CaringForward

You Can't Undo the First Impression You Make When Admitting a Patient to Your SNF

"We need our admissions coordinators to act as salespeople, and focus less on administrative stuff. Folks going home happy is the best marketing ever." So said one of our SNF clients the other day.

And what's an excellent predictor of leaving a skilled nursing facility happy? Arriving happy.

As Patty Cisco points out in this blog post, skilled nursing facilities should consider how memorable they're making the admissions experience for patients and their families. She aptly observes: "The admission process sets the stage for what the customer perceives they will expect from the duration of their stay or service from you."

She goes on to provide some valuable guidelines for the admissions experience, advising nursing homes to have a documented admissions process, communicate openly and make the experience personal and memorable.

Great advice, but how do nursing home admissions directors shift away from administration and focus on sales and relationship building with patients and families? By automating their SNF marketing and admissions processes (we're biased toward automating with the industry leading Web-based Referral Mangement System, but that's just us).

As noted in this client marketing and census success story with 27-SNF provider Greystone Healthcare Management: "Greystone also indicates that improved efficiency enables admission coordinators to focus more on exceptional customer service, such as greeting patients and families, pre-registering patients, and ensuring that rooms are ready well in advance of admissions."

Thursday Roundup: ACOs and Long-Term Care, Movie Night for Nursing Homes, and the Tasty Sandwich Generation

Too long between blog posts, so here are some interesting things in the world of skilled nursing and long-term care worth sharing today:

• Mark Parkinson, CEO of AHCA, advises skilled nursing providers to start strengthening those hospital relationships in anticipation of accountable care organizations (ACOs). Even if ACOs never materialize. “Whether they are developed or not, I think there is a logic to episodic bundled payment.”
• More on ACOs and post-acute care: The Commonwealth Fund Commission publishes recommendation for encouraging the establishment of ACOs, and another group thinks ACOs would shortchange medically underserved communities.
• And in non-ACO news for nursing homes: Cook up that popcorn! Nursing homes can screen movies without paying MPLC license fees (and other LTC facilities get discounted rates). Nicely done by AHCA and LeadingAge to broker the deal.
• At first, I was excited to find out that I was part of the "sandwich generation," because it sounded delicious. Then I realized it's a bit more complicated. How people are coping to care for the generations before and after them.

Coverage Roundup of New ACO Rule: What Does it All Mean for SNFs and Long-Term Care?

As you probably know, CMS issued the initial rule for establishing accountable care organizations (ACOs), and it's a whopper at 429 pages. CMS issued the rule (“Medicare Shared Savings Program: Accountable Care Organizations”) on March 31, and opened a 60-day comment period. Here's a look at some of the subsequent analysis and commentary—and there's plenty of it:

• From The Health Care Blog, Vince Kuraitis shares eight first impressions about the ACO rule, notably that the requirements for hospitals to establish an ACO are serious: "The infrastructure, operational and reporting requirements for setting up an ACO have teeth." No dipping your toes in the water here.
• LeadingAge (formerly AAHSA) has published a whitepaper about how nursing homes, SNFs and other LTC and post-acute providers can participate in ACOs. It also has created a tool to assess providers' readiness to participate in an accountable care organization.
• HealthLeaders Media reports on mixed responses to the initial ACO rule. 
• AHCA weighs in with a pretty ho-hum statement about how ACOs can include nursing homes and other post-acute care providers.
• Again from HealthLeaders: Are the savings from participating in an ACO worth the costs? (Or as my boss is fond of asking, "Is the juice worth the squeeze?")
• We hope CMS will uphold this admirable promise to genuinely consider feedback during the 60-day comment period.
• Privacy, fraud and antitrust implications of the new ACO rule. More important things for SNFs, nursing homes and other post-acute and LTC providers to consider.