Long-term care providers face negative perceptions and should focus on quality measurements to combat unfair portrayals, association executives said in May.

“We have in long-term care an enormous image problem,” American Health Care Association President and CEO Mark Parkinson said. AHCA has increasingly been focused on statistics and data over anecdotes, he noted.

“We have to be able to go to policymakers and say, ‘We are objectively getting better,’” Parkinson explained.

He was part of a panel convened by the American College of Health Care Administrators at the group’s convocation in Nashville. Also taking part were Larry Minnix, the president and CEO of LeadingAge, who  spoke about the importance of providing services that meet people’s wants and needs. Minnix singled out hospice care as a good example of this and encouraged a focus on “what people will pay for.”

Despite the challenges, Parkinson told McKnight’s after the discussion that he “continues to be optimistic about the sector.”