Cindy Givens, administrator of The Surgery Center at Tanasbourne in Hillsboro, Ore., discusses four ways her ASC grew its case volume substantially by building relationships with referring physicians and reaching out to patients directly.
1. Meet with your hospital partner's primary care group. Ms. Givens says the first step she took to build case volume was to meet with her hospital partner's primary care physician group and start building relationships with those providers. She met with the director of the hospital's outpatient primary care clinic and brought her medical director to physician meetings. "We'd say, 'Here's what we're doing and here's our referral form', and they were all very on board with that," she says.
She said before contacting the hospital's primary care physicians, she met with the medical director in order to "get his blessing." According to Ms. Givens, this step was essential to establishing an atmosphere of cooperation and trust. "Their time is valuable, and once I got his blessing, it was easy to go out to clinic managers and get our information out in front of them," he says.
2. Meet with primary care physicians in your community. Ms. Givens' medical director is a gynecologist with connections to primary care physicians in town, so Ms. Givens used those relationships to meet community physicians and seek out referrals. She says she first sent out packets with introductory letters and then went out into the community to meet the physicians.
She says community-based primary care physicians may require more follow up than physicians connected to the hospital. "Instead of meeting with a big group, I'm usually meeting with one or two, so I make sure to do some follow-up by making several phone calls," she says.
3. Follow up with physicians about the patient's experience. Ms. Givens says physicians may be hesitant to refer patients to specialists if they never hear back about the patient's experience. "I make sure the loop is closed," she says. "When they send a referral over, we follow up with them to let them know the patient was scheduled on this date, or that we were not able to contact the patient, or that the patient was referred on to another provider." She says once the physician at her facility does the procedure, the procedurist does the dictation and makes sure a copy is sent to the primary care provider.
Ms. Givens says keeping your referring physicians in the loop regarding patient care is essential for recurring referrals. If physicians know your facility is providing quality care and keeping their patients satisfied, they are more likely to refer other cases and boost your case volume.
4. Market directly to consumers. Ms. Givens says once her surgery center had contacted referring physicians, they decided to "bump it to another level" and contact consumers directly. The center created three postcards featuring the ASC's three providers and decided to concentrate on two zip codes as a test run. The postcards also featured information about the importance of screening for colon cancer through colonoscopies — as well as the fact that colon cancer is largely preventable with early detection. "We sent the first card out on Oct. 6, and by [Oct. 8] we were getting 10-15 calls a day," she says. "We've scheduled 10 patients so far just based on that."
She says the center sent out its second card last Wednesday and is now experiencing another upsurge of calls. "We hope to see about 100 new referrals out of this, and if it continues to be successful, we'll expand it to six or seven zip codes," she says. Ms. Givens adds her ASC has also seen some cash-pay patients who pay around $800 less at the ASC than they would at the hospital.
1. Meet with your hospital partner's primary care group. Ms. Givens says the first step she took to build case volume was to meet with her hospital partner's primary care physician group and start building relationships with those providers. She met with the director of the hospital's outpatient primary care clinic and brought her medical director to physician meetings. "We'd say, 'Here's what we're doing and here's our referral form', and they were all very on board with that," she says.
She said before contacting the hospital's primary care physicians, she met with the medical director in order to "get his blessing." According to Ms. Givens, this step was essential to establishing an atmosphere of cooperation and trust. "Their time is valuable, and once I got his blessing, it was easy to go out to clinic managers and get our information out in front of them," he says.
2. Meet with primary care physicians in your community. Ms. Givens' medical director is a gynecologist with connections to primary care physicians in town, so Ms. Givens used those relationships to meet community physicians and seek out referrals. She says she first sent out packets with introductory letters and then went out into the community to meet the physicians.
She says community-based primary care physicians may require more follow up than physicians connected to the hospital. "Instead of meeting with a big group, I'm usually meeting with one or two, so I make sure to do some follow-up by making several phone calls," she says.
3. Follow up with physicians about the patient's experience. Ms. Givens says physicians may be hesitant to refer patients to specialists if they never hear back about the patient's experience. "I make sure the loop is closed," she says. "When they send a referral over, we follow up with them to let them know the patient was scheduled on this date, or that we were not able to contact the patient, or that the patient was referred on to another provider." She says once the physician at her facility does the procedure, the procedurist does the dictation and makes sure a copy is sent to the primary care provider.
Ms. Givens says keeping your referring physicians in the loop regarding patient care is essential for recurring referrals. If physicians know your facility is providing quality care and keeping their patients satisfied, they are more likely to refer other cases and boost your case volume.
4. Market directly to consumers. Ms. Givens says once her surgery center had contacted referring physicians, they decided to "bump it to another level" and contact consumers directly. The center created three postcards featuring the ASC's three providers and decided to concentrate on two zip codes as a test run. The postcards also featured information about the importance of screening for colon cancer through colonoscopies — as well as the fact that colon cancer is largely preventable with early detection. "We sent the first card out on Oct. 6, and by [Oct. 8] we were getting 10-15 calls a day," she says. "We've scheduled 10 patients so far just based on that."
She says the center sent out its second card last Wednesday and is now experiencing another upsurge of calls. "We hope to see about 100 new referrals out of this, and if it continues to be successful, we'll expand it to six or seven zip codes," she says. Ms. Givens adds her ASC has also seen some cash-pay patients who pay around $800 less at the ASC than they would at the hospital.