By Steve Moran
Value-based care seems to be the current hot topic in senior living. It makes sense and clearly represents the evolution of assisted living and memory care — going from something just outside the fringe of the health care continuum to becoming a vital part of it.
We are not quite there yet, but it seems to be inevitable that it is coming.
Danger, Danger
While I am a believer in the importance of value-based care, I also worry that it will become the next big fad that everyone hopes will lead to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We have seen it before. … It was once …
- Memory care
- Independent living
- Luxury senior living
- Robots
- Technology
And of course, the big one that still looms on the horizon: the baby boomer bubble. The problem with all this is that it assumes that a high degree of success is not really possible today, that we have to wait for some magical thing completely outside of our control for success to occur.
This is simply wrong thinking.
High Occupancy, High Margins, High Happiness
High occupancy, high margins, and amazing success are not things that any operator has to wait for or find some magic bullet to achieve. Amazing success is right there in front of you for the taking — right now, today.
The Success Formula
There are a few operators, a few communities that are achieving unparalleled success and high margins right now, today. The formula is not magic; it is not secret. It consists of three things:
- Figuring out what consumers need and want in your marketplace and then delivering that product, that experience. Curiously this often means giving your residents more control over their own destiny rather than trying to do everything for them.
- Treating team members as if they were your most valuable customers, as if they are in their own right as valuable a customer as the residents. This often means giving your team members more control over how they do their job and a bigger say in how things are done.
- Putting forth a great sales effort. Right now most senior living sales happen because a consumer has a panic moment and needs to make a move last week. Or after months of touring, retouring, and indecision. Neither one is real selling. When a consumer shows up, they are looking to solve a real problem, and we should be the experts that tell a compelling story about how senior living will make their lives better, and the sooner they move, the better off they will be.
Do these things, and your communities will rock. It is hard work, because you have to be committed to all three, and they have to be done over and over again every day.
Go do value-based care. It will make your organization better. But don’t count on it to solve all problems. It won’t, but the above success formula will work every time.
