Artificial intelligence appears to be on the minds of most health care officials as we approach 2024, and the concept is likely making its way into home care discussions as well.
Indeed, many home care leaders are actively investigating how to incorporate AI into their businesses in order to make the best use of developing solutions.
“I think there’s both reward and risk there,” said Emma Dickison, President and CEO of Home Helpers, during a recent Home Health Care News webinar. “There’s all kinds of AI that I think can support the home care model.”
According to Dickison, whose company provides in-home care services to seniors across a franchise network of more than 300 sites, some potential uses of AI in home care include improved home-monitoring technologies, virtual assistants, and marketing solutions.
She was quick to stress out, however, that any AI solution would have to be cost-effective for home care providers.
“We’re looking at a few, from a competitive differentiation standpoint, that would be able to help us understand and give insights and patterns into care and activity in the home, without being big brother,” he said. “Because nobody wants that.”
Another way Home Helpers is utilizing AI is to identify potential growth areas.
“We use AI in our franchise-development process around identifying potential new franchisees, and doing some specific psychographic targeting,” he said. “For the team, where we see the most lift with AI… is in the marketing department.” I believe it will spill over into how we can document care logs. There are so many possibilities.”
Though Home Helpers has embraced AI, the organization is still cautious.
“We don’t allow anyone, internally, to use the free version of ChatGPT because that feeds into their algorithms,” he stated. “It has the potential to leak your intellectual property, proprietary information, and so on.” We make certain to use the premium version. You only need to be extremely cautious and implement safeguards and internal standards that define how and when you can employ AI in your organization. What provides the greatest profit while posing the least danger.”
Family Resource Home Care, like Home Helpers, is already leveraging AI marketing tools and solutions to assist the organization in producing captivating communications.
According to Jeff Wiberg, CEO of Family Resource Home Care, some of the most advanced AI technologies are still in the works.
“Getting to the core of where I think [AI] is going to go, which is [having] machine learning around doing client caregiver matching and things of that nature, I think we’re a way out from that right now,” he told the audience during the webinar.
With this in mind, Family Resource Home Care is partnering with companies who already serve the health care industry.
The company is collaborating with these partners to better understand how to apply AI to some of the most fundamental day-to-day aspects of running a home care agency.
Wiberg feels that home care providers may have to wait a little longer before the sector realizes AI’s full potential in the space.
“I love the home care space, but it’s not the sexiest space to do that kind of AI development,” he went on to say. “I believe that the home care space will arrive later than other areas or industries.” We’ll be able to see some of those patterns evolve in other industries before they fully mature in the home care arena, but I believe it’d be irresponsible not to pay attention to it.”
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