The Clinical Specialty Selector Program™

In today’s rapidly changing, highly competitive marketplace, most LTC providers recognize the value of offering enhanced clinical capabilities as a means of differentiating and positioning their building as “more than just a nursing home.”

In fact, in our 30 years of LTC marketing experience, the majority of operators that have consistently increased Medicare and managed care referrals, revenues and profits have been the ones that have successfully introduced clinical specialties as part of their services. This has been especially true over the past 10 years. Yet, while there’s general agreement about the advantages to be gained, one question often remains unanswered: “How do we determine the best clinical specialty or niche marketing opportunity for my building, in my specific market?”

Choosing the right specialty for your facility requires brainwork, not guesswork. The decision should be based on objective data, industry intelligence and extensive LTC experience, not simply what “feels right” or what the competition is doing. That’s where we come in.

The Clinical Specialty Selector Program™ is a systematic, objective, best practice-based process that helps LTC providers identify distinctive, effective clinical specialties matched to their specific capabilities, needs and market situations. It provides the in-depth data and information needed to uncover optimum opportunities as well as clearly stated recommendations designed to foster intelligent, informed operational and marketing decisions.

Importantly, the program focuses exclusively on the variables that impact the identification of the clinical specialties to be considered for your building. This is the natural first step in creating an effective marketing strategy and outreach to healthcare professionals, with the goal of boosting your Medicare market share and bottom line performance.

Getting down to basics

Our seasoned LTC consultants know just the right questions to ask and how to quickly arrive at an understanding of your building by assessing current clinical capabilities, admission history, staffing, physical plant assets and other key factors. Combine this intelligence with CMS data, hospital discharges and competitive intelligence and you have a proven formula for choosing the best possible clinical specialty for your organization.

Our comprehensive discovery and information gathering process includes – Interviews with Select Building Staff – Site visits provide the opportunity to tour your building, meet with key staff members and gather much of the background information needed for the project. Current Referral Source Review and Analysis – We’ll study the referral and admission trends in your building, focusing on volume of referrals; volume of admissions by source and diagnosis; volume and types of denials; and resident age. We will analyze up to two years of data as provided by your building. Market Demographics and Clinical Services Utilization – Using the most recent CMS Medicare data, we will provide detailed information on the discharges from all the hospitals to the SNFs in your service area.This includes, but is not limited to the number of discharges to all SNFs; discharges to each individual SNF; discharges by care service to each SNF; as well as discharges to Home Health Care. Market Competition Review – Using the assembled data together with the information gained during our discussions, we will conduct a comprehensive review of all competing SNF operators in your service area. Research includes telephone interviews with admission staff, review of available promotional material and analysis of their websites and online activities. For your direct competitors (up to three buildings), we will “secret shop” their facilities through on-site visits and meetings with admissions staff. Fair Market Share Analysis – Understanding your Medicare market share is an important factor in identifying clinical specialties with the greatest potential to enhance admissions and quality case mix. We will analyze your market share using the following resources - CMS data – reports actual numbers of Medicare discharges going to the SNFs in your service area. Hospital discharge trend data – includes overall discharges to SNFs from your referring hospitals for the past three years. This information provides valuable insights into major changes in discharge patterns that many LTC providers are experiencing as new healthcare reforms are implemented.

Our Clinical Specialty Selector Report™ outlines recommendations for creating a clinical specialty or specialty service niche for your building

After completing the intelligence gathering and analysis process, we will present to you with a set of detailed recommendations. This one-of-a-kind operational “roadmap” includes a step-by-step game plan for establishing and marketing the most effective clinical specialty for your building.

If you’d like to learn more about the Clinical Specialty Selector Program™, call the Marketing Dynamics Help Line at 877-725-6774 or click here.