PruittHealth grows access to post-acute care for seniors

COVID-19 took its toll on everyone in the healthcare industry including PruittHealth, a leading post-acute care provider. For more than 50 years the family-owned organization has provided a seamless network of service across the Southeastern United States, but the pandemic presented the company with new challenges to its high-performing skilled nursing business.

Industry labor shortages and facility admission restrictions stunted revenue growth. Inflation and rising costs led to margin pressures. This created a “perfect storm” of conditions inhibiting PruittHealth’s ability to grow as skilled nursing revenue declined by nearly $75M with a steep hit to the contribution margin.

PruittHealth led in recognizing the need to stabilize not solely through cost cutting, but by focusing on growth despite market headwinds. To execute, PruittHealth partnered with Accenture to develop business growth strategies focused on sales effectiveness, cost optimization, and talent acquisition and retention to return the skilled nursing business back to growth.

Over 18 months, PruittHealth and Accenture worked to address challenges including access to care for post-acute patients and sustained financial growth to fuel future investments.

PruittHealth is now exceeding business growth expectations to the tune of +4.8% revenue growth and +4.0% contribution margin growth above engagement baseline, outpacing the industry to achieve tangible financial results.

“Following the unprecedented disruption to the healthcare industry, our engagement with Accenture leveraged a data-centric methodology to improve our processes and be well-positioned for future growth,” said Neil L. Pruitt, Jr. / Chairman and CEO, PruittHealth. “We are confident the insights and strategies gained will expand access to high-quality health care in the communities we have the privilege to serve each day.”

Enabling growth through recruitment and retention

During the pandemic, the health industry observed high staff turnover. Federal vaccine mandates and rising wage pressures hampered PruittHealth’s ability to attract and retain talent.

Accenture helped redesign and implement recruitment strategies and retention programs for registered nurses (RNs) and certified nursing assistants (CNAs). A new onboarding process ensured new hires hit the ground running. Trainers focused on core competencies and enabled staff with the right tools to make an impact on day one. The team right-sized clinician compensation to improve competitiveness and offered sign-on bonuses in specific markets.

Social/physical distancing and mandatory quarantine protocols led to unique challenges that inhibited admissions growth and lessened the patient/family experience. Accenture worked with facility administrators and leadership to improve operational effectiveness, balancing facility capacity with patient demand. This delicate equation propelled the organization to simultaneously drive business growth and ensure patients had safe access to skilled nursing care.

Solutions rooted in value realization

In an already margin-strained industry, PruittHealth was forced to find direct cost efficiency to combat the pressures of inflation. Accenture helped to educate facility administrators and improve cost visibility within categories using benchmarks and efficiency ratios to thoughtfully target cost reductions.

The two companies collaborated on this value-based engagement by standing up a transformation office led by an executive steering committee hyper-focused on value realization. This system of governance allowed for greater flexibility throughout execution based on data and actual realized value.

Additionally, Accenture activated the ready to grow toolkit offering an integrated approach to growth strategies and opportunity execution. The toolkit applies analytic insights using a quantitative, market-based, competitive analysis of each facility’s growth opportunity based on their “fair share” capture of Medicare admissions.

This analysis paired with Accenture’s ready to grow facility checklist informed realistic admissions targets to enable sellers and facility operators to collaborate and return to a growth mindset.

By reimagining its sales and admissions model, PruittHealth is now better equipped to collaborate with hospitals and referring providers to seamlessly continue care as patients transition into a post-acute care setting.