13 QUESTIONS TO DISCUSS WITH YOUR THERAPY PROVIDER, SO YOUR SNF CAN ACHIEVE ITS GOALS FOR QUALITY, COST, AND SATISFACTION
Most SNF’s strategic plans for the next 1-3 years are jam-packed with terms like – “improve quality,” “increase occupancy,” “reduce readmissions,” “formalize partnerships with health plans, physicians, hospitals, ACOs, etc.,” “improve outcomes,” “move toward value-based care,” and “use data to our advantage”? But if most SNFs have the same elements in their plans, then how will your facility stand out?
As your organization heads into this time of great change for post-acute care, your relationship with your therapy provider could help (or hinder!) your efforts to differentiate and demonstrate value to referral sources and patients.
Here are questions to discuss with your therapy provider to help you assess the past year’s performance and align your efforts for 2017 and beyond:
1. What did therapy do last year to help us reduce our average length of stay, and how can we work together to evaluate and adjust that number?
2. What outcomes data does therapy provide to our facility now? Can we assess therapy outcomes by diagnosis, acuity, insurance type, and discharge destination? How can we improve on that data for business intelligence?
3. How does our current data help us prove our value to our referral sources? And does our therapy partner attend meetings with referral sources to help us present our data?
4. What reports are provided by therapy to patients and families during their stay at our facility?
5. For the conditions that our facility plans to focus on in the coming year, what is our therapy provider’s approach to rehab and management of those conditions?
6. How are therapists in our facility incorporating the latest research and innovative therapy approaches into daily practice?
7. What is the therapy team’s approach to working with patients with dementia? And how does the team measure physical, cognitive, functional, and behavioral outcomes?
8. How is therapy teaming up with our facility to improve our approach to falls risk management?
9. How have our therapists assisted with marketing and outreach efforts? What worked, what didn’t, and how will we market together in the future?
10. How often does our rehab team collaborate with the rest of our staff – for ongoing patient assessments, triple check meetings, home evaluations, discharge planning, support groups for families, etc.?
11. How does therapy determine the best time of day to work with patients based on their medication schedules?
12. Is therapy provided 7 days a week and every day of the year? How does the performance of the “weekend & holiday staff” compare with that of our “weekday staff”?
13. How many ADRs have we received over the past year? Assuming therapy prepared responses and appeals, what was the success rate? And how did therapy collaborate with nursing to prevent future errors or denials?
If your organization would like more talking points like these, or you’d like an outside analysis of your therapy provider’s performance for 2016 as well as estimated projections for 2017, we are here and ready to help.
Therapy Management, Inc. provides contract therapy services for skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, and retirement communities. We deliver a continuum of care throughout the inpatient stay and beyond to the outpatient setting to meet the needs of short-stay rehab and long-term care residents. Our clients tell us we combine clinical and compliance expertise with care beyond compare. Call us at 248-349-9595 or visit therapy-management.com.
