How Compassion and Follow-Up Build a Referral Powerhouse | EP 22

In this episode of Healthcare Marketing Edge, Tim Bouchard and Mollie Fischer, Regional Director of Business Development at Allegheny Health Network Hospice, discuss what it takes to build a referral powerhouse in one of the most emotionally sensitive corners of healthcare. They explore why compassion functions as a core competency rather than a soft skill, how educating referral partners and families turns hesitation into action, and why closing the loop after every referral is what builds lasting trust. Mollie shares how eight years of genuine relationship-building made her the person providers call by name, why hospices shouldn’t apologize for margin, and how following up on every case moves an account from occasional to reliable. The conversation emphasizes that when you lead with empathy, education, and real value, the referrals follow.

Tim Bouchard (00:00)
Welcome to Healthcare Marketing Edge, where we share stories and strategies to grow your practice. I’m Tim Bouchard from Luminous, a healthcare marketing agency specializing in helping practices acquire patients and grow their practice. Today we’re talking about one of the toughest and most meaningful corners of healthcare business development, the hospice side of healthcare. Our guest is Molly Fisher, Regional Director of Business Development at Allegheny Health Network Hospice, who’s been successful with the same company for

Tim Bouchard (00:25)
Eight years plus making relationships, education, and compassion her course strategy. So if you build your practice through referrals, especially emotionally sensitive types of practices, this episode will definitely give you more to think about about how you can expand and build that network and and reach your target audience. So Molly, welcome. It’s awesome to have you. Why don’t you tell

Mollie (00:44)
Thank you. It’s so nice to be here.

Tim Bouchard (00:46)
yeah, tell everyone a little bit about who you are and what you do in the organization.

Mollie (00:51)
Yeah, so I am, as Tim said, I’m Molly. I am the regional director of business development, I like to say. in our corporate structure, I’m the regional director of sales for the hospice side, the hospice arm of the network I work for. Work for a very large health network here in Pittsburgh and in the surrounding counties. And I’ve been with Allegheny Health Network eight years now. I was previously in home health, sales and marketing, and after I got my master’s in business, pretty much immediately a few weeks later, transitioned over into hospice.

Mollie (01:21)
And I’ve been there ever since.

Tim Bouchard (01:23)
Yeah, sounds like a pretty smooth transition given the background in home care and all that good stuff.

Mollie (01:28)
Yeah, I was actually also a hospice and nursing home social worker prior to deciding to move into a more business focus. I got my master’s in healthcare administration and an MBA. And knowing sort of I wanted to shift that direction as I grew into the roles and whatnot. And I always knew I wanted to land back in hospice.

Tim Bouchard (01:47)
I imagine that’s definitely helped in your role now kind of bringing those two things together. you’ve it’s it’s definitely not a normal sector of healthcare to do quote unquote business development and sales and you know, when you

Mollie (02:00)
Mm-hmm.

Tim Bouchard (02:01)
think of healthcare it’s always weird throwing around those terms. it you know, it’s a much different type of care program and and what you’re providing people. What

Tim Bouchard (02:12)
Why don’t you talk about the differences a little bit? Because that kind of sets the foundation for how you approach building those relationships and growth strategies.

Mollie (02:18)
Mm.

Tim Bouchard (02:19)
So kind of set that differentiation of this type of business development and healthcare versus others.

Mollie (02:27)
Right. Well, and this is this end of healthcare, home health and hospice is all I’ve really known. I’ve never done pharma sales, I’ve never done like nursing home sniff side, assisted living, sales and marketing, getting people into my building. I’ve only ever known this side of care. But I certainly think it there’s differentiators there, of course. Like I can’t walk into a social worker’s office or a doctor’s office and say, Hey, who do you have for me that needs physical therapy? Who do you have for me that just readmitted

Tim Bouchard (02:54)
Mm-hmm.

Mollie (02:54)
to the hospital? And it’s an easy

Mollie (02:57)
Decision. Hospice is an emotional decision. It’s giving families permission, per sometimes permission they didn’t even know they needed to ask for. And it’s an uncomfortable conversation. A lot of doctors don’t want to have this conversation. A lot of practitioners, nursing home social workers, SNP social work, they don’t have time to have these conversations nor comfort level. So a big part of what’s important in this realm of sales is being able to be a resource to these folks and come in and say, like,

Mollie (03:26)
I’m not here to pressure you. My sale, my cell is who I am and my empathy and my compassion to get them to trust me in a way that I can help their patients.

Tim Bouchard (03:37)
Yeah, definitely tapping into your background certainly helps with that that too, I’m sure.

Mollie (03:40)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Tim Bouchard (03:41)
You know, you’ve been you’ve been around this company for eight years, you’ve been in the field, around the field in the education around this. also like I’m if you’ve been dedicated to this field for a while professionally now too. What’s kept

Mollie (03:54)
Mm-hmm.

Tim Bouchard (03:55)
you in it and and interested in this side of healthcare?

Mollie (03:59)
Yeah, you know, I think I have a unique skill set for holding space for people. I’ve th there’s no faster way to shut down a party or a conversation with someone new than to tell them what I do. It’s

Tim Bouchard (04:11)
Mm.

Mollie (04:11)
the easiest way to stop a conversation and say work in a hospice and then they’re ready to move on

Tim Bouchard (04:15)
Yeah.

Mollie (04:15)
and talk to someone else. But I think that my genuine interest and compassion and and ex honestly excitement for this level of care really shines through and show people.

Mollie (04:27)
it’s pretty obvious that I love what I do when I talk about it. And the way that I think that I stay grounded in that and can be in this world for so long is really touching grass and taking a minute to step outside of work, having a work life balance. you know, whatever it is that you need to do self-care wise, that’s a big buzzword right now. But those sorts of things really help. However, I just think I have a skill set that has allowed me to hold space for families, be the person that they cry to on the phone. and

Mollie (04:54)
To be fair, a lot of times I’m working in an expected outcome. I’m working with people well into their 80s and 90s, and this is the expected outcome, doesn’t make it any easier for the family, but we know

Tim Bouchard (05:04)
Mm-hmm.

Mollie (05:05)
we’re coming here. The ones that get a little bit tough for me are the younger folks. Like I’m working with a family that’s younger than me right now, and those are the ones that get a little bit difficult. But I also think it’s an honor to hold that space for people, and that’s that social work heart coming in a little bit. I’ve been accused of being a bleeding heart at times by some of our leadership here, but

Mollie (05:25)
It’s that ability to hold that space and be compassionate and help them walk through this moment. And somehow I just haven’t gotten burnt out. I just really truly find it an honor and I think that’s what holds me through.

Tim Bouchard (05:38)
I mean, the way you explain it and the way you framed it for yourself is certainly a hundred percent believable and I can already tell just by how you talk about it that that’s a hundred percent true. I think that when it comes to marketing and sales, sometimes people think that messaging is just something that’s cooked up and put out there to make conv to convince someone to do something,

Mollie (06:01)
Mm-hmm.

Tim Bouchard (06:02)
to w you know, select us because we do this. And sometimes it feels like empty statements, you know, how

Tim Bouchard (06:08)
How do you it is it’s a very strange spot to market and sell into. How do you make sure that that is something that people can feel confident in when you’re putting these types of messages and this type of framing of service out there into the public?

Mollie (06:22)
Yeah, well, I’m really lucky, first of all, that I work for a network that has a lot of downstream impact for what I do. I work for a fully integrated health network. So I do have physicians that are expected, I guess, to have these conversations with me and be open to referring to me. So I am really lucky that I get to go in and sell compassion. I don’t I can get a provider to understand the need to refer. And luckily I’m in a place where

Mollie (06:51)
Probably 50 to 80% of their referrals typically are going to come to me anyway, but I still have to earn that business. Inside partners are still partners. If if

Tim Bouchard (06:59)
Mm-hmm.

Mollie (06:59)
I ignore a hospital or ignore a physician’s office, there’s 40 people coming behind me. There’s 65 licensed hospices in Allegheny County alone. There are people coming in the door behind me if I’m not there boxing out and helping them understand why they should pick us, right? But ultimately, when I can come to them as a resource and I can say, look, here’s your network hospice, but

Mollie (07:21)
Not just that, like I’m your resource. I’m the one that’s gonna talk to your patients. I’m the one that’s gonna go sit in their house, bring them a cup of coffee, and no pressure, have the conversation for you. And physicians and providers love that. It’s it’s easier to develop the relationship, like the relational side of selling and really than just sell compassion. It’s truly a core skill for me and not necessarily like a soft it’s not a soft skill. In hospice, sometimes

Mollie (07:49)
In hospice, you really need that compassion and that has to be genuine and believable. A lot of other sales I have found is empathy helps with the transaction, but for me, empathy is the transaction. That’s how I get them to say, Call Molly.

Tim Bouchard (08:05)
Mm-hmm. And I think the other part you mentioned this before too is a lot of times the people that find themselves in these situations needing this type of service, it might be their first time too. So they had they don’t even know where to start. So you’re obviously meeting them with the compassion and the empathy side, right? Fulfillment is huge. Understanding is huge. Delivering on the experience is huge.

Tim Bouchard (08:26)
but before that, there’s probably actually some level of education you’re putting out there too, because a lot of people are lost in these situations. Even if they’re referred, they’re still lost.

Mollie (08:36)
Hundred percent. Yeah. people are often making this decision in a time of crisis, in a time of grief, in a time where they don’t feel ready or prepared or fully educated to make the decision. I have found I’m I mean, I’ve been doing this for a long time, but in the last probably three to four years post-COVID, nursing homes, sniff sides, physician offices, what have you, they don’t adequately prepare people for

Mollie (09:02)
what’s coming, what they need to know, what they need to be ready for. And I’m sort of a one-stop shop with all my experience. My I have experience in SNF, hospice, and home health. And I and I understand Medicaid look backs. I understand the mechanism and function for getting onto Medicaid, for getting admitted to a nursing home from home. And I can educate and be a resource for these folks. And what I hear over and over and over again is I had this puzzle almost built on my table.

Mollie (09:30)
And there’s just pieces missing. I’ve looked everywhere and I can’t find this darn piece. And you walked in here and gave me exactly what I needed. The other thing that I think for hospice in particular, providers really struggle with giving a directive when it comes to hospice. They want to try this, they want to try that. Let’s add this medication. Come back to me in six months. Well, this patient might not even be here in six months, right? What is what are we looking at? Are we making a little adjustment on a

Mollie (09:57)
On a diuretic for a cardiac patient? Or are we really talking about how can I give you care and compassion right now today? And when I walk into a room and meet with a family and I tell them, if you’re open to hearing what I think we should do for next steps, let’s talk further, they’re always like, Yes, please. They’re begging for someone, whether they’ll say it or not, they are begging for someone to tell them, here is a path that you can take and I’ll spell it all out for you. When you resource them like that, they’re able to offload the decision.

Mollie (10:26)
And say, well, she’s the hospice woman is the one that said we should do this. And what she said really makes a lot of sense. So that it’s not the sister who lives here in Pittsburgh having to make this decision and explain to all their siblings who live in Florida, North Carolina, California, what have you. You know, I’m the I can be the fall guy for we need to do this, and here’s why, and you’re more than eligible. And then families get a minute to say, like, they get permission to move forward rather than being the decision maker to move forward. Does that make sense?

Tim Bouchard (10:55)
Yeah. Yeah. And you talked about two different sides of it too. You were talking about making sure that internal staffs cared about this type of transition too, not just the

Mollie (11:03)
Mm-hmm.

Tim Bouchard (11:04)
the end families and and people that need need the service as well. Like that’s a big deal. I’ve mentioned this a million times on this podcast and it always comes up in some capacity, no matter the health side of healthcare that someone’s on. But

Tim Bouchard (11:17)
The the more you can do up front to make someone understand that the care and services they’re going to get on the back end are the experience you’re starting to give them on the front end from approaching

Mollie (11:26)
Mm.

Tim Bouchard (11:27)
the brand, learning things about what they need and making it easy to take action is a little

Mollie (11:33)
Mm-hmm.

Tim Bouchard (11:33)
bit of that precursor to they’ll be able to help me once I get into this system. And I think that that was worth reiterating again ’cause you brought that up in a a very relatable way. But yeah, you need both sides on it too.

Tim Bouchard (11:46)
It’s almost the referrals will be easier to transition if you can get the referral providers and staff on board and they d they may not have

Mollie (11:54)
Mm-hmm.

Tim Bouchard (11:55)
the empathy and compassion skill sets that you have, but they they might be able to set the table a little bit for you if they get some of that education too.

Mollie (12:03)
If I can give them some language to get the person to me, I always tell providers, I have the hard conversation five days a week, five times a day. I can have the hard conversation for you. Here’s two phrases you can use to get a patient or a family member open to speaking to me. And then I’ll take it from there. You don’t have to do anything else. I take the onus off of the provider and the onus of the decision making off the family. You kind of shift the responsibility of that.

Mollie (12:28)
And you’re able to then get a provider to refer and get a family to say, yes, this is the way we need to go. But I also want to go back to something you said, like essentially how I present myself and how my team presents ourselves to our providers and our families. Man, if you think I’m compassionate, wait till you meet the people coming behind me. I have done, I have a family member on my hospice right now, and I’ve done visits with the nurse and the aide in the home.

Mollie (12:53)
while they’re actually providing the hospice visit and really seeing what our nurses do in the home. And I text the supervisor five minutes into the visit, this nurse is amazing. And I mean it. And man, if you think I’m great and you think I’m compassionate and I can educate you and talk about hospice, wait till you meet her. She’s incredible. And in fact a lot of my nurses have been in this industry for over 20 years with this company for 15 years. And I’m really lucky to be able to say, wait till you get to meet these folks.

Tim Bouchard (13:22)
I actually deal with that on the marketing side too. A lot of people deal with me up front, you know, starting relationships, hearing I do a lot of the educational pieces too, but

Mollie (13:29)
Mm.

Tim Bouchard (13:30)
I always say like wait until you start working with our creative director or client strategy director, like these people are the people that do the stuff. I can’t wait to have you like work with them. it goes across the board. That’s just a very good general note about brand expectations and fulfilling your brand promise on the back end. And you can apply that across

Mollie (13:46)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Tim Bouchard (13:48)
the board, but definitely worth mentioning.

Tim Bouchard (13:51)
Now, there is some level of business to this conversation too. You are trying to fill pipelines. You are trying to keep the staff and nurses and your census moving along. do you ever feel pressure on that? Does it ever change how you approach things? How do you avoid feeling pressure on it? Is maybe the better question so that you don’t change your upfront experience.

Mollie (14:14)
Can’t avoid feeling the pressure. That just is

Tim Bouchard (14:16)
Mm.

Mollie (14:17)
built in. What I try to do is help my team avoid feeling the pressure and absorb that for them as the regional director. That’s a big part of my role. But I’m also an account executive. I have a deliverable every single month. I think I can look at my experience. Like I’m lucky that I’m in a position I’ve been in this company for a long time. I could work from home for a whole week and I can blow my referral numbers out of the water if I needed to, right? I I’m lucky that I have that downstream already.

Mollie (14:43)
A newer person in this world doesn’t necessarily have that ability. But one of the things that I do to help alleviate some of the pressure in my mind is I need to remind myself that hospices don’t need to apologize for making money. You know, margin is what helps us bring in good nurses. That’s what helps us bring in good social workers, chaplains, aides, the people who are giving the frontline care. You know, when

Mollie (15:10)
Margin helps us bring in great directors and leaders who are able to lead with compassion and have that trickle-down effect to the rest of the field team. But you have to realize in hospice, my c my company is 80% home-based, meaning 80% of our patients, our census, and we have a census of over 500 patients, 80% is at home. Meaning

Tim Bouchard (15:30)
Mm-hmm.

Mollie (15:30)
you could walk into a beautiful mansion at 10 a.m. And at 11, you can walk into a hoarder home and have

Mollie (15:37)
No idea like you can hear a dog, but you can’t see it. I’ve been there as an as a hospice social worker. I was in a home where a man put a grenade on the table. It I am asking people to go into an unknown every single day. And it’s important for me to show them how much we value them. And in today’s world, it’s not a pizza party, it’s not an extra like North Bay sip-up, it’s not an extra green t-shirt.

Mollie (16:03)
As much as I love all of that, and I think my company does those things and I love that. I want to say thank you to my team and honor them and honor the work that they do, but I have to be able to pay them. And and the way I avoid turnover, the way we get good family satisfaction scores and extend our care to more and more people is by having a margin. So when I tell my team like this isn’t about saving your job, I’m not gonna pressure you as much as I can.

Mollie (16:31)
I’m gonna avoid pressuring you. I can’t micromanage. I have to deliver too. But this isn’t about saving your job, preserving your income, whatever it might be. You’re allowed to work for me as long as I can see that you’re working, even if you don’t hit your number, as long as I can see that you’re working, making effort, taking feedback from me, come and work for me, right? I’m not gonna, I don’t want to churn and burn representatives. I don’t want four people a year going into the same territory saying, now I’m the person who represents this company. That doesn’t build trust. I want people to have time.

Mollie (17:01)
But I want them to understand that we do need to bring business in and we do need to have a margin in order to give really excellent care to people.

Tim Bouchard (17:11)
Now having good brand promise and fulfillment and having that be public, you know, you’ve already talked about things like referrals and reviews and patient feedback and things or family feedback, things like that. this this is another generic branding point, but the more you establish that narrative and you build that reputation, cost can

Tim Bouchard (17:34)
will almost become a non factor regardless of margin or whatever. Because if you’re providing the best service and you become the go to all you you know, and that’s sort of how it works, then cost is of course a factor for some people, but it’s definitely not the number one factor if you can check all the other boxes. And that’s a brand note across the board. But in a trust built industry, that’s super important.

Mollie (17:57)
Yeah. Well, and I’m really lucky I’m selling something that doesn’t cost the patient or family a thing. This is something that’s paid for by Medicare. They if you paid Social Security taxes or you worked the job that took social security taxes out, even when you were 16 years old, you’ve prepaid for this level of care. What profit also helps us do and what margin helps us do is find differentiators that will benefit the patient. We have my hospice is the only group in Pennsylvania that has a children’s grief program.

Mollie (18:27)
It’s children are left out completely of the Medicare bereavement benefit after a patient passes on hospice. So rather than investing in a billboard or a TV spot or wrapping our car with our logo, we are reinvesting our margin into excellent staff and into programs that help and support families across the board.

Tim Bouchard (18:49)
Yeah, that yeah, that’s a tough one. I’m I I love hearing that ’cause that’s a that’s a tough one. We work with a non profit that does family and childhood grief, so that sort of topic works with me because we’re exposed to so many stories about it. you had mentioned that you even had some referral providers saying like

Tim Bouchard (19:12)
you know, you’re the girl that they go to. Like Molly like that’s my Molly. I’m going to Molly with the this family. I know she’s gonna like

Mollie (19:18)
Mm-hmm.

Tim Bouchard (19:20)
what’s what’s it like operating from that once you get like let’s aspirationally give

Mollie (19:25)
yeah.

Tim Bouchard (19:25)
people like why do you want to work to this? Because what’s it what’s it feel like to have that be the the reaction, the the landscape of people that want to come to you?

Mollie (19:34)
That’s such an honor, honestly. And it also shows that my eight years of work and that in that referral relationship paid off. I was driving to go pick up my kid from school and I got a phone call. It must have been like 4 45 on a Friday. I got a phone call. We need you. This family finally decided. And I know that I can call you and you’re going to get it done tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. And then we don’t have to wait the whole weekend. We don’t have to.

Mollie (20:02)
We’re not going to see them decomp and go to the hospital and be another readmission or potentially even have to pass away in a hospital. We can get care in their home. But it is such an honor to have a f a doctor’s office call me, text me. I’m in a position where I’m so lucky that doctors are texting me, checking in, can you get someone on tonight? I know you said you could in the past. Can you do it today for me? And I get to say yes. And what the answer is always yes. My the answer to my account is yes, we’ll get it done.

Mollie (20:30)
I’ll tell you what that’s going to look like in a few minutes, but yes, we’ll do it.

Tim Bouchard (20:33)
Uh-huh.

Mollie (20:33)
But it’s it also provides me the opportunity, like I said, to work from home for a week. And the phone calls are coming in. I don’t have to necessarily always be present. Like I grind, right? I still do. And I did really hard in the first couple of years in this industry and built my name. I set a goal for myself when I first started in this company that I want in the Eastern Territory where I cover.

Mollie (20:57)
For my name to be synonymous with hospice. My partner on home health and I, we always joke and we call ourselves the beasts in the east. And we want to be that person, like you’re gonna call Rob or you’re gonna call Molly. They’re gonna fix it for you and they’re gonna do what I have trusted that they will do for my patient. And I know I can call her. And man, it just helps business flow in. And, you know, I think it was toward the end of the month. I was already at my number for the month, and any I I don’t care about my number, it doesn’t really matter. But

Mollie (21:26)
It’s really nice to know that the residual work from the last eight years results in my 445 phone call. That’s another one. Another person helped.

Tim Bouchard (21:32)
I mean,

Tim Bouchard (21:34)
I was I was going to ask a lot of people, and maybe ones that are listening to this, don’t feel like they’re in that situation yet. They might be starting from that ground zero type of thing. So if you might and it’s not always use hospice is very easy to lean into this compassion and empathy side, but then there’s a lot of different

Mollie (21:51)
Mm-hmm.

Tim Bouchard (21:52)
care practices that have the need for at least empathy and definitely some compassion too, but they might be starting out

Tim Bouchard (22:00)
you know, let’s say it’s like a behavioral therapy practice. They might have one or two people and they’re just trying to start to build their referral network and become that person that someone sends to you because they know that a child can get taken care of the best with them or whatever it might be. How how might you what could they take from this conversation about where to start? How did you get

Mollie (22:19)
Mm-hmm.

Tim Bouchard (22:19)
into this ramp up to be able to be at this spot? That might be one of the best takeaways for this.

Mollie (22:25)
Sure. Yeah. I mean, I think first of all, it’s just building a relationship. Sometimes I walk into an account, I’m gonna mention hospice. Here’s my card. If you if I need you, I’ll call you. If you need me, you know someone needs hospice, call me. But first of all, like who where’d you come from? What’s your background? Or the Outer Banks is a big thing for Pittsburgh folks to go on vacation. So, you know, the

Mollie (22:48)
person in the window is not letting me anywhere. Cause I still cold call. Even though I have a network, I cold call a lot of places. I’ve been kicked out of places recently, not because of me, but because they don’t want marketers in there. But you know, I still go and cold call. But first thing I’m gonna do is here’s my card. Call me if you need me. But did you just go to Nag’s head? Or were you there last summer? Were you there on that hottest week of the year? It was I was there. It was awful. What’s your favorite place to eat in Nag’s head? And then she’s open to talking to me or he’s more open to talking to me. And we’ve built a relationship, I go back next week.

Mollie (23:18)
Because it might be just a B or C account, but the only way I can move it to an A account is presence and genuine connection. So those are the first thing two things I would say. The next thing I always do is I take a little case study, I guess you could call it. And when a physician refers to me that I haven’t been in the office for a while or it’s new, I will go in and say, Hey, I just want you to know we just got them on service and their nurse is Elaine and she’s one of my favorites. You guys are gonna that family’s gonna love her.

Mollie (23:47)
You guys are gonna love how she, you know, coordinates and connects with your office. She’s gonna take such great care of them. And then when the patient passes, I go back to the office and say, hey, I want you to know that they passed. They should already be id, you know, notified by my team, but I want you to know that they passed away. Here’s what the family said. We’re actually included in the obituary. my team and I were able to go to the funeral home and visit the family and I show them what we did and how we did it. And the family then they get to call the family, the family gives positive feedback and then they’re ready.

Mollie (24:17)
Next time that I’m at the top of the Rolidex because I have followed up every single piece of this for you. And when you’re new in referral business, you have plenty of time to do that.

Tim Bouchard (24:26)
Mm-hmm.

Mollie (24:27)
There are some months where I get 80 referrals for hospice and not all of them admit, but I don’t have all the time in the world, all the time to do that now. But also being the regional director, coaching, educating meetings, board meetings, what have you. But if you’re brand new and you’re only getting five and six referrals a month, and you know, for some hospices, that’s all you need really to sustain profit.

Mollie (24:47)
then you have all the time in the world to go and build confidence with your referral sources and say, Man, we did such a great job. And also we found out it was their birthday and we took them a birthday cake or we did an anniversary party for them or something. And that really builds that trust.

Tim Bouchard (25:02)
Don’t forget to close the loop. But you

Mollie (25:04)
Mm-hmm.

Tim Bouchard (25:05)
know, that your your story back to them isn’t just a case study for the world. It’s a case study for the referral source too. You know, tell and that that reflects well on them too. They brought they they started that loop. You closed it and you’re bringing

Mollie (25:15)
Mm-hmm.

Tim Bouchard (25:18)
it back around to them. And the more you do that, it just reinforces that. that’s a really good one. before we wrap up, is there anything I haven’t asked that you d definitely wanted to work into this episode? ‘Cause I want to give you time to

Tim Bouchard (25:31)
To put anything else, a bow on top of this, if you will.

Mollie (25:35)
As you can tell, I could probably talk about hospice and business development and sales and data and et cetera for years. I could go for years and not stop. it would be a long episode and probably boring to everyone but me and maybe my boss, who I think is

Tim Bouchard (25:44)
That would be a long episode.

Mollie (25:52)
somehow more nerdy about this than I am, but that’s why we make a great team. no, I think it’s important to know whether you’re selling pharma, behavioral health.

Mollie (26:02)
Whatever it is in healthcare, move out of the thought of sales. Sales will come. Go be a compassionate, empathetic person who believes in the product that you’re delivering to people. Look at your data, be smart, bring value to your accounts, and the referrals will come. I think one thing I teach my team, and hammer home. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been here longer than me or you’ve worked in hospice sales and marketing longer than me.

Mollie (26:31)
I have someone on my team who’s worked in it significantly longer than I have, but I hammer home with even her. What’s the value you’re bringing to your account? How are you shifting onus, responsibility, work, equipment ordering? Something as simple as that. What’s the value you can bring to them? And when you provide value, you will get people calling you. You will get people saying, like,

Mollie (26:55)
I want her to come back and talk to this patient because I always learn something when I talk to her. You know, you can just drop it into conversation. I was at a f on the floor of an assisted living talking with some nursing staff and just sort of dropped in like I was checking in on the patient that we had moved in there. So by the way, we moved a patient in there, they’re making six thousand dollars a month because assisted livings here are all private pay. So my business relationship is beneficial for them as as much as it is for me. But did

Tim Bouchard (27:22)
Mm-hmm.

Mollie (27:22)
you know by the way that

Mollie (27:24)
She was el would you have even thought she was eligible for hospice when you first saw her? And they’re like, no, she’s like up and walking around. But then that I can drop in a couple pieces of education about criteria to get admitted for dementia on hospice, criteria for cardiac diagnosis admissions, things like that. And then they said from that one conversation, just a little drop in of like, if you see someone that’s has X, Y, or Z, give me a call. I think we might be able help them. They called the patient’s family while I was standing there.

Mollie (27:54)
The next day I met with them and we got them admitted to hospice. It’s just about educating and being compassionate and genuinely excited about what you do, and it’s gonna come.

Tim Bouchard (28:02)
I like that. I think that’s something that especially early on, people might be down on themselves for not going far enough and doing it. And I think one, having a good example and story about how it’s been done has been helpful. And two, the reminder that if you take care of the fulfillment and the promise that a lot of the other things will come with that. I think that’s a good

Mollie (28:20)
Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

Tim Bouchard (28:23)
yeah, good job. That was a great button and bow to put on top of this

Mollie (28:27)
Perfect.

Tim Bouchard (28:27)
this episode. Yeah, I d genuinely like it

Tim Bouchard (28:32)
I I don’t want overstate it, but it’s a nice inspiring story driven and example driven episode. And I think you did a very good job framing both the size side of the education side and the brand promise side and the fulfillment side. All awesome stuff. So thanks for bringing that to the conversation. Why don’t you tell everyone a little bit about where they can find you and more about the organization before we wrap up too?

Mollie (28:52)
Yeah.

Mollie (28:53)
Yeah. So personally I have a TikTok that educates specifically just about hospice. It is not related to my company at all. All the views and everything that I express there is just smolly. It’s called Pittsburgh Hospice Talk. I sort of ADHD’d myself off of TikTok several months ago. So I got to get back on it. But there is a ton of content there where you can just learn about hospice and really educate yourself about maybe there’s someone walking around in my neighborhood today that’s eligible for hospice and they don’t even know because they’re not bedbound, right?

Mollie (29:22)
so you can certainly find me there. I’m not as active as I should be on LinkedIn, but you can find me on LinkedIn and you can find more information about my company, Allegheny Health Network, online. we are under the Healthcare at Home branch, which is the home health hospice infusion and equipment branch, and there’s lots of information about us there.

Tim Bouchard (29:40)
Awesome. listeners, if you want to strengthen your brand and communication style to build referral relationships that turn you into the preferred partner, as we’ve been talking about today, check out our patient pipeline blueprint session offer it’s a workshop to undercover how you can attract more patients and convert those those inquiries into appointments for your practice. Learn more at luminous.agency slash blueprint. And don’t forget to subscribe to Healthcare Marketing Edge on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. Molly, thanks for being on the show. We’ll see everyone on the next one.