August 25, 2025 • 34 mins
Anthony Spero shares his experience transitioning Caring People from a 20-year-old proprietary software system to AlayaCare, resulting in improved caregiver satisfaction and more time for patient care.
Caring People developed their own software 20 years ago when few options existed for home care providers. The organization expanded from two states to six through acquisitions, revealing limitations in its proprietary system.
Since implementing AlayaCare, real-time data access has transformed operations, allowing immediate insights into missed visits, caregiver punctuality, and client satisfaction. Most importantly, caregivers now spend more time with clients rather than struggling with technology.
If you're considering a technology transition for your home care organization, remember that software development isn't your core business — focus on what you do best and partner with technology experts who understand the unique needs of home-based care.
Episode resources:
Brochure: Head to Head: Legacy Software vs Alayacare
Blog: How AlayaCare makes implementation work: A practical guide to rolling out home care software
Blog: Successful software implementation: The AlayaCare implementation approach
Podcast: Successful software implementation for organizational transformation in home-based care
If you liked this episode and want to learn more about all things home-based care, you can explore all our episodes at alayacare.com/homehealth360.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Anthony Spero (00:00):
I think everyone thinks about the efficiencies
and cost savings, all thosethings that you want to drive
with implementing new technology, but this is also giving our
caregivers more time at thebedside and they're spending
more time with our clients andnot having to fumble through a
technology that just isn'tworking in the way that they
need it to today, and so that'sanother big piece.
Think about the quality pieceright that when you implement
(00:29):
something like this, where theyactually have more time to spend
with their clients and theirfamily members, they're trying
to make sure that they're doingtheir ADLs, and so all those
things are so much easier now aswe've made the transition.
Erin Vallier (00:39):
Welcome to another episode of the Home Health 360
podcast, where we speak tohome-based care professionals
from around the globe.
I'm your host, Erin Valliere,and today we are joined by
Anthony Sparrow.
Anthony is a senior executivewith over 20 years of both
healthcare operations andbusiness development experience.
(01:00):
His experience spans seniorliving, home health, hospice,
pharmacy and personal care, andcurrently Anthony is leading a
multi-state post-acute healthcare organization as CEO of
Caring People.
Welcome to the show, Anthony.
Anthony Spero (01:17):
Thanks for having me Appreciate it.
Erin Vallier (01:19):
I think you're the perfect person to have on the
show today to talk about thetopic, which is all about what
happens when you decide to comeoff of a proprietary system.
And for those who are like,what's a proprietary system?
That's when you choose todevelop your own EMR, your own
software to support the business, rather than purchasing
(01:40):
something that some people calloff the shelf or like a more
commercial product.
That's just here you go.
Here's the keys Before we diveinto the question.
So I'm curious.
I know you haven't been withCaring People for 20 years, but
do you know the story oranything about why you guys 20
years ago decided to be in thesoftware business rather than
(02:03):
buy a software for the company?
Anthony Spero (02:06):
Yeah, erin.
Actually this week is mythree-year anniversary with
Caring People.
Erin Vallier (02:10):
Happy anniversary.
Anthony Spero (02:13):
Obviously I wasn't here 20 years ago, but
there was not a lot of differentsystems or platforms out there
that home care providers coulduse, and I think even back then
there were so many organizationsthat were still doing things
that were manual or on paper,and so I think the organization
made a decision at that point todevelop their own software
system and for a long time itworked.
(02:34):
It was a good billing software,it was a decent scheduling
software.
But I think, like manyorganizations, as the needs
change and develop and I thinkthings became a little bit more
complex, there was a lot ofdifferent things that were put
in place that were manual sortof processes that had to help
fill some of the gaps in some ofthe systems.
It was time when that was achallenge as we kept moving
(02:54):
forward.
Erin Vallier (02:55):
Yeah, that makes sense.
Boy, can I appreciate the factthat your software system can be
the limiting factor?
And you just create your wholeworld around it, you hire more
admin staff, you do this thingon paper, all this stuff.
So I imagine accumulativeeffects of that happening over
and over across the 20 yearsinfluenced your decision to move
(03:16):
away.
But what was it?
What was that thing, what wasthe straw that made you decide
it was time to change and whatultimately led you to choose
AlayaCare as your partner?
Anthony Spero (03:27):
We went through probably a two, three-year
period of time where we did anumber of acquisitions, we
expanded out.
So we went from two statesprimarily for the Northeast both
New York and New Jersey and weexpanded into Connecticut,
massachusetts, texas, dallas andHouston.
We expanded down the East Coastto Florida and we did this to a
lot of acquisitions andbringing new folks into the
(03:48):
Caring People family, and Ithink that was for us a big sort
of push to really understandhow do we effectively integrate
these companies in, how do wehave them become part of our
culture relatively quickly?
How do we start sharinginformation and best practices
and all those things that wewere having success with and
really trying to share some ofthat with the new folks coming
(04:09):
on board?
And we didn't really have aplatform that could accomplish
that in the way that we neededto, and so that's why we look at
AlayaCare and I think you and Ihave talked about this before,
aaron, a little bit.
We looked at AlayaCare, I thinkprobably about five or six years
ago, even before my time, andwe vetted a lot of different
systems.
We just didn't feel like theprivate duty home care platforms
(04:30):
were in a place where theycould meet the needs of our
organization and then, all of asudden, you had rapid
development and you had reallyyour platform, from our
perspective went leaps andbounds in terms of the
development, where it needed tobe and when you all came back to
us and I was with theorganization.
So for me it was the first timewe were just so blown away at
(04:51):
everything that LionCare offeredand we wanted to become early
adopters of this.
Erin Vallier (04:55):
Oh, we appreciate your leap of faith there.
Five years ago I was with thecompany.
I've been there for seven yearsand I'm thinking back five
years ago.
We still had a lot of growingto do.
It's been exciting to watch theplatform transform over the
last five years and we continueto do so.
I'm really excited to watchwhat we can do with you not for
you, but with you as youcontinue to grow and scale your
(05:19):
business.
I want to talk about changemanagement because that's the
scary part, right, I talk topeople on a daily basis and
sometimes I run across somebodyon a proprietary system and
they're like I've been on herefor 20 years and this is all my
people know and they don't likechange.
And my rebuttal to that is, ofcourse, we like change, we don't
(05:40):
like the transition.
We want to see how our clothesfit when we lose that five
pounds, we want to feel goodafter we've learned this new
skill or whatever.
We just don't like that real,uncomfortable transition part.
So I'm curious what did gettinginternal buy-in for such a
major transformation look likefor you guys, especially with
that two decades?
Anthony Spero (06:02):
of use.
Aaron, it's a really greatquestion.
Our organization is a littlecomplex, right.
We're in six states, we have 18branches, we have different
ends of the spectrum in terms ofour teams and new acquisitions
that have come on board, andthings were a little bit
different across theorganization.
I think for us it was a coupleof things.
One is we were using thetechnology right.
So we had folks that were usedto using a technology to clock
(06:23):
in and clock out.
We were doing that from abilling perspective, so there
was an understanding that therewas value in using technology.
We could understand and theteams understood that, down to
the caregiver level.
So I think that's number one.
Number two is we alsounderstood that we had a lot of
workarounds.
We had a lot of manualprocesses that we had to
(06:43):
integrate into the system.
So, even though we had thisproprietary automated system, we
had to have so much sort ofmanual processes that were,
along with that to fill a lot ofthe gaps in the information.
By the time we made thisdecision to go with a Lyacure,
there was a level of frustrationin the organization that was
impacting our ability to recruitfolks, it was impacting our
ability to retain top talent andso for us it was really kind of
(07:05):
a natural transition.
And I'll tell you, I think therewas actually sort of a
celebration as soon as wementioned that we're going with
AlayaCare.
It was like, oh my God.
Finally, it's interesting wehad folks that I think that were
on the sort of borderline alittle bit Do I stay with this
organization or do I leave?
And other folks that we were inthe process of recruiting.
(07:28):
We started to use the fact thatwe were bringing a lot of care
into the organization as a realrecruiting tool for folks.
So I think two things we keptpeople, retained them, knowing
that we were moving to a newtechnology, and then we were
able to recruit reallyhigh-level folks that wanted to
be a part of this transition aswe move forward.
So the buy-in was not achallenge.
I think they were starving forthis type of technology
Fantastic.
Erin Vallier (07:48):
Yeah, I always say that people change for one of
two reasons.
It's either they've experiencedenough pain that they got to
change, and it sounds likethat's where you guys fell into,
or you just love this thing somuch that you can't help but
change.
But I don't know.
Most people have fallen intothat former category.
It's like ouch, this hurts toobad.
I got to do something different.
Were there any particularstrategies for those people who
(08:10):
were on the fence and the folksthat you decided were worth
keeping?
How did you tactically go aboutmanaging that change
(08:30):
effectively and getting them towant to be there?
Anthony Spero (08:34):
We had one internal key stakeholder who
really led this whole processand that was Amrisa Kornbu,
who's our CFO.
She worked very closely also,too, with Liz Brown, our VP of
clinical and compliance.
She worked with Christine DeLeo,our chief operating officer,
and so the way that sheapproached this which I thought
was genius and I think it helpedus really get some really
(08:54):
initial buy-in and traction outof the gate is that she set up
these sort of different groupsright, depending on discipline.
So there was a clinical group,there was a financial group,
there's an operational team.
So, before we even dove intoanything around implementation
and this is what I would justrecommend to anyone who's
looking to move towards a lightcare is that we expose these
(09:14):
folks in the very beginning ofthese work groups, these work
sessions where they just couldget exposed to it.
They could see the processes,they could see how the system
works, they could input data,they could understand the
benefit of it, and then what wetried to do is spend time
comparing it to what they weredoing today.
So they looked at theproprietary system, they looked
at all the manual processes,rather than just telling them we
(09:37):
would show them that and wewould work through those
sessions and we did that all onthe front end and I think that
really helped to accelerateadoption across the organization
.
Erin Vallier (09:45):
Yeah, I think you're right.
I had the pleasure of workingvery closely with Amarissa and
the team and she is quite lovelyand not everybody will allow us
to get that intimate, if youwill, in the conversation.
We did have the opportunity tocome on site.
That was lovely and I think toyour point, being able to
observe what they were doingtoday and then show them,
(10:05):
translate that to the new system.
That got a lot of peopleexcited and I'm glad that you
guys were able to take advantageof that excitement and the
buy-in.
When people have an opportunityto weigh in, ask questions, try
to break it something new, theyfeel empowered, like it was
partly their decision.
Anthony Spero (10:23):
I'll even take it a step further.
We did this at the board level.
Honestly, we had tremendoussupport through our board and
our organization about moving toa new technology and so one of
our first board meetings we hadas we were moving towards this
implementation process.
We had made the decision to gowith AlayaCare.
We actually had one of ourregional directors of operations
, brady Kopp, who runs NewJersey.
He was one of our super users.
(10:44):
He's a young leader doing greatthings for the organization.
He really stepped in to be thesort of super user with
AlayaCare.
But we had him come in.
It was classic.
We had him come into the boardmeeting.
He did a demonstration for theboard and I think what was
important for me, you know, Isaid, brady, let's show them how
a lie care is going to work.
More importantly, let's showthem how we're doing it.
Today I just remember themlooking at oh my God, how fast
(11:06):
can we get this thingimplemented?
Because they could see howcumbersome and how much work we
were doing.
Erin Vallier (11:12):
That just wasn't productive, so yeah, that's very
cool and it's something thatmade me excited, because this
regional director could not havehad a ton of experience on a
light care.
It's not like he was a superuser for many years.
It sounds like I'm a super useron this thing that I've been
using for the last 20 years blah, blah, blah and I've been using
(11:32):
this thing for five minutes andnow look what I can do.
That's very cool.
Anthony Spero (11:37):
We had just finished implementing New Jersey
and I think it was probably acouple of weeks after that.
We're asking Brady to do thisand I was a little.
I'll be honest with you.
I was a little nervous of howthat was going to go, but it was
amazing.
I do think to your point.
I think that is alsoattributable to the technology
and how user-friendly it is andhow intuitive it is and
(11:57):
relatively easy to work through.
Erin Vallier (11:59):
Super important, especially as you're onboarding
new people.
Get them hit the ground running.
I want to talk a little bitabout your implementation
strategy.
You had a complex project.
You were on a proprietarysystem for 20 years.
Anthony Spero (12:10):
We're six states, but we have 18 branches, though
, within those states.
Erin Vallier (12:14):
And you like the most regulated states for some
reason.
New York, New Jersey, Texas.
Anthony Spero (12:19):
I didn't choose those.
I was just happy that weweren't in California.
Erin Vallier (12:23):
I don't know.
The folks in California areprobably happy they're not in
New York.
Anthony Spero (12:26):
That's probably true.
Erin Vallier (12:27):
But you guys approach this differently than a
lot of people.
Some folks that are in largeorganizations like this just
feel like I need contractors tocome in and do this thing for me
and I want the keys when thecar is running, just teach me
where the gas pedals and all thebuttons are.
But you did this differently.
You didn't have any outsidecontractors.
You had a very small internalteam doing this.
(12:50):
They fully owned it.
Can you walk us through why youwent that route and what are
the benefits?
Anthony Spero (12:56):
I would say that there's not one size fits all, I
think, in how to work throughan implementation.
I think this is a decision thatI made in the organization
after talking with theleadership team and thinking
about how we wanted to do this.
I think what I was trying toreally get across to the
leadership team is that I'vedone it both ways right.
I've implemented technologiesacross different verticals
within the post-acute, indifferent opportunities before,
(13:18):
and I have brought outsideconsultants in, and so we weigh
the pros and cons and there's noone way to do it.
This is our preference.
Sometimes, when you bring anoutside contractor in, there's
lack of ownership, right, andnot that it's done purposefully,
it's just they're dealing withit.
There's a group that's focusedon it.
Yes, it's not necessarily afocus for the leadership team,
(13:41):
right, they're doing theday-to-day, they're focusing on
the business, all things that goalong with that, but there's
not that sort of ownership, notjust the leadership level, but
really down to the branch level,where the rubber hits the road
and kind of, where all thosethings happen on a daily basis.
And so for me, it was about howdo we create ownership right,
how do we get people excitedabout this?
And so, yeah, we made adecision to 100% do it in-house.
We did not add one FTE and ourCFO was the internal stakeholder
(14:04):
that led it.
We identified folks that wethought would really be excited
about learning a new technology.
So, these super users, weidentified those in the front
end, and let me tell you,nothing's ever perfect from an
implementation.
I just want to say this.
But we started with New Jersey,which is one of our biggest
legacy markets, and we had madea ton of mistakes.
(14:26):
I'm just going to tell you thatWe've made a bunch of mistakes,
okay.
And then we transitioned fromNew Jersey, we took a whole
lessons learned and then we wentto Florida Okay, we made a
bunch of mistakes, but we madeless mistakes.
And then we went to one of wewent to our largest market after
that, which was New York, andthat was we were a little
(14:46):
concerned about that, becausethese types of implementing,
these types of technologies, canbe a disruption to the
operations and what's happening.
And the team was amazing andI'll tell you, I think that one
probably between we did New York, connecticut, massachusetts and
Texas, all within the nextthree or four months after that,
and every time we did it, aaron.
(15:06):
The implementation became muchmore effective, much more smooth
.
We had clients that were in thesystem, we had all of our
caregivers in, people wereclocking in and clocking out, we
were dropping bills andeverything was happening in the
way that it needed to.
And I also say this yourimplementation person was
incredible, phenomenal.
My team talks more and moreabout your whole implementation
(15:30):
team and the support that theyprovided, and that's not always
the case.
Very often here and I know thisyou sign a dotted line, you're
getting this new technology andthen, all of of a sudden, the
person who was your partner forthe longest time in the process
you don't see them again.
That was not it, and that'swhat I loved about LionCare.
Like you were with us, all ofyou, from beginning to end, and
I think that really helped, too,with the implementation going
(15:52):
smoothly across the board.
Erin Vallier (15:54):
Oh, thank you for that feedback.
We do try to do things a littlebit differently every step of
the way for the life of therelationship, just to make sure
you're maximizing the technology.
So lessons learned here?
Just to summarize pick theright team.
You had to have good people anddon't expect to get it right
the first time.
You guys rolled with it.
You made the mistakes.
It's like, oh crap, what can welearn from this and then apply
(16:15):
it to the next wave?
If you will, then you get alittle bit better and by the
time you guys were in your mostcomplicated market, you'd
learned enough that things justreally started going smoothly.
Anthony Spero (16:27):
And Aaron, I would just say this too we took
the folks like the Brady cops ofthe world and the people who
went, the first adopters withinthe organization.
We actually sent them to theother locations.
So every time we had a superuser who had more experience or
went through the implementation,we actually sent them to the
other location.
So every time we had a superuser who had more experience or
went through the implementation,we actually physically had them
travel to the nextimplementation and so they were
there helping.
(16:47):
And it wasn't just aboutimplementing AlayaCare.
It was about, okay,implementing AlayaCare, and then
how does that affect yourday-to-day operations?
And that's where I think a lotof organizations miss it.
When you bring an outsideconsultant and the thing they
don't know is they don't knowyour operations.
They may be focusing on gettingAlayaCare implemented, but it's
not being implemented and tyingit into your day-to-day
(17:08):
workflows.
And that's when you have yourteam doing it.
You have that ownership.
That's where it becomes, Ithink, much more seamless.
I'm using AlayaCare in thescheduling.
It's that piece of it thatmakes the biggest help.
Erin Vallier (17:19):
Absolutely.
Not only that, but that rockstar, that super user that
you're sending everywhere.
That makes them feel morevaluable, that makes them learn
a lot more, and so you areincreasing the value of your
human capital, retaining themand building a really strong,
cohesive workforce across yourorganization.
That's very cool, and youmentioned something that
(17:41):
inspired a question.
It's about how do youincorporate all this stuff into
your workflows.
I know you guys now have accessto some data and the ability to
track, like you couldn't dowith your proprietary system, so
I'm curious.
I know that you're still in theprocess of figuring out exactly
what you want to track, becauseit's like a kid in the candy
(18:03):
store.
I could do all these things,but what's the primary focus?
I want to hear more about thatexperience.
What are some of the new KPIsyou're experimenting with, and
how did you arrive at the desireto track these things?
Because I know you can buildsome of that reporting and
automate it in a life care.
How is doing some of thatchange the way you operate?
Anthony Spero (18:24):
Such a great question and we're right in the
sort of throes of that.
I just had a conversationyesterday with our VP of
clinical and compliance and sheis like chomping at the bit
because we've got all this greatdata.
Now that's in the system.
We have all of our states thatare rolling in.
All the data is flowing through.
(18:44):
So what we have within CaringPeople, we have a really robust
compliance program and so wehave all these high risk
regulatory areas that we focuson.
We track it on a monthly basis,quarterly basis.
We do it down to the branchlevel, aaron, and this might be
something like making sure thecare plan is completed timely,
making sure that our caregiversare providing exactly what's on
that care plan, making sure thatthere's supervision from our
nursing staff to our home healthdata.
So things like that.
We track just to make sure thatthose are happening and listen
(19:07):
where we identify opportunitiesfor improvement.
We're putting plans ofcorrection in place and we're
CHAP accredited.
This year We've had twodeficiency-free surveys.
So all that stuff flows down tothat and we're at 85%.
So when we put these in placetwo years ago, our goal was to
get 85% or better in all thosekey metrics.
Okay and we've done that.
So now what we're looking atand we're rolling out for the
(19:28):
second half of this year.
So our whole quality assuranceprogram is going to change.
Okay, and it's going to changebecause of AlayaCare's
implementation.
I don't want to be tracking setsof data just to track data.
We should be using this toimpact the organization and make
decisions in the organizationand provide insights into how
we're operating, how we cancontinue to improve and we're
(19:50):
revamping.
So we're taking those thingsthat we focus on I think you did
a great job on and we're usingall of the AlayaCare metrics and
KPIs.
So our leadership team rightnow is making decisions on those
things or in terms of what wewant to look at.
But I think of things likewithin a minute, I can see how
many missed visits there were.
I can look at like this and seeokay, was there a caregiver
(20:11):
that was late?
Our leadership called thismorning at 10 am with the team
and there was another report.
I can send a sort of a servicesurvey through AlayaCare.
My super user in New Jersey ispiloting this right now and he
already has some really cooldata coming out.
But you're actually in themodule.
You're clicking on the client.
(20:31):
There's a quick little servicesurvey that's embedded into
AlayaCare that we can push outand it's a score of I think 40
is the top score.
There's different questionsthat we ask and then at the very
end we ask would you recommendus to a family or a friend,
aaron?
The thing is this is thatyou're getting that feedback in
real time.
So we're already thinkingwhat's a score that we're not
(20:53):
comfortable with.
Is it 30 or less?
Is it 20?
If we have clients that arehaving a great experience, how
do we address those and how dowe quantify those?
But on the other side of that,I'm all about acknowledgement
too, like when we're doing agreat job and there's that great
feedback, how do we acknowledgethe caregiver?
How do we acknowledge the nursethat went in?
So it gives us an opportunityto acknowledge really great
(21:14):
performance.
But it also gives us anopportunity to see how we can
improve.
But it's all in real time.
I'm not looking at thingsretrospectively anymore Three
months ago.
I'm trying to figure out whathappened.
I can look at it in real time,which is really beneficial.
Erin Vallier (21:28):
Absolutely.
I love the real-time data.
It allows you to make verysmart decisions, not in arrears,
when it's too late.
It sounds like you're alreadylooking at things that would
improve your outcomes, likeinpatient satisfaction.
I'm curious do you have anyother ideas Like what kinds of
decisions are you lookingforward to being able to make
that you couldn't make before inother departments?
I know you guys have likeskilled and non-skilled
(21:50):
components of your business.
Anthony Spero (21:52):
We have care management services.
We have behavioral healthservices that are social
worker-led.
We're providing psychosocialservices to seniors.
There's a tremendous need forthat in every one of the markets
that we're in Skilled services.
You mentioned that we're alsoproviding a lot of Alzheimer's
and dementia care in thesememory care units that are
through each of our states, andso right now, we're going to
(22:13):
have the ability to look atcertain diagnoses.
We're going to be able to lookat certain outcomes.
Right now, we're in the processof implementing the family
portal, which my team is sojazzed up about, aaron, right
now, because that's a bigmissing piece, I think, in a lot
of home care organizations.
Listen, we're all in a situationwhere we're taking care of
loved ones and family members.
It might be mom or dad, itmight be our grandparents, but
(22:34):
it might be mom or dad, it mightbe our grandparents, but we're
all doing that on a day-to-daybasis.
Just based on the agingdemographics in the US, I want
to know did my mom take hermedication?
Did the home health aide arrive?
What's her care plan look likefor this week?
Is there any change of status?
And I want to be able to go inand see this information without
having to pick up the phone.
So how do we make this easierfor clients and their family
(22:58):
members?
And the family portal throughAlign Care is going to allow us
to do that, so they're going tobe able to see the care plan,
the schedule, see if mom or dadtook their medication.
All of that information isgoing to be at their fingertips
and we're excited about that.
We think that's going to reallyenhance the experience for our
clients and their family members.
Erin Vallier (23:18):
I'll have to have you back on the show to talk
about the transformation in theclient's experience if you will,
the family's experience andlearn a bit more about what you
guys learned through theimplementation of the family
portal.
Anthony Spero (23:25):
Sure, I'd love to , of course.
Erin Vallier (23:26):
That'd be great.
It sounds like a funconversation.
Now I'm going to switch gears alittle bit.
You did it brave, you didn'tcare.
I'm going to implement a wholebunch of stuff.
I'm not afraid of the surveysthat are happening during the
implementation.
So for those of you listeningout there, it is possible.
It might not be comfortable,but it is possible.
Anthony did it, call him andask him how.
But the impact on your businessgoes beyond just the EMR.
(23:51):
That's my long approach to thisquestion.
Can you share how the switch toAlayaCare helped you transform
other areas?
I know you've implemented someexternal tools like HubSpot.
How has that impacted you andhow are you using data more
purposefully in your workflows?
Anthony Spero (24:07):
Yeah, erin, that's a great point.
I think one of the things thatyou helped us with in the
beginning I have to rememberthis you connected me with other
private duty home carecompanies in our space who had
gone through the transformation,who implemented AlayaCare.
At the same time we were doingAlayaCare, we were looking at
which CRM to go with, and so wewere looking at Salesforce.
We were looking at HubSpot,other options as well.
(24:28):
We were looking at who has APIconnections to AlayaCare.
Where could we integrate?
Where it was somewhat seamless?
But we needed to become a muchmore metrics-driven organization
, right?
So we had a bunch of anecdotalinformation, we were tracking a
bunch of stuff on spreadsheets,but it was all retrospective.
I mean, it's all that stuff,right?
So you're trying to scale,you're trying to do all these
(24:48):
things, and it's sort of likeyou have one arm tied behind
your back as you're trying to dothis.
So we did it all at once.
One, so we did it all at once.
One of the decisions we made,though, initially with
implementing HubSpot we did thisin April of this year, at the
same time, I think we werethrough two to three states, I
think, with the AlayaCareimplementation is that I made
the decision to implementHubSpot outside of AlayaCare.
We have a large sales force, wehave a sales leader.
(25:11):
Let's get a clean databaseright.
Let's create all of ouraccounts.
Let's do it by market, let's doit by sales rep.
Let's have us using HubSpotoutside of AlayaCare so that we
are looking at the compliance,the types of reports, the
information that we can look at.
How do we have deeperconversations with our sales
folks in a way that really helpsto coach them and make them
(25:32):
more successful than looking atthat territory management?
We made a decision on how to doit outside of Alliant Care, and
so that's how we're operating itnow, and at some point we're
going to integrate the two, butI just felt like there was no
huge need to do that initially.
We're still working through theAlliant Care implementation and
let's do that separate, but ourconversations are so much more
metric driven.
We're doing revenue forecastingcalls, we're looking at types
(25:57):
of clients that are coming on bydiagnosis, all those things.
We're looking at length of stay, which in every other
post-acute industry is very easyto capture, and it was very
hard for us to be able to dothat, and now, with the push of
a button we can look at how longare our clients staying with us
and other opportunities there.
Erin Vallier (26:13):
Cool.
I like the fact that you guysare in this crawl, walk run kind
of phase.
Some people want to just makesure that it's 100% when they go
live, rip off the bandaid, butthat's not always necessary in
order to get the benefit, andyou guys are seeing that now.
When you do approach theintegration piece.
(26:33):
I'm curious what are your goalsfor that?
What are your hopes?
I know that it's going to bebi-directional.
They'll have a trigger hey,this person's in HubSpot at some
point.
How is that going to improveyour workflows once they're
intimately connected?
Anthony Spero (26:48):
That's a great question, erin.
Even with everything we've done, there's still a manual process
on the intake side of it.
Right now we're developing aphase sheet.
We're looking at how do weintegrate that into HubSpot.
So for our sales folks, right,they're working with a client,
the client's understanding whatservices we offer.
We're understanding what needsthey have from a care
perspective and how do we helpsupport that.
Our whole goal is to get ourclients home.
(27:10):
It's where the client wants tobe, it's where the family wants
to be, it's where I believefolks can have the most benefit
and comfort.
And we're trying to workthrough how do we get the
service agreement to thatquickly?
How do we walk through thatprocess?
So, for me, the thing I want tosee when we integrate, which I
think is going to have thebiggest upside for us and our
clients, is having that serviceagreement, having our front
(27:33):
facing sales folks working withour clients, getting the face
sheet done, getting the serviceagreement done and having that
flow directly into AlayaCare.
They're still separate as we'veworked through that process, so
to me, that's going to be oneof the biggest benefits that we
can do.
Erin Vallier (27:47):
Save you some time for sure, and eliminate that
opportunity for human error asyou.
Double entry things.
That'll be huge.
That'll be huge.
Final question for you.
I know we've talked about adouble entry things.
That'll be huge.
That'll be huge.
Final question for you.
I know we've talked about a lotof things.
Is there anything else, anyother words of wisdom that you
can share to leaders, ownersthat are listening to the show,
(28:10):
that are on our proprietarysystem today and they're
thinking that at some point theywant to get out of the software
business because that's costly?
Like when we looked at yourinfrastructure it's like the
salaries of your developers thatwere on staff, and then the
server maintenance and all thisstuff.
All of that adds up all thepaper that you were having to
(28:30):
use.
That's costly.
Anthony Spero (28:44):
But, from your perspective, anything that you'd
like to share that will helpfolks feel a little bit more
comfortable with even justdipping their toe into the
conversation with somebody ishaving our folks go out and
provide best-in-class care.
We're not a softwaredevelopment company and so
that's not our expertise andthat's not an ability for us to
be able to scale that.
So everything that we did overthose number of years to try to
get that proprietary system towork and it didn't meet our
(29:08):
needs as we got a little bitmore complex I would just say
for anyone who's looking at this, just maybe you gotta have that
realization.
That's not your expertise,that's not your core business.
Go to the experts, go to thefolks that live and breathe and
do this every day and reallyunderstand the private duty home
care space.
And I would say listen, thesoftware has come a long way.
(29:29):
The platform has come lightyears.
I think I mentioned in the lastfive years, but even the last
two years.
You don't want to be leftbehind Some of the AI stuff that
you have coming out as part ofthis system in the future, and
if you are behind the eight balland having access to this type
of platform, this type oftechnology, then you're going to
be left behind.
In the private duty home carespace in particular, there's so
(29:51):
much consolidation that has tohappen right.
There's so many mom and pops.
It's happened in the hospicespace, where there's been a lot
of mergers and acquisitions.
It's happened in the nursinghome assisted, all of that.
But in private duty home care,there's a lot of consolidation
and most of the folks that Iknow are moving towards a lie of
care and you don't want to beleft behind.
Don't be afraid.
(30:12):
You get the right peopleinvolved in your team.
Listen, we're going to makemistakes and that's okay.
We want to be transparent aboutthose.
We want to have those bubble upquickly and then we want to fix
them and then, as we go throughthe implementation, we want to
get better at that.
So I would just say that Don'tbe afraid to do it.
I guarantee you it's going tohelp your teams be more
(30:32):
productive, be more efficient.
Erin Vallier (30:38):
They're going to enjoy their job a lot more, and
that's what I would say for sure.
Fantastic feedback.
You definitely want to dothings these days that make your
employees very happy and makethem more efficient, because we
all know that reimbursementrates are not going up and we're
expected to do more with lessas the population continues to
age and they want to be at home.
So all great points I do.
(30:58):
I think I'm going to ask evenjust one more question.
It has to do with the securitypiece of it, because I know
keeping up with the securitystandards that are required
these days because healthcarehas a target on their back
what's the difference there inyour security level and your
comfort level with a proprietarysystem versus going with
something more commercial thathas to be tested and keep those
(31:21):
standards?
Anthony Spero (31:22):
Well, I think, where Alicare is cloud-based, I
think we looked at everythingand the redundancy and backups
and just making sure that, a wehad access to the information.
B there was a plan in terms ofjust hear all of these.
I actually personally wentthrough a ransomware attack in a
different organization whichwas we were.
It was a pharmacy organization.
It was in 18 states and within24 to 48 hours we lost
(31:47):
visibility of medications goingout.
So my point is this that'sanother focus you have to make
sure you don't.
You know your servers arecloud-based.
You have to make this just somuch with cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity insurance, likeall of those things that you
have to carry when you're aproprietary system, can be
extremely costly and also, inaddition to the staff piece of
(32:07):
it, all of that, you get to moveto AlayaCare.
They just have so much moreaccess to resources and TIPA
compliant.
It's the security side of itProtecting the information,
making sure you don't have badactors that can infiltrate some
of that.
We were just glad to move thatover.
It was really something thatput us at ease.
Erin Vallier (32:25):
Yeah, take a load off.
So it sounds like, overall, theswitch to a light care was
really positive.
Not only are your operationsbecoming more efficient, you're
able to make better decisionswith the real-time data.
Your people like it, theadoption rate is good and it is
also secured.
It sounds like it may be savingyou guys some money as well
(32:50):
Saving you some money and alsoenabling your growth without
having to add overhead.
Is that a fair synopsis there?
Anthony Spero (32:57):
I think so and I would say this too, aaron, I
think for our caregivers, ourproprietary system was always
down or always issues, withpeople clocking in and out, and
I don't want to lose sight ofthis.
I think everyone thinks aboutthe efficiencies and cost
savings, all those things thatyou want to drive with
implementing new technology, butthis is also giving our
caregivers more time at thebedside, and they're spending
more time with our clients andnot having to fumble through a
technology that just isn'tworking in the way that they
(33:20):
needed to today, and so that'sanother big piece.
Think about the quality piece,right that when you implement
something like this, where theyactually have more time to spend
with their clients and theirfamily members, they're trying
to make sure that they're doingtheir ADLs, and so all those
things are so much easier now aswe've made the transition.
Erin Vallier (33:35):
Gosh, you make me smile.
This is a real success story,because our goal, our mission,
is just to enable the care forthe people that are aging in a
place that they want to age andthat is home, and, gosh, I love
that.
So thank you so much for comingon the show and sharing your
wisdom, sharing your story today.
It has been a real pleasure,thanks so much for having me.
Anthony Spero (33:54):
It has been a real pleasure.
Erin Vallier (33:58):
Thanks so much for having me.
Welcome to another episode ofthe Home Health 360 podcast,
where we speak to home-basedcare professionals from around
the globe.
I'm your host, erin Valliere,and today we are joined by
Anthony Sparrow.
Anthony is a senior executivewith over 20 years of both
healthcare operations andbusiness development experience.
His experience spans seniorliving, home health, hospice,
(34:22):
pharmacy and personal care, andcurrently Anthony is leading a
multi-state post-acute health.
I think everyone thinks about the efficiencies
and cost savings, all thosethings that you want to drive
with implementing new technology, but this is also giving our
caregivers more time at thebedside and they're spending
more time with our clients andnot having to fumble through a
technology that just isn'tworking in the way that they
need it to today, and so that'sanother big piece.
Think about the quality pieceright that when you implement
(00:29):
something like this, where theyactually have more time to spend
with their clients and theirfamily members, they're trying
to make sure that they're doingtheir ADLs, and so all those
things are so much easier now aswe've made the transition.
Erin Vallier (00:39):
Welcome to another episode of the Home Health 360
podcast, where we speak tohome-based care professionals
from around the globe.
I'm your host, Erin Valliere,and today we are joined by
Anthony Sparrow.
Anthony is a senior executivewith over 20 years of both
healthcare operations andbusiness development experience.
(01:00):
His experience spans seniorliving, home health, hospice,
pharmacy and personal care, andcurrently Anthony is leading a
multi-state post-acute healthcare organization as CEO of
Caring People.
Welcome to the show, Anthony.
Anthony Spero (01:17):
Thanks for having me Appreciate it.
Erin Vallier (01:19):
I think you're the perfect person to have on the
show today to talk about thetopic, which is all about what
happens when you decide to comeoff of a proprietary system.
And for those who are like,what's a proprietary system?
That's when you choose todevelop your own EMR, your own
software to support the business, rather than purchasing
(01:40):
something that some people calloff the shelf or like a more
commercial product.
That's just here you go.
Here's the keys Before we diveinto the question.
So I'm curious.
I know you haven't been withCaring People for 20 years, but
do you know the story oranything about why you guys 20
years ago decided to be in thesoftware business rather than
(02:03):
buy a software for the company?
Anthony Spero (02:06):
Yeah, erin.
Actually this week is mythree-year anniversary with
Caring People.
Erin Vallier (02:10):
Happy anniversary.
Anthony Spero (02:13):
Obviously I wasn't here 20 years ago, but
there was not a lot of differentsystems or platforms out there
that home care providers coulduse, and I think even back then
there were so many organizationsthat were still doing things
that were manual or on paper,and so I think the organization
made a decision at that point todevelop their own software
system and for a long time itworked.
(02:34):
It was a good billing software,it was a decent scheduling
software.
But I think, like manyorganizations, as the needs
change and develop and I thinkthings became a little bit more
complex, there was a lot ofdifferent things that were put
in place that were manual sortof processes that had to help
fill some of the gaps in some ofthe systems.
It was time when that was achallenge as we kept moving
(02:54):
forward.
Erin Vallier (02:55):
Yeah, that makes sense.
Boy, can I appreciate the factthat your software system can be
the limiting factor?
And you just create your wholeworld around it, you hire more
admin staff, you do this thingon paper, all this stuff.
So I imagine accumulativeeffects of that happening over
and over across the 20 yearsinfluenced your decision to move
(03:16):
away.
But what was it?
What was that thing, what wasthe straw that made you decide
it was time to change and whatultimately led you to choose
AlayaCare as your partner?
Anthony Spero (03:27):
We went through probably a two, three-year
period of time where we did anumber of acquisitions, we
expanded out.
So we went from two statesprimarily for the Northeast both
New York and New Jersey and weexpanded into Connecticut,
massachusetts, texas, dallas andHouston.
We expanded down the East Coastto Florida and we did this to a
lot of acquisitions andbringing new folks into the
(03:48):
Caring People family, and Ithink that was for us a big sort
of push to really understandhow do we effectively integrate
these companies in, how do wehave them become part of our
culture relatively quickly?
How do we start sharinginformation and best practices
and all those things that wewere having success with and
really trying to share some ofthat with the new folks coming
(04:09):
on board?
And we didn't really have aplatform that could accomplish
that in the way that we neededto, and so that's why we look at
AlayaCare and I think you and Ihave talked about this before,
aaron, a little bit.
We looked at AlayaCare, I thinkprobably about five or six years
ago, even before my time, andwe vetted a lot of different
systems.
We just didn't feel like theprivate duty home care platforms
(04:30):
were in a place where theycould meet the needs of our
organization and then, all of asudden, you had rapid
development and you had reallyyour platform, from our
perspective went leaps andbounds in terms of the
development, where it needed tobe and when you all came back to
us and I was with theorganization.
So for me it was the first timewe were just so blown away at
(04:51):
everything that LionCare offeredand we wanted to become early
adopters of this.
Erin Vallier (04:55):
Oh, we appreciate your leap of faith there.
Five years ago I was with thecompany.
I've been there for seven yearsand I'm thinking back five
years ago.
We still had a lot of growingto do.
It's been exciting to watch theplatform transform over the
last five years and we continueto do so.
I'm really excited to watchwhat we can do with you not for
you, but with you as youcontinue to grow and scale your
(05:19):
business.
I want to talk about changemanagement because that's the
scary part, right, I talk topeople on a daily basis and
sometimes I run across somebodyon a proprietary system and
they're like I've been on herefor 20 years and this is all my
people know and they don't likechange.
And my rebuttal to that is, ofcourse, we like change, we don't
(05:40):
like the transition.
We want to see how our clothesfit when we lose that five
pounds, we want to feel goodafter we've learned this new
skill or whatever.
We just don't like that real,uncomfortable transition part.
So I'm curious what did gettinginternal buy-in for such a
major transformation look likefor you guys, especially with
that two decades?
Anthony Spero (06:02):
of use.
Aaron, it's a really greatquestion.
Our organization is a littlecomplex, right.
We're in six states, we have 18branches, we have different
ends of the spectrum in terms ofour teams and new acquisitions
that have come on board, andthings were a little bit
different across theorganization.
I think for us it was a coupleof things.
One is we were using thetechnology right.
So we had folks that were usedto using a technology to clock
(06:23):
in and clock out.
We were doing that from abilling perspective, so there
was an understanding that therewas value in using technology.
We could understand and theteams understood that, down to
the caregiver level.
So I think that's number one.
Number two is we alsounderstood that we had a lot of
workarounds.
We had a lot of manualprocesses that we had to
(06:43):
integrate into the system.
So, even though we had thisproprietary automated system, we
had to have so much sort ofmanual processes that were,
along with that to fill a lot ofthe gaps in the information.
By the time we made thisdecision to go with a Lyacure,
there was a level of frustrationin the organization that was
impacting our ability to recruitfolks, it was impacting our
ability to retain top talent andso for us it was really kind of
(07:05):
a natural transition.
And I'll tell you, I think therewas actually sort of a
celebration as soon as wementioned that we're going with
AlayaCare.
It was like, oh my God.
Finally, it's interesting wehad folks that I think that were
on the sort of borderline alittle bit Do I stay with this
organization or do I leave?
And other folks that we were inthe process of recruiting.
(07:28):
We started to use the fact thatwe were bringing a lot of care
into the organization as a realrecruiting tool for folks.
So I think two things we keptpeople, retained them, knowing
that we were moving to a newtechnology, and then we were
able to recruit reallyhigh-level folks that wanted to
be a part of this transition aswe move forward.
So the buy-in was not achallenge.
I think they were starving forthis type of technology
Fantastic.
Erin Vallier (07:48):
Yeah, I always say that people change for one of
two reasons.
It's either they've experiencedenough pain that they got to
change, and it sounds likethat's where you guys fell into,
or you just love this thing somuch that you can't help but
change.
But I don't know.
Most people have fallen intothat former category.
It's like ouch, this hurts toobad.
I got to do something different.
Were there any particularstrategies for those people who
(08:10):
were on the fence and the folksthat you decided were worth
keeping?
How did you tactically go aboutmanaging that change
(08:30):
effectively and getting them towant to be there?
Anthony Spero (08:34):
We had one internal key stakeholder who
really led this whole processand that was Amrisa Kornbu,
who's our CFO.
She worked very closely also,too, with Liz Brown, our VP of
clinical and compliance.
She worked with Christine DeLeo,our chief operating officer,
and so the way that sheapproached this which I thought
was genius and I think it helpedus really get some really
(08:54):
initial buy-in and traction outof the gate is that she set up
these sort of different groupsright, depending on discipline.
So there was a clinical group,there was a financial group,
there's an operational team.
So, before we even dove intoanything around implementation
and this is what I would justrecommend to anyone who's
looking to move towards a lightcare is that we expose these
(09:14):
folks in the very beginning ofthese work groups, these work
sessions where they just couldget exposed to it.
They could see the processes,they could see how the system
works, they could input data,they could understand the
benefit of it, and then what wetried to do is spend time
comparing it to what they weredoing today.
So they looked at theproprietary system, they looked
at all the manual processes,rather than just telling them we
(09:37):
would show them that and wewould work through those
sessions and we did that all onthe front end and I think that
really helped to accelerateadoption across the organization
.
Erin Vallier (09:45):
Yeah, I think you're right.
I had the pleasure of workingvery closely with Amarissa and
the team and she is quite lovelyand not everybody will allow us
to get that intimate, if youwill, in the conversation.
We did have the opportunity tocome on site.
That was lovely and I think toyour point, being able to
observe what they were doingtoday and then show them,
(10:05):
translate that to the new system.
That got a lot of peopleexcited and I'm glad that you
guys were able to take advantageof that excitement and the
buy-in.
When people have an opportunityto weigh in, ask questions, try
to break it something new, theyfeel empowered, like it was
partly their decision.
Anthony Spero (10:23):
I'll even take it a step further.
We did this at the board level.
Honestly, we had tremendoussupport through our board and
our organization about moving toa new technology and so one of
our first board meetings we hadas we were moving towards this
implementation process.
We had made the decision to gowith AlayaCare.
We actually had one of ourregional directors of operations
, brady Kopp, who runs NewJersey.
He was one of our super users.
(10:44):
He's a young leader doing greatthings for the organization.
He really stepped in to be thesort of super user with
AlayaCare.
But we had him come in.
It was classic.
We had him come into the boardmeeting.
He did a demonstration for theboard and I think what was
important for me, you know, Isaid, brady, let's show them how
a lie care is going to work.
More importantly, let's showthem how we're doing it.
Today I just remember themlooking at oh my God, how fast
(11:06):
can we get this thingimplemented?
Because they could see howcumbersome and how much work we
were doing.
Erin Vallier (11:12):
That just wasn't productive, so yeah, that's very
cool and it's something thatmade me excited, because this
regional director could not havehad a ton of experience on a
light care.
It's not like he was a superuser for many years.
It sounds like I'm a super useron this thing that I've been
using for the last 20 years blah, blah, blah and I've been using
(11:32):
this thing for five minutes andnow look what I can do.
That's very cool.
Anthony Spero (11:37):
We had just finished implementing New Jersey
and I think it was probably acouple of weeks after that.
We're asking Brady to do thisand I was a little.
I'll be honest with you.
I was a little nervous of howthat was going to go, but it was
amazing.
I do think to your point.
I think that is alsoattributable to the technology
and how user-friendly it is andhow intuitive it is and
(11:57):
relatively easy to work through.
Erin Vallier (11:59):
Super important, especially as you're onboarding
new people.
Get them hit the ground running.
I want to talk a little bitabout your implementation
strategy.
You had a complex project.
You were on a proprietarysystem for 20 years.
Anthony Spero (12:10):
We're six states, but we have 18 branches, though
, within those states.
Erin Vallier (12:14):
And you like the most regulated states for some
reason.
New York, New Jersey, Texas.
Anthony Spero (12:19):
I didn't choose those.
I was just happy that weweren't in California.
Erin Vallier (12:23):
I don't know.
The folks in California areprobably happy they're not in
New York.
Anthony Spero (12:26):
That's probably true.
Erin Vallier (12:27):
But you guys approach this differently than a
lot of people.
Some folks that are in largeorganizations like this just
feel like I need contractors tocome in and do this thing for me
and I want the keys when thecar is running, just teach me
where the gas pedals and all thebuttons are.
But you did this differently.
You didn't have any outsidecontractors.
You had a very small internalteam doing this.
(12:50):
They fully owned it.
Can you walk us through why youwent that route and what are
the benefits?
Anthony Spero (12:56):
I would say that there's not one size fits all, I
think, in how to work throughan implementation.
I think this is a decision thatI made in the organization
after talking with theleadership team and thinking
about how we wanted to do this.
I think what I was trying toreally get across to the
leadership team is that I'vedone it both ways right.
I've implemented technologiesacross different verticals
within the post-acute, indifferent opportunities before,
(13:18):
and I have brought outsideconsultants in, and so we weigh
the pros and cons and there's noone way to do it.
This is our preference.
Sometimes, when you bring anoutside contractor in, there's
lack of ownership, right, andnot that it's done purposefully,
it's just they're dealing withit.
There's a group that's focusedon it.
Yes, it's not necessarily afocus for the leadership team,
(13:41):
right, they're doing theday-to-day, they're focusing on
the business, all things that goalong with that, but there's
not that sort of ownership, notjust the leadership level, but
really down to the branch level,where the rubber hits the road
and kind of, where all thosethings happen on a daily basis.
And so for me, it was about howdo we create ownership right,
how do we get people excitedabout this?
And so, yeah, we made adecision to 100% do it in-house.
We did not add one FTE and ourCFO was the internal stakeholder
(14:04):
that led it.
We identified folks that wethought would really be excited
about learning a new technology.
So, these super users, weidentified those in the front
end, and let me tell you,nothing's ever perfect from an
implementation.
I just want to say this.
But we started with New Jersey,which is one of our biggest
legacy markets, and we had madea ton of mistakes.
(14:26):
I'm just going to tell you thatWe've made a bunch of mistakes,
okay.
And then we transitioned fromNew Jersey, we took a whole
lessons learned and then we wentto Florida Okay, we made a
bunch of mistakes, but we madeless mistakes.
And then we went to one of wewent to our largest market after
that, which was New York, andthat was we were a little
(14:46):
concerned about that, becausethese types of implementing,
these types of technologies, canbe a disruption to the
operations and what's happening.
And the team was amazing andI'll tell you, I think that one
probably between we did New York, connecticut, massachusetts and
Texas, all within the nextthree or four months after that,
and every time we did it, aaron.
(15:06):
The implementation became muchmore effective, much more smooth
.
We had clients that were in thesystem, we had all of our
caregivers in, people wereclocking in and clocking out, we
were dropping bills andeverything was happening in the
way that it needed to.
And I also say this yourimplementation person was
incredible, phenomenal.
My team talks more and moreabout your whole implementation
(15:30):
team and the support that theyprovided, and that's not always
the case.
Very often here and I know thisyou sign a dotted line, you're
getting this new technology andthen, all of of a sudden, the
person who was your partner forthe longest time in the process
you don't see them again.
That was not it, and that'swhat I loved about LionCare.
Like you were with us, all ofyou, from beginning to end, and
I think that really helped, too,with the implementation going
(15:52):
smoothly across the board.
Erin Vallier (15:54):
Oh, thank you for that feedback.
We do try to do things a littlebit differently every step of
the way for the life of therelationship, just to make sure
you're maximizing the technology.
So lessons learned here?
Just to summarize pick theright team.
You had to have good people anddon't expect to get it right
the first time.
You guys rolled with it.
You made the mistakes.
It's like, oh crap, what can welearn from this and then apply
(16:15):
it to the next wave?
If you will, then you get alittle bit better and by the
time you guys were in your mostcomplicated market, you'd
learned enough that things justreally started going smoothly.
Anthony Spero (16:27):
And Aaron, I would just say this too we took
the folks like the Brady cops ofthe world and the people who
went, the first adopters withinthe organization.
We actually sent them to theother locations.
So every time we had a superuser who had more experience or
went through the implementation,we actually sent them to the
other location.
So every time we had a superuser who had more experience or
went through the implementation,we actually physically had them
travel to the nextimplementation and so they were
there helping.
(16:47):
And it wasn't just aboutimplementing AlayaCare.
It was about, okay,implementing AlayaCare, and then
how does that affect yourday-to-day operations?
And that's where I think a lotof organizations miss it.
When you bring an outsideconsultant and the thing they
don't know is they don't knowyour operations.
They may be focusing on gettingAlayaCare implemented, but it's
not being implemented and tyingit into your day-to-day
(17:08):
workflows.
And that's when you have yourteam doing it.
You have that ownership.
That's where it becomes, Ithink, much more seamless.
I'm using AlayaCare in thescheduling.
It's that piece of it thatmakes the biggest help.
Erin Vallier (17:19):
Absolutely.
Not only that, but that rockstar, that super user that
you're sending everywhere.
That makes them feel morevaluable, that makes them learn
a lot more, and so you areincreasing the value of your
human capital, retaining themand building a really strong,
cohesive workforce across yourorganization.
That's very cool, and youmentioned something that
(17:41):
inspired a question.
It's about how do youincorporate all this stuff into
your workflows.
I know you guys now have accessto some data and the ability to
track, like you couldn't dowith your proprietary system, so
I'm curious.
I know that you're still in theprocess of figuring out exactly
what you want to track, becauseit's like a kid in the candy
(18:03):
store.
I could do all these things,but what's the primary focus?
I want to hear more about thatexperience.
What are some of the new KPIsyou're experimenting with, and
how did you arrive at the desireto track these things?
Because I know you can buildsome of that reporting and
automate it in a life care.
How is doing some of thatchange the way you operate?
Anthony Spero (18:24):
Such a great question and we're right in the
sort of throes of that.
I just had a conversationyesterday with our VP of
clinical and compliance and sheis like chomping at the bit
because we've got all this greatdata.
Now that's in the system.
We have all of our states thatare rolling in.
All the data is flowing through.
(18:44):
So what we have within CaringPeople, we have a really robust
compliance program and so wehave all these high risk
regulatory areas that we focuson.
We track it on a monthly basis,quarterly basis.
We do it down to the branchlevel, aaron, and this might be
something like making sure thecare plan is completed timely,
making sure that our caregiversare providing exactly what's on
that care plan, making sure thatthere's supervision from our
nursing staff to our home healthdata.
So things like that.
We track just to make sure thatthose are happening and listen
(19:07):
where we identify opportunitiesfor improvement.
We're putting plans ofcorrection in place and we're
CHAP accredited.
This year We've had twodeficiency-free surveys.
So all that stuff flows down tothat and we're at 85%.
So when we put these in placetwo years ago, our goal was to
get 85% or better in all thosekey metrics.
Okay and we've done that.
So now what we're looking atand we're rolling out for the
(19:28):
second half of this year.
So our whole quality assuranceprogram is going to change.
Okay, and it's going to changebecause of AlayaCare's
implementation.
I don't want to be tracking setsof data just to track data.
We should be using this toimpact the organization and make
decisions in the organizationand provide insights into how
we're operating, how we cancontinue to improve and we're
(19:50):
revamping.
So we're taking those thingsthat we focus on I think you did
a great job on and we're usingall of the AlayaCare metrics and
KPIs.
So our leadership team rightnow is making decisions on those
things or in terms of what wewant to look at.
But I think of things likewithin a minute, I can see how
many missed visits there were.
I can look at like this and seeokay, was there a caregiver
(20:11):
that was late?
Our leadership called thismorning at 10 am with the team
and there was another report.
I can send a sort of a servicesurvey through AlayaCare.
My super user in New Jersey ispiloting this right now and he
already has some really cooldata coming out.
But you're actually in themodule.
You're clicking on the client.
(20:31):
There's a quick little servicesurvey that's embedded into
AlayaCare that we can push outand it's a score of I think 40
is the top score.
There's different questionsthat we ask and then at the very
end we ask would you recommendus to a family or a friend,
aaron?
The thing is this is thatyou're getting that feedback in
real time.
So we're already thinkingwhat's a score that we're not
(20:53):
comfortable with.
Is it 30 or less?
Is it 20?
If we have clients that arehaving a great experience, how
do we address those and how dowe quantify those?
But on the other side of that,I'm all about acknowledgement
too, like when we're doing agreat job and there's that great
feedback, how do we acknowledgethe caregiver?
How do we acknowledge the nursethat went in?
So it gives us an opportunityto acknowledge really great
(21:14):
performance.
But it also gives us anopportunity to see how we can
improve.
But it's all in real time.
I'm not looking at thingsretrospectively anymore Three
months ago.
I'm trying to figure out whathappened.
I can look at it in real time,which is really beneficial.
Erin Vallier (21:28):
Absolutely.
I love the real-time data.
It allows you to make verysmart decisions, not in arrears,
when it's too late.
It sounds like you're alreadylooking at things that would
improve your outcomes, likeinpatient satisfaction.
I'm curious do you have anyother ideas Like what kinds of
decisions are you lookingforward to being able to make
that you couldn't make before inother departments?
I know you guys have likeskilled and non-skilled
(21:50):
components of your business.
Anthony Spero (21:52):
We have care management services.
We have behavioral healthservices that are social
worker-led.
We're providing psychosocialservices to seniors.
There's a tremendous need forthat in every one of the markets
that we're in Skilled services.
You mentioned that we're alsoproviding a lot of Alzheimer's
and dementia care in thesememory care units that are
through each of our states, andso right now, we're going to
(22:13):
have the ability to look atcertain diagnoses.
We're going to be able to lookat certain outcomes.
Right now, we're in the processof implementing the family
portal, which my team is sojazzed up about, aaron, right
now, because that's a bigmissing piece, I think, in a lot
of home care organizations.
Listen, we're all in a situationwhere we're taking care of
loved ones and family members.
It might be mom or dad, itmight be our grandparents, but
(22:34):
it might be mom or dad, it mightbe our grandparents, but we're
all doing that on a day-to-daybasis.
Just based on the agingdemographics in the US, I want
to know did my mom take hermedication?
Did the home health aide arrive?
What's her care plan look likefor this week?
Is there any change of status?
And I want to be able to go inand see this information without
having to pick up the phone.
So how do we make this easierfor clients and their family
(22:58):
members?
And the family portal throughAlign Care is going to allow us
to do that, so they're going tobe able to see the care plan,
the schedule, see if mom or dadtook their medication.
All of that information isgoing to be at their fingertips
and we're excited about that.
We think that's going to reallyenhance the experience for our
clients and their family members.
Erin Vallier (23:18):
I'll have to have you back on the show to talk
about the transformation in theclient's experience if you will,
the family's experience andlearn a bit more about what you
guys learned through theimplementation of the family
portal.
Anthony Spero (23:25):
Sure, I'd love to , of course.
Erin Vallier (23:26):
That'd be great.
It sounds like a funconversation.
Now I'm going to switch gears alittle bit.
You did it brave, you didn'tcare.
I'm going to implement a wholebunch of stuff.
I'm not afraid of the surveysthat are happening during the
implementation.
So for those of you listeningout there, it is possible.
It might not be comfortable,but it is possible.
Anthony did it, call him andask him how.
But the impact on your businessgoes beyond just the EMR.
(23:51):
That's my long approach to thisquestion.
Can you share how the switch toAlayaCare helped you transform
other areas?
I know you've implemented someexternal tools like HubSpot.
How has that impacted you andhow are you using data more
purposefully in your workflows?
Anthony Spero (24:07):
Yeah, erin, that's a great point.
I think one of the things thatyou helped us with in the
beginning I have to rememberthis you connected me with other
private duty home carecompanies in our space who had
gone through the transformation,who implemented AlayaCare.
At the same time we were doingAlayaCare, we were looking at
which CRM to go with, and so wewere looking at Salesforce.
We were looking at HubSpot,other options as well.
(24:28):
We were looking at who has APIconnections to AlayaCare.
Where could we integrate?
Where it was somewhat seamless?
But we needed to become a muchmore metrics-driven organization
, right?
So we had a bunch of anecdotalinformation, we were tracking a
bunch of stuff on spreadsheets,but it was all retrospective.
I mean, it's all that stuff,right?
So you're trying to scale,you're trying to do all these
(24:48):
things, and it's sort of likeyou have one arm tied behind
your back as you're trying to dothis.
So we did it all at once.
One, so we did it all at once.
One of the decisions we made,though, initially with
implementing HubSpot we did thisin April of this year, at the
same time, I think we werethrough two to three states, I
think, with the AlayaCareimplementation is that I made
the decision to implementHubSpot outside of AlayaCare.
We have a large sales force, wehave a sales leader.
(25:11):
Let's get a clean databaseright.
Let's create all of ouraccounts.
Let's do it by market, let's doit by sales rep.
Let's have us using HubSpotoutside of AlayaCare so that we
are looking at the compliance,the types of reports, the
information that we can look at.
How do we have deeperconversations with our sales
folks in a way that really helpsto coach them and make them
(25:32):
more successful than looking atthat territory management?
We made a decision on how to doit outside of Alliant Care, and
so that's how we're operating itnow, and at some point we're
going to integrate the two, butI just felt like there was no
huge need to do that initially.
We're still working through theAlliant Care implementation and
let's do that separate, but ourconversations are so much more
metric driven.
We're doing revenue forecastingcalls, we're looking at types
(25:57):
of clients that are coming on bydiagnosis, all those things.
We're looking at length of stay, which in every other
post-acute industry is very easyto capture, and it was very
hard for us to be able to dothat, and now, with the push of
a button we can look at how longare our clients staying with us
and other opportunities there.
Erin Vallier (26:13):
Cool.
I like the fact that you guysare in this crawl, walk run kind
of phase.
Some people want to just makesure that it's 100% when they go
live, rip off the bandaid, butthat's not always necessary in
order to get the benefit, andyou guys are seeing that now.
When you do approach theintegration piece.
(26:33):
I'm curious what are your goalsfor that?
What are your hopes?
I know that it's going to bebi-directional.
They'll have a trigger hey,this person's in HubSpot at some
point.
How is that going to improveyour workflows once they're
intimately connected?
Anthony Spero (26:48):
That's a great question, erin.
Even with everything we've done, there's still a manual process
on the intake side of it.
Right now we're developing aphase sheet.
We're looking at how do weintegrate that into HubSpot.
So for our sales folks, right,they're working with a client,
the client's understanding whatservices we offer.
We're understanding what needsthey have from a care
perspective and how do we helpsupport that.
Our whole goal is to get ourclients home.
(27:10):
It's where the client wants tobe, it's where the family wants
to be, it's where I believefolks can have the most benefit
and comfort.
And we're trying to workthrough how do we get the
service agreement to thatquickly?
How do we walk through thatprocess?
So, for me, the thing I want tosee when we integrate, which I
think is going to have thebiggest upside for us and our
clients, is having that serviceagreement, having our front
(27:33):
facing sales folks working withour clients, getting the face
sheet done, getting the serviceagreement done and having that
flow directly into AlayaCare.
They're still separate as we'veworked through that process, so
to me, that's going to be oneof the biggest benefits that we
can do.
Erin Vallier (27:47):
Save you some time for sure, and eliminate that
opportunity for human error asyou.
Double entry things.
That'll be huge.
That'll be huge.
Final question for you.
I know we've talked about adouble entry things.
That'll be huge.
That'll be huge.
Final question for you.
I know we've talked about a lotof things.
Is there anything else, anyother words of wisdom that you
can share to leaders, ownersthat are listening to the show,
(28:10):
that are on our proprietarysystem today and they're
thinking that at some point theywant to get out of the software
business because that's costly?
Like when we looked at yourinfrastructure it's like the
salaries of your developers thatwere on staff, and then the
server maintenance and all thisstuff.
All of that adds up all thepaper that you were having to
(28:30):
use.
That's costly.
Anthony Spero (28:44):
But, from your perspective, anything that you'd
like to share that will helpfolks feel a little bit more
comfortable with even justdipping their toe into the
conversation with somebody ishaving our folks go out and
provide best-in-class care.
We're not a softwaredevelopment company and so
that's not our expertise andthat's not an ability for us to
be able to scale that.
So everything that we did overthose number of years to try to
get that proprietary system towork and it didn't meet our
(29:08):
needs as we got a little bitmore complex I would just say
for anyone who's looking at this, just maybe you gotta have that
realization.
That's not your expertise,that's not your core business.
Go to the experts, go to thefolks that live and breathe and
do this every day and reallyunderstand the private duty home
care space.
And I would say listen, thesoftware has come a long way.
(29:29):
The platform has come lightyears.
I think I mentioned in the lastfive years, but even the last
two years.
You don't want to be leftbehind Some of the AI stuff that
you have coming out as part ofthis system in the future, and
if you are behind the eight balland having access to this type
of platform, this type oftechnology, then you're going to
be left behind.
In the private duty home carespace in particular, there's so
(29:51):
much consolidation that has tohappen right.
There's so many mom and pops.
It's happened in the hospicespace, where there's been a lot
of mergers and acquisitions.
It's happened in the nursinghome assisted, all of that.
But in private duty home care,there's a lot of consolidation
and most of the folks that Iknow are moving towards a lie of
care and you don't want to beleft behind.
Don't be afraid.
(30:12):
You get the right peopleinvolved in your team.
Listen, we're going to makemistakes and that's okay.
We want to be transparent aboutthose.
We want to have those bubble upquickly and then we want to fix
them and then, as we go throughthe implementation, we want to
get better at that.
So I would just say that Don'tbe afraid to do it.
I guarantee you it's going tohelp your teams be more
(30:32):
productive, be more efficient.
Erin Vallier (30:38):
They're going to enjoy their job a lot more, and
that's what I would say for sure.
Fantastic feedback.
You definitely want to dothings these days that make your
employees very happy and makethem more efficient, because we
all know that reimbursementrates are not going up and we're
expected to do more with lessas the population continues to
age and they want to be at home.
So all great points I do.
(30:58):
I think I'm going to ask evenjust one more question.
It has to do with the securitypiece of it, because I know
keeping up with the securitystandards that are required
these days because healthcarehas a target on their back
what's the difference there inyour security level and your
comfort level with a proprietarysystem versus going with
something more commercial thathas to be tested and keep those
(31:21):
standards?
Anthony Spero (31:22):
Well, I think, where Alicare is cloud-based, I
think we looked at everythingand the redundancy and backups
and just making sure that, a wehad access to the information.
B there was a plan in terms ofjust hear all of these.
I actually personally wentthrough a ransomware attack in a
different organization whichwas we were.
It was a pharmacy organization.
It was in 18 states and within24 to 48 hours we lost
(31:47):
visibility of medications goingout.
So my point is this that'sanother focus you have to make
sure you don't.
You know your servers arecloud-based.
You have to make this just somuch with cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity insurance, likeall of those things that you
have to carry when you're aproprietary system, can be
extremely costly and also, inaddition to the staff piece of
(32:07):
it, all of that, you get to moveto AlayaCare.
They just have so much moreaccess to resources and TIPA
compliant.
It's the security side of itProtecting the information,
making sure you don't have badactors that can infiltrate some
of that.
We were just glad to move thatover.
It was really something thatput us at ease.
Erin Vallier (32:25):
Yeah, take a load off.
So it sounds like, overall, theswitch to a light care was
really positive.
Not only are your operationsbecoming more efficient, you're
able to make better decisionswith the real-time data.
Your people like it, theadoption rate is good and it is
also secured.
It sounds like it may be savingyou guys some money as well
(32:50):
Saving you some money and alsoenabling your growth without
having to add overhead.
Is that a fair synopsis there?
Anthony Spero (32:57):
I think so and I would say this too, aaron, I
think for our caregivers, ourproprietary system was always
down or always issues, withpeople clocking in and out, and
I don't want to lose sight ofthis.
I think everyone thinks aboutthe efficiencies and cost
savings, all those things thatyou want to drive with
implementing new technology, butthis is also giving our
caregivers more time at thebedside, and they're spending
more time with our clients andnot having to fumble through a
technology that just isn'tworking in the way that they
(33:20):
needed to today, and so that'sanother big piece.
Think about the quality piece,right that when you implement
something like this, where theyactually have more time to spend
with their clients and theirfamily members, they're trying
to make sure that they're doingtheir ADLs, and so all those
things are so much easier now aswe've made the transition.
Erin Vallier (33:35):
Gosh, you make me smile.
This is a real success story,because our goal, our mission,
is just to enable the care forthe people that are aging in a
place that they want to age andthat is home, and, gosh, I love
that.
So thank you so much for comingon the show and sharing your
wisdom, sharing your story today.
It has been a real pleasure,thanks so much for having me.
Anthony Spero (33:54):
It has been a real pleasure.
Erin Vallier (33:58):
Thanks so much for having me.
Welcome to another episode ofthe Home Health 360 podcast,
where we speak to home-basedcare professionals from around
the globe.
I'm your host, erin Valliere,and today we are joined by
Anthony Sparrow.
Anthony is a senior executivewith over 20 years of both
healthcare operations andbusiness development experience.
His experience spans seniorliving, home health, hospice,
(34:22):
pharmacy and personal care, andcurrently Anthony is leading a
multi-state post-acute health.
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