Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Sounds like a really tough spot. You may have to go directly to the end-users with your message, as you suggest. In that case you need a compelling story that will trump whatever your competitors are promising. What features make you different from, and better than, the competition? What do your current patients say about why they chose you? What else can you do to set yourself apart? Is there a unique emotional payoff you can promise (and deliver)?

Who usually makes the decision? Is it the patient or a family member? Or does the doctor/hospital referral pretty much outweigh everything else?

If you can't get the attention of the main referrers, you're going to have an uphill battle. Most patients trust their hospitals to take good care of them, and that includes referrals. If there's a line of people waiting to get into other facilities, you could take a guerrilla marketing approach: have big signs outside the waiting rooms of the competition (on billboards, cars, and/or trucks) touting your facility's no-waiting and 5* reputation. Offer free transport to your facility (cab or otherwise) and a "if you don't like it - we'll take you back to your old facility for free". Or, create video vignettes showcasing your care and tie this to a PPC/AdWords campaign in your region.

I've spent the last 15 months working with a local not-for-profit hospice organization. In that time I've learned a great deal, some of which may be useful in your situation.

Focus your efforts on educating people (RNs, educators, pastors, specialists, mullahs, rabbis etc.,.) in the list you mentioned above (senior centers, faith-based organizations, EMS, hospices, Alzheimer's organizations, elder law attorneys, senior organizations) and so on.

Show them how you can help the people that they help. Excellence in care begins the moment the phone rings NOT the moment the referral comes in or when the admission is made.

When you DO get the chance to speak with hospital discharge planners, ask them which of their patients are readmits (frequent fliers). Arm yourself with real world data (and don't be shy about using this stuff) that speaks to discharge planner's real world costs in terms of Medicare, and in terms of the penalties the hospital pays when patients come back in throughout the ER because their families can't cope. Explain how your facility saves the hospital and the discharge planner time and money.

If you can get in front of any of the C-suite types, drive home the same message: show them how you can save them money in penalties and lost income (through patients who may potentially be more profitable to the hospital) while dramatically increasing the quality of life of a patient into the bargain.

In terms of reaching out to hospices and social groups, consider driving home the point of offering a sense of community, of lifting the burden from caregivers, of helping improve the quality of life of the patients they love and that you're better equipped to care for.

In terms of hospices, consider connecting with the education, outreach, and business development departments of not-for-profit organizations and develop ways to help their patients when those patients are discharged, or, when non-hospice eligibility comes up.

There are all kinds of patients who are not ill enough to go into hospital yet who are also not hospice eligible because they don't meet the criteria in terms of terminal illness.

By creating some form of transitional service that helps seriously-ill patients who may need hospice care in the future, but who need skilled care now, you help the hospice and they help you. You need to be willing to refer your patients to other services in order to gain referrals in return.

Remember, hospice is a service, not a place.

Likewise with faith-based groups and Alzheimer's organizations. Do you offer services specifically aimed at these groups? Perhaps an elder day care for the aging parents of adult children to give those caregivers a break. Perhaps a Memory Café to help patients with stages of dementia recall things from their childhood through music and dance.

Show people (healthcare and non-healthcare decision makers and caregivers alike) how your organization can make their lives (and the lives of the people they serve and care for) easier.

I agree with the above. It's similar to the pharma-industry where the giants went directly to the consumer rather than try to persuade the doctors or hospitals to prescribe their brand meds. If you can also identify what experience the patients had at other facilities, you can use the message to do an emotional appeal to the future patients or their loved ones.