How to Manage, Operate and Market a Senior Housing Facility

Benjamin Pearce from Potomac Homes emailed me about his new book,  Senior Living Communities. It is a guide book on Operations Management for Assisted Living, Congregate, and Continuing Care retirement communities. It was just released in its second edition by Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Contemporary Gerontology describes the book as an " in-the-trenches approach to the administration and marketing of assisted living, congregate and continuing care facilities".

As the demand for senior residential communities continues to rise with the aging U.S. population, this is a great idea for a book and one that will prove useful to the many administrators and staff members who often are forced to learn by trial and error the complicated task of delivering high-quality and consistent services to elderly persons. It's also a must-read for the many facilities who have been plagued by a variety of administrative and financial difficulties.

Mr. Pearce offers a wealth of sound advice and practical solutions, discussing resident relations, operating methods, staffing ratios, department management, cost containment, sales and marketing strategies, techniques of financial analysis, budgeting, and human resources. New chapters address issues particular to dementia care and architecture, and the appendix contains a department-by-department audit of senior living operations.

Comments

[DY]

There is also another dynamic manual available out there that directly hits the heart of the senior care industry. It encompasses all aspects of senior housing and offers direct grass roots practical strategies for success and profitability. It attacks the critical success factors of the industry from an administrator’s perspective as well as from a owners/ corporate level managers perspective.

With this manual you will learn what the larger organizations are doing and what trends the most successful operators are following.

It includes growth strategies, staffing stabilization strategies, census enhancement tools and concepts, and environmental issues.

One of the major focuses of this manual is marketing of assisted living and nursing homes.

I have recently been asked about effectively marketing of a nursing home, as they were targeting the Medicare A folks.

As a sample of some information in the manual, please see how the author addresses this recent question...

Unlike the typical Independent Living placements, Nursing Home placements are “need driven” rather than “choice driven”. The placement of individuals into a nursing home is usually driven by some event that causes them to need your product, especially with Medicare A. Therefore, targeting the persons that decide skilled therapy is required is the first step. This includes, mostly doctors and hospitals, and sometimes rehab hospitals that cannot meet the 13 diagnosis requirement that presently exists for them to maintain eligibility for higher reimbursement. .

The problem is often that there are many dynamics that drive the referral sources decision to refer one nursing home over another. Therefore you must somehow create an environment that drives the referrals to your door and make the referral sources change their habits.

In turn, here are the goals you must achieve in order to do this:

-Create a trusting and tight relationship with the referral sources, sometimes on a personal level. Great RELATIONSHIPS create more referrals than any other medium, more than just offering gifts and “bagel baskets” does. This is a grass roots business.
-Meet all the needs of the referral sources timely and with respect.
-Make it very easy for them to communicate with you.
-Make it very easy for the referral source to get the transfer done.
-Get an approval for placement of the patient completed fast.
-All staff must be respectful of the referral sources needs, not just you.
-Make sure you have a good product (all the convincing in the world will not help if doctors and hospitals do not get good feedback from the people they refer.)
-Maintain a "service attitude" towards referral sources and do as much of the work as possible to get the job done. Have your staff do the abstracts timely if possible.
-Train all the staff on proper communication with the referral sources. If you are the only one performing the relationship building, but other staff is not helpful, then you will not achieve your goals.
-Make sure your environment is attractive and then hold an extravagant open house for the referral sources.
-When the doctors come in and visit your home, “roll out the red carpet”. That way they will want to send more patients to you because of the time they save getting in and out of your home on rounds. Greet them and have their charts out and ready for them. Teach your staff to please the doctors, including the triage of patient issues so not to inundate them with calls daily or at odd times at night. Answer the doctor’s questions, and do surveys to find their concerns and resolve them ASAP.
-Go above and beyond the expectations of your customers and referral sources.
-Do not be afraid to build relationships with hospitals that are not necessarily next door, sometimes out of town hospitals can drop one into your lap periodically.
-Be creative. Send someone from the your nursing home staff to personally deliver “get well balloons and flowers” containing your name prominently displayed to any residents of your home that go to the hospital for a short period of time. This will build a presence in the hospital and create a respect from the doctors, families, and referral sources.
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These have been some tried and true approaches.

This information is really just is the “tip of the iceberg”. In turn, this subject requires much more time discussion than this. Good marketing also involves operations and marketing working together. Remember, marketing and operations must all work together, or your marketing efforts will never be maximized. Nursing Home providers cannot promise one thing to a customer or referral source, and then deliver another.

I am the President of a senior housing consulting organization and have worked in a leadership role in senior housing for approximately 10 years. I have often attended the National Investment Center for Senior Housing & Care Industry conferences held in Washington, DC and Chicago, IL, as well as many other educational events. I am also a speaker on the subject. I have recently spoken at the World Research Group, Senior Housing Owner/Operator Annual Forum in New York City. There is an excellent resource on the web site below regarding this subject. The manual I speak of offers real life practical ideas to apply to your practices every day. It is called Ultimate Operational, Environmental, and Marketing Strategies for Senior Housing. All the ideas listed as responses to your question as well as many more ideas are drafted out in the manual with more detail and the tools needed to get you started. It won’t leave you guessing.

Many people have benefited from this and raised and maintained their census up to 95-98% from a history of about 80%-85%.

It hits this subject directly, and will help you change the culture of your staff and will impress your employer greatly. Although it discusses many other management issues, the marketing concepts and ideas listed are outstanding and worth the purchase alone.

Your organization will compound its return on investment in this manual greatly.

I recommend you use it and then you can pass it to your administrators and executives for the other issues if you wish.
The book can be found at :

www.belovedhomesolutions.com/About%20the%20book%202.htm

The home page is www.belovedhomesolutions.com

[bill jackson]

How to find an Assisted Living Facility that fits your loved ones lifestyle
Your Mom or Dad may not be able to live independently anymore and moving them to an Assisted Living Facility can be a scary process. Fortunately, this change can be for the better. This is especially true if you find a community that offers amenities and activities that fit your loved one's lifestyle. There are a few considerations to make when choosing what type of Assisted Living Facility will be the best for your parent.

What should I choose- a private apartment or shared residence?

Seniors have a choice to make when considering their future living arrangements-a private residence or communal, dorm-style living. Assisted Living Facilities generally offer one or both options. If Mom is uncomfortable sharing her personal space and appreciates her alone time, a private residence is most likely the best option. However, if your parent is social and possibly even afraid of living alone, a shared residence might be a better choice. A shared residence gives your loved one their own private room with access to the main living areas such as the bathroom , kitchen or laundry room.

Are there on-site amenities such as a pool or clubhouse?

If your loved one is still able to be physically active, this can be an important part of the decision making process. Many Assisted Living Facilities have recreation programs that can include activities swimming and shuffleboard. Physical activity will help maintain your loved one's health. Also, many Assisted Living Facilities with common meeting places, such as a clubhouse, tend to host social events on a regular basis. This will provide your loved one entertainment and social interactions with their fellow residents.

Is the facility staffed to address your loved one's medical conditions?

Assisted Living Facilities have varying degrees of medical staff available to address the resident's health care. Generally, Assisted Living Facilities coordinate with their resident's health care providers for preventative care. However, your loved one may be suffering from a disease like Alzheimer's. Their condition will slowly get worse and you will want to ensure that the facility has staff on hand to address you and your loved one's health care issues.

Home Health Senior Care works with individuals like you who are looking for information on Assisted Living Facilities. We can connect you with quality Assisted Living Facilities in your area. Contact us to begin your search for the perfect Assisted Living Facility!.Click www.
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