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Fellow, American College of Healthcare
Executives and
Accredited Business Communicator,
International Association of Business Communicators
Health
Care Ratings - Deal with Them
A recent USA Today series was
not so kind when evaluating nursing homes
and their Five-Star ratings. Then the industry started to gripe about its
flaws - USA
Today and Five-Star! I say "get over it." Ratings for long-term care,
hospitals,
physicians, buying a dog, shopping for a car, evaluating a prospective
employee -
are here to stay. So deal with it by Telling Your Story!
Earning Customer Raves
Here is a related article from Marketing Profs
by my friend Jeanne Bliss. Jeanne
shares what great companies do to empower employees
and customers and spread their story.
So What If It Really is Bad News?
OK, sometimes those health care ratings, word of mouth, face to face
conversations might be painting a not so rosy picture of your organization.
What to do?
Well start with the truth. Can you handle the truth?
A Balanced Article on Five-Star
Keeping with our theme here is a pretty good article on the Five-Star
ratings.
Should my hospital colleagues read this? YES! Some new concepts are being
bantered about in health care reform. One is the notion of accountable care
organizations
that would be responsible for the health of a designated population. That
organization
could include a group of hospitals, physicians and by extension home health,
nursing homes, assisted living organizations. To make accountable
care work, hospitals may find the need to get into the long-term care arena
so best to educate yourself now.
"The CMS reports remain the best available resource for families to start
looking for
nursing-home care," said Janet Wells, policy director for NCCNHR, a
nonprofit organization
that represents consumers of long-term care. “Even though we’re
skeptical about some of the information, it’s the best starting point
available for research.’'
HARVARD ARTICLE ALERT!
While We're Empowering Everyone Let's Not Forget to Empower the Consumer
I love this article because it is what I preach in all of my writing.
"Healthcare is not going to be reformed by simply revising the current
system,
which is centered on providers. Instead, we need to concentrate on
re-engineering
healthcare around the consumer, building innovative approaches that can help
consumers take more control of their ongoing care."
Empower Consumers to Lead Healthy Lives -
Implications for Living to 100!
This Wharton article looks at the implications to society if we actually
wake up and start taking care of ourselves. Of course even despite
ourselves,
technology and medications will keep us around longer as well. What will
life at 100 entail?
Citings
Guest Column, McKnight’s Long Term Care, February 2010,
Let’s Build Better Boards of Directors
Charlotte Observer Feature, December 9, 2009
Guest Blog, Advance in Long Term Care Management,
re: Assisted Living Scrutiny, January 13, 2010
Julie Rosen, Executive Director, The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center cites
Hospital Impact blog on Patient Centered Care
Accessible Hoshin Kanri Cites Hospital Impact Blog on
Leadership
"Success isn't a matter of throwing something against the wall in the hope
that it
will stick. It's the sum of research, focus, discipline and hard work.
It flows from a systematic approach to uncovering value that others have
overlooked
and learning how to communicate that value in clever, effective, truthful
ways."
Lynda Resnick
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