In the face of lower inpatient utilization, hospitals and health systems can drive more business to their hospitals as well as outpatient surgery centers by developing regional referral centers.
These referral centers systematize processes for physicians referring their patients for care, provide updates to the referring physician on his or her patient's care and create a sense of trust and loyalty among physicians with superior service and communication.
At Becker's Hospital Review's 6th Annual Meeting in Chicago, Robert Wolterman, CEO of Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, and Beth Walker, COO of Ochsner Medical Center, discussed 3 steps for developing a highly effective regional referral center.
Step 1: Build the regional referral center. According to Mr. Wolterman, there are various necessary aspects in this first step, including aligned incentives with business development representatives, senior executives who are committed to making transfers a priority, call center staffing, a call recording platform for quality and legal assurance and partnerships. Ochsner Medical Center maintains partnerships with community hospitals, as well as outside strategic partners.
"We have a standardized process for referring physicians and transferring patients out," said Mr. Wolterman. "Providers know exactly what to expect."
Step 2: Redefine your marketplace. Ochsner Medical Center has developed partnerships and intentional strategies to help grow liaisons in the marketplace. According to Mr. Wolterman, between 2012 and 2014, Ochsner Medical Center has been able to successfully increase discharge rates from partner facilities located more than 25 miles away by 17 percent.
Step 3: Maximize system assets. Initially, the regional referral center was focused on driving service to the Ochsner Medical Center campus. Eventually, the hospital was at total capacity, while at the same time there were community hospitals with available beds.
According to Mr. Wolterman, by expanding partnerships to include smaller community hospitals, hospitals and health systems can maximize their assets by transferring a greater volume of patients to other facilities. For example, Ochsner Medical Center has doubled the number of transfers to community hospitals. The system's discharge rates have increased, overall strengthening its position in the state.
For Ochsner's ambulatory referral center, the system set up a clinical concierge — a one-stop shop for physicians referring patients for ambulatory care. In this model, there is just one phone number for all providers to call, and call center workers provide high-touch, personalized service to physicians.
There are five keys to success in a clinic concierge model, according to Ms. Walker.
1. Buy-in from internal stakeholders
2. Hire and train for success
3. Have awareness of the needs of the surrounding communities and providers and market accordingly
4. Partnership with business development
5. Obtain honest, valuable feedback
"The key is top-notch customer service," said Ms. Walker. "Our call center workers give referring physicians preferential treatment when they request it for their patients. They also write hand-written thank you notes for physicians' first referrals."
In developing a robust referral center strategy, loyalty among providers to the referral center is critical — customer service is not only important for the patient experience.