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“Whether you are speaking with patients or other physicians, you need to first educate them on your programs to optimize referral opportunities, and then you need to maintain that relationship,” says Clint Borm, director of physician relations at Laser Spine Institute, based in Tampa, Fla. “Our department has opened access to Laser Spine Institute by engaging other physicians in a discussion about our care and inviting them to see how we do business. We want to serve the needs of our referring physicians with a patient-centered focus at the forefront of our efforts.”
Mr. Borm discusses five strategies to improve your spine group’s relationship with outside and referring physicians.
1. Create a physician relations department. Spine groups looking to increase patient referrals from other physicians can create a physician relations department. “The goal of a physician relations department should be to foster a good relationship with other physicians and healthcare providers who could be valuable to your spine center,” says Mr. Borm. “The department can also serve as the main point of contact to provide communication between your spine group and the other physicians. It’s best to have one point of contact available to answer the questions other physicians have, whether those questions are about the program or a specific patient. The fewer points of contact there are, the more focused the discussion and relationship will be.”
2. Educate referring physicians. It’s important to educate referring physicians about the type of care your group provides so they are comfortable sending their patients to you. There are several effective methods of direct communication spine groups can use to parlay this information with in-person contact. Visiting referring physicians at their office and presenting information to them is one way to make this connection. Mr. Borm also recommends sending representatives from the physician relations department to large gatherings of referring physicians, such as professional meetings or CME events, to provide that initial connection and education.
“Spine groups must first identify their targets and then go where they are,” says Mr. Borm. “You can’t throw a dart on the board and form a relationship. You can go to their offices in town or to professional events, which will allow you to network outside of you current network.”
3. Build a webpage tailored for referring physicians. In addition to attracting referring physicians with social media, spine groups can use the Internet to build a group webpage for external physicians that makes it easy to refer patients. Laser Spine Institute has a physician-specific webpage that provides information about the group and a secure online referral platform. Additional information of interest to physicians, such as outcomes data, is also available through this webpage.
“The webpage gives us an opportunity to provide information referring physicians want to see, including studies on our outcomes,” says Mr. Borm. “We initially provide summarized data that is short and to the point, but physicians can choose to view more detailed information from the authors as well.”
4. Use social media. Mastering social media outreach techniques can complement the fundamental direct access routes to forming a relationship with referring physicians. Spine groups can use social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to promote their group’s success and provide physician education on why that success is possible. “Social media brings the information physicians and other healthcare providers are most interested in to their desktops,” says Mr. Borm. “It’s extremely important to embrace social media. Being able to master that platform can really help grow a physician relations department.”
When creating a social media platform, use a combination of text and images to promote your techniques and teach others about the procedures you perform. Placing this information on social media websites is handy for physician relations liaisons when they give presentations or hold discussions about the group with referring physicians. “If you have liaisons out in the community and they are talking about the group, they can utilize social media to compliment the discussion with images and examples,” says Mr. Borm. “Additional information about the surgeons, such as biographies, can connect the referring physicians to the human element of your practice alongside the procedures and technique.”
5. Make positive physician relations an organizational strategy. While the physician relations department provides a great entry point for referring physicians and other medical professionals interested in the group, everyone involved in the group must be focused on developing positive external relationships. “Every employee, from the medical assistants to the surgeons to the executive leadership, has an impact on the services we provide to outside physicians,” says Mr. Borm. “When positive physician relationships are an organizational strategy, everyone collaborates internally to allow for the best external relationships possible.”
All employees and physicians must be respectful of outside physicians when they contact the group and guide them to the right person for answering their questions. Surgeons should be prepared to speak with referring physicians about their patients and work with them to follow up with patient care. Group executives must also be constantly thinking about how to engage referring physicians and make it easier for them to work with your group.
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