Hidden Treasure

In most home care companies, the software that is already in place can provide more value than people generally realize. The key is not the billing software but the electronic spreadsheet tools, i.e. Microsoft Excel or Lotus. This software is grossly underutilized, and there are at least two ways to maximize its potential.

First, these inexpensive tools provide great opportunities to automate activities and processes in home care operations.

For example, a provider with a contract billing service was recently keeping a handwritten referral log and delivery log. The customer service representatives were writing the customer name and relevant information on one document by hand, then on the other. Several fields on each form contained the same information. At the end of the day, a copy of the delivery log was carried by hand to the warehouse, with a copy retained in customer service and copies of the referral log given to the sales reps.

The simple solution was to use a software application that every computer in the company had on it: Microsoft Excel. With this program, we created an electronic spreadsheet that contains both the referral and the delivery logs.

One worksheet is for the referral log and — in the same workbook — there is another worksheet for the delivery log. When the CSR types the referral information into the referral worksheet, it automatically populates the appropriate fields in the delivery log. The effect was to remove all of the time required to complete the delivery log.

The benefit didn’t stop with the elimination of the cost associated with redundant handwritten entries; there are four more little pots of money being saved:

• One, the spreadsheet file is available on the company network. The warehouse manager can get a real-time look at how the next day is shaping up and make a more efficient plan for the day.
• Two, no copies are being made, which saves paper, toner and — most of all — time.
• Three, no deliveries are being made, which again saves time.
• Four, management has an electronic data set to count referrals by source, deliveries by zip code and a host of other money-making possibilities.

In addition to automating activities and processes, spreadsheet software tools provide management information capabilities not available in the billing system. Most providers have either complained or heard complaints that software doesn’t give them the reports they would like.

These complaints are, in many instances, well-founded. But the subject shouldn’t be closed, because there is often a solution in the electronic spreadsheet.

One example that should be used by every provider right now is the ability to determine the average length of service for capped rental items and oxygen services. Providers need to understand how the recent Deficit Reduction Act will impact their revenue. One of the questions that should be answered is, “What percentage of a provider’s patients have oxygen services for more than 36 months?” Most billing software will not yield such a report.

By exporting data from the billing software to a text file (usually .csv or .txt), you can save the data as a spreadsheet file and manipulate it with all of the capability of the spreadsheet.

Then you can subtract date-of-discharge from date-of-service, sort by length of service, count the patients who exceeded 36 months, divide by the number of patients served — and know the percentage of current patients who are likely to be lost to the new capped rental of concentrators.

The biggest challenge to extracting the value from electronic spreadsheets is that providers don’t know how. That small lack of knowledge makes for a significant increase in the cost of doing business.

The staffs of provider companies can become proficient with relatively little expense. Hire a high school teacher to teach employees. Send staff to a community college course and use the “train the trainer” concept. Or, buy a book and use it. And don’t overlook the possibility that someone in your organization may already be proficient.

Use the inexpensive software you may already have to help reduce your operating costs.

Wallace Weeks is founder and president of Weeks Group Inc., a Melbourne, Fla.-based strategy consulting firm. He can be reached at 321/752-4514 or by e-mail at [email protected].