In part two of this blog series, we will teach your agency how to use the first of three benefits of the Home Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HH-CAHPS) to strategically grow your business.
Today’s blog focuses on the benefits and strategy of using HH-CAHPS for free marketing.
Free Marketing
Word of mouth is a powerful thing. The cost of marketing your agency decreases significantly when patient experiences are so favorable that they feel compelled to tell others. Exceeding patient expectations will ensure they request your agency whenever they need home health services. It will also ensure they recommend your agency to family, friends, and anyone else willing to learn about the best home health experience they have had. And the HH-CAHPS surveys are a powerful tool to translate the positive word of mouth to tangible business growth. The most common referral sources (Hospitals, Rehabilitation Centers, Physician Offices) seek partners in home health with a proven track record of providing exceptional care. The HH-CAHPS scores are a large component of the evaluation process that these organizations use when selecting home health partners to help extend positive patient experiences. When patients recommend your agency, and your quality measures and patient survey results (HH-CAHPS) reflect high performance, referrals will increase.
Strategy
Ensure that you use your CMS Home Health measures, such as Home Health Compare and Star Ratings for Quality Measures and Patient Surveys, to market your agency. The results of these measures can be displayed on your agency’s website, or used when approaching potential referral sources, to win additional business. You should also monitor your agency’s CMS-reported data to gain insight on what potential referral sources may find when seeking information on your agency. If your scores are low in some of the key areas, you should focus on improving those low scores by ensuring you and your staff understand how the data for the report is pulled, and work jointly towards their improvement.
In the next installment on how to use HH-CAHPS to grow your business, we will talk about value-based reimbursement. Stay tuned!