Partnership & Referral Network

Overview

TheKey's Partnership & Referral Network is the structured system through which the company generates client leads and builds ongoing relationships with healthcare institutions, community organizations, and professional service providers. Hospital discharge planners, social workers, occupational therapists, geriatric care managers, senior living communities, and financial/legal professionals all serve as referral sources. Because a significant share of new client starts trace back to these professional relationships, cultivating and maintaining the network is a core business development function across all markets — including Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary.

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Key People

• Timothy Thomas (Client Care Manager, Montreal) — authored the bulk of hospital-to-home outreach emails from 2016–2018; primary point of contact for discharge planner relationships in his market.
• Julie Paquet — led outreach to Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital Laval and drafted the discharge planner letter template (2019).
• Geoff McCallum — distributed regulatory briefing on Bill 7 (Ontario's amended Public Hospitals Act) to equip staff with talking points for discharge planner conversations (2022-10).
• Matt Vijayan — coaching call lead for Vancouver and Toronto West markets; tracked hospital outreach activities and coached local managers on referral development (2022).
• Kim McConnell / Joey Taylor — coordinated ClearCare entry of new referral partners at Jewish General Hospital (2024-06).
• Timon Page — reported referral activity including discharge planner engagement at Credit Valley Hospital and referrals from Highview Residences (2024-07).
• Michele Boehmer — facilitated the corporate Referral Marketing – Hospital Discharge Planners webinar (2015-08).
• Walter Bruno, Gerry Devlin, Wafa Akiki, Lucy Di Cesar, Mike Rourke, Deborah Radcliffe-Branch — local market staff engaged in post-hospitalization referral outreach.

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Processes & Policies

Identifying Referral Partners

• Referral sources fall into two categories: Business-to-Business (hospitals, assisted living/memory care communities, skilled nursing facilities, financial advisors, attorneys, geriatric care managers) and Business-to-Consumer (partner leads, internet, Google/web leads). [Qualifying_Tier_4.txt]
• Hospital outreach requires identifying the correct contact per floor, as discharge planning is typically organized floor-by-floor, not centrally. [Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital Laval - summary — 2019-04-26 — Julie Paquet]

Adding Partners to ClearCare

• New referral partners must be entered into ClearCare by authorized staff. Requests are submitted with full contact details: name, title, department, phone/extension, and facility address. [Referral Partner — 2024-06-06 — Kim McConnell]

Outreach Tactics

• Direct letters/brochures: Sent to discharge planners with service overviews including hospital sitters and hospital-to-home care. [Letter to discharge planners — 2019-04-25 — Julie Paquet]
• Lunch-In meetings: One-on-one meetings with hospital doctors, discharge planners, and social workers to introduce services. [Lunch-In — 2016-05-25 — Timothy Thomas]
• CEU Webinars: Continuing Education Units offered to hospital staff (discharge planners, social workers, RNs, aging life care professionals) as relationship-building tools. [CEU Webinar Marketing Kit and Strategies — 2016-05-20]
• Regulatory briefings: Sharing relevant policy changes (e.g., Bill 7) as conversation starters with discharge planners and social workers. [Bill 7 — 2022-10-13 — Geoff McCallum]

At Initial Client Referral

• Intake captures: referral source, company name, hospital name (if applicable), what prompted the call, anticipated discharge date, and any co-occurring services (PT, OT, hospice). [TheKey_Sales_Process_Final.txt]
• Case managers (social workers or nurses) meet with the client, family, social worker, discharge planner, and physical therapist to assess needs before service starts. [Post Hospitalization Care — 2016-02-09 — Timothy Thomas]

Service Issue Escalation (SLI)

• A Service Level Issue (SLI) report must be completed whenever a referral partner relationship or client relationship is at risk. Examples: no-call/no-show to a client, service issues at a senior living community. [Copy_SLI_Operations_Process.txt]

Assessment SLA

• All in-person assessments are completed within 1–3 days, prioritized by level of need, timing of start of care, and referral source. [Updated_SLA_Client_Experience.txt]

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Timeline & Key Events

| Date | Event |

|---|---|

| 2015-08 | Corporate webinar on Referral Marketing – Hospital Discharge Planners; Francesca acknowledged as contributor. |

| 2016-01 to 2018-09 | Timothy Thomas conducts sustained post-hospitalization outreach across multiple Montreal-area facilities. |

| 2016-05 | CEU Webinar Marketing Kit distributed to markets as a referral-building tool. |

| 2019-04 | Julie Paquet calls Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital Laval to identify discharge planners; learns floor-by-floor structure; sends brochures and letters. |

| 2022-08 | Matt Vijayan coaching call documents Vancouver outreach: meetings booked at Lions Gate with social workers/discharge planners; visits at St. Paul's. |

| 2022-10 | Geoff McCallum distributes Bill 7 briefing to equip teams with hospital discharge talking points ahead of Ontario's Nov. 20 Public Hospitals Act amendment. |

| 2022-11 | Matt Vijayan coaching follow-up targets Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital and Credit Valley Hospital for Toronto West (Amanda Ilines). |

| 2024-06 | Kim McConnell requests ClearCare entry for Zedekia Elijah Miseda, Occupational Therapy, Jewish General Hospital — processed by Joey Taylor. |

| 2024-07 | Timon Page reports discharge planner at Credit Valley Hospital expressing strong interest; Highview Residences identified as active referral source. |

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Key Decisions

• Floor-by-floor outreach model: When hospital administration cannot provide a central discharge planner contact, outreach is directed floor-by-floor to individual social workers. [Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital Laval - summary — 2019-04-26]
• ClearCare as system of record: All referral partner relationships are formally logged in ClearCare; informal relationships without a ClearCare entry are not operationally recognized.
• CEUs as a relationship tool: Corporate strategy endorsed offering continuing education units to hospital professionals as a non-sales entry point for building referral relationships.
• Regulatory changes as sales enablement: Bill 7 (Ontario, Nov. 2022), which increased pressure on hospitals to discharge patients faster, was explicitly positioned as a talking point to use with discharge planners and social workers.
• Vancouver market expansion: A 2026 strategic framework identifies Alzheimer Society's First Link® program and UBC Hospital Clinic for Alzheimer's as priority outreach targets in the cognitive care segment. [03272026 Comprehensive Strategic Framework...]

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Open Questions & Gaps

• No centralized referral tracking dashboard is evident from the emails; individual managers report activity ad hoc via coaching calls and email threads. It is unclear whether ClearCare reporting is consistently used across all markets.
• Referral conversion rates are not documented — there is no evidence of systematic tracking from first contact with a discharge planner to a confirmed client start.
• Montreal market relationship status post-2019 is unclear — Julie Paquet's Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital Laval outreach is the last documented Montreal referral partner activity; no follow-up outcomes are recorded.
• Francesca (referenced in the 2015 discharge planner webinar) is not further identified — her role and whether she produced reusable materials is unknown.
• HCCSS coordinator outreach (mentioned in the 2022-11 Toronto West coaching call) is referenced but no process or contact list is documented.

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Related Topics

1. Hospital-to-Home Transition Care

2. Sales Process & Intake

3. ClearCare Operations

4. Post-Hospitalization Care Programs

5. Market Expansion & Business Development