Home Health & Hospice Week

First-hand experience help your marketing message pack a powerful punch.

In today's competitive market, your home health agency needs all the help it can get--including one tactic that might surprise you.

Savvy agencies can follow the example of SouthView Homecare based in Kansas City, MO. Southview, a privately owned HHA with four locations in Kansas and Missouri, requires all of its community educators to "ride along" with clinical staff making home visits.

"It's one thing to hear about a patient at a case conference; it's another thing to see the nurse-patient relationship," explains SouthView director of marketing Selene Madrid. When talking to referral sources, the first-hand experience "lends more credibility to the marketing message," Madrid tells Eli.

How it works: SouthView requires its community educators to spend four days riding along with the agency's four major disciplines--nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy and social work--during the marketers' training period and then annually. The educators arrange the visits through the agency's assistant administrator, who makes sure the agency secures patient consent beforehand.

SouthView's clinicians don't have to participate in the program but are asked to volunteer, Madrid says. The clinicians pick appropriate clients that won't make the patient or the community educator uncomfortable with a sensitive situation.

The experience is a major boon when communicating with marketing targets, says Bryan Flynn, one of SouthView's five community educators. "You see what you need to know for marketing," Flynn says. That includes clinician and agency "capabilities, services provided and different ways to help patients." The ride-alongs are especially useful for getting to know different clinicians' specialties, he adds.

A twist: SouthView also encourages administrative staff to accompany clinicians, and clinicians to ride along with community educators for a marketing call, Madrid notes. Those ride-alongs are optional. Marketers are especially happy to have clinical staff along on visits to hospitals and physicians, she says. Consider Ride-Alongs An Investment The problem with having marketers shadow clinicians is the cost in time and resources. But it is well worth it, Madrid maintains. "The marketing department is an investment in growing the business."

"I can better educate a potential customer on our services," Flynn says. The ride-alongs offer "a better base for what I'm trying to promote."

Tip: When he makes visits, Flynn likes to report back to a referral source on how the patient is doing.

Bonus: The ride-along program is one reason SouthView, with about 80 employees total, has a low employee turnover rate, Madrid believes. Seeing what colleagues are doing "fosters dignity and respect between branches," she says. "It builds a really solid relationship."