As a new nursing home administrator – or maybe you’re just taking a new building – you have to find out what level your staff is on, especially the individual who is marketing the nursing home.  You know your census depends on the quality and census development ability of your Marketing Director.  Believe it or not, sometimes you run across someone who has either never been trained properly or has become too complacent...

Have you ever received a referral from the hospital and on the face sheet under Payor source, it said, “Self Pay”?  This means they have no Medicaid or Medicare and are privately responsible for their bill.  Many times this also means they are “No Pay” becuase they have no money. Obviously, costly residents who can’t pay are a huge problem for the hospital and they need to discharge them as quickly as...

A common problem I have heard is that the Marketing Director in the nursing home doesn’t  exactly know what the volume of sales calls he/she should be producing.  The answer is simple:  Whatever number fills your beds with new admissions.  Ok, that was not really an answer, was it?  What you should be focused on are the calls that generate viable referrals for your building.  It is easy, however, to make less calls than what is...

Usually nursing homes and home health agencies can be found at opoosite ends of the spectrum when it comes to referrals.  Nursing homes want the referral to come into the facility for rehab while home health wants the referrals to go home with their services.  I recently found a way to partner with home health care agencies that I hadn’t thought of previously. Many times home health patients may be too expensive for the home health...

In the past week, I have had a unique opportunity to observe a facility with another company fall to the pressures of survey.  The facility had a rough history – staying out of compliance more than in.  A few IJ’s later, CMS has pulled the plug on their Medicare/Medicaid provider agreement.  They lost their certification.  What this means is that they have to discharge all their Medicare and Medicaid residents.  They have...