Long Term Care

Haven Hospice’s 'Commitment To Caring' Initiative Demonstrates Client Increase

The Commitment to Caring initiative at Haven Hospice in Gainesville, Fla. has improved census by more than 200 patients a day, according to Tim Bowen, executive director of the program.

"The goal [of the initiative] is really to emphasize measuring quality and performance improvement," said Bowen. "We’ve gotten very much involved in internal and external benchmarking."

An important part of the initiative was to "create a customer-oriented and sales-focused business culture," said Bowen. Bowen pointed out that using the word "sales" makes people in the industry uncomfortable, but Haven Hospice wanted to create a sales-focus that would not be considered taboo.

The Commitment to Caring initiative began in 2004 with a change of name from Hospice of North Central Florida and several other names to one title, Haven Hospice, to bring all the services under one name and make it easier for consumers. Through the initiative, Haven Hospice wanted to improve communication strategies between customers and employees. "We have about 600 employees, and if you tried to ask them what the important communication points were or are, we would have literally probably thousands of different comments and ideas," said Bowen. "So we felt it important to try to communicate both internally and externally what those unique differentiators are to Haven Hospice and what makes us different compared to other hospices that serve the community."

Reorganization and realignment of departments was also part of the initiative. A sales department, sales management and customer service department was created; company culture was changing, according to Bowen.

One step in the transition process including expanding the definition of “customer.” Customers were segmented and defined including patients, families, hospitals, long-term care facilities, physicians and physician groups. The sales team, known as professional liaisons, act as the voice of the customer. They carry feedback from customers to the clinical team and organization, according to Bowen. “The goal is to address the needs of the customers and help them with their issues. Reducing barriers to care and increasing the access for patients and their families is part of the initiative,” said Bowen.

Haven Hospice also asked families and the staff what was the most important service to receive or provide and their answers did not correspond. “The families said the most important services was the availability of nurses on weekends and at night and available time with home health aides, while the staff believed that time with nurses was the most important,” said Bowen. Through this, Haven Hospice was able to create a transition team to bring perceptions closer to reality and problem-solve to create better communication in every department. Every six months, the hospice also conducts satisfaction surveys for all of their customer groups, Bowen added.

Addresses: hospice letter, Health Resources Publishing, 1913 Atlantic Ave., Suite 200, Manasquan, NJ 08736; (732) 292-1100, http://www.healthrespubs.com. Haven Hospice, 4200 NW 90th Blvd., Gainesville, FL 32606; (800) 727-1889, http://www.havenhospice.org.

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Source: hospice letter, July 2008

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