Help! Need patient referrals........

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Hello

We are new a home care agency (we just got certified by CHAP in Jan 2009). The competition is extreme in the city we are located in. There is one BIG home health agency "the big guy" (our competitor) which has been in this community for almost 25-30 years. All the physicians and hospital discharge planners are sending the patients to the our competitor- "the big guy".

We have been working very hard with marketing, visiting the hospital, discharge planners etc....yet our patient volume is VERY low. If this keeps up, we would have to end up closing the business! We need ideas to increase patient referrals....we are pretty DESPERATE right now sad.png. Any ideas/comments is appreciated.

Thank you

"new hha".

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Rehab, Psych, CV step-down.

Since I started in HH about 6 mos ago our agency has pushed all RN Case Managers to make all f/u appts w/ M.D.'s to put a face to our HH company. We have seen a moderate increase in referrals since doing this. Another thing we really stress is keeping the M.D. informed of the pt's status, esp. any changes to regimen.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

1. subscribe to ...home health line online to learn the ins and out of the business, including marketing efforts.

companion website is [color=#2200cc]home health interactive - member home

2. you are the new guys on the block and will have to prove yourself. why are you better that the established company? quality scores, visit withing 12-24 hours of referral. offer to come to offices to pbtain referral info and hand deliver paperwork for signature---electronic signing of orders.

no one comes to you without your tooting your own horn. get involved in senior centers, adult day care etc. we offer exercise class at senior centers for free, can toot your horn.

good luck.

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Give each of your external employees a small stack of business cards to hand out to potential employees and clients and offer an incentive for each new case or each new employee. You can have special business cards with the referral info printed on the reverse. Pay the incentive after the case has been with the agency 90 days or after the new employee has worked X number of hours, shifts, weeks. One of my employers paid the new employee incentive in two increments.

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Great ideas! We will try your ideas!

Thanks all for your input. If you have any other bright ideas, please keep them coming. Since I posted the first time, our volume has gone down even more!!!!!

We have been visiting nursing homes and doc's offices. Haven't seen any response yet. Will keep trying!

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