In-home healthcare professionals perform an important service for their patients. Whether helping a senior age gracefully in their own home or providing much needed care after an injury, the long hours and emotional toll are just a few of the challenges they face.
Perhaps the most glaring challenge that home health care workers must overcome is traveling to and from each patient’s residence.
At times, these professionals provide care for multiple patients a day, meaning they must spend significant time and travel many miles in their vehicle. If patients are in rural or remote locations, this travel time only compounds.
The added strain of travel impacts the job satisfaction of the team, reduces the quality of the care, and ultimately contributes to a high turnover rate. HCP, a research and education company, recorded a 77.1% turnover rate for the home health care industry in 2022, the highest recorded since 2018.
Turnover in any industry is a multi-faceted problem. It cannot be remedied by a single initiative, but each effort towards improving the work experience contributes to employee retention. For example, implementing a frictionless application process with features like one-click apply help curb turnover and reduce time-to-hire.
Here, we’ll discuss how to make the travel burden for home health care workers a little easier.
Travel Challenges
To solve the problem, we must understand the specific pain points. It’s not only the travel time. It’s not only the costs. It’s all of the following issues together:
A Rocky Road for In-Home Healthcare
Lack of Reliable Transportation
Rarely are home health care workers supplied with a company vehicle. Left to find their own way, they either use their personal vehicles or rely on public transportation. If the latter, reaching rural patients outside of busing networks or train lines can be a serious challenge.
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Distance and Travel Times
At its core, the travel issues facing home health care professionals are similar to any employee with a long commute. The difference is that they may need to make that commute several times a day. Multiple hours behind a windshield each day can be draining and numbing.
Travel Costs
Transportation, whether in a personal vehicle or through public transit, incurs costs. In a personal vehicle, the oil needs changing, brakes need replacing, and every mile driven adds wear and tear to the vehicle. Alternatively, public transportation requires a fare. Each ride may be inexpensive, but six bus fares a day becomes thirty fares a week and more than a hundred fares a month.
Inconvenient Scheduling
When traveling for work, disruptions to the normal schedule are that much more disruptive. A cancellation could require a home health care worker to travel a longer route during high traffic times to reach their next appointment. An already challenging day is now unpredictable as well.
Patient Transportation
As part of their care, home health care workers may at times need to transport their patient to another appointment. This requires the use of their own personal vehicle.
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Making Travel Easier on In-Home Health Care Workers
To reduce the burden on the team, institute policies and programs that mitigate the pain points above. If you can reduce costs, do so. If you can reduce travel times, it will make a big difference in the work satisfaction of the team. Options include:
Provide Transportation Options
The most direct solution to many travel challenges would be to offer company vehicles to each in-home healthcare worker. This spares them the maintenance costs on their personal vehicles or the need to take public transportation. A lower cost option would be to partner with a transportation service. These companies can offer the use of vehicles without the responsibility and financial commitment of ownership.
Offer Telehealth Options
Not every interaction with a medical professional needs to be in person. Some healthcare needs can be addressed over a video call through telehealth services. By offering a telehealth option, you can reduce the number of in-person requests as patients self-select, but even further than that, organizations can set up a screening process as part of their patient intake. This allows the team to determine which patients truly require the in-person visit.
Travel Compensation
Though purchasing company vehicles may be beyond the budget, there are alternative programs that could ease the cost burden on your team. Reimbursing employees for their use of public transportation can go a long way. Many transit districts offer special programs for employers to facilitate this arrangement.
Another option could be a mileage reimbursement as an employee benefit. Employees can submit the miles incurred over a week or month and receive a fixed-rate compensation per mile. This payment accounts for any fuel or maintenance costs the employee may have had to pay in the course of their duties.
”Efforts to retain your workforce and ease the travel challenges of your team are, at the end of the day, in service to the patients.
End Result: More Time with Patients, Better Care
Efforts to retain your workforce and ease the travel challenges of your team are, at the end of the day, in service to the patients.
Relaxed, engaged, and satisfied healthcare workers can provide higher quality care and foster better connection with their patients. Because they do not need to rush off to their next appointment, they can spend the extra time where it is most needed. It helps the workers, the patient, and the organization as a whole.
Travel is just one of the drivers of turnover. Read our blog, How to Improve Caregiver Retention [7 Strategies] to learn more ways to maintain a cohesive team.
