Looking back on more than 20 years of medical practice, I’ve listened to many marketers attempting to convince me to refer my patients to their particular assisted living facility. And I remember being impressed about how differently the marketers and I view ALs.
The marketers focused almost exclusively on the social aspects: beautiful facility, nice people, great food. And as marketer after marketer would come through my office, the “pitches’ were always identical: beautiful facility, nice people, great food. From my view, it was impossible to distinguish one AL from another.
My interests, however, as a physician, were completely different. I was focused on my patients’ health. Of course I wanted them to live in a comfortable setting, and from what I was told, all the ALs in my community were equally qualified. But my primary interest was whether the new people managing my patients’ health were knowledgeable, capable and able to render good and compassionate care.
It always surprised me that not a single marketer offered me the one thing that would have made me choose THEM in a heartbeat: metrics. The one feature that would have made the greatest impression is the one thing I was never shown…some type of HEALTH PROFILE, anything that demonstrated they understood and were committed to the huge responsibility of managing my patients’ health.
Here are just a few things that I wanted to know and whose answers would have made a lasting and very positive impression and would have resulted in my referrals:
- I wanted to know the types of chronic health conditions and medications that are currently managed in this marketer’s AL so that I could have an idea of what the health environment was like.
- I wanted to know whether an AL could manage my patient with heart failure or lung disease or severe arthritis or chronic pain or depression and who is taking 8 different medicines at different times of the day.
- I wanted to know whether a facility somehow differentiates or adjusts its staffing to account for the Risk Level of individual residents – that is, does it care for residents with many health needs any differently than it does for residents with only minimal needs.
- I wanted to know WHO is managing the health of all the residents. Are these caregivers educated about the kinds of health conditions my patients have and the medicines they take? And how do the caregivers keep track of and become informed of all the health needs that they are managing? This is a huge task when caring for so many people.
- I wanted to know whether the AL PROACTIVELY manages the health needs of my patients, or do they just wait until my patients get sick before intervening or sending them to the ER. And how can the AL demonstrate its answer to me?
These answers are more important now than ever, and they will be essential in the future if an AL wants to be included in their local community health referral networks (along with ACOs, hospitals, SNFs, rehab facilities, home health, and hospice).
Take Home Message
The best way an AL can impress physicians and get their referrals is to show them metrics that prove its ability to provide excellent care management.
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