hires. Benchmarking studies have shown that often it’s not the caregivers, but communication with the office that can frustrate clients.

 

What awards has Visiting Angels been given?

As a result of this year’s Home Care Pulse survey, we were awarded “Best In Home Care.”  We are honored that our clients and caregivers gave us outstanding satisfaction scores when compared to the other home care agencies in the Northeast. 

  

What are Visiting Angels’ keys to continued success?

There are a few, but of course always hiring good caregivers with extensive experience, open communication, excellent customer service with clients, and having the right office staff, have certainly helped us be successful.  

 

Visiting Angels Home Care

Greg Lindstrom, President

Address: 255 Park Avenue, Worcester, MA 01609

Phone: 508-757-4014

Website: www.visitingangels.com