Kelley [00:00:00]:
Hello, everybody. Kelly Tenney here. And welcome back to the Caring without a care podcast. Anand and I have been having some great conversations around lean management and really focusing on those four components. Anand, do you want to bring us back up to speed on some of the conversations that we’ve been having prior to this episode?
Anand [00:00:22]:
Yeah. Kindly, let’s recap our conversation so far. So lean care management, as we discussed before, has four components, people. That means finding the right people, having the right processes, giving them the right technology and tools, and finally making sure that the learning never stops. So people, process technology and learning. These are the four pieces of lean care management. And in our last conversation, we spent some time about processes in which I reminded our audience that processes are always determined by the outcomes that you want to achieve. So whether you want to have growth, operations, excellence, compliance, or retention, make sure that the processes are leading to one or more than one outcomes, and they should never be in conflict with your desired outcomes.
Anand [00:01:17]:
Otherwise that will be conducted.
Kelley [00:01:19]:
And today I know that we’re going to be talking about the third component, which is technology. And before we jump into technology, why does technology come after people and processes?
Anand [00:01:33]:
That’s a great question, Kali, because at the end of the day, our business of care, of providing care for other people, is always a people driven business. We are a people centric business, because in no other business that I know of, role of individual is so important. We are caring for those who are most vulnerable, not through robots, not through any other technology, but through human beings who are mostly strangers. So in that case, having the people with the right mindset, right aptitude, is paramount. Then comes processes, because these people are helping our clients to live a life with dignity by improving their quality of life. And the process should be able to support not only the clients, but also those caregivers who are actually delivering the quality of fear. Then comes technology. Because we have to remember, at the end of the day, we are trying to make someone’s life better than it was yesterday.
Kelley [00:02:44]:
So, speaking of technology, how can technology do that? How can technology help someone make someone’s life better? In an industry where you just shared is really all about people, right? And those communities, the connections, the relationships, the type of care that one human can give to another. So share with us where technology fits into all of this.
Anand [00:03:11]:
So, Kelly, one way to look at that is when someone is providing care, whether it’s a caregiver or a home health aide or a registered nurse or an LPN, the quality of care they provide through the interactions is actually a high quality endeavor, which basically means either they are taking care of an individual, doing a medical assessment, reminding them to take medication, helping them feed, or all those activities in subsequence. Where technology comes into play is in two factors, in two ways. One, to help them do their job better, which basically means that if I am a caregiver, will this piece of technology remind me to remind the client to take the right medication, to avoid doing certain things and to encourage them to do something else? Right, because most of the times people forget we are all human beings. So the first question you need to ask yourself is, will this piece of technology or this tool going to help me do my job better? If I am a RN, if I’m a caregiver, if I’m a scheduler, if I’m a marketer, whoever I am, will this help me deliver a better outcome for this particular individual that I feel responsibility for? So, do I get better? That’s the first part. The second part of technology is, what is that that I am doing today, which is not adding any value? Will this piece of technology or the tool will eliminate some of the non value add things? Because remember, we are talking about lean care. This is all about value and creating a flow. I give you an example. Let’s say I am RN.
Anand [00:05:09]:
It is tenders. As part of my day job, I am responsible to make sure that my caregivers are delivering high quality care to my clients every single day in their homes. And I’ll have to check that through their timesheets. There are couple of ways I can do it. I can look at a stack of paper, go through each of them, then take the plan of care through another piece of paper, compare those two, and then find if there are any discrepancies. Chances are if I do that manually, it’s going to take me a lot of time. That time I could devote for client interactions in person, client interactions on form. But that has been taken away in this administrative burden, which is important, but not adding any quality.
Anand [00:06:02]:
Perhaps technology can help you there. And then again, you extend that corollary and you will find there are so many non value added tasks that everyone has to do which do not improve quality of care of our clients and let technology come to your rescue. In those cases, I want to ask.
Kelley [00:06:23]:
You, because you’re talking here about non valued tasks, right? And as you know, you and I share a lot of interest in the artificial intelligence space. We’ve talked a lot about, you know, not just tools like AI that can expedite and help make work processes more, more efficient. But you’re also talking about other tools that are available out there. And one of the things that I see, and I feel like this might be a question on a lot of people’s minds, is how do I find the right tool? One, and ensure that learning about that tool doesn’t become one of those tasks that isn’t adding value to the type of care that I give to my clients? And two, what if I’m someone who maybe feels like I’m not technologically intelligent, if you will? Or maybe I should say, if I’m technologically challenged, right? I think there’s a lot of people out there that are in a lot of industries, and when they think about technology, they think, oh goodness, like, I’m not good when it comes to technology. It’s going to take me a long time to learn. What type of advice do you have for people who might be thinking about those things?
Anand [00:07:31]:
So there’s a lot to unpack here. Candy. The first part is what happens when people feel that using any new technology is daunting. You know, I can’t do it, or maybe I’m not good enough. In that case, I always recommend to people is when you look at any piece of technology, ask yourself this question, would you hire this person as a person? Would you hire this tool, a software tool or AI tool, as an employee for your business? What is this tool supposed to do for your business that you are willing to train? Remember, any piece of technology, not only you have to train yourself, but you also have to train that software or the technology on your business. Is it worth your time? Do you think that you are willing to add one more, not a person but a tool, to your business portfolio? And for what purpose? If you think yes, this is a good choice because I have certain expectations, perhaps I use this AI tool to help me become a better marketer or a better nurse or a better scheduler or a better builder. It will save me time in billing, it will improve my cash flow. Then go for it.
Anand [00:08:47]:
But if you are not sure, do some research. That’s the first part. Now comes the second part. Well, how do I select one? I know there is a need, but how do I select? And I would always remind you to go back to the first two pieces of lean care management, which is people and your processes. And let me remind all our audience that when you look at any tool, do not get distracted by while we are in this business, we are using paper for last 25 30 years. I don’t know whether we can use a tablet, or AI for that matter, because remember, even a toddler knows how to use an iPad. So it’s not that technology per se. It’s about its user friendliness.
Anand [00:09:37]:
If you think that any piece of technology can make you better in doing what you do and eliminate your non evaluated task, go ahead, give it a try. If it doesn’t work, no damage to you are not going to be worse off than what you were. But if it works like a toddler figures out how to play angry game on an iPad, you have something which is going to be useful.
Kelley [00:10:03]:
All right. Thank you so much. And thank you for that in sharing. You know, I think a lot of times we think about, you know, what can we do to help make our businesses more efficient. And technology seems to be something that’s really scary. And I have a feeling that a lot of people try to grow their businesses without leveraging technology, which, as you shared, can be so powerful because of some of those challenges. And I think you brought up some great points today in terms of not only why technology is important, but how to maybe get over some of those hurdles that people might feel when it comes to using technology.
Anand [00:10:39]:
And I put hands.
Kelley [00:10:40]:
Yes. So thank you, everybody, for joining in on today’s caring without a care, where Anand shared so much information about not only technology, but how to get over those challenges and hurdles if you are someone who’s been thinking about technology and maybe haven’t taken the step towards it yet. So thank you for joining us. Thank you for listening in. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so that you don’t miss a beat. And we’ll see you on the next episode of caring without a care. Take care, everybody.
