Starting a Private nursing business in the future

[Brendon]

So I have been thinking of entrepreneur ideas for a while now and one that sounded interesting was starting a private in-home nursing company. How hard do you think this would be to do? The market will be booming in 3 years with the babyboomer generation getting older. I will have my RN (Registered Nurse) in one year and would probably need to get some experience, but it would be cool and maybe financially rewarding to do this in my near future. what do you guys think of this as a startup idea?

 

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[SarahSH]

I think that could be a very lucrative market, especially if you were able to hire out most of the work to other nurses and act as overseer for your operation. My friend's husband's grandpa are staying in an assisted living "house" and it is staffed by a nurse but the living arrangement is more like living in a home where he has his own room and use of the rest of the house...It is a pretty interesting setup, complete with necessary care and very few residents.

 

[Rcaraway1989]

Have you researched this? My ex was a nurse: the medical industry, particularly nursing startups, have lots of antique regulations on them. Some of them are being deregulated, but you'd do yourself well to research the law surrounding it.

Good luck though Brendon.

 

[Brendon]

that would be the goal- to get other nurses slowly on-board until i dont have to do any of the actual nursing related work and just running of the operation and company. it would be nice to have that nursing background to help with the nursing part if needed. in-home health care i feel like is going to become more popular; especially to the people with $... living in a nursing home sucks compared to living at home

 

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[Brendon]

Have you researched this? My ex was a nurse: the medical industry, particularly nursing startups, have lots of antique regulations on them. Some of them are being deregulated, but you'd do yourself well to research the law surrounding it.

Good luck though Brendon.

I havent researched the regulations yet, but yeah i am sure there are some regulations i would guess the insurance would be pretty high for a business like this also

 

[SarahSH]

I think you are right about in home health care. This taps into people's desire to remain independent and the stigma of fear surrounding nursing home living. You could tier your service and have different levels of care starting with in-home, and ending with in-patient/ hospice - or just add hospice into your services. When my grandma passed away, she lived at home until the last day (my Mom and Aunt are both nurses and lived in her same neighborhood) Hospice was such a blessing during those last few weeks and it is an insurance-covered service for the most part (if you have good insurance) The regulations are good - those are barriers to entry that would keep many people out but since others are in this business, it means the barriers are not insurmountable.

 

[Mike.B]

Having had first hand experience with these type of companies, I would say if you can compensate your nurses and aids well enough to keep your turnover low and provide excellent care you should be able to do really well.

I've had the displeasure of using five of these companies in Ohio, and in every case the care was absolutely horrendous. The quality of the help was just a bit better than you would find in a fast food environment. The aids and nurses all complained about the low wages and long hours. Some of them actually stole items from the house, and some never showed up when they were scheduled to.

Just a note: all of the nurses were either LVN's or LPN's. I never saw an RN even though most of the companies say they have them on staff.

In Ohio a typical medicaid patient qualifies for 8 hours/day nursing, aide and therapy services combined, up to 14 hours/week for nursing and aide services; up to 28 hours/week nursing and aide services combined for post-hospital care if criteria is met. I know most states regulations are different, so this might be something else to look at when considering this type of business.

My .02

 

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[mikekob]

There's tons. We had a lpn stay with my grandma during her last few weeks this year. Nurses were decent. I agree with the previous post regarding compensation and a lower turnover rate. You could cater to the wealthy and pay better/have much better staff. That is my biggest issue coming from the medical field.

Whatever you do, make sure those nurses don't call 911 then leave before the medics get there. Biggest pain in my a$$.

 

[Iwokeup]

There's tons. We had a lpn stay with my grandma during her last few weeks this year. Nurses were decent. I agree with the previous post regarding compensation and a lower turnover rate. You could cater to the wealthy and pay better/have much better staff. That is my biggest issue coming from the medical field.

Whatever you do, make sure those nurses don't call 911 then leave before the medics get there. Biggest pain in my a$$.

What Mikekob said. I cannot tell you how many awful/less than stellar home health care workers there are, and when they F* up they usually end up in my Emergency Room. OTOH, when they're awesome quality then it clearly shows.

So OP, here's a USP: we're so good (our home health peeps) that we reduce the likelihood of ED visits and improve overall health and quality of life.

 

[mikekob]

Damn dude that looks like you pulled it straight from the Ultimate Sales Machine. Strong work man!!

OP if you're looking for more of an investment you could explore owning a residential care facility. Alzheimer's patients are a huge risk to have at home and most nursing homes suck. I worked with a nurse who bought a house and did a home based assisted living and made a killing. Plus you get real estate too.

 

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[jazb]

Duncan Bannatyne - Anyone can do it -my story


Read that book. About one of the guys on Dragons den who ran an ice cream business and built a nursing home with no experience/knowledge. had to pay 20k every 6 weeks for the builders. sold everything. worked in the end. built 20 and sold for the equiv of ~100 million in todays money

 

[Iwokeup]

Damn dude that looks like you pulled it straight from the Ultimate Sales Machine. Strong work man!!

OP if you're looking for more of an investment you could explore owning a residential care facility. Alzheimer's patients are a huge risk to have at home and most nursing homes suck. I worked with a nurse who bought a house and did a home based assisted living and made a killing. Plus you get real estate too.

Yep. Been dipping back into that well over and over again. It's really and truly amazing.

Sad that he died of leukemia. Sounds like he lived life to the fullest, though.

 

[throttleforward]

The sad reality is that nursing homes are evaluated by the feds (CMS) in part on the number of times they call 911/have medical emergencies (poor performing nursing homes may lose their ability to bill medicare, expose themselves to audits, and may lose their state certifications to operate).

Thus, nursing homes do everything they can to keep that number as low as possible. How do they get around this? By calling a private ambulance to pick up patients who should be treated and transported immediately, often at the detriment of the patient (think patient experiencing stokes, heart attacks, unconsciousness, etc waiting over an hour for a private ambulance). I know because I used to work as an EMT for one. Of course, the owners were millionaires. Needless to say I didn't last that long at that company, for this and a number of other fraudulent business and clinical practices.

 

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[Iwokeup]

The sad reality is that nursing homes are evaluated by the feds (CMS) in part on the number of times they call 911/have medical emergencies (poor performing nursing homes may lose their ability to bill medicare, expose themselves to audits, and may lose their state certifications to operate).

Thus, nursing homes do everything they can to keep that number as low as possible. How do they get around this? By calling a private ambulance to pick up patients who should be treated and transported immediately, often at the detriment of the patient (think patient experiencing stokes, heart attacks, unconsciousness, etc waiting over an hour for a private ambulance). I know because I used to work as an EMT for one. Of course, the owners were millionaires. Needless to say I didn't last that long at that company, for this and a number of other fraudulent business and clinical practices.

Noooo kidding? That explains so many things....

 

[throttleforward]

Noooo kidding? That explains so many things....

Ummhmm - just the tip of the BS iceberg from the EMS side of the house

 

[Iwokeup]

I need to buy you and @mikekob multiple rounds sometime and y'all can educate the poor ole dumb doc.

Deal?

 

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[throttleforward]

I need to buy you and @mikekob multiple rounds sometime and y'all can educate the poor ole dumb doc.

Deal?

See you at B&P then

OP - I've done some work with at-home nursing care companies. The regulations at the state and federal levels are complex. My recommendation would be to work in the field for a year or two to get a feel for the clinical side, and then try to get exposure to the operations side if you can. Learn a skill like copywriting/marketing and offer to do some side projects for your company (improve their ads, customer retention, quality assurance, etc.)

 

[Iwokeup]

See you at B&P then

It's a deal

 

[mikekob]

Ha ha I'm in.

I haven't heard about whether or not they get a bad mark or less funding or whatever when they call 911. I worked for a private and we were at homes all the time. Now I work for a 911 only provider and we still go just as much. Usually we go for BS 98% of the time. But we aren't evaluating how broken the healthcare system is here, just how lucrative they are.

 

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[newzzy2]

mikekob, and how's it goin for nowadays? Do you think there is a need in purchasing some specialized stuff, clothes and shoes for nurses, who would work in such nursing facilities? I could get here some useful and special info about nursing shoes, which my partner purchased in the large amount of items. For now, about getting them as well, because they become more and more popular as a basic footwear for different types of people.