Get ready to be enlightened with our insightful conversation with Natalie McNeal, the driving force behind Hospice at WellStar Health System. Natalie is here to share how medium-sized home-based care providers can prove their quality beyond Medicare Care Compare scores. She shares the secret sauce to her organization's successful outreach - building relationships within the community, spreading impactful patient stories, and leveraging an innovative advisory committee that brings fresh community outreach ideas to the table. You'll get a glimpse of how their governing board plays a crucial role in certifying the quality of their hospice.
We go a step further to discuss how you can ignite the spark in your staff to become ambassadors of quality in your organization. Natalie shares her experience in creating connections within the community for support and how a community needs analysis can help identify underserved populations. She sheds light on her organization's strategic investment in promotional materials and community events to reach these populations. Natalie also opens up about how they've developed a unique training program to equip their staff and volunteers with the ability to interact with patients and navigate through grief. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone looking to enhance their home-based healthcare services. Don't miss out!
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Make Lives Better
Get ready to be enlightened with our insightful conversation with Natalie McNeal, the driving force behind Hospice at WellStar Health System. Natalie is here to share how medium-sized home-based care providers can prove their quality beyond Medicare Care Compare scores. She shares the secret sauce to her organization's successful outreach - building relationships within the community, spreading impactful patient stories, and leveraging an innovative advisory committee that brings fresh community outreach ideas to the table. You'll get a glimpse of how their governing board plays a crucial role in certifying the quality of their hospice.
We go a step further to discuss how you can ignite the spark in your staff to become ambassadors of quality in your organization. Natalie shares her experience in creating connections within the community for support and how a community needs analysis can help identify underserved populations. She sheds light on her organization's strategic investment in promotional materials and community events to reach these populations. Natalie also opens up about how they've developed a unique training program to equip their staff and volunteers with the ability to interact with patients and navigate through grief. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone looking to enhance their home-based healthcare services. Don't miss out!
Visit our website
Connect with us - LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook
Make Lives Better
Greetings. I'm Jennifer Kennedy and the lead for Quality at CHAP, and welcome to this month's CHAPcast. So in this podcast we're going to jump two feet first into a discussion with Natalie O'Neill, who is a healthcare leader and champion of all things quality and, I'm very happy and proud to say, a long time friend as well. Welcome to the CHAPcast, natalie. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. So I know who you are, natalie, but our listeners don't, so could you tell them a little bit about yourself and your work at WellStar?
Speaker 2:Sure, I am the executive director of Hospice for the Metro Atlanta area at WellStar Health System. We are a 11 hospital system here in the Atlanta Georgia market and we cover about seven counties in the Metro Atlanta area and we have two inpatient hospice units.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I know you from you know my work at NHPCO, but you know you you do some really interesting work in the quality realm, which I think can be applicable to not only hospice providers but home health providers, just any home-based care providers that are out there, because your innovation, I think, makes you unique in your community. It shows your stamp of quality, it shows that you care, and that's really what I wanted to talk with you today about is talking about that concept of proving your quality outside of quality scores on Medicare Care Compare, and I know that you work really hard within your organization, yes, yes, to look at keeping your CAP scores up and paying attention to your HIS scores. But you really you don't rely just on quality scores, you do things outside of that realm to really show what kind of organization you are. Is that does that kind of capture the flavor of what you like to do?
Speaker 2:Yes, our organization is very focused on the whole concept of delivering the right care to the patient in the right place at the right time, and they allow us to be really innovative and think outside of the box and try out different things. Sometimes things work. Sometimes they don't, but when they do they're usually pretty great.
Speaker 1:For those medium to smaller organizations. You know it's quality scores are a conundrum because maybe they're not, they don't have enough to get even up on Medicare Care Compare, or you know they have such a small population they're not getting. If you have like one negative, let's say in your CAP survey, return even if you do have enough, it could really skew your scores. If you were talking to whether it's a hospice or a home care organization, any any kind of organization that does home-based care, what would you say to those folks out there about expanding their footprint beyond whatever scores are captured in public reporting?
Speaker 2:Right. So there are a lot of indicators that are out there, the biggest one being the connection to the community and the patient and the quality of services that you're able to bring to the table for those patients. A lot of times, those relationships in the community are so much stronger than what a score can show on a website, especially if people aren't real. In tune to particular scores and what those mean, you can really tell your story around how you deliver care and how you ensure quality in every case that you have, when you, when you're connected in your community.
Speaker 1:Now, do you, do you use any kind of testimonials when you're talking about quality out in your community?
Speaker 2:Yes, we always try to bring back whatever we're talking about to a story, whether that is someone telling their personal story if we're out in an event and there's a community member there who might want to step up and tell their story about our hospice. But we also have our arsenal of stories in the background that we can pull from at any particular point in time. Our team is well versed on those and they know what the stories are and how we impacted patients in different ways and then they can really use those to talk about experiences that patients have had and how we can be of assistance.
Speaker 1:So I hear you talking about events. You know when we're out at events and that's you know. Really, to me that sounds like developing those partnerships in your community. What kind of things does your hospice do that might be extendable to other organizations as ideas for them to get out there into their community? And, you know, prove their quality, show their quality.
Speaker 2:So we participate in pretty much anything that anybody will. Let us come and talk to.
Speaker 2:So you know, whether that's like a Kiwanis club or a rotary or community organizations, veterans affairs places will oftentimes let us come in and meet with their veterans.
Speaker 2:We have some veterans materials that they can use and we also use our stories when we are trying to collect volunteers, which is so important to our program, and we use those volunteers to also tell the story when they are at things. So you know, expanding those fingers into the community as much as possible, we do have a small group of people that rotate in and off of a committee and they act as an advisory board to us of where we can get involved. They usually have had a personal experience with our hospice in some type of way. It might not have been a family member, but they may have worked with us in some way and might have community connections that we can call on for ideas, because we cannot be connected everywhere in the community. We actually don't have any marketers in our organization. So you know that's not somebody that I have out there moving around the community for us. So we rely on those people that have had experiences with hospice and know the quality of our hospice.
Speaker 1:I love the idea that you have this advisory committee and you know, I would think that that would be a huge connection out into your community base. Do you leverage your governing board for their participation as well?
Speaker 2:We do. You know, I think it's pretty uncommon for healthcare systems to really focus on that full continuum of care, because they're supposed to be healing people, and our organization has really embraced that. This is a part of life, dying is a part of life, so hospice is going to be part of that. They know that. You know, with the expectations that they have as an organization, that we can provide better care because they hold us to their same standards that they hold their hospitals to. So with that comes to us reporting out to our board. But also that advisory committee I was telling you about, they actually have a representative that will go to some of the general board meetings and represent whatever it is that we have going on in hospice at that time as well. So we have a voice there on many levels.
Speaker 1:So you're developing voices and champions. Yes, yes, I love that. Now I heard you say that you don't have marketers, and is that because you're part of a health system?
Speaker 2:It is. Our health system focuses on serving our health system members, so there's a feeling that they're already somewhat familiar with our system and therefore might choose our hospice as well. But we do have other people that represent us. We have a liaison team. But that liaison team, their goal, is not to leave the walls of our hospitals. If you need for the bone production policies, you can just go to the right side of your presentation. I wanna mention that when you were speaking to help folks to bring health回來, they were missing. Their goal is to meet with families and patients there and have very in-depth conversations about what hospices so almost what other hospices would think of is like an admission nurse, but they actually don't do the admission, they just have all the prior conversations. But that keeps us connected within our hospitals. So even though they're not a true marketer, they still have a presence.
Speaker 1:You know, one thing I've always admired about you as a leader, natalie, is that you empower all of your staff to essentially be ambassadors not only of your organization but ambassadors of quality in your organization. So it would seem to me anyone that who is going out and about in your community or to board meetings, you know, is that embodiment of the ambassador of quality, and is that purposeful that you do that?
Speaker 2:Very much. So. You know, we look at everyone in our organization as somebody that has connections and that can share hospice stories and can share experiences, and so we do empower our team to have those conversations and talk about those things within their community, wherever they're connected.
Speaker 1:And I know that you do have as a hospice. You do have a fundraising arm of your organization which helps you fund some of your cooler innovations that you've done, which I'd like to hear a couple in just a few minutes. But, you know, for those organizations that don't necessarily have the fundraising, do you have any advice for making those connections out in the community for support?
Speaker 2:Yes, even if you don't have something like our program, those connections that your staff is creating or your team members that are out there, former patients and families that might be out there in community as well, they can help you find grants or opportunities that are available through your community organizations that can fund projects that you want to work on. So there's more than just people donating to you directly. Some people do that regardless of having a full foundation or not, but those grants can be a big help in funding programs.
Speaker 1:So tell me about. Let's take a recent innovation that you've done to really show your quality beyond your scores. Show your quality beyond your scores out in your service area.
Speaker 2:So one of the things that we do every year is that we do a community needs analysis and we meet with our team and we talk about our community.
Speaker 2:We meet with health care leaders within our organization, community leaders and we try to pull together. Who are we not serving in our community? And then we look to see if someone else is and if that needs met, then that's great. But if that needs not met, that's a real quality issue for us, because that means that there's a population that could really benefit from having hospice care services. That's not getting that. So some of the things that we do as we look at how do we reach that population, how do we connect with them, identify what's important to them and create collateral around that, attend events that might be important for that, sponsor community events as well. So you know, maybe it's going and speaking at some of their events or just being present at those, but that does require a certain level of funding to create those collateral and the investment that goes in with meeting with your community as well, because that is time, but it's time well spent.
Speaker 1:Well, it is. Quality is an investment, isn't it? It is, it just doesn't happen. It has to be a part of your strategic plan. There has to be resource allocation for it, right. It's just not something that is a byproduct of your day-to-day business. It has to be intentional, and I love that your program is extremely intentional about that, and it means that other programs absolutely can be intentional about that. For instance, you are, in addition, I know that you're very invested in not only education out for your community about what your services represent, but also investing in that education for your staff as well, so can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:Yes, we, we are also very intentional with that piece. This past year, you know, we learned a lot about duels, death duels and what they can do in the community, and we looked into the program and, you know, had some people from the community that were really interested, that had gone through that training and wanted to come on and learn more. But we're also not as focused on quality and patient care maybe as we do as an organization. So what we did is we met with those doula education organizations and created a different type of training but encompassing a lot of their values and education that they have, and we created our own program that we have used to train not only our staff but also our volunteers, and there's a lot of information in that about how to have conversations, how to connect with people, what to say, when to say it, but also people working through their own grief so that they can go in with an open mind and realize that other people's situations might be different from theirs.
Speaker 2:And we actually had several of our volunteers who came back and said, wow, I didn't realize that I had unprocessed grief and now that I'm able to work through that, I feel like I'm in a better place to be able to help serve these populations. Our staff members that went through it said you know I talked to dying people every single day but I really walked away from that feeling like I have, you know, more of a connection and I know what to say now and that's been really empowering for our volunteers and our staff. And so with that we paid for the education program to be altered to us, for the people to attend, but also for meals to bring people in and create that camaraderie. We did this in person over about six weeks and it's been very impactful in our organization.
Speaker 1:That sounds so great. I mean you were looking for synergy of different types of services out there that you could develop that relationship with. That would create a stronger and a better experience in the terms of hospice care. I like that idea and that could easily, I'm thinking, be translated to you know home health, looking for different synergies out in their community as well, and you know taking some of the things that you have offered out there, like going to your rotary club and going to these different places to talk about what good home based care looks like. Also, I think that you also do quite a bit of innovation. Now you talked about going to underserved communities, but you know you're also looking for innovation in other places as well and really with innovation you're developing, I think, a more sustainable program moving forward. It gives you a higher esteem out in your community and really does show the kind of organization you are outside of those scores. What kind of innovation have you done, let's say, in the last year, for your hospice program?
Speaker 2:Sure. So one of my favorite things that we've done this year and we are almost completed with the project, so I can't tell you exactly the impact that it's had yet, but I expect you to have a lot of impact. Our one of our inpatient units backs up to a beautiful park and it's very secluded, lots of trails and walking as part of a mountain, and we have created, on the way back from our building to the connection to the trail, some meditations along the way, and so we're posting QR codes that link to a video. Some of them are simple breathing exercises, but we've also tied some of these to the features that we have on our property. So there's one that's about climbing a mountain and overcoming the stress that you're currently under, because, as you can imagine, in a hospice inpatient unit, these patients that we serve are not well. They are in some type of crisis, and this is very, very stressful, right?
Speaker 2:Yes, it's very stressful for that whole family unit, so we're creating a space for them to be able to go out. We have a stream that also runs through our property, so one of them is a visual imagery about placing your burdens on a leaf and washing it go down the stream and some people connect very well to those things. Some people connect to the breathing, so we're trying to have an array of things that they can do. But for those patients that can't make it outside, or for our patients who are at home, the connection to our property might not be as clear, but they can still use those same QR codes to access those videos and go through those different exercises and hopefully de-stress a little bit, take a few minutes to reset your system and have a fresh perspective. So we're really excited about this project and how it's going to impact our patients and families and our staff. Our staff can do it too. Anything that we can do to increase resiliency with our team is great.
Speaker 1:I love this whole project. I'm looking forward to what the outcomes look like as well. I think it's a really innovative project that you've got going here. So I'm going to loop back, before we finish up, to those medium to smaller organizations thinking that they can't perhaps do some of these things because they don't have resources. Community engagement you can do some level of that without having a huge amount of resources. You can leverage patient testimonials and stories. Some of those things in my mind are, I think, low hanging fruit to show your quality outside your scores. Do any other ones come to mind for you, natalie, as you're thinking back along your card catalog of things that you've done with your organization?
Speaker 2:Right, so I would say the biggest thing that I think helps is being able to tell a story, and to tell a story from your heart, so people know if you've connected with someone or if you're just regurgitating a story that you've heard along the way. So the more personal experiences, without releasing HIPAA information on those particular stories.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that, you're welcome.
Speaker 2:So people can tell when you talk about something, if you have compassion or there's kindness tied to it, or maybe it's really something that you're passionate about. People can see that. So it's not only about finding stories that other people can connect to but the storyteller can connect to Because, again, the more that they see that you love your job and what you do and who you serve, the more likely they are to have that trust already built and that's who they're going to want to call on to build their relationship as they need to move through the hospice process.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so well stated. Thank you, natalie, and thanks for joining the podcast today. Do you have any final thoughts for our listeners?
Speaker 2:My final thought is to always think outside of the box. There are ways to do things with and without funding. Sometimes funding makes things a little bit easier, but there's also plenty of ways to be connected and to enhance quality without having to spend a lot of money. It's about setting the expectation of quality from the beginning.
Speaker 1:Thank you, natalie, and I agree with everything that you've said, and I look forward to seeing what your project yields on the back end, and I look forward to continuing to work with you as a healthcare professional to move quality needles forward, not only for hospice, but for all home-based care. Well, thanks again, natalie, for joining. It was so great to talk with you today you too and thanks to all of you for taking time out of your day to plug into our podcast. So, from me and the entire chat team, stay safe and well, and thanks for all you do.