What Does It Take to Manage a Personal Care Home?

Last Updated September 24, 2018

A personal care home can be ideal for elderly clients who don’t yet require a nursing home but do need assistance with some or all of their day-to-day tasks. Personal care homes also tend to be less expensive than assisted living facilities, so they’re an option for clients with less money to spend.

Clients, or their families or caregivers, seek out care homes for a variety of reasons. Clients may no longer feel comfortable living independently because they fear falling, illness, failing memory, loneliness or because daily tasks are starting to tax them physically and mentally.

Understanding these and other issues related to aging is essential to successfully managing a personal care home with elderly residents.

Of course, some managerial skills are constant in any setting. Among these are:

Human Resources: Care home managers have to make sure that the home’s staff is well-qualified. Therefore, administrators must be able to recruit and interview well, and must be confident about the qualifications necessary to handle each position being filled.

Financial Management: Budgeting is essential for any organization, and care home administrators must be able to read financial statements, forecast revenue and expenses, and analyze costs and benefits for new programs and policies.

Relationships and Communication: Care home administrators must be able to communicate with clients, staff and medical professionals, as well as families of clients and outside agencies which may be involve with a client’s care. Each situation requires particular skills and knowledge on the part of the manager to convey and process information crucial to the well- being of clients and the home itself.

Personal Accountability: Care home administrators must maintain standards of ethics personally as well as demanding it of staff. Administrators are ultimately responsible for all policies and decisions made on behalf of the home.

Personal care home administrators don’t necessarily have to come from a healthcare background.

“I don’t think you have to come from a caring background but you do need to have experience of working with and managing people,” Philip Nightingale told The Guardian. Nightingale, a former banker, manages a care home in England.

However, administrators will have to familiarize themselves with basics of caregiving in order to properly supervise caregiving staff or in case the manager is called on to administer care in an emergency.

Duties specific to care home administrators include:

Being familiar with all clients and their individual needs and conditions, including conferring frequently with medical personnel and home staff members

Being open to whistleblowers on staff

Making sure all staff members are up-to-date with necessary and/or required training

Ensuring all aspects of the care home are in compliance with state regulations.

Earning a Master’s Degree in Healthcare Administration from Valparaiso University, with a specialty in Gerontology or Leadership, is an excellent way to transition into a career as a personal care home manager. Both programs are available 100% online. For more information, go to https://www.valpoonline.com/programs/masters-degree/ms-healthcare-administration/.