Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to Home Health Revealed, where we share real stories from industry leaders about home health, palliative and hospice care. Brought to you by Velocity. Velocity's easy to read coding and revenue cycle dashboards let you grab your cup of coffee and quickly see the health of your organization.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: All right, we're back live here at the financial conference. We got our second guest of the day and I figured this would be a really good opportunity cause Sarah is a brand new to podcasting and I think we're gonna let her introduce our first guest. So Sarah, amazing. Take it away.
[00:00:31] Speaker C: No pressure. Thank you so much for having me. So we have with us this morning Demetrius Harrell from Hospice in the Pines. She's president and CEO. And so, Demetrius, would you mind telling us a little bit about your agency and what really sets you all apart?
[00:00:44] Speaker D: Absolutely. You know, I have been with the organization for the past 32 years, and what sets us apart in our community is that we were the first hospice to serve Angelina county in a 70 mile radius.
We remain the only not for profit organization, but it has been commendable to have exceptional staff doing amazing work for the community that we serve.
[00:01:09] Speaker C: Amazing. And you know, I can attest that you do have a great team because I have met so many of them at conferences. So really solid group you have there.
[00:01:16] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:01:16] Speaker C: Yeah. And thanks for joining us. Michael, did you want to.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: You know, one of the things about owning an agency is it's hard work. Right. There's a lot of things. Right. And we typically learn from mistakes.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: Right.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: I tend to have more mistakes than most people. Hannah's always gotta, you know, help me fix those mistakes. But let me ask you this. All right. Since we're at the financial conference, I thought it would make sense to ask some financial questions. Now, Hannah made these up. So if you don't like it, you can say pass.
But here it is. All right.
If you could get one piece of financial advice from your future self, what would you hope to hear from a future self?
[00:01:52] Speaker D: You know, one of the things that I think that is so important and inte work that we do is advocacy.
And the future self is where will we be in terms of the financial resiliency in years to come? Because we already know the value of hospice and home health.
But the reality is, will it be around for me?
[00:02:17] Speaker C: Right.
[00:02:18] Speaker D: After spending 32 years in the industry and actually 35 years overall, I want to ensure that the work that I have done to pave the way for people throughout generations will still be there for you and I. That we will have the same quality, continuity and consistency in care.
[00:02:40] Speaker C: Amazing. And you know, it's so interesting, like your perspective on things as the hospice kind of just industry as a whole continues to grow and budgets are cut and things are becoming harder for teams. What's your best piece of advice to let's say a newer agency that's profitable, that's doing well on how to continue that growth.
[00:03:01] Speaker D: You know, that's so important.
And I try to be a mentor and supporter. And recently I had a dear friend, Victor Cousins, who is doing amazing work and just got his certification, but he came and shadowed our agency. And so number one is find another agency that has integrity that you can and find ways in which we can extend care. It should not be hard.
We should always have a partner that will help us provide the same quality to the patients that we serve. And he's in states away. That's number one. Number two is provide good support to your staff, educating them, ensuring that they understand the importance and the integral pieces to collaborating with not just the patient, but the entire family.
You know, in hospice, I feel that we don't just treat the patient, we treat the family. Because guess what? The person that's going to do that satisfaction survey is not going to be the patient.
It is after the patient has transitioned. So you've got to ensure that 13 months of bereavement care is good for the people that are left behind and that we spend enough time ensuring that bereavement and grief support is one of the top priorities. And it should start with the day that we admit the patient.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: Now, how many years have you been coming to the financial conference?
[00:04:32] Speaker D: Oh, my goodness, all of when it was NHP Co, I was coming. So I would say overall, 30 years. 30 years just in and out from various conferences. But I haven't been here in the last four years with change. And of course we had the pandemic. But I can say it is so important. And I anticipated that one of our other leaders was coming as well.
He does a lot from the standpoint of contracts and the relationships with Medicare and cms. We actually have a satisfaction report that we have to do and all of the ADRs that are required. This is important. And it also is a voice of how we can improve the consistency over years. You know, the big key item today is what AI. And I'm sure somewhere in here you all are doing a little artificial intelligence.
[00:05:35] Speaker C: Right at this point, I feel like AI. I feel like when it first became like buzzworthy, people were so afraid of it. And now a year later, not even. It's if you are not applying AI into your day to day or for your teams, you're doing them a disservice.
[00:05:49] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:05:50] Speaker C: And that will impact you financially.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: Yes. You know, you know, for those that have always thought about coming to the financial conference but maybe hasn't made it out, what advice would you give them to say, hey, if you've never been here, this is why I would recommend you coming?
[00:06:02] Speaker D: Well, variety of reasons, but I'm going to give three of those top one, to be with other industry leaders as yourselves that can provide you guidance to the day to day operations of your organization.
Sometimes when you're inside the whale, you don't see how to float and when you can collaborate and develop partnerships, it is so important.
Number two, I love networking and I love seeing faces that maintain and sustain. You know, when you come back, you want to always know that the people that you've worked alongside or who have mentored you or provided you guidance are still in place.
And hearing Dr. Landers this morning and the team and the panel, it also gave us hope because we know that we're going to face consequences with cuts and revenue cycle and generating continuous income is important, but it's good to know that there are people out there that are fighting the same battle. And the third thing I think is that we know, and you just said it, that artificial intelligence and all the software and all the platforms are extremely important. So coming where there are vendors that are lending advice and giving you actual hands on to look at their products and experience their wealth is going to give you outcomes that will help enhance the quality of your staff and the services that you provide.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: Well, I appreciate you being so part of the podcast today. I know you're very busy, I know you got a lot on your plate today, but for you to set, set aside 10 minutes of your time, we're grateful for that. We'd love to have you back on the podcast for full session.
So Hannah, we'll get that set up I think because you're a tremendous speaker. Wisdom, I mean you got so much wisdom. We really, truly, I'm humbled that you joined us and thank you very much.
[00:07:58] Speaker D: Well, I want to thank you all from the call that I received and the opportunity. That is wonderful. And I want you all to continue to do the wonderful work that you do and exceed the standards because tremendously you are exceptional leaders.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: Thank you very much.
[00:08:13] Speaker C: Thank you.
