From my friends at the prestigious online healthcare resource, at i Advance Senior Care, where I’ve been a guest blogger on multiple occasions, including this contribution from March 24, 2016, here is an excerpt from their recent editorial piece dated November 13, 2018, where they re-blogged an important article written by Maggie Flynn for www.skillednursingnews.com.
What you’re about to read below, is what I’ve been saying for 7 years and ever since I started working in healthcare, first as an insider and more recently as a vendor.
It’s the reason that with God’s help (and the confidence of a very special mentor), I’ve made an explosive career out of helping healthcare providers deal with EXACTLY THIS CHALLENGE.
There’s nothing new in this article, because the challenges are as old as the healthcare industry itself, but at least they are being discussed at this juncture.
Better late than never.
“In a world where ratings and reviews help shape consumer choice, long-term care has a major perception problem.
“When we go out and just talk to consumers, perception-wise, about long-term care, only about 24% trust or have confidence in long-term care on in nursing homes,” Ryan Donohue, strategic adviser at the the research firm NRC Health (Nasdaq: NRC), told Skilled Nursing News in a conversation on the sidelines of the American Health Care Association’s annual conference and expo in San Diego last month.
That matches the findings of an informal survey conducted at the start of 2018 by Skilled Nursing News that found randomly selected consumers in a Chicago grocery store associated “nursing home” with “dismal,” “sad,” and “bad food.”
But when consumers actually get inside the walls of a nursing home, the picture changes, Donohue said. In fact, 88% of people who have actually been residents would recommend the experience, he said, compared with the people outside the walls of a nursing home.
That makes that negative perception something that long-term care providers have to address, according to Pat Cokington, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Americare Senior Living, which is based in Sikeston, Mo.
Th provider has 23 skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities — in addition to assisted living, memory care and independent living communities — across Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Illinois.
Americare’s residents have high satisfaction rates when they’re actually experiencing the care, she said, making it crucial to let others know.”
Duh. You think?
