After helping to care for nursing home patients for years, Sandra Sergeant developed an interest in providing specialized services for people who want an alternative to assisted living.
So the Trinidad native parlayed her experiences into what has become the eighth largest women-owned business in the state and one of the fastest-growing home health care agencies in Greater Hartford.
Enfield-based Caring Solutions, which Sergeant launched in 2000, has provided in-home services like companionship, bathing, dressing, meal preparation, and other daily assistance to more than 1,000 clients.
The company has experienced significant growth, thanks to an aging population that is increasingly demanding care in their own home. Caring Solutions is now a multi-million dollar firm with 80 employees. Sergeant said she expects double-digit growth over the next few years.
Long term, the future also looks bright for the home care industry, with an aging population of Americans 65 and older that is expected to double to more than 43 million people by 2040, according to the National Council on Aging.
“A tsunami of change is occurring in the healthcare industry,” said Sergeant. “In the next decade, more than 1 million home healthcare professionals will be needed to accommodate the aging U.S. population.”
Sergeant said the future of the home healthcare industry is at stake amid unprecedented demand, and rising financial constraints from Baby Boomers.
Most aging Americans, she said, are not prepared to meet the skyrocketing costs associated with increasing healthcare needs.
The average estimated cost for nursing home care runs about $373 per day, per patient in the Hartford region, according to the 2012 MetLife Mature Market Institute study on aging. The fees for home healthcare services cost about half that, says Sergeant, ranging anywhere from $75 to $200 per day.
In 2008, the median annual rate for a private nursing home room was $67,525 per patient, compared with the 2013 median annual rate of $83,950, according to the Genworth 2013 Cost of Care survey.
That means Americans can expect to pay approximately $16,425 more per year today for a nursing home than they had to pay in 2008, the Genworth survey found.
In comparison, the national hourly rate for home healthcare workers has crept up slowly since 2008, from $18.50 per hour to $19 today, the Genworth survey said.
Home care rates have remained flat in part because of increased competition among agencies and the availability of unskilled labor, and because companies that provide these types of services do not incur the costs associated with maintaining long-term nursing facilities.
“There are many home healthcare providers in Connecticut, and so I knew it was important to find a niche to help distinguish Caring Solutions from other agencies,” said Sergeant, who moved to the U.S. in 1986 when she was 29 years old.
Over the past few years, Sergeant has added new services, shuttered two offices and streamlined her operations. Most recently, she revamped her website to be more interactive and social.
Her patients can select specific services based on what they need, from respite care to birthday party planning.
“Whether it’s healthcare or any other business, you have to always be two steps ahead, looking at what your customers need and want,” she said. “Companies that die are usually the ones that refuse to evolve. They are blindsided by industry changes and can’t adapt quickly enough.”
Sergeant, the author of “Five Ways to Pay for Home Healthcare,” is also the founder and chairperson of the New England Home Healthcare Consortium.
The consortium, which educates industry professionals about relevant trends, will hold its first annual summit November 3-5 at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket.
A panel of experts and industry leaders will address future challenges home healthcare businesses face, and discuss how the industry will grapple with things like Obamacare, the needs of the Baby Boomer generation and complex, evolving technology.
Expert speakers will include Susan Reinhard, senior vice president of AARP and Greg Wellems, CEO of Imagine!, a Colorado-based company that develops SmartHomes, which serve as a model for the future of care for people with cognitive disabilities and related conditions.
“One of the greatest challenges facing aging adults will be receiving services and supports that enable them to continue to live a quality and meaningful life in environments of their own choosing,” Wellems said. “This challenge manifests by both the changing physical and emotional needs of the individual and or the inability to find caregivers.”
