Establishing a Clinical Nurse Liaison to do hospital outreach can deliver significant added value. By providing a clinically savvy bridge between your organization and all key audiences – residents, families and referring hospitals – the Clinical Nurse Liaison can enhance direct communication and improve coordination of care. The relationships that are created in the process lead to greater satisfaction and appreciation for your capabilities, resulting in more referrals and admissions.

Keeping our sights on the Medicare opportunity again this month, LOS (length of stay) can be critical to maintaining census, revenue and profitability goals. Are you tracking the LOS of your short-term rehab admissions? Adding just one day to an average census for 10 rehab patients a month will increase revenue significantly.

Focusing on memory-loss care can generate added referrals, admissions and revenue. At a time when many providers are experiencing declining census and shrinking LOS among both short-term and long-term care populations, Alzheimer’s- and dementia-challenged individuals represent an important opportunity.  Key to attracting and retaining memory-loss residents is developing appropriate programming and establishing a dedicated unit, wing or section within your building.

In today's environment of growing competition and shrinking reimbursement it's critical to find new and better ways to market your building or system. Try using more digital communications like e-mail, or re-using proven campaigns that have delivered measurable results (at a savings in production costs and development time).

Recent studies show that 33% to 50% of SNF resident hospitalizations are the result of family demands. Educate family members that: