Question: I've heard that the percentage of hospital discharges going to home care has gone up over the past few years. Unfortunately, the number of referrals I am receiving from my local hospital has not increased over the past few years. Do you know what might be causing this and whether or not this is standard?

Answer: That's a great and complex question. There are multiple reasons why an agency might see a rise, a decrease, or (as in your case) no change in the number of hospital referrals from year to year. It might be caused by the hospital census, the competition, the hospital's identification of patients eligible for home care, or some other reason.

What we do know is that the percentage of Medicare patients discharged from the hospital to home health services has increased. It has gone from 11% in 2004 to 16% in 2006. We also know that the percentage of patients discharged to skilled nursing facilities has increased from 16% to 17.3%. While you may be wondering how this latter figure applies to you, keep in mind that one-quarter of skilled nursing facility patients are also discharged to a second post acute care setting - most commonly home health care.

	2004	2006
Medicare patients discharged from the hospital to home health	11%	16%
Medicare patients discharged from the hospital to skilled nursing facilities	16%	17.3%
Source: MedPac, June 2008

So, what could you be doing to maximize this growth? You can start by tracking all of your current patients who are admitted into hospitals. Make sure the hospital knows that you were the agency caring for these patients. If they are released to a skilled nursing facility, make sure the facility knows that you were their provider for home care.

Second, focus on marketing. Hospitals should fully understand how their patients can benefit from home care. More importantly, they should understand how home care can benefit them - e.g. decreased length of stay, decreased recidivism, higher patient satisfaction levels. Lastly, differentiate your agency and let hospitals know why they should choose you- easy referral process, innovative programs, great outcomes.

New Support for Agency Marketing Leaders

If you need help growing your hospital referrals, or are looking to improve the overall marketing of your agency, consider joining Fazzi's new Marketing Roundtable. The Marketing Roundtable is a new network designed to connect home care marketers from around the country. Every month, this highly interactive forum provides marketing leaders with timely issues, best practice trainings, discussions, debate and insights on new books, websites and other resources. To learn more about the Roundtable or other marketing services, click here or contact Eileen Freitag, Fazzi's Director of Strategic and Marketing Consulting.