"The goal of every project is to plan well, execute with style, and be easy to work with."
Patients don’t enter care late
because hospice isn’t available.
They enter late because
understanding happens too late.
We help hospice and home care teams close the gap between referral and family understanding — so patients enter care sooner, when support can do the most good.
THE PROBLEM
Hospice is often introduced at the right moment — but families don’t always understand it soon enough to act.
A provider makes the referral.
A liaison explains care.
Everyone does their best.
But then families go home and begin processing:
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Is this too soon?
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Does hospice mean giving up?
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What happens next?
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Are we really ready?
That delay between introduction and understanding can cause patients to enter care later than teams would ideally want.
This isn’t just an awareness problem.
It’s a referral timing problem.
CaseStudy: RVNAhealth
Clarifying Care Before Crisis
The Challenge
RVNAhealth offers a full continuum of care — including hospice, home health, rehabilitation, and support services — but many patients and families don’t fully understand how those services fit together until they are already in a moment of need. That creates a timing problem.
When care is understood too late:
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families hesitate
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referral conversations are harder to reinforce
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staff repeat the same explanations under pressure
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opportunities for earlier support can be missed
The Insight
The issue wasn’t awareness.
It was understanding — early enough to change what happens next.
The Approach
We designed a video-based communication system to help patients, families, and referral sources understand care earlier in the decision-making process.
The goal was not simply to “make videos.”
It was to create tools RVNAhealth could use to reinforce important conversations before families were already in crisis.
The system was designed to:
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clarify how services fit together
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humanize care through real voices
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support provider, patient, and family understanding
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give staff tools they could use across web, email, and outreach
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make complex care easier to understand before decisions become urgent
The Result
The result was a scalable communication system that helped RVNAhealth tell a clearer story across services and support more informed conversations with patients, families, and referral sources.
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The work helped create:
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clearer understanding across the continuum of care
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stronger internal alignment
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more useful tools for staff and outreach
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better support for patient and caregiver education
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a stronger foundation for earlier, clearer care conversations
“At RVNAhealth, we've been partnering with Noah Manheimer for several years.
Noah takes the time to genuinely understand our continuum of care—not just the services, but the people behind them and the families we serve.
Healthcare is complicated, and the moment families need to navigate it is rarely a calm one.
Noah helps us tell that story clearly and compassionately, so our community understands how we can help long before a crisis arrives.
The work of educating earlier really does make a difference.”
- Kim Cafiero
Director of Marketing
“Noah helps us tell that story clearly and compassionately, so our community understands how we can help long before a crisis arrives.”
What This Looks Like
for Your Organization
Families rarely make hospice decisions in a single conversation.
A provider introduces care.
A liaison explains what hospice is.
The family listens, asks questions, and tries to absorb it.
Then the real processing begins.
That is often where momentum slows.
We help hospice and home care teams support that moment with clear, human-centered communication tools families can revisit after the initial conversation.
Not to replace your team.
To reinforce the work they are already doing.
1. See Where the Breakdown Is Happening
We start by looking at the moments where referrals slow down:
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Are families hesitating after hospice is introduced?
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Are providers introducing care late?
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Are liaisons repeating the same explanations?
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Are families leaving conversations still unclear about what happens next?
2. Build Tools That Support the Follow-Up Moment
From there, we create targeted video tools designed to reinforce understanding after the first conversation.
Examples might include:
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a short family-facing video sent after hospice is introduced
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a provider-facing explanation of when hospice can help most
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a patient/caregiver video clarifying what happens next
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internal tools that help referral teams communicate consistently
3. Integrate Into Real Referral Workflows
The value comes from how these tools are used.
We help integrate them into:
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liaison follow-up
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provider outreach
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intake workflows
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email/text follow-ups
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website and landing pages
So families don’t have to absorb everything in one emotionally loaded moment.
4. Help Patients Enter Care Earlier
When understanding happens earlier:
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families can make decisions with less fear
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referral teams have better tools to reinforce conversations
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patients can enter care sooner
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teams spend less time re-explaining under pressure
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care has more time to do what it is meant to do
Start With a Conversation
If patients are entering care later than your team would ideally want, the issue may not be lack of services.
It may be the gap between when care is introduced and when families fully understand what it means.
In a short conversation, we’ll look at:
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where referral momentum may be slowing down
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how families are being supported after hospice is introduced
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whether simple communication tools could help reinforce those conversations
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what a practical first step might look like
From there, we can decide whether it makes sense to explore further.