Heading to 2022, Meadowbrook Post-Acute CEO Mario Marasigan’s top priority is to build back hospital referrals lost over the course of COVID.
New referrals are still down 20% for the skilled nursing sector compared to pre-COVID rates and with home health playing a larger role in discharge patterns than ever before, facilities like Meadowbrook have looked to open up their doors to younger, often shorter stay patients.
Marasigan said that as hospitals continue to need help with their most complex patients, Meadowbrook has opened itself up to new patients it never would have admitted pre-COVID.
“Looking at what providers need and right now we’re seeing a younger mix being referred. The youngest that I’ve seen, the past month was 25 years old,” he explained. “A lot of the nursing homes might shy away from that just because of the risk and the care that they need to provide but that’s something that we want to be open to.”
“It’s been really interesting to continue to see skilled nursing as a business evolve from primarily residential care to a post-acute plus residential care model and now even more of a hub for some of these transitions and thinking about patients across 30, 60 and, 90-day episodes and thinking beyond just what’s happening to these patients in their own four walls,” care coordination software provider CarePort Founder and CEO Lissy Hu told Skilled Nursing News.
An analysis of over 90,000 custodial patients from 517 skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) across the country found that patient preferences continue to evolve as more long-term stay residents are now looking for ways to move back home.
Marasigan said he is just following the changing landscape.
“We understand that nationwide, there was a big decline in referrals and it has become very competitive,” he said. “Something that we are looking into for 2022 is really building back that relationship with our referral sources.”
After acquiring a 64-bed SNF in August, 2020, Marasigan knows that the home is the desired care setting for most patients in 2022 and is focused on expanding existing services to serve a more complex patient base.
“We want to expand our services to the community. We want to provide unique services like dialysis and services that the community might need,” he said. “We are working with the hospitals and health plans, where we have 24 hour RNs and provide IV therapy for short-term patients, and send them back home.”