Cultivating relationships with physicians that will increase referrals

What's at the root of every aspect of the healthcare field?

Relationships.

Our human-centric business has become complex in many ways, but the heart of healthcare has and always will be relationships. Whether it's between a physician and a patient, nurses and a physician providing care or a hospital and a doctor's office, the human-centric business of healthcare relies on strong relationships to provide high-quality service. These valuable relationships don't happen overnight, however. They're cultivated over the course of months and years.

From a business perspective, one of the goals for any physician, specialist, surgeon, medical group or hospital is to receive patient referrals. Relationships provide the backbone to this important mechanism in healthcare. The business implication of low referrals can be substantial and result in lost revenue for the practice. Without an influx of new patients, it's difficult for providers to grow and invest in equipment, staff or technology.

Indeed, referrals are an essential component of sustaining and growing a hospital or medical practice. A 2013 study by Merritt Hawkins found a full-time physician brings in an average of $1.45 million in net revenue every year for its affiliated hospital.

So how can health systems cultivate these valuable relationships with physicians and increase referrals? Let's take a look:

Provide quality patient-centric care

Providing the highest quality care to patients is essential to earn the trust and referrals of other physicians. A group of John Hopkins physician published a study investigating the factors affecting the choice of specialist by primary care physicians. It should come as little surprise that the top factor – with 88 percent of respondents naming it of major importance – was the medical skill of the specialist.

But other areas impacting a patient's overall experience, such as the timeliness of the patient's appointment and acceptance of the patient's insurance, were also top factors.

No matter the size of the physician's office or hospital, top quality care has to be paramount. From that foundation, a network of strong relationships can be formed.

Communicate, communicate, and communicate

The Johns Hopkins study also asked physicians what they look for in regards to the relationship with a specialist. More than half of the respondents named these three factors of major importance when making referrals: (1) previous experience with the specialist, (2) quality of specialist communication with the primary care physician, and (3) the specialist's efforts to return the patient to the primary care physician for primary care.

When multiple physicians are involved in a patient's treatment, it's essential for the physicians to collaborate and communicate. The referring physician is going to want to know how their patient is doing and how it may affect other areas of care. It's also an excellent way to build trust and rapport with referring physicians.

Communication is also about spreading the word about the services a practice provides. Developing relationships with physicians creates a space where the type of services, specialties and unique procedures offered as a provider can be shared. Robust and targeted marketing collateral should complement any physician outreach program.

Be strategic

A hospital looking to increase its physician referrals needs to do so strategically. It would be both time-consuming and ineffective to simply say, "We need more physician referrals."

In this day in age, effective campaigns need to be more targeted and empirically based. Administrators and physicians need to ask certain questions: What kind of referrals do we want? What physicians and what specialties fit best with what our organization offers? What kinds of cases are we prepared to take on? A data-driven approach that acknowledges and leverages the vast amount of information available in the healthcare field will drive informed results.

A physician relationship management system is one option to consider for seeking out and managing Evariant. This type of software helps manage all areas of the physician referral process from producing insights into market opportunities to tracking and managing existing physician relationships.

Value relationships

Developing a pipeline of potential referring physicians to a practice or hospital is essential. But what's as important is maintaining existing relationships that are already providing referrals.

Physician liaisons – dedicated staff members who provide day-to-day communication with the area physicians – add value to a physician/hospital relationship. These staff members can provide human insights into why physicians are (or are not) referring patients to an organization.

Although not typically called a sales position, physician liaisons perform a similar function in the healthcare industry. A software platform specifically built to handle the complex relationships and big data generated by healthcare providers is a valuable tool to store and leverage information on each physician relationship. Coupled with comprehensive analytics, medical providers can enhance and strengthen relationships with regional physicians.

Revise strategies

Growth strategies don't always pan out the way we think. The healthcare landscape changes fast and providers need to be willing to revise strategies. Developing differentiated strategies for physician or service line segments is a necessity.

Relationships are destined for change and evolution and both parties should be willing and able to adapt. Cultivating valuable physician relationships takes constant attention and commitment to get desired results.

Just as a physician might have to try several treatment options before finding the right one for a particular patient, healthcare organizations will likely have to revise their physician referral strategies based on various factors. Tracking and measurement of both campaign strategies and results is imperative to the overall success of the program.

Conclusion

Investing in a relationship – with a patient, a physician or a healthcare organization – takes time and effort. Cultivating relationships with physicians, with the goal of earning valuable referrals, starts with the obvious – providing the best quality care for patients. From that baseline, healthcare organizations should develop strategies to build relationships and expand an organization's reach.

Relationships are at the heart of the healthcare industry and physician relationships are a long-term investment for any practice or hospital; it should be a priority to nurture them.

Kristin Hambelton is responsible for leading marketing and inside sales at Evariant. She oversees all marketing strategy and operations including product marketing, branding, demand generation, and corporate communications. She also manages the team that is responsible for identifying, qualifying, and developing opportunities for the sales organization. Prior to joining Evariant, Kristin worked for Adobe as a result of their acquisition of Neolane, where she served as vice president of marketing.

The views, opinions and positions expressed within these guest posts are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Becker's Hospital Review/Becker's Healthcare. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them.

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