Feb 12

Written by:
2/12/2009 4:26 PM 

The recent release of a five-star nursing home rating system by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has many nursing home administrators concerned about their individual facility’s scores. The ratings, which appear on the agency’s Nursing Home Compare website, judge nursing homes in three areas: health inspections, staffing, and quality measures. Although many nursing home administrators are spending a great deal of time complaining about the “unfairness” of the new rating methodology, they are missing out on their best chances to defend their ratings to those who want to see them the most; their potential customers.

The U.S. government had no choice but to create a systematic way of collecting, analyzing and reporting benchmarked information to consumers wanting objective data about quality outcomes. Given the plethora of resident and family complaints, inspection report deficiencies and negative stories repeatedly published in the last decade about nursing homes, the federal government needed to respond to the public demand for minimum levels of quality assurance for nursing homes. Americans have become accustomed to expecting ratings for products and services such as hotels and restaurants to influence their purchasing decisions and when Americans research their purchasing decisions , the vast majority do so online.

It is not surprising that when these same consumers read figures such as “… 27% of USA’s 10,542 for–profit [nursing] homes were ranked with one star out of five stars”, these people are bound to avoid admission to nursing homes unless all other options are exhausted. Nursing home administrators with average or below average ratings have complained that the new rating system doesn’t take into account existing resident or family anecdotal testimonials. My question would be how a potential customer would be able to read those testimonials? Other heads of nursing homes point out that the rating system isn't the final word on quality of their facilities and the care provided within them. But if the only word available is the government defined one-star rating with the designation of “Much Below Average”, what else are people supposed to think?  Is it any surprise, then, that nursing homes have a bad reputation?

Year over year, more consumers and professional advocates are using online listing services to identify the range of nursing home options available; especially if they are searching long distance. Now, thanks to the Internet, they can quickly and easily access answers to their questions regarding quality information at the click of a mouse without having to drive from facility to facility. If all people are finding is less than perfect scores, should the administrators really be blaming the scoring system?

When searching medicare.gov for a specific nursing home close to my home, I found their listing on Nursing Home Compare with a one-star rating. To give them the benefit of the doubt, I did a general web search for their name. Of the top 5 sites I viewed, 4 provided only contact and license information and the fifth provided another negative result of a previous state inspection.  I found no website for them, no blog postings about exceptional care and no testimonials from elated family members. How can a consumer hear that positive voice when you’ve chosen not to say anything?

Nursing home operators are missing efficient and effective ways to proactively enhance their public relations image, not only to counter balance the shortcomings of the five-star rating system but also to reach potential customers. With the average nursing home administrators in their late 40’s and 50’s, many nursing home administrators have not grown up with the web as an integral part of their everyday workflow. Nursing home administrators will embrace new clinical technologies to improve their care practice for residents if the data supports improvement in outcomes.  With more than 1/3 of Americans aged 62 and older using the Internet, it seems data would support connecting with these potential customers online.

Sadly, too many of these same administrators have been resistant to explore the power of web technology to transform how they promote their facilities and attract and retain residents, employees, professionals and referral sources. They are missing low cost opportunities to educate their communities about the quality care and program offerings that go on every day in their facilities. Many facilities have websites that are nothing more than online brochure-ware with poorly-written, outdated content and broken links- many more have no website at all.

With so many people using the Internet as their primary method of research and communication, nursing home administrators can no longer afford to ignore this medium for reaching out to their potential customers.

One thing our economy has taught us in the last 6 months is that change and adaptation are required to survive.  Nursing homes have to adopt more efficient and practical ways of running their business and they can’t afford to lag behind the status quo. Since the status quo is Internet technology and online communication, nursing home administrators have a lot of catching up to do in order to stay in the race.

Here are some helpful tips to bring your facility online and leverage the web to your facility’s advantage.

 

• Introduce yourself! Complete a facility profile on snapforseniors.com to provide users with details about your unique services, culture, amenities, activities and cost.
• Join the discussion. Subscribe to your own facility listing on SNAPforSeniors to see what others are saying about you.
• Showcase your facility. Include photos and virtual tours to educate consumers and provide an interactive experience when shopping for a nursing home.
• Share testimonials. Encourage satisfied families of residents to post their positive comments about your facility on leading listing services.
• Network your supporters. Provide families with URLs and link to key blogs to connect to others of like kind and interest.
• Increase communication. Conduct e-mail campaigns to introduce new services or key staff/management to prospective and/or existing residents.
• Listen to your peers. Subscribe to Google alerts for nursing home articles to hear what others in your industry are discussing.
• Educate the public. Write articles of interest to educate the public about what makes a good nursing home.
• Join the club. Participate in select online social networking groups that focus on senior matters to:
  • to stay current on issues
  • contribute to influencing peers to enhance quality standards of care and service
  • connect to families of residents in senior housing
  • connect to professionals with expertise in older persons