Facts about hospice care are very powerful (and impressive). ALL your employees should be familiar with some of the basic national statistics related to hospice and your own hospice’s statistics.
The most recent (2009) national statistics include:
- Number of patients who received hospice care – an estimated 1.56 million
- % of US deaths under the care of hospice – 41.6%
- % of patients who died in their residence – 68.6% (including private residences, nursing homes and residential facilities)
- % of care provided at the routine home care level – 95.6%
- Average length of stay – 69.5 days
- Median length of stay – 21.1 days
ALL employees should not only be familiar with these trends but also be able to briefly talk about them as it relates to their hospice job. It will give them a sense of pride and illustrate how important their care is to patients and families to say, for example:
- “Studies have shown that over 85% of people would prefer to die in their place of residence instead of in a hospital. With hospice care, 68.6% are able to die at home. I am so proud to be a part of a team that makes that possible.”
- “More people are receiving hospice care than ever before – 1.56 million in 2009 – but not for very long. The average number of days they receive care is 69.5.”
Now let’s talk about hospice trends and how the knowledge of these facts and how to sell with
them will enhance your liaisons’ skills and professionalism. Hospice is significantly an emotional sell. We appeal to people wanting to do the right thing for patients and families like managing pain, providing emotional and spiritual support, and offering bereavement services. This can be very effective.
However, there are customers who respond more quickly to factual info. Think about how
physicians learn: facts, clinical reprints, etc. So it is important for the liaisons to know trends in hospice and how and when to use them.
Some of the benefits of selling with facts are:
- Getting people’s attention
- Using them as proof source for the services hospices provide
- Establishing the liaison as a knowledgeable professional
- Providing opportunities to discuss benefits, LOS, admissions, diagnosis, etc.
- Setting your liaisons apart from the dreaded COOKIE LADY (MAN)
- Setting the stage for the more emotional presentation of services
- Having liaisons proud to know that their education efforts do make a significant difference in patients and families accessing hospice care (job satisfaction)
- Two of the four styles of listeners (Directive Style and Analytical Style) respond better to facts (discussed in the Hospice University module on Listening)
Let me give you some examples of using knowledge about hospice trends in your calls and presentations:
DISCHARGE PLANNER
“Janie, in 2009 more than 1.56 million received hospice care. However, 50% of these patients and families only benefited from hospice care for 21.2 days. The patients we care for have a median length of stay of _____ days. What do you think we could do together to influence earlier appropriate referrals?”PHYSICIAN
“Dr. Cardiologist, I was reviewing trends for hospice care and learned that 59.9% of patients admitted to hospice have a non-cancer diagnosis and that Heart Disease is the second highest of the non-cancer diagnoses admitted. By the way, Debility Unspecified is the first. I was thinking about your CHF patients and families. What makes you think about hospice referrals for your end-stage CHF patients?”NH ADMINISTARTOR or ASSISTED LIVING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
“Almost seventy percent of hospice patients died in their place of residence. Over 90% of people say they would rather die in their place of residence than a hospital. Over the last quarter, we cared for 33 of your residents, of which 16 have died. We were able to provide a level of service which allowed all 16 of those residents to remain in your facility/community and supported their and their families’ desire to die here.”SOCIAL WORKER
“On national level, 75.6% of families rated hospice care as excellent. You remember Mrs. Smith who you referred? Her family rated our hospice care as excellent, so I know they appreciated you letting them know about hospice. One of the reasons they rated it excellent was… (Tell a powerful story about the patient here).”
These are only a few examples of the power of factual information during a sales call. You and
your liaisons know your customers and those customers who would respond to a liaison with this knowledge.
RECOMMENDATION: Schedule a sales meeting to present and discuss these facts. During the meeting, ask each liaison to identify two customers who would respond to a “factual sales call” by discussing possible referrals, etc. Have them write out a sales call plan for one of the customers. After they have written the sales call plan, have them role play the call and allow time for coaching feedback. In the next sales meeting, ask how the calls went and what the results were.
REMEMBER THE SAYING “KNOWLEDGE IS POWER”!
Hospice University provides on-site consultations and Webinars on selling with trends and facts.