Home Health & Hospice Week

Adjust your marketing mindset for a new patient population.

Marketing for your outpatient Part B therapy service may be very different from marketing for your traditional home health agency business. And to grow, you'll want to expand beyond your current patient base.

Focus on these three top strategies to ensure that patients find out about your at-home services, experts advise:

#1. Go where potential patients are. Anyone could benefit from at-home therapy, but there are certain populations that are more likely to have an emergent need. Assisted living and senior apartment settings, senior centers, and other facilities that cater to the geriatric population are your best bet for spreading the word about your services, notes PT Lynn Steffes with Steffes & Associates in New Berlin, Wis.

Those living or spending time in these places are more likely to have or know someone who has medical conditions that would benefit from in-the-home therapy, such as early stage Alzheimer's disease, stroke, or a newly developed disability.

Also, these facilities offer living spaces in close proximity so that you can work with one patient and then walk a few doors down to work with another -- which will bring your efficiency levels up dramatically.

Good idea: You should also spend some time developing relationships with the management staff at these facilities, Steffes advises. Once they are aware of your services and feel assured that you provide top-notch therapy right in patients' homes, they will recommend you to their residents, customers, and friends.

#2. Offer free education. Offer educational opportunities that will expose patients to your services and establish the relationships that will naturally lead to increased business, says physical therapist Peter Kovacek, co-owner of In Home Rehab and PTManager. com.

How to do it: Offer free balance and falls prevention workshops that are open to residents or center members. Host tai chi or other low-impact, restorative exercise sessions that potential patients and their family members can attend for free. Any health fair or educational type of activity will help you establish relationships that will lead to more exposure and potential new patients.

Caveat: Be sure to observe federal and state antikickback rules when structuring your educational offerings.

#3. Get information to the right people. Often, it's not the patients themselves who need to find out about your services -- it's those who are trying to get them to and from appointments.

"The 'sandwich' generation are squeezed for time as they try to get their parents to escalating doctor's appointments while also managing their children's or spouses' schedules," Kovacek notes. They are going crazy trying to "do it all."

Make sure you get your information into these people's hands. You could contact hospital discharge planners so that they know to recommend at-home therapy to time-harried families or focus your educational efforts on the types of community activities that will bring you face-to-face with family managers, Kovacek recommends.