Reshaping the Future of Home Healthcare

A recent study by PAR pleads with Governer Wolf of Pennsylvania to help pass a $60 Million budget to help increase wages but how will the governor be assured that the skill level will match the pay?

With the increase in direct support professional (DSP demand, vacancy rates over 11% and turnover at more than 35% we are in a DSP crisis with no solution in sight. Giving DSP’s more money will not solve the problem. Consumers need a system in place to give their families the quality of care at all times no matter who cares for them as well as a training solution to help DSPs improve their skills levels and job opportunities available to them. The following top 5 states pay less than $12 per hour and employ more than 600,000 DSP’s.

With a highly fragmented industry, there are healthcare providers that can and cannot afford to train or increase the skill levels of these DSP’s and therefore vacancies and turnover will continue.

There is an argument in the report suggesting an increase in wage to $15 with Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA) to help relieve the dependence on public assistance. A CNA is certified and current CNA’s are in competition to land jobs as DSP’s. Direct Support professionals have skills CNA’s do not have such as being certified to administer medications.

There is a need for a standard of care across the board for direct support professionals no matter where the beneficiary lives. Optonome was created with this in mind. Offering the general public free training to become a certified DSP based on state regulations and opportunities to move up in the healthcare field. By offering training, electronic health record, housing and transportation options in the same application providers who have a turnover or want to support more people can, while lowering administrative costs to possibly pay higher wages.

Learn more and Invest in our crowdfunding campaign @ bit.ly/StartEngineOptonome