Caregiver training is a valuable tool for employee retention and satisfaction. But it is also a critical factor in improving care delivery. This can lead to other positive outcomes such as increased client satisfaction and a strong reputation.
Organizations that understand the connection between training and quality care will not only serve their staff, but will also see improvement in the quality of the care their patients and clients receive.
The shift to value-based care
Connecting training with outcomes serves patients and staff, but the shift to value-based care means attention to outcomes is imperative as home-based care transitions to rewarding providers for the quality of the care they deliver.
“We’re seeing a massive shift to value-based care versus our previous form of care, which was volume-based,” says Erika Sessions, director of compliance and policy development for online caregiver training platform CareAcademy.
While only nine states have gone through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Value-Based Purchasing Program Demonstration, all states will feel the impact on their reimbursement after adopting HHVBP in 2023.
In general, many organizations are not yet realizing value-based contracts and partnerships, but many also believe value-based care will drive business significantly in the near future. Forty-two percent of respondents project value-based contracts will account for more than half or most of their organization’s revenue in the next three to five years, according to a survey of home-based care professionals conducted by Home Health Care News and AlayaCare in early 2022.
A training partner can help home care leaders prepare for this shift and provide the data needed to succeed under value-based programs. In addition, CareAcademy’s integration partnerships with companies like AlayaCare add flexibility and freedom of choice for clients.
“CareAcademy’s kept an ear really close to [value-based care advancement], and we’re formulating ways to ultimately deliver a quality training product that will contribute to quality care and use the data measuring processes and methodology to be able to apply that and demonstrate how CareAcademy training and will ultimately impact and improve care outcomes,” says Helen Adeosun, founder and CEO of CareAcademy.
Moving beyond compliance training
Historically, many organizations have conducted training programs merely as a means to achieve compliance among their caregiver populations. However, today’s successful providers are elevating those programs based on the populations receiving care — namely the aging population and the many associated chronic conditions.
“One opportunity we are seeing is moving beyond just compliance training,” says Jessica Jones, CareAcademy care experience outcomes manager. “We are offering condition-based certification, which connects the condition to the training and allows us to track that.”
And the caregiving population is receptive to education and training, even if it is not presented to them, according to findings of a survey of 1,500 caregivers conducted by CareAcademy in 2021. Among respondents, 85% said they’re more likely to stay with their current employer if offered resources to further their education, yet 75% said their employer has never talked with them about ongoing education or training.
To support care providers caring for specific patient populations, CareAcademy offers nine specialized certifications including a dementia care certification, diabetes care certification, Parkinson’s Disease care certification, respiratory condition care certification and more.
“[There is a] high degree of variability in how we work to address training as a custom fit to ensure that agencies and caregivers are getting exactly what they need for compliance,” Sessions says. “Then that’s where we step in and say: For enhanced training or condition-based training, we’ve noticed that there’s an interest level in this region or there’s a high incidence of this type of condition, we can therefore recommend something more robust that will provide the depth needed on specific conditions to ultimately deliver better care.”
Customers have realized the value as well. Home-based care provider A Place at Home changed training platforms to adopt CareAcademy after discovering the platform’s specialized programs focused on specific conditions from falls to dementia.
“These issues require quality, in-depth training,” A Place at Home’s Franchise Business Coach Aubre Phillips shared with CareAcademy. “I didn’t want our caregivers trained by a quick little YouTube video that goes over the basics. During our search, we didn’t see a whole lot of thorough, quality training out there until we found CareAcademy.”
Adding value in real-time
As care providers continue to focus on quality care and the value they deliver, the ability to draw from training resources in real-time is becoming increasingly important.
If caregivers are able to adapt care based on what is happening in the moment, whether it is a change in patient condition or an unforeseen health event, they can deliver the highest quality care at that point in time — a luxury made available by just-in-time learning resources that are available 24/7 via mobile device.
CareAcademy offers a video library with content that is added continually to assist caregivers in the moment they are delivering care.
“We are looking at that aspect of quality care, where it’s not just training you absorb and then try to navigate in the field… but how we can deliver training that’s specific to the condition in the situation that a caregiver is experiencing so that maybe they can prevent an adverse event,” Sessions says. “That will ultimately benefit the quality of care.”
This article is sponsored by CareAcademy. From compliance training to condition-based certification and more, CareAcademy is redefining the connection between quality training and quality care so providers can achieve value and outcomes for their patients and clients. To learn more, visit careacademy.com.
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