CEO Corner — #FixingTheDSPCrisis
I wanted to share my thoughts on a recent Optonome (op-ton-uh-mee) blog post about the direct support professionals (DSP) crisis. Direct support professionals are caregivers whose aim is to assist an individual with intellectual or physical disabilities with becoming integrated into his/her home, community or, at minimum, the least restrictive environment. Working with someone with intellectual disabilities is not an easy job, on top of that the pay is low and as result turnover is high. Why am I talking about it here? Because the home healthcare industry is doomed! To make matters worse, the industry is flooded by electronic health records (EHR), programs created by people who do not truly understand the complex needs of the DSP and the individuals needing home and community health care. EHR store information, but give no insight about the data without laborious user intervention. Providers are spending billions on administrative tasks and families are losing billions in wages. As a result, DSP and caregivers are paid non living wages and providing high risk health care in a growing industry.
For example, according to the state advocacy group PAR, in Pennsylvania there are more than 35,000 DSP. Of those 35,000 workers, there are approximately 4,200 job openings every day and an estimated 9,500 leaving their current job this year. Indeed.com is making millions off of these providers with no solution in sight.
Lets do the math for 9,500 workers leaving the workplace
9,500 x $25 ($5 per day to sponsor a job on indeed.com)
9,500 x $800 (2 weeks pay for training to be in compliance)
9,500 x $250 (Administrative staff/Online pay to assist completion of trainings)
9,500 x $250 (Per user training on EHR)
9,500 x $120 (Supervising new staff)
The costs to rehire in Pennsylvania: $13,727,500
My name is Dennis Dicker, the founder of Optonome. I experienced this DSP crisis first hand while running my home health agency supporting adults with autism and intellectual disabilities. Optonome’s vision is to bring the cost of healthcare closer to zero helping providers, family, staff members and third parties supporting Individuals with special needs. Why? Because every second counts! Not only do DSP need to be trained properly on state regulations (as stated above), they must also be trained on the individual support plan, home requirements, live data and other policies to reduce allegations of abuse and neglect and increase the quality of the care they provide. This process, if managed by administrative staff, could take weeks! Industry experts say this cost amounts to over $3,000 per rehire. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Every state in the U.S. is experiencing these problems. Follow our journey as I share with you our approach and how it will change home and community health care forever.
