For home healthcare organizations, achieving high quality scores isn’t just another accolade, it’s a powerful business differentiator and a critical driver of long term sustainability. The path to becoming a five-star organization begins with building workflows where quality is visible, measurable, and consistently actionable. Across the care at home industry, high-performing organizations have shown that with the right technology partner, it’s possible to transform quality performance and elevate the business to five-star status.

Axxess’ integrated workflows, reporting tools and real-time insights are designed precisely for that purpose, giving organizations the ability to improve quality scores faster, more consistently, and more sustainably.

Turning Data Into Quality Action

One of the biggest barriers to quality improvement is the gap between data and action. Many organizations have the data, but not the clarity or operational workflow support needed to use it effectively and turn it into meaningful action.

For Professional Home Care Associates (PHCA), an organization with a census of more than 160 patients and who recently advanced from a four-star Home Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HHCAHPS) survey rating to achieving consistent five-star ratings, the ability to turn data into action was a key component to their success.

“Axxess helped us move from intuition to precision,” said PHCA Administrator Mary Rice. “The Axxess ecosystem gives us access to the right insights at the right time, and the partnership ensures we know how to act on them.”

Through the Axxess CAHPS Portal, Axxess PDGM Center, and Axxess Business Intelligence dashboards, PHCA increased their visibility into communication trends, timeliness of care and the overall patient experience. Instead of waiting for quarterly reports, they used Axxess’ reporting tools to see immediate results.

“Axxess’ clear reporting tools and consistent support enabled PHCA to educate staff more effectively, quickly address documentation challenges, and build a culture of continuous improvement,” said Rice.

This shift from reactive to proactive was foundational in their approach to obtaining five-star status and earned them the Excellence in Patient Care Award at AGILE 2026.

Real-Time Quality Oversight Across Every Branch

For organizations with multiple locations, achieving consistent quality across the entire organization can often feel out of reach, but with the right partner, quality oversight becomes not only possible, it becomes scalable and sustainable across dozens of locations.

Interim HealthCare Great Lakes, an organization with 43 locations across five states, developing strategies to unify their quality oversight was critical to their success.

“Our quality leadership relied heavily on the QAPI Executive Dashboard because it consolidates everything—clinical indicators, operational trends, and quality measures—into one central, easy-to-interpret view,” said Interim HealthCare Great Lakes Owner and CEO Steven Alessandro.

“Similarly, the Axxess CAHPS Portal helped us overcome the challenge of delayed or limited insight into patient feedback,” said Alessandro.

Interim HealthCare Great Lakes’ increased visibility enabled them to sustain strong value-based purchasing (VBP) performance and high CAHPS scores across multiple states and service lines. This level of consistency ultimately earned them the Culture of Integrity Award at AGILE 2026, demonstrating that when quality is visible, it becomes more manageable and can lead to lasting success.

A Five-Star Future Starts With the Right Partner

When organizations have the right tools, delivering exceptional care becomes a reliable standard rather than an aspirational goal. With the Axxess platform, organizations gain the clarity and structure needed to consistently achieve and sustain five-star performance.

To learn more about the Axxess ecosystem, click here.

Coordinating care in the home has long required providers to juggle multiple tools, systems and communication channels. Axxess began transforming that experience with Axxess Connect and Axxess Central, two powerful solutions designed to streamline collaboration, simplify scheduling and strengthen real-time communication across care teams.

Sonya Sobush, Vice President of Product at Axxess, shared feature updates and provided insight into upcoming features that will continue to elevate the care coordination experience.

Mobile Clinician Productivity Enhancements in Axxess Connect and Axxess Central

Sobush noted that both Axxess Connect and Axxess Central have evolved significantly on mobile, with one of the most meaningful updates being the mobile clinician planner, which brings the full functionality of the web based planner directly into the mobile experience.

“We’ve taken the planner that’s on web and have added it to our Axxess Central mobile app,” Sobush said. “It provides clinicians a real time view of scheduled visits, alerts, emails and past due items directly from their mobile device.”

Messaging capabilities have also expanded. Through Axxess Connect, users can engage in one on one chats, group conversations and calls, and now, they have the added ability to bring additional users into a call when needed.

“We’ve recently added the ability to add users to a call,” Sobush said. “This enables faster collaboration between clinicians, supervisors, office staff, all within our HIPAA compliant messaging solution, on web and mobile.”

Further streamlining the mobile experience, Axxess Connect now supports biometric login, reducing friction for clinicians who need quick, secure access throughout the day.

“This provides an additional layer of security within the mobile app, while streamlining the workflow of getting in and using the mobile app,” Sobush said.

Expanding Axxess Connect With Family Portal Messaging Capabilities

A major upcoming enhancement Sobush highlighted is bi-directional communication with the family portal, enabling seamless conversations between office staff, patients and their families. This feature will reduce phone calls, improve response times and strengthen transparency. Families will be able to ask about scheduling, patient care questions and billing, and staff can respond quickly, all within a secure, centralized platform.

“It extends the power of Axxess Connect to the family portal,” Sobush said. “Instead of managing phone calls this allows office staff to enhance productivity, by being able to quickly communicate back and forth via Axxess Connect to patients and their family members.”

Axxess Central Enhancements for Intelligent Scheduling and Workflow Management

Sobush noted that Axxess Central continues to evolve as the command hub for intake, scheduling and operational oversight. Recent updates include smarter scheduling tools, such as the ability to find nearby employees for unassigned visits, reducing travel time and improving coverage.

“We’ve added the ability to find nearby employees for unassigned visits, which helps schedulers quickly identify the closest qualified clinician, reducing travel time and improving visit coverage,” Sobush said.

Sobush also highlighted that Axxess Central now supports drag and drop visit rescheduling, sticky notes for visit level communication and enhanced EVV visibility, all designed to simplify workflows and reduce administrative burden, and solidifying Axxess Central as the unified platform for organizations managing multiple service lines or locations.

As these capabilities continue to expand, organizations can look forward to more efficient workflows, stronger communication and better outcomes across the entire care continuum.

Discover how Axxess Connect and Axxess Central can transform your operations and unify your care team.

More than 63 million Americans serve as family caregivers, playing a vital role in safeguarding the health, dignity and quality of life of the people they support. Their care enables individuals to remain safely at home, easing the strain on the healthcare system while providing essential emotional stability and empathy.

Whether professional or informal, caregivers ensure the continuity of care that is essential for managing chronic conditions. Their contributions are not just meaningful, but invaluable to the healthcare ecosystem. Recognizing this importance, Axxess created Caregiver University as part of the Axxess Training and Certification Program. This free educational resource equips both professional and family caregivers with the knowledge, tools and confidence they need to deliver high-quality care in the home.

What is Caregiver University?

Caregiver University includes more than 50 courses focused on practical, non medical skills that make a meaningful difference in everyday caregiving.

“From day one, [Caregiver University] has really been looked at as a give-back to the industry, because it really fills a void that just doesn’t exist,” said Mike Carr, Senior Director of Training and Education at Axxess.

The curriculum covers a wide range of topics, from post-hospital care essentials and understanding Medicare to managing burnout, setting healthy boundaries and navigating complex family dynamics.

“The courses cover everything from estate planning to denture care,” said Carr. “It’s really trying to help those individuals who didn’t necessarily choose to be caregivers, know how to navigate the system.”

Caregiver University distinguishes itself from similar programs and resources by providing professionally developed content that is intentionally designed to be engaging and interactive to its users.

“It’s created by nurses and therapists who’ve provided skilled care and a lot of patient-family education,” Carr said. “We’ve put all that into a more engaging format.”

Improving Outcomes

For organizations focused on reducing hospital readmissions and improving patient outcomes, Caregiver University serves as a valuable resource to share with family members who take on caregiving responsibilities. In equipping these caregivers with the skills to recognize early changes in condition and respond appropriately, the training program helps prevent avoidable escalations that often lead to emergency visits or rehospitalizations.

“We have trainings on identifying changes in conditions, so that the caregiver isn’t waiting for the nurse to come back in say three days,” said Carr. “They’ll be a little more in tune to what things are supposed to look like and that will help with readmissions and also just the overall comfort of the caregiver.”

This education and heightened awareness not only boosts caregiver confidence but also supports the operational and clinical goals that matter most to care at home organizations.

Ultimately, in empowering caregivers with practical skills and confidence, Caregiver University strengthens the care at home industry. Organizations that embrace this resource not only support the caregivers they rely on, but also position themselves to deliver safer, more consistent care and achieve the improved outcomes today’s healthcare landscape demands.

To learn more about the Axxess Training and Certification platform, click here.

Axxess is proud to celebrate the people behind the mission: leaders whose work not only drives innovation, but meaningfully improves care delivery. As part of our commitment to recognizing excellence, we’re launching a recurring spotlight series featuring Axxessians whose work is shaping the future of care at home.

This month, we’re honored to highlight Raianne Melton, recipient of a McKnight’s Pinnacle Award, whose work reflects a deep, sustained commitment to inclusive hiring practices, empathetic leadership, and expanding access to care, both locally and across the globe.

We sat down with Raianne to talk about the leadership principles that guide her work, what inclusive hiring truly looks like in care at home, and why equity in healthcare starts with investing in the people who deliver it.

Q: Inclusive hiring was a key theme in your Pinnacle Award submission. What drives that commitment for you, and why do you feel it’s essential for the broader care at home industry?

Raianne:
Care at home is incredibly personal. We’re entering people’s homes during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. If our workforce doesn’t reflect the diversity of the communities we serve, or if people don’t feel valued and supported in their roles, we’re falling short before care even begins.

Inclusive hiring isn’t just about checking boxes. It’s about widening the door to people with different lived experiences, perspectives, cultural competencies, and strengths, and then creating an environment where they can truly thrive.

Takeaway:
Inclusive hiring strengthens trust, cultural competence, and continuity of care, all of which directly impact patient and family experiences.

Q: What does empathetic leadership look like in practice, especially in hospice and home-based care?

Raianne:
Empathetic leadership starts with listening. Our clinicians and staff carry emotional weight every day. Leaders have a responsibility to acknowledge that, not minimize it. Practically, that means building flexibility into schedules, encouraging open dialogue, and recognizing that work-life balance isn’t a “nice to have” in healthcare; it’s essential to sustainability.

Takeaway:
Empathy at the leadership level creates psychological safety, reduces burnout, and helps teams stay engaged long-term.

Q: You’ve spoken about improving work-life balance as part of clinician retention. Where do organizations often get this wrong?

Raianne:
Too often, we frame resilience as an individual responsibility instead of a system-level one. We tell clinicians to “take care of themselves” while giving them workloads that make that impossible.

Real balance comes from designing workflows, staffing models, and support systems that acknowledge the realities of hospice care, emotionally, physically, and logistically.

Takeaway:
Retention strategies are most effective when organizations address structural pressures, not just self-care initiatives.

Q: Beyond your work at Axxess, your volunteer efforts with Hope 4 Kids International span nearly two decades. How has that shaped your perspective?

Raianne:
Serving as a volunteer nurse and medical team lead in Uganda fundamentally shaped how I view access to care. Setting up clinics in remote areas with limited resources forces you to strip healthcare down to its core: compassion, creativity, and respect. Those experiences reminded me that equity isn’t theoretical. It’s about meeting people where they are and designing systems that don’t leave anyone behind.

Takeaway:
Global health outreach reinforces the universal need for equitable, human-centered care, regardless of geography or resources.

Q: As organizations look to diversify the hospice care talent pipeline, where should they start?

Raianne:
We have to look earlier and broader, partnering with schools, community organizations, and non-traditional pathways into healthcare. And once people are hired, leadership development matters just as much as recruitment.

Creating clear pathways for growth ensures that diversity exists not only at entry levels, but throughout leadership.

Takeaway:
Sustainable diversity efforts focus on recruitment and advancement, not one without the other.

Final Reflection

Melton’s Pinnacle Award recognizes more than individual achievement; it reflects a leadership philosophy rooted in empathy, inclusion, and global perspective. Her work reminds us that advancing care at home isn’t only about technology or policy; it’s about people, culture, and intentional leadership.

As we continue this spotlight series, we’ll keep celebrating Axxessians who are shaping the future of healthcare in meaningful, human-centered ways.

The Axxess Training and Certification+ platform advances equitable care through training courses on DEI and belonging, implicit bias awareness, cultural diversity and more. Click here for additional information.

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape the healthcare industry, providers must address workforce shortages, compliance requirements and tightening margins. To gain insight into how organizations are preparing for these changes, Axxess partnered with Claim Health, DecisionHealth, MAC Legacy, nVoq, and QAPIplus to create the 2026 Axxess Industry Growth Insights Report.

Through a survey, home health, hospice, palliative care and home care leaders shared where they see opportunity, where they see risk and the strategies organizations can use to meet the challenges ahead. The full report can be downloaded here.

Workforce Optimization

Recruitment and retention top the list of challenges for 62.5% of providers heading into 2026, followed by 43.8% struggling with training and upskilling and 28% addressing burnout and mental health concerns. Top strategies include incentives and bonuses, flexible scheduling and technology-driven training.

“Technology-enabled training and AI-enhanced workflows reduce administrative burden, prevent burnout and allow clinicians to operate at the top of their license,” said Raianne Melton, Senior Director of Clinical Services at Axxess.

Regulatory Readiness

Only 18.8% of respondents feel very prepared for upcoming regulatory challenges. Top concerns include changes to the reimbursement model, audit and compliance burdens and quality reporting requirements.

“The partnership between AI and human oversight creates a more agile, proactive regulatory model,” said Christina Andrews, Associate Vice President of Professional Services Partnerships at Axxess. “Real-time tracking and documentation intelligence help agencies reduce risk and improve audit readiness.”

Financial Sustainability

With 59.4% of respondents identifying reimbursement changes as the top barrier to growth, providers are diversifying strategies: 37.5% are pursuing geographic expansion, 34.4% exploring new service areas and 31.3% adapting to value-based care models.

“AI and automation of intake, scheduling, and revenue cycle management allow agencies to scale sustainably without inflating overhead,” explained Andrews.

AI Opportunity

Despite concerns, providers see potential: 54.7% believe AI will drive personalized care, 46.9% see opportunity in chronic disease management and 37.5% are excited about remote monitoring integration.

“AI transforms documentation from a burden into a tool for early risk identification and quality intervention,” emphasized Melton.

Actions for Healthcare Leaders

• Build the Foundation First: Clean up workflows and establish governance before implementing AI.

• Start With High-Impact Use Cases: Focus on chart audits, intake verification, documentation support and scheduling where return on investment (ROI) is clear and risk is low.

• Invest in Your People: Prioritize structured onboarding, continuous training and tools that reduce administrative burden.

• Make Quality Continuous: Move from quarterly compliance to real-time monitoring using AI to identify patterns early and build feedback loops.

• Take a Strategic Approach to Growth: Fix front-end processes, automate administrative tasks, and focus on margin improvement, not just revenue growth.

Download the full report to explore detailed findings, partner perspectives and actionable strategies for success.

Axxess, an ecosystem of cloud-based enterprise software platforms, helps streamline operations and grow care at home organizations.

In an era of market contraction, care at home providers face mounting challenges. Regulatory hurdles, reimbursement pressures, staffing shortages, increased competition, and market saturation are converging to shrink referral pipelines and strain operational capacity. Thriving in this environment demands innovation, adaptability, and strategic execution.

At the 2025 Axxess Growth, Innovation and Leadership Experience (AGILE), Momentum HT Consulting Founder and CEO Kristen Duell and Corcoran Consulting Group President and CEO Guy Tommasi led an education session focused on how organizations can navigate these pressures while positioning themselves for sustainable growth. Below are their takeaways.

Service Line Diversification

As traditional referral sources shift and reimbursement models evolve, expanding and integrating service lines has become a critical strategy for growth. Tommasi emphasized the need to rethink legacy approaches and embrace new opportunities.

“[Service line diversification is] one of the things that we really need to embrace more and more,” he said. “We have to do better at connecting the dots in the different services that are offered.”

While home care organizations have historically avoided providing medical care, considering it misaligned with their nonmedical model, Tommasi shared that reevaluating this stance can reveal valuable opportunities that organizations are leaving on the table.

“Our home care agency was involved in a hospital at home program and the rewards were phenomenal,” he said. “We became the provider of choice and an employer of choice, and everything that our caregivers were doing was ADL-related.”

By staying open to new models of care and looking beyond labels, Tommasi said providers can uncover programs that align with their capabilities, open the door to growth, and benefit both the organization and its clients.

“When we look at diversity of programs, always go in with the mindset that just because it may say clinical, nonclinical, ADL, companion, don’t dismiss it because it sounds like ‘X,’” he said. “If you peel back that onion, you’re going to realize, ‘Wait a minute. We can both benefit from this.’”

Recruitment and Retention

As organizations diversify service lines and expand their care models, the ability to attract and retain staff becomes even more critical. Duell said addressing this challenge starts with how organizations support their teams.

“It boils down to … you’ve got to treat your people better,” she said. “Lift them up and give them opportunity and create a culture of care within your organization.”

Tommasi reinforced the value of a flexible, employee-driven culture, citing an agency owner who tailors support to employee needs, from offering instant access to wages to providing a rideshare account for caregivers needing transportation. These accommodations have boosted retention and service delivery without significantly increasing costs.

Marketing, Visibility, and Digital Trust

In a crowded and commoditized market, perception is power. Duell urged leaders to critically assess their digital presence to ensure clear and compelling communication of their organizational narrative.

“When I did a quick search just in this surrounding area, which Dallas is pretty large, every single one of the agencies comes across absolutely the same right now,” she said.

To stand out among competitors, she encouraged organizations to incorporate their unique origin story in their digital messaging and implement visual storytelling through photo and video content.

She underscored the importance of driving, monitoring, and responding to online reviews, recognizing them as a critical factor in shaping public perception and influencing buyer behavior.

“If you can do one thing really well to increase your footprint and visibility, it is going to hands-down be driving reviews and responding to those reviews,” Duell said. “That’s the type of stuff that’s really going to make sure that you are rising to the top with all these different changes that are happening.”

Technology and Operational Strategy

While digital storytelling builds trust externally, operational performance must back it up. In a shrinking market, where differentiation is increasingly difficult, technology becomes a lever to achieve optimal efficiency, demonstrate value, and cultivate stronger, more resilient partnerships.

Tommasi pointed to data as the key differentiator in competitive positioning.

“Data is what separates you from the pack,” he said. “The days of ‘I really like him,’ ‘I really like her,’ ‘I love their agency,’ are changing, so you need to look at how you can take that data and how you can establish the partnerships that are so critical in moving forward.”

He outlined four essential metrics that every organization should be able to report: rehospitalization rates, functional outcomes, and patient and caregiver satisfaction.

“Why?” Tommasi asked. “Because every one of those impacts every stakeholder.”

Duell added that technology should support care delivery, not complicate it.

“Choose technology that disappears like magic,” she said. “What I mean by that is it shouldn’t be the primary focus of your clinicians. Technology should not be at the forefront of every caregiver. You should be using technology that makes it easier for them.”

The right technology tools support staff, streamline workflows, improve data capture, and facilitate the reporting of meaningful outcomes.

Together these insights highlight a unified strategy where service line diversification, staff empowerment, digital trust, and the effective use of technology and data align to drive sustainable growth in home-based care.

Join us at AGILE 2026, May 4-6 in Dallas, to explore the strategies, technologies, and partnerships shaping the future of care at home. Click here to register.