Stephen Tweed has been a leader in home care strategy and consulting for over 30 years.  I've had the privilege to meet Stephen several times and hear him speak.  I also had the chance on one occasion to meet Stephen's son Jason Tweed, who is not only a home care expert, but who has been a life long recipient of home care services.

One of the key messages that is at the core of Stephen's teaching is the need to differentiate your agency from competition.  Stephen just released a new white paper, in collaboration with Delta Health Technologies, entitled: Dare to Be Different:Seven Steps to CreatingCompetitive Advantage inHome Health Care, Hospiceand Private Duty Home Care.  You can download the paper here. 

Daring to Be Different

I won't give you a lot of the meat of Stephen's paper but instead encourage you to read his full report, but Stephen bluntly shares the following in his opening:

• Most home care services are perceived as the same

• Most home care companies are perceived as the same

• Most home care sales reps are perceived as the same 

Ouch!  This doesn't bode well for your agency.  He then goes on to discuss seven key areas of competitive advantage and how to differentiate within these.  The seven areas are as follows: 

1. Product Differentiation

2. Service Differentiation

3. Narrow Market Focus

4. Relationships

5. Exceptional Customer Experiences

6. Common Values

7. Low Price 

Does Your Agency Offer Care Transition Services as a Source of Competitive Differentiation?

One particular area that Ankota recommends for differentiation is managing a care transition program within your agency.  We see this as being very important because there will be a day in the not too distant future when hospitals and health plans engage home care agencies in helping prevent avoidable hospitalizations for their at-risk populations.  By starting a care transitions program now, you will establish a track record for your agency as a strong player in the continuum of care.  We talk more about this in our white paper "Why Care Transitions is the Next Big Thing for Home Care"

If you're interested in scheduling an online demo of our home care or care transitions software solutions, just click this button: