Positive Outcomes of Culture Change
Revenue
A recent study entitled "Occupancy and Revenue Gains from Culture Change in Nursing Homes: A Win-Win Innovation for a New Age of Long-Term Care," found positive outcomes and revenue gains from culture change adoption. Experts in culture change were asked to identify facilities that "best exemplified homes engaged in sustained culture change innovation." This was defined as homes engaged in change for two years or more in key areas of care practice, environment, and workplace. Adopters were compared with a control group of similar homes on two variables: occupancy, percentage of beds occupied, and revenue per bed per day. Data are from 2004, pre-culture change, and 2008, after adopters had been engaged in culture change for at least two years.
Key Findings
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From 2004 to 2008, nursing homes in the adopting group experienced a modest but significant improvement in occupancy compared with the control group. Both groups had occupancy rates of 86 percent before culture change was implemented in 2004, but by 2008, the occupancy rates of adopter homes increased to 89 percent, while those in the control group remained at 86 percent.
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Revenue increased significantly for adopter homes when compared with control-group homes. Implementing culture change resulted in an additional $11.43 per bed per day for a 140-bed nursing home. This translates to an additional $584,073 in revenue per year for the adopter home.
The Bottom Line
Nursing homes engaging in culture change can not only improve their residents' quality of life, but can also achieve better financial returns.