Say ‘Good-bye’ to the silo…
And then say ‘Hello’ to the members of your new health team:
- Hospitals
- SNFs
- Insurers
- Home Health
- Hospice
The days of individual care settings working separately and independently are coming to an end. Modern healthcare and value-based purchasing are eliminating silos. Instead, they are building teams – i.e. Networks. You will either be on the team (in the Network) or not on the team. There will be no ‘in-between.’
And, as in professional sports, if team members don’t perform, they will be ‘disinvited’ from the team. In the assisted living world, you simply won’t be included in the referral network. Old referral relationships will give way to new relationships shaped by new standards.
What will be needed to be included on the team?
Proof. Proof of experience, and proof of expertise in health management. And the tools you will need to obtain and demonstrate your proof are targeted Metrics and Analytics. You will need these tools to use the data you already have to make quality and value decisions.
In other words, you will need to demonstrate that you qualify to be on the team. Word-of-mouth opinion or guessing or intuition or even established referral relationships will no longer be sufficient.
Data sharing will be mandatory to be included on the team. Your referral sources will be financially motivated in the care YOU manage in your facility, because they will be financially penalized if the care you manage has poor outcomes.
Your referral sources will want to know your HEALTH PROFILES – what health conditions you have in your facility and your experience in caring for these conditions, and they will want to see your RISK PROFILES and learn what you are doing to address your high risk residents, and they will want to know your health-related outcomes.
There is a lot at stake for every team member, so top teams will only enlist top performers.
Here are 5 concrete action steps to get on the team:
- Measure your residents’ health.
- Measure your residents’ health risk.
- Measure your health-related outcomes.
- Develop PROACTIVE health management strategies to keep your residents as healthy and independent as possible.
- Make all of the above immediately available to your referral sources and every individual who tours your facility.
The good news is: this does not have to be complicated; this does not have to be expensive. Simple, straightforward, intuitive, and inexpensive analytic approaches are available and ready for you NOW . And the time to act is now, as eloquently articulated by Traci Bild, a leading expert in senior housing marketing and sales.
The other good news is: this is just good business practice. And it’s a market differentiator. At least for now, while everyone else is using identical marketing strategies, you can beat these strategies by showcasing your analytics and proving your expertise with precision measurements and “data-backed fact.”
There’s an advantage to being first in your market, to being ‘ahead of the curve.’ And it’s surprisingly easy. But sitting back and waiting for a competitor to be first will only assure you a place on the sidelines and make it harder to be included in referral networks in the future.
And the future is very near.
<< Back to Blog Home
Latest Posts
