2 min read April 2023 — Invest: spoke with Raymond Rodriguez-Torres, president and CEO of ALC Home Health, about providing nurses to Miami-Dade public schools, why a high level of comfort is important to patients and their families, and how home healthcare is much more affordable than hospital care. “Home healthcare can be cheaper by a more than a 10-to-1 ratio compared to hospital care. This means that for every day someone spends in the hospital, they can afford 10 days or more of home healthcare.”
What have been some highlights or milestones for ALC Home Health Care over the last year?
We have been fortunate this year because we have entered a space that is new to us: working with Miami-Dade County Public Schools. ALC has traditionally and exclusively provided home-based nursing and therapy but, this year, we were awarded the ability to care for children in public schools. Now, we are staffing nurses through Miami-Dade County Public Schools and it is having a positive impact on families. Patients can receive services in school but they also can be eligible to receive services outside of school. We are very proud to be a part of this.
What is your assessment of the healthcare industry in Miami and what is your role in South Florida?
The industry will continue to grow at a faster pace than other regions in the United States. Southern Florida had a population boom during the pandemic and the growth is significant. Also, the age of the folks who are moving here require home healthcare for aid, companionship or nursing. The growth of the population in the area is creating greater demand for nurses and services.
Our role has two factors. The first is adapting to the population, age and necessity of the patients. The second is that home healthcare is cheaper than hospital treatment, so we are providing an affordable option. Home healthcare can be cheaper by greater than a 10-to-1 ratio compared to hospital care. This means that for every day someone spends in the hospital, they can afford 10 days or more of home healthcare. Our healthcare is compassionate but does not compromise in quality standards. Our costs are significantly lower, so we can provide that level of care in a safe and personalized way for a lower price.
How is the shift from volume to value impacting your business and how is this philosophy changing healthcare?
Value is something that is interesting to measure. When you measure it from a cost standpoint, then it is all about credits and debits. Our formula is more complex. How do we measure care? We can measure the health outcomes first, but many families judge it in a different way. There are many ways to assess value. We don’t compromise what we do for the benefit of the patient and that is our only metric. Our patient volume fluctuates and sometimes we have more volume than many hospitals. We have folks at our headquarters whose role is simply to call our patients every day and ask them how they are feeling and if they need anything. Then, we ask, how is our service? The perceived value that is assessed by the patient and their family is very important and this approach was much needed in South Florida.
What is the role of technology in home healthcare and how is that improving patient care?
Florida has been seen as a place to retire and sit by the beach but things have evolved, especially in tech. The most innovative clinical cancer trials are happening in Miami and throughout the state of Florida. For example, patients are traveling to Miami for proton beam radiation. There are children undergoing cancer care who are receiving this treatment who come from all over Latin America. The significant clinical research opportunities are attracting talent to our area and Miami is attracting extraordinary scientific talent and patients. This will lead to a lot of growth for ALC by default. We had to accelerate technological implementation through the pandemic. We have nurse supervisors who work remotely, which is something we have not done before. We had to move to more digital documents from paper documents to stop viruses and other infection control methods. Technology helps us to be more efficient, which helps us to better treat our patients.
What services are most in demand right now and what makes ALC stand out compared to other healthcare providers?
Patients want a higher comfort level for their care. When my daughter was going through cancer treatment, we went to a hospital in New York City. They have a well-established Pediatric Home Healthcare industry there but it is still something somewhat new in Miami. I learned this through something very personal to me and that made me want to excel in the world of home healthcare and in particular Pediatric Home Health subspecialty. Patients expect good communication and we excel at that whether it is an adult or Pediatric case. If patients need their treatment changed, we do that quickly and responsively.
Most importantly, we take care of patients in an efficient and compassionate way. We measure our success on how quickly nurses can have their actual boots on the ground, or better yet: “Boots in the house.” Our time is generally 24-48 hours to when a patient is referred to when a nurse is physically seeing the patient in their home. It brings a level of comfort when that nurse arrives and they can start treatment. Also, we have strategic partnerships that help us do things that are more complex. We are one of the few agencies in Miami that provides chemotherapy to adults and children at home. We have a skilled IV team and we do central line placement and removal, which is usually reserved for institutions. We partner with a mobile X-ray team and meet them in their home and do this in a way that avoids infection. We also coordinate home doctor visits, medical equipment delivery and more. It isn’t easy to get a medically fragile patient to the car and wait in the waiting room. It can be exhausting and sometimes inadvertently exposes patients to the possibility of infection. We can do all these things while you wait at home. That is an extraordinary feeling. I am proud and grateful to be a part of it.
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