HOME AWAY FROM HOME Adult Day Care Services
Growth of the elderly population near St. David’s, Pennsylvania has sparked increased demand for health care, institutional care, and private care. As the elderly population increases, support services for this demographic are not currently adequate to serve their needs. These concerns have led to the creation of the Home Away from Home adult day care of St. David’s, Pennsylvania. Home Away from Home (HAH) is a community based activity program that serves the aging with a social day visit environment that enables participants to economize, engage, and explore with peers before more traditional assisted living or nursing home care are required. HAH’s strategy is intended to assist those living at home or under family-provided care and allows for caregiver respites, as well as daily day services to this population.
MISSION:
Home Away from Home is a community based activity program centered on the social, health, and caretaking aspects of aging citizens focused on remaining active. HAH provides a social environment that enables members to engage with a community, explore events and activities with peers. This service will allow in-home caregivers to manage affairs outside of the home, which ultimately allows seniors to stay at home longer and at lower overall cost. HAH will offer activities based on social engagement, care management, and active lifestyles for this population.
STRATEGY:
HAH is focused on the ability to deliver excellent adult day services and care to its regional senior population as members of a community based activity program. Informal surveys and customer demand indicate an underserved need for adult day care services. Properly staffed and managed, this is likely to be highly sought after service. HAH has some advantages other competitors do not; specifically, the availability of a currently unutilized 25,000 square facility
LOCATION/FACILITIES:
A primary component of HAH’s operation is the location and size of the facility. Located on Lancaster Avenue in St. David’s, the facility’s site provides ease of access for clients as the terrain is a major corridor for the local population. Just west of I-476 and Philadelphia, PA, the facility can host a diverse clientele from the local area beyond the St. David’s region. Additionally, the adult day care infrastructure is a 25,000 square foot building with a dining area, lounge, pharmacy, lobby, kitchen, and 3 recreational rooms. The size of the facility will allow HAH to serve up to 250 guests per day.
MEMBERSHIP SERVICES:
Membership is one price per day per patron, with services payable at the end of each week. Guests can enjoy the main meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with nutritious snacks, tea and coffee available all day, access to the On-Site Registered Nurse, Medication Management privileges at the Pharmacy, and ability to use the facility’s lounge. Each day the facility will offer a mid-morning and mid-afternoon activity which all guests may participate in or pursue other interests. Television and reading areas, with computers and internet, along with Wii, Playstation and other activities will be available. Off-site day trips and shopping excursions are available to guests for additional fees.
STAFFING:
A professionally trained full time team as supported by properly trained cay care staff will meet or exceed Pennsylvania adult day care rules as delineated in Chapter 11 of the Pennsylvania Code. Subchapter A, Section 11.39 outline the staff level requirements. ( Is the link). Section Key personnel employed at the facility include: Activity Director, Finance Manager, Accountant, Human Resources Manager, Administrative Assistant, IT Manager, Registered Nurse, Security Staff, Marketing Associates, Sales and Customer Service Representatives, Activity Director and Assistants and Food Service staff. Part-time art instructors, performers, yoga and fitness instructors, and others will be available as well. All employees will pass fitness testing for employment, including citizenship. HAH will meet or exceed the state mandate of one staff member for every seven guests on campus.
HAH has established partnerships with local colleges and community groups willing to donate their services. The local culinary arts center has offered to provide interns for kitchen service, and performers from the local theater group and community college have volunteered to offer performances. The local humane shelter has offered to bring cats and dogs to tour the facility as well. Such commitments before opening are a testament to the community interest in the facility, and serves to confirm a needed, welcoming place for HAH.
STAFF QUALITY CONTROL:
Human Resources will provide training and certification for all staff, including interns and volunteers. All licenses of healthcare professionals will be verified at the time of employment and on an annual basis. Continuing professional education for professional staff will be paid for by HAH. Instructors, trainers, and entertainers must be qualified and eligible to consult, train, or lead others in specific activities. Volunteers will be required to complete necessary documents that certify representation by a sponsoring university, organization, or as an individual. Full time staff member training will also be in accordance to federal and state guidelines and will be scheduled and monitored by the Human Resource Manager. All training requirements, licenses, education requirements and certifications will be inspected by the Activity Director and Human Resources Manager. By monitoring the staff’s credentials, HAH can maintain the quality assurance that guarantee’s members high standards, confidence, safety, and peace of mind.
CUSTOMER/ FINANCIAL:
Guests will be charged $55 per day for access to, and services provided, by HAH. Day care fees will be due in advance for the week of service. If a patron has an outstanding balance after two weeks, future access may be suspended until arrangements can be made, which can include guarantee for payment from a family member. Additional services, such as beauty/barber shop, day trips, outings to area attractions, and the like will be available at additional cost and enrolled/paid for in advance.
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS:
HAH anticipates that enrollment will average 80% of maximum, with 200 paying guests per day. Weekly revenues of $45,000 will allow for a budget and staffing to support a $2.1 million dollar annual budget.
SERVICE EXPERIENCE FIT
The mission of Home Away from Home adult day care center is to provide quality day care services for seniors. By offering a variety of engaging activities and a staff that makes customers feel welcome, HAH will provide more than ‘elder warehousing’ while providing needed respite time for family and caregivers. The personnel hired at the Center will be interested in caring for our guest population, and compensation for services will be above the traditional low-paying level such jobs often render. We anticipate being able to attract and retain the best care givers available, and reward them with above-average pay and benefits. Many of the services that we provide are critical to keep the customers interested and engaged in order to maintain and grow our customer base.
OPERATIONAL AND FINANCIAL FIT (including Divergence and Complexity)
Food Services
As part of the basic membership, the adult day care will provide three nutritional meals a day along with healthy snacks throughout the day. The lunch and dinner food services will be outsourced from local restaurants. Our staff will plate foods and serve. Since food service will be professional, we believe this offers a premium to our guests and their families. Food service is typically a difficulty in adult day care, and we hope to offer a premium meal that out guests will appreciate and enjoy.
We will be plating food for delivery to our guests. Being treated as a guest is a theme we hope to deliver through the service delivery day. As we get to know our patrons, dietary preferences can be honored as practical. Special diet arrangements can be made and meals prepared as family and caregivers advise.
Our absences policy insures that we will be able to order appropriately. As meal cost will be fixed from our vendors, we will be able to oversee and manage costs and patron preferences.
ACTIVITIES
Home Away from Home adult day care center will provide a daily variety of activities that will keep our customers engaged. As part of the daily member fee, guests will have a choice of participation in our daily morning or afternoon activities or in enjoying activities of their choosing. Such costs will often be low-cost, such as movie afternoons, bingo, or exercise sessions (offered every day).
MEDICATION MANAGEMENT:
HAH will offer medication assistance with prescription medications brought from home, with a doctor’s dosage instructions. Our nurse will supervise the dispensing, and aides will bring medications to each guest.
TRANSPORTATION:
Transportation will be managed by the families of our guests. Those who wish bus
service can participate with bus operators who serve our population area. As transportation of seniors is challenging, vendors will be monitored regularly.
Supply Chain Operations Reference Model (SCOR)
Our model is providing social services for seniors who require some attention and cannot always be alone.
Basic Service: Food
Seniors will be arriving by 9am and departures commence at 5:45 pm. Breakfast should be available until 9:30, lunch at noon, and dinner at 4:45. There will also be afternoon teas and snacks available throughout the day
Memberships will help determine the number of meals to be provided each day. This information will be provided to the food service providers who will be outsourced.
Our senior customers will not be shy about their meal service, and we will make efforts to provide meals that meet their preferences. Interested seniors will be encouraged to be the dining planner of a special event, where they work with the vendors at dining ideas.
We plan to use these social dining events to grow the community spirit we are fostering. This will encourage not only the retention of customers, but allow them to spread by word of mouth how enjoyable the experience is.
Basic Service: On-site registered Nurse
We will provide a Registered Nurse to serve our senior customers. Licensing and continuing education will be monitored by Human Services.
Furthermore, we will require the nurses to engage with the senior customers. We hope this will be a rewarding experience for the nurses in its own right. We acknowledge geriatric care is challenging, and hope that the environment we offer for our staff will build bonds between them and the customers.
Our commitment to above-average pay will be especially evident with the nurse. Quarterly bonuses will be implemented to ensure customer satisfaction and delivery of service is superior.
Special events – We will encourage our seniors to participate in special events, which we will outsource. Outsourcing will allow a maximum amount of variety in our events and the people who will interact with the seniors. Beauty/barber shop, day trips and the like will be at additional cost.
Strategies to compete:
There are 7 areas in which we can compete:
1) Cost
2) Quality
3) Speed of delivery
4) Responsive to change of demand
5) Delivery reliability
6) Flexibility in offering new services
7) Support
We are going to focus on quality of service, flexibility in offering new services, and support. As discussed in the operations, all of our programs are designed to increase the feeling of participation and community by the seniors. This will be what brings them back to renew their memberships and will have them to encourage friends to join, even those not technically needing aid from family members.
We will offer a place where seniors truly do feel welcome by the staff and other members as friends and acquaintances. If we achieve this, we will have no trouble attracting and retaining customers who see our service as extending the time one can spend at home.
Our staff will be trained and compensated for how well they not only perform their basic services, but by how much and how well they interact with their customers. In our model, the RN will not be scolded for chatting with a customer about their grandchildren, he will be rewarded.