Steve “The Hurricane” (00:00):
What’s up everybody? It’s Steve “The Hurricane” here, and for today’s episode of a Drink with the Hurricane, we are going to kick off a five part series on what are the best referral sources to develop. So raise your glass and let’s toast to your success. Cheers.
(00:25)
This is a Drink With The Hurricane, the Talk show discussing all things growing your home care business. This video is sponsored by Home Care Evolution where we help home care agencies adapt to changing circumstances, transform their business so that they can thrive for years to come. Alright, so for this episode today, one of the top five best referral sources as per the most recent home care pulse benchmark study are hospitals. And it’s no secret that a hospital is a great referral source. I mean, they do have the highest volume of patients and everybody who’s in the hospital is somebody who needs help. That’s why they’re in the hospital. Some quick stats, the average hospital just in the United States discharges approximately 200 patients a month, which is 50 patients a week, which is about 2,400 patients a year. And granted there are some that do less than that and there are some that do more than that.
(01:34)
That’s where that average number came to be. But what I love about hospitals is when someone goes home, they are going to get the Medicare benefit. They are going to get a visiting nurse, they’re going to get a caregiver that comes into the house for a couple of hours a week. They’re going to get a therapist that comes in from the outside the community and helps that person with their physical therapy. They might even get some equipment and prescriptions and all these other things, but what they’re not going to get is a private caregiver to help them get back on their feet and help manage the care. That’s where we come in as the private duty provider. Now, knowing that the average hospital discharges 200 patients a month, we will not get 200 referrals. We will never get 200 referrals. What we have to do is understand that 80% of the people who go through the hospital, they don’t need help beyond what Medicare covers.
(02:41)
That’s the reason why Medicare covers it, because the majority of folks don’t need help. Beyond that, it is a very small percentage or approximately one in five. So we’ll say 40 of those 200 patients will need help. Now, how do we know 40 of them will need help beyond what Medicare covers? Because the readmission rate is between 15 and 20%, which basically means for that 15 and 20%, which is 30 to 40 people, they will go back to the hospital within 30 days because what was done was not adequate enough for them to remain home. This is easily the best way to ask for referrals. You ask your hospital, what are your readmitted patients doing the second time around so that they don’t get readmitted? Again, make a referral to me. I want you to all write this down and for those of you who are clients of mine, I actually talk about this in the Fast Start class.
(03:49)
I talk about it right away in Fast Start lesson one and where I talk about what’s called the MAX referral potential. So you can reference fast Start lesson one for more information if you are a client of mine. But what I mean by max referral potential is what is the referral potential that I should be looking for from a referral source? A hospital, as I just said, that’s discharging 200 patients a month should have a potential to refer me 40 times, but that’s never going to happen. Alright? The maximum referral potential from a hospital discharging 200 patients is about 10%, and that’s 20 referrals. Now, what is a number that you would be very happy getting? You should be very happy getting a quarter of the max referral potential. If you’re getting four or five referrals every single month from your hospitals, that’s where you want to be.
(04:41)
That’s a referral every single week, and that’s good volume from your hospice referral, your hospital referral sources. Now, how do you get into a hospital? It is a very lengthy process. As a matter of fact, there’s no shortcut. It’s going to take you a solid six months to a year if you are a seasoned veteran getting into a hospital, and I have courses specifically designed on how to get into hospitals because it is that difficult to do. So. In short, one of the many ways you can do it is working with the people the hospital feeds. If you work with the skilled nursing homes, the home health agencies, the hospices, the medical equipment companies, the pharmacies and other people that the hospital is constantly referring, they should be able to help you bridge a gap to be able to get a couple of introductions to key department personnels within that hospital so that you can then develop a long-term relationship. And that’s pretty much all I have time to go over. Now, if you would like to get referrals from hospitals, the best thing you can do is come to the next Home Care Evolution Bootcamp by clicking on my link below and registering right now because we’re going to go over how to get into all of these referral sources to get your maximum return on your investment. This is an event you simply cannot afford to miss. Sign up now so I can give you everything you need to blow away the competition.