Great marketing is vital to increase patient census as a senior healthcare or assisted living provider. But your marketing shouldn’t just be about bold statements and sleek design choices; the substance is much more important. In this blog, we’re going to look at how and why CMS quality measures should be prioritized and integrated into your senior healthcare or assisted living marketing materials.

Is Your Patient Census Down?

Whether you’re running an assisted living community, 24-hour nursing care facility, medical practice or home health agency, chances are you are affected by changing regulations and compliance requirements by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as well as insurance providers. 

What’s more, during the pandemic many seniors have felt less confident with the idea of moving to a skilled nursing or assisted living facility, with worries about everything from infection control to visiting requirements. As a result of constantly changing requirements and increased apprehension from seniors and family caregivers alike, many senior living communities have seen a drop in patient census in recent years.

What Can You Do?

If your medical practice, assisted living community or skilled nursing facility is seeing a decline in patient census, there are several senior healthcare and assisted living marketing initiatives that can help you increase brand awareness. However, this alone won’t be enough to gain the vital trust of seniors and their families to increase conversions.

How Can Healthcare Quality Measures Help Increase Patient Census?

Anyone can invest in great branding and spend thousands of dollars on attractive marketing initiatives. Though these strategies can bring in inquiries and raise awareness of your community or practice, they’re not likely to be enough to actually increase sales and boost patient census on their own. 

CMS quality measures provide seniors and family caregivers with verification that the claims you are making about your care are correct, from an impartial and reputable source. CMS quality measures aim to measure and quantify healthcare processes and outcomes, while also focusing on patient perceptions and organizational structures that contribute to the level of care you deliver. 

These healthcare quality measures allow prospective patients or residents to compare any number of senior living or healthcare organizations using a standardized, unbiased system. By striving to ensure your marketing and healthcare quality measures are matched, you can instill greater trust in both your brand and your claims.

How Can CMS Quality Measures be Used in Assisted Living Marketing?

As a healthcare practitioner, nursing care facility or senior living organization, your number one goal is to provide patients or residents with quality care. Therefore, there is no need for overly glitzy propositions and unnecessary complexity in your marketing efforts. Your prospective customers simply want to know that your organization’s outcomes are:

    • Effective
    • Safe
    • Efficient 
    • Patient-centered
    • Equitable

By focusing diligently on these core CMS quality measures within your marketing materials, you will be able to effectively demonstrate to prospective residents and patients that your priority is excellent care. While there may be other facets of your community that you wish to highlight, like your range of classes and activities or on-site spa, care quality should always remain your number one selling point.

When discussing any feature your practice or senior living community offers, think about whether it can be linked to the healthcare quality measures above. For example, if you run physical exercise classes for residents, how is this done in a way that is safe and effective for seniors? How are personalized care plans developed in a patient-centered and equitable manner?

Why Should Your Marketing Efforts Focus on Healthcare Quality Measures?

Though eye-catching marketing materials and unique branding will undoubtedly help the phone ring, it’s important that your strategies focus heavily on how you can provide excellent care and meet vital healthcare quality measures. 

If you have a great CMS quality rating, make sure this achievement stands at the forefront of your healthcare or assisted living marketing plan. Within your day-to-day practice, keep those healthcare quality measures in mind, because practicing what you preach will always be the most effective way to gain trust as a senior living organization. 

By focusing on the CMS quality measures criteria within your senior healthcare or assisted living marketing – demonstrating how you provide patient outcomes that are effective, safe, efficient, patient-centered and equitable, you will clearly show how you provide value to patients and their families, allowing them to make the best care decisions.

How can our Healthcare Marketing Consultants Help?

If you would like expert advice from healthcare marketing consultants to seamlessly integrate CMS quality measures into your healthcare or assisted living marketing materials, SMCG® have years of experience in developing winning marketing strategies for senior healthcare organizations. Arrange a consultation today to find out more about how we can showcase your strengths and boost patient census.