Gold in the Hills: Strengthening your Referral Inquiry to Admission Process

“Why spend one more dollar to make the phone ring any more than it is if you cannot convert those referrals you are receiving?” Kurt Kazanowski believes the best place for a hospice organization to get admissions is from their pending list. Unfortunately, many agencies have a very underdeveloped list. Kurt and the Hospice & Home Care Webinar Network created a webinar, Strengthening Your Referral Inquiry to Admission Process, to fix this very issue. Below is a breakdown of what Kurt means when he refers to your pending list as “gold in the hills.”

• The larger the pending list the better! This is the best place to start for getting an admission today. The people on this list are here because they trust your organization in some way.

• Never stop working the pending list. Take a look daily and weekly to really scrub out pending referrals and update their status. Use the collective wisdom of the group to accomplish this task.

• Work a 90-day process to eliminate the barrier(s) preventing the patient/family from electing their hospice benefit. This is the most important thing to identify in your pending list to convert a referral to an admission.

• Categorize the pending contacts into “buckets,” sorted by why they did not admit. This will help you understand why, learn how to eliminate the barriers, and think creatively. These buckets include:

✔ Patient/family issues

✔ Doctor issues

✔ Not eligible under CMS guidelines

✔ On skilled days

✔ Admitted to another hospice/home care of private duty company

Learn how to develop your pending list and widen the top of your referral funnel with Kurt’s webinar, directed by the Hospice & Home Care Webinar Network. Don’t forget to use coupon code GOLD10 for 10% of your purchase.

Curated by Sidnie Kane | VP & Program Coordinator | Hospice & Home Care Webinar Network