Long-term care, and the nursing home sector, is struggling in the United States. More and more nursing centers are going out of business, closing down wings, and struggling financially. Representative organizations like LeadingAge and the American Health Care Association are raising their voices, calling for politicians and regulators to improve payments and protect their vulnerable status. Meanwhile, hundreds of nursing homes have already closed, and even more are unable to admit new patients either because of inadequate staffing or punitive regulatory rulings.
In this harsh environment, it may be necessary for some nursing homes to adopt a “last one standing” survival strategy. Stackpole & Associates has devoted webinars and publications on these topics, offering providers practical tips on how to stay alive, and to be the last one standing in their geographic marketplace.
Nursing homes have not really had to do this before. Because of Certificate of Need restrictions to the development of new nursing homes, the supply of available beds has generally meant that there was enough demand to go around. This situation was abruptly changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now, in the “after times,” the situation hasn’t gotten better; in fact, it has gotten worse.
Survival depends on four key tactical actions:
Defend, protect & fortify
In a declining and turbulent marketplace, it’s essential to hold onto whatever market share you already have – especially as it becomes more expensive and more difficult to secure additional/market share. Referral source and customer “loyalty” is built on the effective response to, and recovery from service related errors. Responding effectively to service errors seems counter-intuitive in a tumultuous market, but it has proven to be the critical factor in protecting market share. Discharge planners at acute care hospitals will have an easy time remembering how effectively your nursing center handled the train-wreck admission!
Efficiency
Not only in marketing but in operations, efficiency doesn’t mean cutting staff means doing the right things at the right time. Efficiency in admissions means processing and handling inquiries and referrals faster, better and smarter than the competition. Even if you’re working from a centralized, standard referral system, responses to referring hospitals should be done in minutes. It isn’t easy to create the systems that allow this type of responsiveness, and conditioning staff that this type of high-priority responsiveness is critical isn’t easy either. “Efficiency” also means spending less on building awareness and generating inquiries. The best tool in this regard is digital marketing. Alas, the long-term care sector is lagging far behind in this type of marketing communications.
Innovate
It’s completely unreasonable to believe that, with all the changes occurring in the economy, healthcare, society at large and especially in the long-term care sector, that your customers (people who have the power to choose to use your nursing center or the competitors) will continue to refer consumers to you as before. It’s imperative, especially given the general market mayhem, to innovate processes and services. This means how you process referrals, how you communicate with your customers, how you update the local providers, how you keep in touch with and nurture relationships with families, and how you follow-up after discharge. This requires change and calling upon the resources within the organization to think differently, and “outside the box.”
Differentiate
Similar to the innovation tactic, differentiation answers the question, “Why should we do business with you?” Innovation might be part of that answer, along with being faster, better and smarter. Differentiation should include identifying and resolving customer problems in advance. What are your referring hospitals’ pain points? Is it above standard readmissions rates for certain clinical categories? If so, differentiate your nursing center with the clinical program to address these concerns. Many hospitals’ pain points have to do with post acute placement of particularly challenging patients. Perhaps your nursing center can create a program (innovation) to address some of these needs, thereby differentiating your nursing center from others, and improving loyalty.
The last one standing market plan should include all of these elements. Notice that these tactics can work very well with regard to staff recruitment and retention, as well as with securing existing referrals, attracting new inquiries, and occupancy.
Contact Stackpole & Associates for a free market assessment and tactical evaluation. We look forward to being of service. Email: contactus@stackpoleassociates.com or Phone: 1-617-719-9530.
Join us for Selling to Survive: The Last One Standing in Long-Term Care, June 15, noon EDT
with Peter Middlemass, Partner at Northeast Healthcare Consulting Group, LLC, and Irving Stackpole, President of Stackpole & Associates. This program has been submitted for one CEU through NAB /NCERS.
