At HCAM last week, if you attended Lou Ann Brubaker’s presentation, “Achieving Your Occupancy Goals: The Magic Formula,” you would have seen attendees writing as fast as court reporters. Not since college have I taken such furious notes – pages and pages of wild chicken scratch that translated into brilliant ideas! If you weren’t there, here’s a quick summary…
Lou Ann talked about how most marketing teams at skilled nursing facilities freak out around the 20th day of each month when they realize that they aren’t going to make their occupancy goals. Then in a flurry of activity, they tell all staffers to get in their cars, disregard the speed limit, and get their shining faces in front of every possible referral source ASAP to beg for oodles of referrals in the remaining days of the month. Needless to say, this reactive approach does not help them meet their goals for new admissions. Lou Ann went on to explain that the “magic formula” for your census strategy should not focus on the end product of admissions, but instead you should develop up-stream processes to measure and improve upon overall inquiries, the viability of those inquiries, and the likelihood that those viable inquiries will convert into actual admissions.
So how can your therapy provider help you achieve your occupancy goals? Excellent question!
1. A strong therapy provider will consistently provide outcomes data that is great fodder for all of your marketing initiatives.
Your therapy provider should provide you with data on a timely basis that helps you prove the efficacy of time spent in your facility. Then you can use this actual data in your marketing materials for both referral sources and the general public. For example, what’s a more compelling marketing message for a long-term care facility?
- Patients who stay with us receive exceptional, compassionate, quality care.
- Our expert therapists help patients achieve higher levels of independence.
- 95% of our patients have increased capabilities and improved self-care within 14 days.
Answer a. is as generic as it gets. All SNFs (and hospitals too) say the same thing.
Answer b. is better, but still it’s expected of any facility with a therapy program.
Answer c. – now this statement is compelling!
What data do you have that shows that you help people get stronger, return home sooner, or move to a level of higher independence? What percentage of older seniors in your care gain weight and muscle mass during their time with you? The more granular you can get with this data, the better because it demonstrates your actual achievements with past patients and shows what prospective patients can expect under your care.
2. A bustling therapy program shows visitors to your facility that your patients are active, engaged, and working hard to gain and maintain function.
When people tour your facility, do they see passive patients watching TV? Or do they see people in the therapy area, hallways, and even in their rooms working with therapists? What does your therapy space look like? Is it clean and modern with new products and technologies?
Your therapy space could be a key marketing tool, an area of your building that you are proud to show during tours.
And remember – your staff members who give tours need education, so they can readily speak about your therapy program. Better yet, provide them with outcomes data per diagnosis, so they can speak to your success with different types of patients. For example, if a family member (or referral source) asks about your track record for rehabilitation for people recovering from a stroke or suffering from COPD, then your marketers will be ready to answer their questions using actual data. Also make sure your marketers have a few success stories to tell about real patients who’ve benefited from your therapy program (see #3 below).
Beyond the physical therapy space and because sometimes therapy happens in patients’ rooms, hallways, or out on the lawn, there’s an even more important marketing tool in your facility… your therapists themselves! Use them to your advantage. Allow prospects to ask questions of your therapists. Promote the longevity of your therapy staff employees. Happy, caring therapists who’ve worked with patients for years in your facility can be a key marketing tool outside your facility too. What programs and activities do you have in place to enable your therapists to promote your therapy program out in the communities where they (and your future patients/residents) live? Need ideas? Just ask us.
3. A strong therapy partner can help you tell a new story.
Sure, people appreciate quantifiable data because it proves your ability to produce results over time, but numbers are not warm and fuzzy. That’s when you need true stories of success!
How in just 3 weeks’ time did you help a resident gain the ability walk to the dining room for every meal? How did a long-time therapist go the extra mile for a patient, so she could return home in time for her granddaughter’s wedding? How did your therapy team learn that a patient with dementia was a fly fisherman, and how did they work that lifelong hobby into his therapy program?
Stories like this are more moving, heart-felt, and memorable than any billboard, ad, or Facebook post about your compassionate, patient-centered, quality care.
Need help marketing your therapy program?
Not only are we a therapy provider, we can also help you think through how you market your therapy program. Let’s create and tell some new stories of patient success together. Call us at 734-560-2513 or email us today.
