Board-certified specialists will double your referrals.

Home Care Marketing...What would be the ideal 'opening dialogue' to have with a potential referral source like a physician or discharge planner?  It should go something like this...

"Hi Dr. Smith. You have a lot of choices of who to use for a Home Health Agency.  And there’s a few reasons why you should consider us first.

We have nurses who are board-certified specialists in your area of practice (diabetes, pain, cardiac,

psychiatric, etc) …

Our specialists help patients achieve clinical outcomes in less time and less visits.  I can show you how we recently helped one of your patients achieve outcomes and discharge with 20% fewer visits than the national average...

When you’re choosing a home health provider remember that more patients improve their clinical outcomes with our Agency than any other HHA in this area……when can I follow up?”

Employing board-certified clinical nurse specialists will double your referrals with both physicians and hospital discharge planners.

How to decide which specialty - identify opportunities

• Are you rural or urban
• Check what your competition is doing
• Identify local Physician and Acute Care Practices that are specializing – they’ll be your target referral sources

The Pros of getting Nurses Board-Certified

▫ A great recruitment and retention feature
▫ A way to reward loyal nurses
▫ You’ll double your referrals

The Cons...

▫ Time-consuming - Getting nurses board-certified will take 6-8 months.
▫ Expensive
▫ Not all nurses can do it

The nurse's process of preparing for the exam

• Go to http://www.nursecredentialing.org/ and select a specialty
• Plan on 6-8 month study preparation
• Prepare employment agreements, work schedule
• Purchase Course Book, Study Guides
• Join on-line Study Group
• If necessary take review course

Keep in mind...

• Cost $400-550 per exam, total cost to HHA $5-10K
• Professional practice development: minimum of 1,000 practice hours in certification role
• Renew every 5 years

The specialties...

• Go to http://www.nursecredentialing.org/ and select a specialty
• Gerontological CNS
• Home Health CNS
• Pediatric CNS
• Public\Community Health CNS
• Ambulatory Care Nursing
• Cardiac Rehabilitation Nursing
• Cardiac Vascular Nursing
• Case Management Nursing
• Community Health Nursing
• Diabetes Management - Advanced
• General Nursing Practice
• Gerontological Nursing
• High-Risk Perinatal Nursing
• Home Health Nursing
• Medical-Surgical Nursing
• Pain Management
• Pediatric Nursing
• Perinatal Nursing
• Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing
• Public Health Nurse - Advanced

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