Navigate the path to success with KPIs. Discover how Census and Financial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help home care agencies measure their performance effectively.

This blog will discuss Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Census and Financial and why they are critical for effectively managing Home Care Agencies. Future blogs will discuss relevant KPIs for other operational areas in the agency.

Overview

The demand for home and community-based care will grow as more elderly populations prefer to age at home. Even with the growth opportunities, home healthcare providers will face significant headwinds in taking advantage of these opportunities.

Declining reimbursement, labor shortage, increased labor costs, and regulations will significantly pressure home care agencies' operations and bottom line.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can play a crucial role in helping home care agencies to meet these challenges, continue to grow, and improve the bottom line. KPIs can help agencies measure current performance, identify areas for improvement, set operational goals, and ensure the goals are met. Understanding KPIs and selecting appropriate ones for the organization will help agencies improve operational efficiency and meet their growth goals.

The right technology and home health care software platform will be critical in home care agencies efforts to leverage KPIs to improve their operations.

What is a KPI

A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a measurable or quantifiable value over time used by organizations to measure performance and determine if they are accomplishing their goals.

KPIs are quantifiable measures that provide organizations to measure the current state of their performance, set meaningful goals and milestones to measure progress, and provide insights to employees across the organization to help them make better decisions.

KPIs for Census

These metrics provide information on the number of active patients, admissions, discharges, and the average length of stay for the agencies. Diligent monitoring of patients under care indicates the agency's performance and improves patient and caregiver satisfaction. The following are some of the key metrics to track.

Key Performance Indicators for Home Care – Census

Current Census

Current Census is the number of active patients (admissions)under care at any given time.

The Current Census and trends in the patients under care at a given time will help agencies plan caregiver capacity and growth plans and provide insights into the agency's performance. Census data must be available across dimensions such as Payer, Location, and Lines of Service.

Admissions

'Admissions' is defined as the number of admissions in a period, usually measured by month or year.

The ability to measure the number of admissions and its trend over a period will help agencies understand changes, optimize caregiver capacity, and plan schedules. The Home Care Software utilized by Home Care Agencies should provide reports or dashboards on the number of admissions across dimensions such as Payer, Location, and Lines of Service.

Discharges

'Discharges' is the number of discharges in a period, usually measured by month or year.

The ability to measure the number of discharges and its trend over a period will help agencies understand changes, optimize caregiver capacity, and plan schedules. This number will also help the agencies plan their marketing activities to maintain or improve the current census. The Home Care Software utilized by Home Care Agencies should provide reports or dashboards on the number of discharges across dimensions such as Payer, Location, and Lines of Service.

Referrals

'Referrals is defined as the number of referrals in a period, usually measured by month or year.

The ability to measure the number of referrals and its trend over a period will help agencies monitor their marketing activities and their impact on new admissions and census. Referrals trend and the conversion ratio will help gauge the direction of new admissions from now on. The Home Care Software utilized by Home Care Agencies should provide reports or dashboards on the number of referrals across dimensions such as Payer, Location, and Lines of Service.

Conversion Ratio

Conversion Ratio is the number of referrals converted to admissions in a period, usually measured by month or year.

Measuring the conversion ratio and its trend over a period will help agencies understand the success of their marketing activities in generating new admissions. Referrals and the conversion ratio will help gauge the direction of new admissions and adjust business development efforts. The Home Care Software utilized by Home Care Agencies should provide reports or dashboards on the conversion ratio across dimensions such as Payer, Location, and Lines of Service.

Average Length of Stay

Average Length of Stay is the number of days a patient is under the agency's care.

The average length of stay for discharged patients enables home care agencies to plan caregiver capacity. By comparing the average length of stay for active patients with those for discharged patients, home care agency's operations leaders can get a sense of patients who may be getting discharged soon and optimally utilize caregivers. Home Care Software used by Home Care Agencies must provide reports or dashboards on the average length of stay across dimensions such as payer, location, and lines of service.

KPIs for Financial

Financial KPIs will provide information on revenue, Days of Sales Outstanding (DSO), gross margin, late claims, etc. Analyzing this information over a period will help home care agencies measure the agency's financial health and identify areas for improvement.

Key Performance Indicators for Home Care – Financial

Revenue

Revenue is defined as the total revenue of the services provided in a period, usually measured by month or year.

The Home Care Agency must track gross as well as net revenue. Home care agencies should monitor the net revenue more closely because it depends on each payer's contractual arrangement. Monitoring net revenue by payer, location, employee, and lines of service will help agencies focus their efforts in areas where net revenue is higher.

Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)

DSO defines the average number of days payers, including patients, take to pay for the services provided.

Monitoring this metric will provide insights into the efficiency of the billing and collection processes in the home care agency. This metric should be available by payer, location, and lines of business. Agencies should strive to keep this number as low as possible by refining the billing and collection process.

Late Claims

This metric will help you identify claims and charges, getting closer to the timely filing limit.

Monitoring this metric and taking measures to send the claims before the deadline significantly reduces the lost reimbursement for home care agencies. This metric should be available by payer, location, and lines of business. Establish tracking for each claim using the claim filing deadline days for the specific payer.

Gross Margin

Gross Margin is the difference between the charge for the service and the direct labor cost for providing the service.

Calculate Gross Margin based on net revenue and total payroll costs. Home care agencies should monitor gross margin regularly to ensure it is high enough to cover all other operating expenses. This metric should be available by payer, location, and lines of business.

Patient Lifetime Revenue

This metric will provide information on each patient's average lifetime revenue generated.

This metric should be available by payer, location, and lines of services. Monitoring this metric will help home care agencies focus on growing the agencies.

Employee Lifetime Revenue

This metric will provide information on each employee's average yearly revenue generated.

This metric should be available by payer, location, and lines of services. Monitoring this metric will help home care agencies focus on growing the agencies.

Technology and Software Platform

In addition to selecting the KPIs to measure, agencies should ensure that the data captured for these measures is accurate and timely. Agencies should review their home care software platform to ensure they have the tools to collect and report on the data necessary to implement the KPIs.

Software platforms should also be able to create custom reports and charts and export the relevant data for external use. The option to access the data for tools like Power BI will significantly improve home care agencies’ ability to visualize and manage KPIs.

Conclusion

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can provide insight into operations and setting appropriate business goals for home healthcare agencies. Selecting the correct set of KPIs for Census and Financial operational areas will help home care agencies to measure the current performance, set goals going forward, and measure the progress towards meeting those goals. Right Home Health Care Software platform and technology will help agencies to capture accurate data and report to implement the KPIs.

Read other articles in the series:

About CareVoyant:

CareVoyant is a leading provider of cloud-based integrated enterprise-scale home health care software that can support all home-based services under ONE Software, ONE Patient, and ONE Employee, making it a Single System of Record. We support all home based services, including Home Care, Private Duty Nursing, Private Duty Non-Medical, Home and Community Based Services (HCBS), Home Health, Pediatric Home Care, and Outpatient Therapy at Home.

CareVoyant functions – Intake, Authorization Management, Scheduling, Clinical with Mobile options, eMAR/eTAR, Electronic Visit Verification (EVV), Billing/AR, Secure Messaging, Notification, Reporting, and Dashboards – streamline workflow, meet regulatory requirements, improve quality of care, optimize reimbursement, improve operational efficiency and agency bottom line.

For more information, please visit CareVoyant.com or call us at 1-888-463-6797.