Physician Relations

Return on Investment for a
Physician Relations Program
What's Inside?
1. How Are Patient Referrals Made?
“You have to understand your business and where
your patients are coming from. If you don’t, you will
be left in the dark. Without this understanding, you
have no competitive edge.”
-Karie Ayers, Summit Orthopedics
2. Will Referrals Change W/O Liaisons?
3-4. Benefit of Physician Liaisons
5-7. MarketWare’s PRM
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PHYSICIAN RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
MarketWare Systems™
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HOW ARE PATIENT REFERRAL DECISIONS MADE?
With declining reimbursements, less volume, and more competition than ever before,
healthcare organizations must understand where referrals come from and how referral
decisions are made. By understanding the origin of patient referrals, healthcare
organizations can identify where to place marketing dollars in a way that they will provide
the greatest benefit and return that results in bottom line volume increases.
According to a recent Advisory Board Physician Survey, on average, sixty-six percent of
patient referral decisions are made based off of a physician’s hospital preference. That
means that two-thirds of all referral decisions are made solely based on the physician’s
personal discretion and influence. So, how important is the physician/ hospital
relationship? Incredibly Important.
Referral
Decisions
Insurance
Preference
17%
Patient
Preference
17%
66%
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Physician
Preference
Source: Clinical Advisory Board Physician Survey
MarketWare Systems™
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PHYSICIAN RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
WILL REFERRALS CHANGE W/O A LIAISON PROGRAM?
With two-thirds of referral decisions made solely based on the physician’s personal
discretion and influence, healthcare organizations who want to stay afloat must
understand the inputs required to change perceptions, opinions, and loyalties of
physicians to have referrals successfully re-directed to their organization.
The “build it and they will come” approach is no longer a viable option in today’s market.
Sixty-six percent of physicians say they are “very unlikely” to change the direction of
their current referrals without an active physician liaison program communicating and
visiting with them.
17%
Very likely
Somewhat likely
Neither likely nor unlikely
Change Referral Patterns
w/o Liaison Program
18%
66%
Somewhat likely
Very unlikely
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Source: Clinical Advisory Board Physician Survey
MarketWare Systems™
PHYSICIAN RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
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THE IMPACT OF PHYSICIAN LIAISON VISITS
A December 13, 2011 USA Today article “Hospitals hire reps
to sell doctors on patient referrals”, describes a responsibility
that has become mission critical for hospitals and other
healthcare organizations. That is the role of a Physician
Liaison and Physician Relationship Management.
Physician Liaisons become the bridge between the hospital
and the physician community. They share, expound, support,
and sell physicians on services provided by the hospital.
“We are trying to build meaningful [physician] relationships.”
- Carrie Sota, Physician Liaison,
Dec 13, 2011 USA Today
Physician Liaisons Cause Higher Volumes
Physicians who are visited by Physician Liaisons refer more than those physicians who are not being
visited. In a hospital system in Texas, using A/B testing they were able to see that physicians who
were visited by the system’s liaison team, on average, had greater referral admissions than those
who were left unvisited.
Without a cause that comes from of a liaison visit, there will be little or no effect via increased
volumes and admissions.
“The physicians our liaisons visit for our physician relations program always have
higher volume levels then those who are not visited."
- Jeff Cowart, Baptist Health System, San Antonio, TX
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PHYSICIAN RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
MarketWare Systems™
www.marketware.com
WHAT CAN PHYSICIAN LIAISONS PROVIDE?
The goal of a Physician Liaison is to be a resource for physicians in a way that will build
a relationship that is not only a value added part of the physician/hospital relationship,
but also influences the physician to direct their patient referrals to the healthcare
organization. There are a number of ways that this can be accomplished including:
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PROVIDING CLINICAL BUSINESS SUPPORT
Many physicians do not have the time, expertise, or desire to manage the
business aspects of their clinics. Hospitals have been able to provide valuable
support in this area through guidance that can be given by a Physician Liaison.
PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS
Hospitals should desire to have the hospital/ physician interaction a stress-free
and painless experience for the physician. Physician Liaisons responsibilities
are where the rubber meets the road. As such, they can uncover process
improvements and provide physician issue resolution.
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STRATEGIC VOLUME GROWTH
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SERVICE LINE DEVELOPMENT
The market today is rapidly changing and admissions and volume levels are
becoming unpredictable for healthcare organizations. Physician Liaisons can
become the catalysts in finding growth opportunities and strategically
increasing referrals and admissions.
Physician Liaisons can become service line champions for the physician
community. Through the relationships they develop, they can become the
anchor that keeps and retains physicians. Healthcare organizations should
never under estimate the power a solid relationship and friendship can have on
loyalty and retention.
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74% of physicians
indicated a need for
assistance in the
business/management
performance for their
clinic.
- Health Care Advisory
Board Survey
PHYSICIAN RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
MarketWare Systems™
www.marketware.com
MARKETWARE’S PRM SYSTEM
MarketWare’s
Physician
Relationship
Management (PRM) system gives a
healthcare organization the ability to
maximize the value of each Physician
Liaison. It becomes the keystone in
identifying and managing referral growth
opportunities and initiatives.
Data Driven Referral Growth
Return on investment for physician relations
always begins by knowing the numbers.
Through MarketWare’s referral analytics,
healthcare organizations are able to
bypass the obstacles and see real-time
referral data. Referral analytics becomes the
roadmap for referral growth and retention.
Reporting ROI
ROI is at the heart of every physician relations plan and is a central focus of senior management.
MarketWare’s PRM gives a physician relations program the ability to bring in referral data from an EMR
or billing database. By doing so, a hospital or a clinic can see the trends and referral numbers for
referring providers. ROI can then be tracked through referral growth and retention rates.
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MarketWare Systems™
PHYSICIAN RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
www.marketware.com
CALCULATING ROI WITH MARKETWARE
The goal of Physician Relations is to build relationships with physicians that
produce referrals. This seems fairly straight forward. However, quantifying the
return on investment for a physician relations program can be incredibility difficult
or impossible without a Physician Relationship Management (PRM) system.
Referral Activities
Within MarketWare’s PRM healthcare organizations are able to manage the
referral growth activities they accomplish with physicians including: MD to MD
visits, CME Events, One on One Physician Meetings, etc. In addition, specific
topics discussed during visits are also recorded including: Talking about the
Hospitalist Program, or Cardiac Program, or discussing New Technology, etc.
Seeing the Result
By having the activities and topics discussed recorded in
MarketWare. Physician Liaison teams can compare visited
physicians with activities performed and topics discussed. Using
variance reports, healthcare organizations can then measure
and track the effect of liaison activities and return on investment.
This allows Liaisons the ability to find out exactly which visits
and topics to discuss that will then produce the greatest
influence in growing referrals.
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MarketWare Systems™
PHYSICIAN RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
www.marketware.com
SUCCESS THROUGH MARKETWARE’S PRM
Hundreds of healthcare organizations across the country are taking advantage of
MarketWare's leading physician relationship management system - the most used CRM
among members of the American Association of Physician Liaisons.
In the world of healthcare, physician relations is evolving and competition among
healthcare organizations is changing the way hospitals and clinics are seeking patient
referrals from physicians.
Through MarketWare’s PRM hospitals and clinics are able to maximize the value of their
physician liaisons. They can increase the return the physician relations program provides
to their institution.
Learn more about MarketWare’s PRM and physician relations services, call us today at
1-800-777-6368 or visit www.marketware.com.
WHY NOT START TODAY?
MarketWare Systems can help you improve your physician relations today. So, what are
you waiting for? If you are ready to build better relationships with referring physicians,
give us a call for a free web presentation.
CONTACT US:
1-800-777-6368
[email protected]
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