Diagnose your building
Put it all together on any facility — including yours.
The hook
#🔍 The cold read
You sit down with a building’s numbers — maybe yours, maybe a sister site. Six numbers, one question: what’s the cheapest move to the next star, and how do I get it funded?
#The real idea
The 4-step read (your working method):
- Score it. Look up all six measures, sum, find the current star and the distance to the next band.
- Find the cheapest crossing. Price each viable lever to the next lane (retention saves and weekend coverage usually beat buying RN/aide hours; admin departures may recover on their own). Pick lowest cost-per-point that actually crosses the line.
- Put dollars on it. Translate the cheapest plan into a quarter cost, and the win into protected referral volume + (verified) state add-on dollars.
- Match the ask to ownership. Lean → "cheapest escape from 1★, here’s the number." Spend-heavy → the tier staircase.
#🍁 Maple Grove example
Worked example — Riverbend Health & Rehab
Not Maple Grove this time — Riverbend Health & Rehab; 110 residents, lean ownership:
RN HPRD 0.46 → 40
Total HPRD 3.20 → 30
Weekend 2.80 → 15
Total turnover 60% → 15
RN turnover 46% → 25
Admin departures 1 → 25
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total = 150 → 1★ (just 5 points under the 155 line)Cheapest crossing: two workers are turnover-eligible (120+ hrs/90 days) and drifting toward a 90-day gap. One recorded shift each, same employee ID, before day 90 → total turnover 60% → ≤57.6% → +5 points → 155 → 2★, for roughly the cost of one short shift (~$60–400). Compare: buying the same crossing as new aide hours ≈ $16K, or RN hours ≈ $37K. Same star, ~100× the cost. The ask to lean ownership: "one retention move clears Riverbend out of 1★ this quarter — here’s the dollar figure," not a 5-star package.
#Remember this
Score → cheapest crossing → dollars → ownership-matched ask. The cheapest crossing is rarely "more hours."
#Try it 👉
Riverbend is 150/1★ and 5 points short. Cheapest crossing?