Opinion Piece: Featuring Lou Ann Brubaker on Support SNF Clients in a COVID-19 Era

“How could my pharmacy better support our SNF clients right now?”

This question is where one of my routine virtual coffee chats started with a client recently, and it sparked some valuable discussion that I thought I’d share:

We began the virtual coffee chat by talking about how many skilled nursing facilities were at a near-breaking point before any of us ever heard about COVID-19. Regulations, staffing, admissions -- the challenges SNFs faced before the pandemic will remain after the pandemic.

But the big difference we’ll face now is how COVID-19 has traumatized SNF staff. Not only have staff lost residents they’ve both cared for, and also deeply cared about, but some have lost colleagues to this virus, too.

Layered into this complex web is the media’s vilification of senior care workers within almost every news medium. If you’ve been spared from this so far, think about how it would feel to be relentlessly attacked in your chosen occupation for five consecutive months on TV, in newspapers, and on the Internet.

Now, more than ever before, a pharmacy’s demonstration of empathy and kindness matters.

As we continued the conversation, I recommended to my client that he should start holding internal discussions about the level of compassion his team conveys within every single pharmacy-to-facility staff interaction. For example, try ending phone calls with “Before I let you go, tell me how YOU’RE doing. Is there anything else YOU need?” People will remember that you both asked, and more importantly, that you listened. Even the simple is meaningful.

We also discussed how facility leadership needs more wins. I suggested that he should work hard to impart good news by sharing (at least weekly) what is going well at the SNF from the pharmacy’s perspective. For example, he could send compliments to facility leadership about a staff member: “I wanted to tell you how proactive Carole is in reaching out to us with any concerns--and how thorough she is in providing us with the information we need.” Trust me, this sort of feedback will get passed along and it reinforces that you notice how, despite COVID-19, the facility staff is really on top of things.

Then, we explored how any previous occupancy and payer mix challenges, coupled with increased workforce and supply costs due to COVID-19, have further impacted SNF revenue and margin. COVID-19 damages many facilities’ reputations and will likely affect future referral streams.

I advised that his pharmacy’s value proposition would be enhanced if it can give SNF clients the ammunition (data) to remain a facility of choice. SNFs need both clinical AND financial metrics to keep their preferred seat at the referrer/MCO table. The ability to provide solid medication management remains a driver of a facility’s attractiveness in the eyes of third-party payers. There’s a lot that pharmacies can do to better support SNF clients right now.

I’m looking forward to our next conversation where we unpack insightful questions like the one posed by my client – as questions like this make me confident in the future success of long-term care pharmacies.