Guest Blog: "It's Time for Transparency in Long-Term Care"
The following is a guest blog by Anthony Cirillo:
The Senate Finance Committee has released a report entitled Transforming the Health Care Delivery System: Proposals to Improve Patient Care and Reduce Health Care Costs. A portion of the report addresses long -erm care. Some of the proposed enactments:
- More detail on the ownership of facilities both direct and indirect including governing bodies and officers.
- More compliance and ethics programs.
- More quality assessment and improvement programs.
- Enhancements to the Nursing Home Compare website including standardized staffing data, links to state web sites, a complaint form, summary of enforcement actions and a summary of the experience of direct care workers.
- Demonstration projects for best practices in culture change.
- Dementia management training and abuse protection.
At the end of the day, enhanced resident care is the goal but a means to that end is a case of total transparency in the industry.
Here's the deal. Your best marketing is word of mouth. Great word of mouth results when an employee has a great experience and turns around and spreads that to the residents they care for daily. When there is mystery and cloudiness, the employee and resident experience suffers and ultimately the facility suffers. Transparency leads to trust.
So how can organizations become more trusting?
- First, stay in front of these regulations and actually enact what is being called for now without waiting for it to become law. That sends a message of sincerity and trust in the community.
- Ask yourself if you promote transparency at all levels? This is not just quality and price transparency but simple things like publishing the emails and phone numbers of senior staff so people can contact them directly. CEO blogs promote transparency. Take a lesson from Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. His hospital has suffered through some costly medical errors. While these same errors happen in long term care facilities, they usually are not revealed until the lawsuits starts flying. Levy addresses these in his blog, Running a Hospital, warts and all. In the end this builds trust and confidence even from the very situations that might otherwise not. For a great article on CEO transparency check out Wired Magazine.
- Data Collection: I preach a lot about how organizations can leverage word of mouth for strategic gain and trust building. Data collection can aid this. Let's not talk CRM but anecdotal and observational information. What do you really know about the people you care for? Give you an example. I had an endoscopy recently. And before I went under I was talking to the staff about what I did and we happened to get into the fact that I sang and one of the staff sang as well. So when I received a thank you note from the team they mentioned that little tidbit. Made me feel special. Built my trust. And if I go back they will probably have a record of it and mention it again. What do you really know about your employees and your residents?
- Create Community: Harley has an annual road rally. I have talked to people who have attended. It is not about Harley as much as it is about bringing people together, stepping out of the way and letting them talk to each other. In the end they remember who brought them together. Shouldice Hospital in Canada has this down to a science. An annual patient reunion dinner attracts 1,000 people. At one hospital we staged a Bicycle Safety Day that brought numerous constituents together. As CMO I grew tired of it and tried to ditch it. The community said no way. Community is also about groups on Linked In and Facebook. Let people meet and move out of the way. It builds trust.
- Adopt Causes: adopt causes that are strategic to your services. So an orthopedic service line or a long term care facility might adopt fall prevention as a cause (not the season!). Sounds counter-intuitive but if you can keep people healthy and in a quality of life longer inevitably something will happen to someone and they will need that knee or hip replacement and rehabilitation. Who will they look to first? The people that tried to keep them healthy longer. Again, this builds trust.
Transparency and Trust. Sort of go together like chocolate and peanut butter. That's a tasty combination. Try it.
Anthony Cirillo, FACHE, ABC is a healthcare consultant, ombudsman and expert blogger for Wellsphere in the area of aging and senior health. He consults with long-term care facilities and is available for management retreats and association keynotes. He is the author of "Who Moved My Dentures?" a book that dispels myths about long-term care. His company, Fast Forward Consulting empowers organizations to change the healthcare experience and leverage it in their marketing. To read more, go to www.4wardfast.com and www.anthonyssong.com.