Over this past week, you may have seen several industry sources sharing that nearly 50% of all Home Health referrals from the hospital are not started for care.
One of our mastermind members has seen an explosion in referrals from the hospital.
That is GOOD! Revenue is UP!
While the increase in referrals is AWESOME!
Here is the BAD part.
It has created 2 problems.
- Incomplete patient information – i.e., more non admits
- Not enough staff and putting HUGE pressure on existing staff to do more– i.e., Recruiting and retention.
Incomplete information: Incomplete patient information has always been a challenge. And when the patient leaves the hospital, it’s hard to “track them down” if the contact information is not correct.
How can your marketers or office staff help?
For our Mastermind Program, we are adding a module on transitions.
Here is a piece from that module:
V. C. E.
Verify:
Verify patient contact information and emergency contact information when the patient is STILL in the hospital.
Call:
Call the patient (if you can’t get in the hospital) AND the emergency contact to welcome them to your agency when the patient is STILL in the hospital or as soon as you get the information.
Educate:
We have created a “What to expect” brochure that is patient-centered and is a perfect resource to have the D/C planner hand out or email to the patient or family that describes the next steps so that the family knows who to call and gives them peace of mind during their transition
Recruiting and Retention
This is the “other side” of the sales and marketing coin. When your team does their job – you will have staffing problems. This agency owner and mastermind member always tell his branch administrators – keep hiring and let it be a sales problem! He means by that keep hiring nurses, therapists, and HHAs to the point that his agency has “open visits” and then put the pressure on sales and marketing to get more referrals!
Right now – EVERYONE has VIRUS FATIGUE, and it is compounded by an increase in referrals, and in this team, that means the current nurses, therapists, and HHAs have to do more visits.
This Mastermind agency is killing it with recruiting. They have more applicants in the last 6 mos than we have seen in the previous 7 years of working with them. But the referrals are growing faster than they can onboard.
How can Marketing help? What can you do as an owner?
This Mastermind agency uses its marketing team to deploy several retention and appreciation strategies we collaborated on to increase morale and let them know they are appreciated!
The staff has reported:
“Feeling cared for”
“Like we matter.”
“Thank you for making my day brighter.”
and one intake staffer reported:
“OMG, I can’t believe you noticed how hard I was working. Thank you!”
It goes a long way to help keep your staff committed to your vision and your agency.
Cheryl and I are building a new recruiting and retention module for the mastermind group.
We are pulling together the best practices and tactics we have experienced as consultants in the industry for the last 20+ years so that the mastermind group can have a vault of recruiting and retention strategies that will allow you to plug and play the best practices at your agency. SO easy – just pick out the ones you like and implement them.
We are in beta right now!
If this sounds like something you would like to be a part of – go to www.homecaresales.com/mastermind to fill out an application, and let’s jump on a call to see if it is the right fit for both of us!
Melanie
P.S. Even though we are all socially distancing – Cheryl and I are COMMITTED to having MORE FUN in the mastermind this year too! Wait until you hear the fun community activities we have planned for the group!
