Four factors found in the Home Care Cooperative, an institution owned and directed by workers, can promote improved quality of care for patients and also lead to improved outcomes for traditional institutions.
These factors inherent in home care cooperatives include being a co-owner, the selective employment process that develops teams of high-performance workers, and the increased motivation that arises from workers taking part in care plans and access to high-quality training programs.
“The expansion of the home care cooperative model and the adoption of traditional institutional cooperative practices can contribute to a significant improvement in the quality of home care and benefit both care recipients and the broader healthcare system.”
As part of the study, the researchers conducted 32 interviews with home care workers and staff at five home care cooperatives.
Researchers at UCLA explained that despite high demand for home care services, these workers are often marginalized within the broader healthcare environment. Specifically, home care workers receive limited training on inconsistent standards.
Additionally, home care workers often deal with irregular hours, limited benefits and low wages, which leads to high turnover. All of these alienation where home care workers face shocking quality of care.
However, home cooperatives are trying to reduce many of these alienations. Home care cooperatives will allow workers to share benefits and participate in decision-making, researchers noted.
There are currently 14 home care cooperatives across the United States. These home care agencies employ more than 2,000 home care workers.
“This (home caregiver)-centric model achieved half of the higher wages and turnover rates of traditional home care institutions,” the researchers wrote. “Several case studies suggest that cooperatives have achieved very high levels of quality of care.
One important contributor to improving the quality of care was the involvement of home care workers in patient care decisions. These workers also draw more motivation from being co-owners, researchers said they are contributing to improving the quality of care.
Choosing a caregiver can also help improve the quality of care. According to the report, workers at home care cooperatives tend to be more passionate about mission-driven work.
Additionally, home care cooperatives offer capacity building opportunities such as formal training and peer mentoring that will help improve the quality of care.
“The enhanced care practices identified by participants represent testable interventions with the potential to significantly improve the quality of care across the home care sector,” Gasov said.
