Engaging alumni is on every treatment centers’ mind. What is the best way to keep in contact with alumni? What resources should you provide alumni? How do you continue to support alumni after they leave your program?

Below are 5 ways we have seen success from in terms of engaging alumni.

1) It’s not about data collection, it is about support

If you call alumni, and go straight into survey questions, you will not be able to successfully collect the information you want to improve your program. Make sure you put the patient and their needs first. There is absolutely no incentive for the patients to provide you with their updated information without anything in it for them. If you view your alumni program as a support program which provides continual support and resources to alumni post-discharge, then you will eventually collect the outcomes information you need. Many treatment centers use One Step to keep in touch with alumni using the HIPAA compliant chat, as well as giving them the ability to share resources (videos, articles etc) with alumni. Don’t wait until the 1 month or 6 month date to introduce yourself as their alumni point of contact. Introduce yourself prior to discharge so they become familiar with you and have the benefit of attaching a face to a name.

2) Alumni Engagement is NOT the same thing as Admissions

I’ve seen many treatment centers have their admissions manager also do alumni engagement. This is a terrible idea. Alumni relations is a support program. It should be focused on patient success. Admissions is a sales machine. There are completely different, and require a different set of skills and people to run the respective programs.

3) Create a digital community

Given this day and age, it is important to think about your alumni program from a digital perspective. Some programs only focus on the alumni that are in the same city as the treatment center by holding alumni dinners every quarter. It is okay to do in person events, but it is just as important or even more important to create a digital community for alumni. That way if they move away or are unable to attend the quarterly dinner, they still have a consistent way to keep in touch with you and other alumni.

4) Stay in contact regularly

Don’t wait until you want to collect information from an alumni to reach out. Reach out even before they are discharged to introduce yourself and be a supporter of theirs from the beginning. It is important to develop a relationship with them. You should be in contact with them weekly especially at the beginning.

5) Treat it as an investment

Building a robust alumni program is difficult and takes a lot of resources. If you try and do it with minimum resources, it will fail. An alumni program is an investment in the future of your patients’ success and should not be treated as merely a line item of your expenses.

If you want to learn more about how treatment centers use One Step to build and maintain an alumni program, email info@onestepsoftware.com or fill out the contact form below.

As there is more and more pressure from insurance and government sources, as well as the Joint Commission, it is important for treatment centers to get serious about collecting outcomes of their program and their patients.

Admittedly, figuring out which metrics to track and how to track them is challenging. One Step works with over 500 facilities and sober homes to help them do exactly that. Let’s discuss how you should approach measuring outcomes.

1) Figure out which metrics to track and how you define each metric

This is probably the hardest part. I recommend sitting down with your team and brainstorming what metrics you care about as an organization. It is just as important to include the clinicians as it is to include the admissions teams in these decisions. We at One Step always recommend that you start with basic metrics and not overcomplicate things.

Some recommended metrics:

• # of Admissions
• # of Discharges by Type (Normal, ASA etc)
• % Substance of Choice
• % MAT
• # of Successes During Program
• # of Successes Post Program (1 month, 3 month, 6 month)
• % Employed Upon Discharge

2) Define what each metric measures

Each metric you pick must be defined so that you and your team knows exactly how each metric is measured. For example, let’s take % employed upon discharge. Do you count those that dont provide any employment information into your statistics? What is the definition of employed – does contact work count? Volunteer work? All of this must be defined clearly.

3) Discuss how you are going to track them

Now that you have a list of metrics you want to track, you have to figure out how you are going to measure them. Without collecting individual patient data, your aggregate outcomes metrics will be non-existent. It is important to understand who in your organization is responsible for data collection and making sure patients and alumni are filling out the appropriate information. Upon intake, make sure all this information is filled out appropriately. Then, periodically during treatment, most facilities have patients fill out surveys to evaluate them – this is a requirement by the Joint Commission. Upon discharge, they should again fill out the requested information. Post discharge collection of data is the most tricky. We recommend having 1 dedicated person on the team to handle alumni relations. This person should call alumni 1x per week and collect as much up to date information as possible so you have a complete picture of the patient during and post treatment. Many treatment centers use One Step so the alumni relations manager can track whom they have contacted and update their records. They can also use One Step’s HIPAA compliant chat to message alumni to ask questions or send surveys to fill out.

4) Understand how you are going to analyze the data

It is very important to figure out who on the team will be responsible for analyzing the aggregate data collected. This person should measure the data every quarter, and on an annual basis.

This is exactly why treatment centers use One Step – all of the metrics and aggregation of data is done programmatically. Calculating all of it and figuring out which data to include and which not to include would be laborious if done by hand.

5) Develop a plan of action on how to implement changes based on what the data says

Once you analyze all the data being collected, you should have a process to evaluate the data and come to conclusions that would better your program. This step is crucial, after all, what is the point of collecting data if there is no feedback loop? Once data is collected, we recommend having a quarterly meeting with the team to go over all the data collected and coming up with a short term plan of action and which changes you will be implementing in your program.

If you’d like to start using One Step to help you measure outcomes, email info@onestepsoftware.com to set up a demo. You can also fill out the contact form below, and we will get in touch with you to set up a time to talk!

NPS stands for Net Promoter Score. After you purchased something online, you may have received an email from the company asking “How was your experience with us? Would you recommend us to a friend? This is the company trying to gauge their NPS.

Many of the treatment centers and sober livings we work with are now starting to measure NPS from their patients upon discharge. NPS is a great metric for you to see how happy people are with your program. It is a surefire way to gauge your client experience.

NPS is measured on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being someone not likely to recommend your program to their friends. Promoters are people that respond with a 9 or 10. Passives are people that respond with a 7 or 8. Detractors are those that respond with a 0 to 6. The formula to calculate NPS is:

NPS = % Promoters – % Detractors

Businesses love NPS because it is an easy survey to assess the effectiveness of their business, especially a business that runs on referrals.  Typically after someone has clicked a number from 0 to 10, it is recommended that you ask a follow up question to learn more details.

Here are some example of follow up questions that can help you improve your customer experience.

If someone is a Promoter:

What in specific would you recommend to a friend about our program?

1. Staff were professional, smart and educated
2. Staff genuinely cared about me
3. Good food
4. Nice facility
5. Program really works

If someone is a Detractor:

What would you say is the most important aspect of our business that needs to be improved?

1. More professional, educated staff
2. Different therapeutic methods and clinical program
3. Nicer facility
4. Better food
5. Staff need to be retrained on how to be empathetic

Using One Step, you can easily create an NPS form and share it with your alumni. If you would like to learn more, fill out the form below and we can show you the benefits of sending surveys to alumni using One Step!