August 17, 2025 • 19 mins
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Twenty years ago, Andy Howard founded Home Care Professionals with a vision to provide quality non-medical home care to seniors across Northern California. Today, alongside his business partner Don Franks, they've grown from a small operation to a network of ten offices stretching from Reading to Fresno—a remarkable achievement in an industry dominated by single-location providers and franchises.
What makes this growth story particularly compelling is their unique approach to staffing and service. Unlike franchise operations where individual branches operate independently, Home Care Professionals functions as an integrated system sharing caregivers across locations. This structural advantage creates remarkable resilience when staffing challenges arise. "We are a unicorn in the industry," Franks explains. "We're privately held with ten offices able to share staff, which means we staff more efficiently than other companies." This advantage has led to state contracts and referrals when other agencies can't meet client needs.
The home care landscape is changing rapidly. With 10,000 Americans turning 65 daily (a trend continuing through 2027), we're witnessing just the beginning of unprecedented demand. The real surge will come when this generation reaches 75—the age when many begin requiring assistance with daily activities. For families navigating these waters, the choice between private hiring and agency care can be daunting. Home Care Professionals stands out not just for their staffing capabilities but for their educational approach to client relationships. They provide potential clients with questions to ask when comparing agencies, make community referrals even when it doesn't generate revenue, and specialize in helping veterans navigate complex VA benefits. As Franks emphasizes, "We want every person we serve to be treated like my own family member."
Considering home care for yourself or a loved one? Call any of our ten Northern California offices for a free consultation to learn how our compassionate, professional team can help maintain independence and dignity at home.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
My name is Don Franks .
I am the president of Home CareProfessionals here in the San
Francisco Bay Area in NorthernCalifornia, and we have 10
offices stretching from as farnorth as Red Reading and as far
south as Fresno.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
That's a big territory, and tell us a little
bit about the beginnings of HomeCare Professionals.
What year did you guys getstarted in home care?
And it's grown tremendouslyover the last few years.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Sure, so we just had our 20th year anniversary.
Andy Howard is our CEO and mybusiness partner, andy and I got
to meet each other about Idon't know, I guess 10 years ago
or so.
I actually did consulting forAndy when he was a very small
(01:04):
company.
My background as far as thehome care industry is concerned
I was initially in therecruiting business right out of
college.
From there, a gentleman by thename of John Griscavage and I
have now been together for Iguess over 20 years doing
different businesses.
After recruiting I got into thehealthcare arena because I was
(01:28):
really interested, especially inthe pulmonology side of things,
because as an asthmatic itreally interested me.
I went on to be a regionalmanager at a company in I guess
it's kind of West Coast based inthe oxygen and medication world
, and myself and John we startedthrough a private equity
(01:53):
company with a home health,hospice and non-medical company.
The private equity company thatbrought us on to manage the
company got in a room with John.
John said OK, we got hospice,we got home health.
No idea what it is, but it'snot doing well.
I said OK, so what do you wantto do?
(02:14):
And I said give me the privateduty.
So from that conversation wehad two offices I believe at the
time in Northern California.
We had two offices, I believeat the time in Northern
California.
We grew that organically andthrough acquisition, kind of
Colorado West.
So we had offices allthroughout the Northern
California, southern California,arizona, utah, colorado.
(02:38):
So we were the first companythat Kindred came in and
acquired.
So Kindred was looking to getinto the home health space.
They acquired our company to bethe first to do that and so I
stayed on for about a year andran the services of non-medical
home care throughout the UnitedStates for Kindred.
(03:00):
And then the travel just got tome, said I don't want to keep
getting on a plane every day asI had young kids at the time and
decided that I wanted to dosomething more local.
And so that is when I did someof the consulting for Andy and
after I ventured into an autismcompany that is very similar to
(03:21):
operationally how home careworks, we sold that company and
then that's when I partneredwith Andy.
Moving forward I've been herefor about seven years when I was
doing consulting I believe wewere two offices.
We had just opened up our thirdand we just opened up our 10th
office.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
That's crazy, that's amazing.
You guys and in the last seemsto me like the last three or
four years you've been acquiringand opening and really hitting
it hard across California.
So that's amazing.
I know you really have grown alot.
So tell us what are theservices?
I know it's private duty, butis it just?
Is it private duty all the wayacross the board, for all of
(04:02):
your offices in California?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, so we only do non-medical and so within the
industry we call it private dutyFor the consumer.
Not many people know that word.
We want to try to say home care, but even within the health
care community there's always aconfusion between home health
and home care.
When we say home care, thatmeans non-medical services, that
(04:26):
means any type of activities ofdaily living that we're serving
inside of somebody's home,usually for seniors or those
with medical conditions, butit's cooking and cleaning and
bathing and toileting,transportation, medication
reminders, et cetera.
So anything that you couldthink of non-medical et cetera.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So anything that you could think of.
Non-medical Yep, absolutely.
That's great, and there's notenough of you out there to serve
all the people who actuallyneed we can have.
I know it's a competitivemarket, but on the other hand,
there's so many folks that couldbenefit from a companion in
their home so many.
And so that brings me to this.
When an adult child or seniors,they're concerned about someone
in their home, either a, and sothat brings me to this.
When an adult child or a senioris they're concerned about
(05:07):
someone in their home, either afamily member or maybe a spouse
of someone who needs care, andthey call the office, or they
see you online, or they'rereferred to you and they call
the office.
How does this process kind ofwork, from the minute somebody
calls and says I think we needhome care to implementation?
How does that work, dr AnnekeVandenbroek?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, so again, even within the healthcare community
it's confusing For consumers.
A lot of people out therebelieve that this is a service
that is paid through Medicare.
So when somebody is generallygetting older and they need some
activity, daily living helpinside the home, we get the call
(05:49):
where people just really don'teven know who pays for it, how
much it costs, how it works, etcetera.
So anytime that you call ourcompany you are getting a live
person that walks you throughexactly what the services entail
, what the costs are and how wediffer from other companies.
The one thing to note is thatthere's still 10,000 seniors
(06:12):
turning 65 every day.
We are at the peak of thatcurrently.
There's one more year of thepeak and that's in 2000.
It actually goes till 2027.
You're going to see the last ofthe peak of the 10,000, but
that's 65 years old.
The real need is going to be in10 years when the 65 year olds
(06:35):
turn 75.
So the growth of this industryis going to be massive for the
next 10 years.
They also don't understand thatthere is, as we're seeing,
around every city across America.
There is an assisted living orindependent living facility
(06:58):
being built as well.
The option is really involvedin that, especially as a
(07:28):
licensed state, that we do thesame as our competitors, right?
In fact, we even share a lot ofour same caregivers with other
companies, and so it's not thatwe are different in that aspect
at all.
We all do the same thing.
Where you're going to see thedifference is in customer
(07:50):
service.
When you call us, our customerservice goes so far even from
just the general conversationabout what the services may
entail.
We also give them things out inthe community that may have
nothing to do with us makingrevenue at all, and I think
(08:10):
that's very important, and Ithink that we're all on the same
page as far as health care isconcerned, because we want to
educate the public.
From that point, we havesomebody that goes into the home
and we provide a freeconsultation for them, which we
call an assessment.
Those assessments generallylast about an hour or so.
(08:32):
We find out all about theclient, what exactly it is that
we would be doing in the home.
What we want to also find outis who would do well with them
Personality.
Do they like somebody talkative?
Do they want to have a lot ofconversation, play games, et
cetera, or is it somebody thatthey want, you know, a little
(08:54):
less talkative.
Do they want somebody?
Maybe not an A-type personality, right?
So we have to also make thatfit along, just with skill set.
So then as soon as we make thatconnection, we understand what
the client needs, then that goesto our staffing managers and
our staffing managers then findthe perfect person for them.
We also give the opportunityfor people to also interview our
(09:17):
caregivers ahead of time tomake sure that they're making
the right decision.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That's amazing and you are right about that.
Customer service.
I know you can talk to anybodyany of your friends or whatever
and you'll hear almost everyconversation.
Is there just isn't greatcustomer service anymore.
I don't know what happened, orthey're at Lowe's or they're
anything on the phone.
Especially so the fact that youall are really embedded in
(09:44):
creating a good experience forpeople on a customer service
level to me that speaks volumes.
Customer service level to me,that speaks volumes.
This is a hard business andscheduling is hard and hiring is
hard, but when your heart is init and you know what these
people are going through and thestaff that works for you
understands that overwhelm andit could be emotional, financial
(10:09):
.
There's all kinds of thingsthat go into all of this.
It's the fear of having someonecome into your house that
they've never met before.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
All those things are hard for folks when they are
starting to implement care andso good customer service is you
know, and I want to also evensay, bobby, like the, being a
consumer myself, I have hadthree family members that have
(10:38):
used my services.
I have also had family membersoutside of my service area and
have used other companies, and Iknow from the consumer end that
I've had really bad customerservice from my experiences
outside the Bay Area.
And I can also say that we as acompany are not perfect, and
(11:00):
nobody in home care is.
It's people working with people, and you have to know that
going in.
So the second thing I wouldalso say on top of customer
service is staffing.
What most people don't know iseven in the big companies, right
, the large organizations outthere that you may have seen
commercials on, those companiesgenerally only are owned at one
(11:25):
location, right?
So one company that's afranchise may have their own
branch five minutes away fromthe same company's branch, but
those two offices do not worktogether and share caregivers
amongst each other.
Therefore, you are only as goodas how many people you have as a
(11:49):
staff or a company, and thenyou have 90% of this industry is
very small companies.
So we are a unicorn in theindustry that we're privately
held with 10 offices that's ableto share staff amongst the
offices and therefore wegenerally staff a lot I wouldn't
(12:12):
say better, but moreefficiently than other companies
.
Because of that reason we havehuge contracts through the state
that we always are getting theclients that they're coming to
us and saying, hey, this companywasn't able to staff this,
they're unhappy.
We wanted to go to you guys seeif you can help out.
(12:33):
So, aside from customer service, just making sure that you feel
comfortable with the company,also making sure that what
happens if the caregiver doesn'tshow up the next day, do you
have other staff that may beavailable?
It's a very important questionto ask as a consumer.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Not only that, if you're considering hiring a
caregiver privately, this is abig concern because there's all
kinds of issues around hiringsomeone privately.
From my perspective as a nurse,and having seen this a lot
across the board across thewhole United States, hiring
someone privately is a huge risk.
But when you hire an agency andyou're backed up by that plan
(13:14):
of when they can't arrive orsomething's not right or someone
is, whatever the case, whenyou're backed by an agency, you
have not just that one personthat you're relying on, but an
entire team of people who canfix that situation or help with
it instantly.
So to me it's a much safer anda much better and plus the
(13:36):
background checks, the taxes,all the other things that come
with privately hiring versusagency- things that come with
privately hiring versus agencyI'll always be.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
People are always in a situation where they have to
look at what is their budget.
Right?
You hire an agency, you'regetting all of those things that
you had just mentioned right.
You're having somebody that hasa background check TB, maybe,
covid, they've gone throughtraining, they are certified by
the state, et cetera, et cetera.
But maybe you can't afford anagency, right?
Maybe you have to go and findsomebody and we even give.
(14:10):
When somebody calls us and theysay, hey, we just can't afford
that, we'll give them options.
We'll ask them to go to theirlocal senior center and see if
they have a list of privatecaregivers.
We will tell them to go tocaringcom or carecom so at least
they can see vetted individualswho they might be able to hire
privately.
So we do something that'sunique when we get a call and
(14:33):
they're still shopping, weactually send them a form of
questions to ask each end of,like, each consumer, what they
should be knowing as a buyerfrom a home care agency, and so
then they could compare andcontrast agencies and see who
they feel most comfortable with.
But we also work with a lot ofpeople in the community.
So if somebody's looking for,maybe, an assisted living, we
(14:57):
have a lot of partnerships withplacement agencies, for an
example, and we tell them hey,we're going to give you this
person they're going to workwell with.
Hey, we're going to give youthis person, they're going to
work well with you, they'regoing to show you all the
different facilities out therebased on your budget, based on
care, et cetera.
So we try to do everything wecan, especially for veterans.
That is our specialty.
So if you're a veteran, we haveso many things in place to try
(15:21):
to help you navigate the VAsystem, which is very complex.
So that's what we prideourselves on, and all of our
directors in our company do alot of things for veterans, even
outside of the organization.
So that's what I would say.
That kind of makes us standapart from others.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
That's great to know too.
I know you guys have alwaysbeen involved in the veteran
care piece of this and youreally take that to heart and
serve the veterans of Californiavery well.
And you're right, it's a littleconfusing and a little time
consuming to get all thatpaperwork together or whatever
it is the person needs to gettheir stuff submitted.
(15:58):
It's a lot, so it's great thatyou guys are willing to point
them in the right direction andhelp out with that.
Yeah, I would say that thestaffing piece, that is, if you
find an agency that is on top ofit, that's the.
That is amazing and this is apeople, a very human experience
and, just like you said, all ofus, you know, have moments or
(16:22):
are a flat tire or are sick orwhatever.
So we're dealing with humansand humans.
It's really about trusting theagency that you choose to work
with and knowing that, even ifthere's a moment where someone
is going to be late or whatever,you're covered, you're covered.
Somebody will help you withwhatever it is.
And you do have a lot of expertsin the field from your
(16:43):
community.
Liaisons are all experts andthey've been with you forever.
A lot of experts in the fieldfrom your community.
Liaisons are all experts andthey've been with you forever.
A lot of them have been arounda long time and that speaks
volumes because we see so muchturnover in home care sometimes,
but when you have staff thathave worked with you and believe
in your mission and vision andare sticking with you for a lot
of years.
Some of the names I haven't meteverybody, but some of the
(17:05):
names have been with you for along time and that really does
speak volume from the top allthe way down, of people enjoy
working for home careprofessionals.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yeah, we even.
We still have employees whenAndy started this business 20
years ago.
So you know, we pride ourselfon that and we have very low
turnover for our administrativestaff and all of us.
First and foremost, you have tobe passionate about helping
people.
Right, we're not in thisbusiness because we think that
(17:36):
we're going to make a lot ofmoney.
And, unfortunately, people getinto this business because they
think that, right, oh, seniors,oh they, the baby boomers, oh, I
want to get into that business.
It's growing.
Margins are very slim in thisbusiness, especially here in
California, because of all theregulations around pay et cetera
.
So, there, if you get into thisbusiness, or if you are in this
(17:59):
business, you have to bepassionate about it.
Myself and Andy, we still go andto seniors house I still do
assessments.
Right, I want to be passionateabout it.
Myself and Andy, we still go.
And to seniors house I still doassessments.
Right, I want to be out thereand I want to see how our
directors and caregivers areinteracting with our customers.
Right, it's the old.
It's the old Disney adage.
Right, have every employeedress up as one of the
(18:21):
characters.
So, I believe in that and Iwant to see the experience and
I've even done caregiving.
It's something that I wantevery single person that we
serve.
I want them to be served as myown family member right, and one
of my family members currentlyis on our services, so I know
(18:41):
what that feels like and I wantthem to have the same outcome
Again.
We're not perfect.
It's not always perfect, but wedo strive, and everybody in our
company strives to be perfect.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
I think anyone that any home care agency that tells
you we're the best, we're thegreatest and we always do
everything right.
That in and of itself justcan't possibly be true.
There's too many peopleinvolved, but it's absolutely
the safety of having an athletein behind you is amazing.
A team, the people that carethat's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I just want to thank you for taking the time to talk
to us, telling us about homecare professionals.
I know you guys have a lot.
You're going to keep growingand you're going to have 10 more
offices next year.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I hope not next year, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Thank you, Don.
We appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Yeah, absolutely.
My name is Don Franks .
I am the president of Home CareProfessionals here in the San
Francisco Bay Area in NorthernCalifornia, and we have 10
offices stretching from as farnorth as Red Reading and as far
south as Fresno.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
That's a big territory, and tell us a little
bit about the beginnings of HomeCare Professionals.
What year did you guys getstarted in home care?
And it's grown tremendouslyover the last few years.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Sure, so we just had our 20th year anniversary.
Andy Howard is our CEO and mybusiness partner, andy and I got
to meet each other about Idon't know, I guess 10 years ago
or so.
I actually did consulting forAndy when he was a very small
(01:04):
company.
My background as far as thehome care industry is concerned
I was initially in therecruiting business right out of
college.
From there, a gentleman by thename of John Griscavage and I
have now been together for Iguess over 20 years doing
different businesses.
After recruiting I got into thehealthcare arena because I was
(01:28):
really interested, especially inthe pulmonology side of things,
because as an asthmatic itreally interested me.
I went on to be a regionalmanager at a company in I guess
it's kind of West Coast based inthe oxygen and medication world
, and myself and John we startedthrough a private equity
(01:53):
company with a home health,hospice and non-medical company.
The private equity company thatbrought us on to manage the
company got in a room with John.
John said OK, we got hospice,we got home health.
No idea what it is, but it'snot doing well.
I said OK, so what do you wantto do?
(02:14):
And I said give me the privateduty.
So from that conversation wehad two offices I believe at the
time in Northern California.
We had two offices, I believeat the time in Northern
California.
We grew that organically andthrough acquisition, kind of
Colorado West.
So we had offices allthroughout the Northern
California, southern California,arizona, utah, colorado.
(02:38):
So we were the first companythat Kindred came in and
acquired.
So Kindred was looking to getinto the home health space.
They acquired our company to bethe first to do that and so I
stayed on for about a year andran the services of non-medical
home care throughout the UnitedStates for Kindred.
(03:00):
And then the travel just got tome, said I don't want to keep
getting on a plane every day asI had young kids at the time and
decided that I wanted to dosomething more local.
And so that is when I did someof the consulting for Andy and
after I ventured into an autismcompany that is very similar to
(03:21):
operationally how home careworks, we sold that company and
then that's when I partneredwith Andy.
Moving forward I've been herefor about seven years when I was
doing consulting I believe wewere two offices.
We had just opened up our thirdand we just opened up our 10th
office.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
That's crazy, that's amazing.
You guys and in the last seemsto me like the last three or
four years you've been acquiringand opening and really hitting
it hard across California.
So that's amazing.
I know you really have grown alot.
So tell us what are theservices?
I know it's private duty, butis it just?
Is it private duty all the wayacross the board, for all of
(04:02):
your offices in California?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, so we only do non-medical and so within the
industry we call it private dutyFor the consumer.
Not many people know that word.
We want to try to say home care, but even within the health
care community there's always aconfusion between home health
and home care.
When we say home care, thatmeans non-medical services, that
(04:26):
means any type of activities ofdaily living that we're serving
inside of somebody's home,usually for seniors or those
with medical conditions, butit's cooking and cleaning and
bathing and toileting,transportation, medication
reminders, et cetera.
So anything that you couldthink of non-medical et cetera.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So anything that you could think of.
Non-medical Yep, absolutely.
That's great, and there's notenough of you out there to serve
all the people who actuallyneed we can have.
I know it's a competitivemarket, but on the other hand,
there's so many folks that couldbenefit from a companion in
their home so many.
And so that brings me to this.
When an adult child or seniors,they're concerned about someone
in their home, either a, and sothat brings me to this.
When an adult child or a senioris they're concerned about
(05:07):
someone in their home, either afamily member or maybe a spouse
of someone who needs care, andthey call the office, or they
see you online, or they'rereferred to you and they call
the office.
How does this process kind ofwork, from the minute somebody
calls and says I think we needhome care to implementation?
How does that work, dr AnnekeVandenbroek?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, so again, even within the healthcare community
it's confusing For consumers.
A lot of people out therebelieve that this is a service
that is paid through Medicare.
So when somebody is generallygetting older and they need some
activity, daily living helpinside the home, we get the call
(05:49):
where people just really don'teven know who pays for it, how
much it costs, how it works, etcetera.
So anytime that you call ourcompany you are getting a live
person that walks you throughexactly what the services entail
, what the costs are and how wediffer from other companies.
The one thing to note is thatthere's still 10,000 seniors
(06:12):
turning 65 every day.
We are at the peak of thatcurrently.
There's one more year of thepeak and that's in 2000.
It actually goes till 2027.
You're going to see the last ofthe peak of the 10,000, but
that's 65 years old.
The real need is going to be in10 years when the 65 year olds
(06:35):
turn 75.
So the growth of this industryis going to be massive for the
next 10 years.
They also don't understand thatthere is, as we're seeing,
around every city across America.
There is an assisted living orindependent living facility
(06:58):
being built as well.
The option is really involvedin that, especially as a
(07:28):
licensed state, that we do thesame as our competitors, right?
In fact, we even share a lot ofour same caregivers with other
companies, and so it's not thatwe are different in that aspect
at all.
We all do the same thing.
Where you're going to see thedifference is in customer
(07:50):
service.
When you call us, our customerservice goes so far even from
just the general conversationabout what the services may
entail.
We also give them things out inthe community that may have
nothing to do with us makingrevenue at all, and I think
(08:10):
that's very important, and Ithink that we're all on the same
page as far as health care isconcerned, because we want to
educate the public.
From that point, we havesomebody that goes into the home
and we provide a freeconsultation for them, which we
call an assessment.
Those assessments generallylast about an hour or so.
(08:32):
We find out all about theclient, what exactly it is that
we would be doing in the home.
What we want to also find outis who would do well with them
Personality.
Do they like somebody talkative?
Do they want to have a lot ofconversation, play games, et
cetera, or is it somebody thatthey want, you know, a little
(08:54):
less talkative.
Do they want somebody?
Maybe not an A-type personality, right?
So we have to also make thatfit along, just with skill set.
So then as soon as we make thatconnection, we understand what
the client needs, then that goesto our staffing managers and
our staffing managers then findthe perfect person for them.
We also give the opportunityfor people to also interview our
(09:17):
caregivers ahead of time tomake sure that they're making
the right decision.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That's amazing and you are right about that.
Customer service.
I know you can talk to anybodyany of your friends or whatever
and you'll hear almost everyconversation.
Is there just isn't greatcustomer service anymore.
I don't know what happened, orthey're at Lowe's or they're
anything on the phone.
Especially so the fact that youall are really embedded in
(09:44):
creating a good experience forpeople on a customer service
level to me that speaks volumes.
Customer service level to me,that speaks volumes.
This is a hard business andscheduling is hard and hiring is
hard, but when your heart is init and you know what these
people are going through and thestaff that works for you
understands that overwhelm andit could be emotional, financial
(10:09):
.
There's all kinds of thingsthat go into all of this.
It's the fear of having someonecome into your house that
they've never met before.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
All those things are hard for folks when they are
starting to implement care andso good customer service is you
know, and I want to also evensay, bobby, like the, being a
consumer myself, I have hadthree family members that have
(10:38):
used my services.
I have also had family membersoutside of my service area and
have used other companies, and Iknow from the consumer end that
I've had really bad customerservice from my experiences
outside the Bay Area.
And I can also say that we as acompany are not perfect, and
(11:00):
nobody in home care is.
It's people working with people, and you have to know that
going in.
So the second thing I wouldalso say on top of customer
service is staffing.
What most people don't know iseven in the big companies, right
, the large organizations outthere that you may have seen
commercials on, those companiesgenerally only are owned at one
(11:25):
location, right?
So one company that's afranchise may have their own
branch five minutes away fromthe same company's branch, but
those two offices do not worktogether and share caregivers
amongst each other.
Therefore, you are only as goodas how many people you have as a
(11:49):
staff or a company, and thenyou have 90% of this industry is
very small companies.
So we are a unicorn in theindustry that we're privately
held with 10 offices that's ableto share staff amongst the
offices and therefore wegenerally staff a lot I wouldn't
(12:12):
say better, but moreefficiently than other companies
.
Because of that reason we havehuge contracts through the state
that we always are getting theclients that they're coming to
us and saying, hey, this companywasn't able to staff this,
they're unhappy.
We wanted to go to you guys seeif you can help out.
(12:33):
So, aside from customer service, just making sure that you feel
comfortable with the company,also making sure that what
happens if the caregiver doesn'tshow up the next day, do you
have other staff that may beavailable?
It's a very important questionto ask as a consumer.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Not only that, if you're considering hiring a
caregiver privately, this is abig concern because there's all
kinds of issues around hiringsomeone privately.
From my perspective as a nurse,and having seen this a lot
across the board across thewhole United States, hiring
someone privately is a huge risk.
But when you hire an agency andyou're backed up by that plan
(13:14):
of when they can't arrive orsomething's not right or someone
is, whatever the case, whenyou're backed by an agency, you
have not just that one personthat you're relying on, but an
entire team of people who canfix that situation or help with
it instantly.
So to me it's a much safer anda much better and plus the
(13:36):
background checks, the taxes,all the other things that come
with privately hiring versusagency- things that come with
privately hiring versus agencyI'll always be.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
People are always in a situation where they have to
look at what is their budget.
Right?
You hire an agency, you'regetting all of those things that
you had just mentioned right.
You're having somebody that hasa background check TB, maybe,
covid, they've gone throughtraining, they are certified by
the state, et cetera, et cetera.
But maybe you can't afford anagency, right?
Maybe you have to go and findsomebody and we even give.
(14:10):
When somebody calls us and theysay, hey, we just can't afford
that, we'll give them options.
We'll ask them to go to theirlocal senior center and see if
they have a list of privatecaregivers.
We will tell them to go tocaringcom or carecom so at least
they can see vetted individualswho they might be able to hire
privately.
So we do something that'sunique when we get a call and
(14:33):
they're still shopping, weactually send them a form of
questions to ask each end of,like, each consumer, what they
should be knowing as a buyerfrom a home care agency, and so
then they could compare andcontrast agencies and see who
they feel most comfortable with.
But we also work with a lot ofpeople in the community.
So if somebody's looking for,maybe, an assisted living, we
(14:57):
have a lot of partnerships withplacement agencies, for an
example, and we tell them hey,we're going to give you this
person they're going to workwell with.
Hey, we're going to give youthis person, they're going to
work well with you, they'regoing to show you all the
different facilities out therebased on your budget, based on
care, et cetera.
So we try to do everything wecan, especially for veterans.
That is our specialty.
So if you're a veteran, we haveso many things in place to try
(15:21):
to help you navigate the VAsystem, which is very complex.
So that's what we prideourselves on, and all of our
directors in our company do alot of things for veterans, even
outside of the organization.
So that's what I would say.
That kind of makes us standapart from others.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
That's great to know too.
I know you guys have alwaysbeen involved in the veteran
care piece of this and youreally take that to heart and
serve the veterans of Californiavery well.
And you're right, it's a littleconfusing and a little time
consuming to get all thatpaperwork together or whatever
it is the person needs to gettheir stuff submitted.
(15:58):
It's a lot, so it's great thatyou guys are willing to point
them in the right direction andhelp out with that.
Yeah, I would say that thestaffing piece, that is, if you
find an agency that is on top ofit, that's the.
That is amazing and this is apeople, a very human experience
and, just like you said, all ofus, you know, have moments or
(16:22):
are a flat tire or are sick orwhatever.
So we're dealing with humansand humans.
It's really about trusting theagency that you choose to work
with and knowing that, even ifthere's a moment where someone
is going to be late or whatever,you're covered, you're covered.
Somebody will help you withwhatever it is.
And you do have a lot of expertsin the field from your
(16:43):
community.
Liaisons are all experts andthey've been with you forever.
A lot of experts in the fieldfrom your community.
Liaisons are all experts andthey've been with you forever.
A lot of them have been arounda long time and that speaks
volumes because we see so muchturnover in home care sometimes,
but when you have staff thathave worked with you and believe
in your mission and vision andare sticking with you for a lot
of years.
Some of the names I haven't meteverybody, but some of the
(17:05):
names have been with you for along time and that really does
speak volume from the top allthe way down, of people enjoy
working for home careprofessionals.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yeah, we even.
We still have employees whenAndy started this business 20
years ago.
So you know, we pride ourselfon that and we have very low
turnover for our administrativestaff and all of us.
First and foremost, you have tobe passionate about helping
people.
Right, we're not in thisbusiness because we think that
(17:36):
we're going to make a lot ofmoney.
And, unfortunately, people getinto this business because they
think that, right, oh, seniors,oh they, the baby boomers, oh, I
want to get into that business.
It's growing.
Margins are very slim in thisbusiness, especially here in
California, because of all theregulations around pay et cetera
.
So, there, if you get into thisbusiness, or if you are in this
(17:59):
business, you have to bepassionate about it.
Myself and Andy, we still go andto seniors house I still do
assessments.
Right, I want to be passionateabout it.
Myself and Andy, we still go.
And to seniors house I still doassessments.
Right, I want to be out thereand I want to see how our
directors and caregivers areinteracting with our customers.
Right, it's the old.
It's the old Disney adage.
Right, have every employeedress up as one of the
(18:21):
characters.
So, I believe in that and Iwant to see the experience and
I've even done caregiving.
It's something that I wantevery single person that we
serve.
I want them to be served as myown family member right, and one
of my family members currentlyis on our services, so I know
(18:41):
what that feels like and I wantthem to have the same outcome
Again.
We're not perfect.
It's not always perfect, but wedo strive, and everybody in our
company strives to be perfect.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
I think anyone that any home care agency that tells
you we're the best, we're thegreatest and we always do
everything right.
That in and of itself justcan't possibly be true.
There's too many peopleinvolved, but it's absolutely
the safety of having an athletein behind you is amazing.
A team, the people that carethat's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I just want to thank you for taking the time to talk
to us, telling us about homecare professionals.
I know you guys have a lot.
You're going to keep growingand you're going to have 10 more
offices next year.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I hope not next year, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Thank you, Don.
We appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Yeah, absolutely.
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