At any Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE), providing care means investing in residents’ wellbeing. Fortunately, the staff at the RCFE doesn’t have to navigate this alone. By partnering with healthcare providers, team members can get support and guidance.
Benefits of Strong Healthcare Partnerships
When RCFE owners and managers establish and maintain relationships with healthcare providers, it yields a number of benefits for residents and staff. By focusing on this area and facilitating collaboration with medical professionals, you can deliver:
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- Better care for your residents. While some of your staff likely has a working medical knowledge base, the expertise of healthcare providers is unparalleled. They’re informed about the latest best practices as backed by medical research. As a result, they can help your team deploy evidence-based practices to help your residents stay as healthy as possible. Healthcare providers may be able to give your team specific suggestions on providing care to individual residents, too. This supports the individual resident’s wellness, and it can make it easier for your team to do their job of supporting the resident.
- Clearer protocols for your team. Working with healthcare providers, you can develop steps your team should take in the event a resident needs additional medical attention. With a clearly defined process, your staff is best positioned to provide the support your resident needs. This betters their outcome. At the same time, it can help to prevent your facility from facing any negligence or other liability concerns from residents and their families.
- Stronger positioning for your RCFE. Once you have effective partnerships established with healthcare providers, share that with prospective residents and their families. This provides evidence of two things. First, it highlights your commitment to superior resident care and your willingness to invest in bringing in support there. Secondly, it can ease the minds of prospective residents and their family members when the resident has specific medical needs.
Look for further ways to maximize benefits from your healthcare partnerships, too. If providers are willing to visit residents at your facility, for example, that can provide a tremendous value-add. You might also explore having nearby health facilities (e.g., clinics, hospitals) host wellness workshops or other health-focused events for your residents.
Practical Ways to Build Healthcare Partnerships
Even if those benefits sound appealing, you might be daunted by the prospect of building relationships with healthcare providers. We recommend taking a few strategic steps to help your facility get this partnership program off the ground:
- Figure out what your residents need. Talking with your staff and residents, compile a list of the medical care that your residents most frequently need. Common categories include eye health, dental care, physical therapy, treatment for chronic conditions, and mental healthcare. A survey you have residents complete might help here.
- Determine potential partners. In many cases, this is as simple as looking at healthcare practices that are located near your facility. Make a list of hospitals and the offices of care providers in your area.
- Reach out to explore openness. Designate a team member or group of staff to initiate outreach to nearby providers. Contacting their office and getting in touch with their medical office manager is a great place to start. Your team might also ask if they have any similar partnerships you can model yours after.
- Establish agreements. Capture something in writing — like a memorandum of understanding (MOU) — so your team and the healthcare provider’s team agree on roles and responsibilities. If the provider will partner with you to create an individualized care plan for each resident or visit your facility on a specific cadence, for example, capture that in the agreement. The document should also provide a point of contact at both your RCFE and the healthcare provider’s office.
- Integrate technology. To facilitate communication and secure record-sharing with the healthcare provider, explore ways to transmit electronic health records (EHRs). You might also want to establish telehealth technology so providers can meet with residents without needing to travel to your office.
As you work with healthcare providers, talk with them about risk management strategies. Doing so can help to lower your RCFE liability insurance premiums. To see how these kinds of partnerships could help you save on your policy, contact our team at InsureMyRCFE at (805) 413-5668.