Given the chance to question a Washington correspondent for a major broadcast news organization this week, long-term care leaders didn’t drill down on budget reconciliations, Medicare coverage or healthcare reform.
Instead, they wanted to know what Major Garrett, keynote speaker at AHCA’s annual Congressional fly-in, thought of the rise of social media and “content.” Garrett willingly indulged the audience with his (mostly negative) views on “content,” many of which this journalist would agree with him on.
But the more he went on, the more it became clear that his distaste for superficial content, i.e. clickbait, held some lessons for long-term care providers and their line of work, too.
The message here this week was resoundingly one about storytelling. There was a session designed to teach providers how to tell their story in the media, and multiple speakers implored long-term care leaders to fill their Capitol Hill visits with details that might turn a lawmaker’s ear.
The fact is, the media will gladly take your content. They’ll go crazy over activities that show our dear old seniors playing silly games that might just go viral. Sure, those videos have their place in emphasizing the quality of life your residents deserve and the lengths your staff will go to to deliver a little fun.
But it’s often the deeper coverage of nursing homes that’s missing in mainstream media.
It’s up to you to move beyond content in favor of the “X” factor. It’s context that makes for a real story, drives public sentiment and, eventually, if you’re really good and there are enough of you, policy.
Content and context. So close but so far apart.
While healthcare workers won sympathy early after COVID-19 hit nursing homes, consumer advocates have won the storytelling battle later in the pandemic. And because many nursing homes were too busy putting out pandemic-related fires, they didn’t have the bandwidth to battle back against misplaced or unfair allegations.
AHCA’s Clif Porter acknowledged as much in DC on Tuesday, noting that consumer advocates had also won over Congress and the Biden administration — making the battle to come that much tougher.
Now, the storyline has been set, and it continues to perpetuate itself. Any provider who pushes back against more regulation at a time of deep, systemic crisis is billed as draining the system of money for its own financial gain.
The social media and “news” feeds of those who think they know how nursing homes work will continue to deliver the kinds of stories that reinforce their beliefs. The stories that run counter will have a harder time breaking through.
But attention spans are minimal these days, largely thanks to all that cheesy, context-less content.
That’s why AHCA stressed the importance of being in person with Congress members this week; sometimes the latest details shared are the most salient, and sometimes it’s a simple moment of impact that will resonate with someone in the position to shape policy.
The ability of a multifaceted story to affect emotion and real change is, to me, why context — not content — will always be king.
Kimberly Marselas is senior editor of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.
Opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News columns are not necessarily those of McKnight’s.
