When Frank Chapman, MBA, polled the audience at a recent offering of the Looking at GI Practice Management Differently course, it revealed those practices require a referral for new patients 78% of the time. Now more than ever, communicating with impact is critical to the success of a practice. Frank went on to offer the following practice pearls around communicating with referring physicians.
- What’s New. In today’s environment ensure your referral sources know that first, you are open and second that you are safe. Towards those ends, many GI practices have adopted the primary care model of having advanced practice providers (APPs) see patients early and via telemedicine. This may be at odds with a referrer’s preference to have patients seen by a specialist in person. Be upfront with your referrers and manage their expectations. You already have common ground with the best interest of the patient at the center of decision-making.
- What’s Not. In defining wait time, you need to consider beyond how long it takes to get the patient in for care. Other important aspects of wait time from the referrer’s perspective are how long it takes for the primary physician to refer the patient, get them to you, and then be able to move on to their next patient. Recognize you are part of that patient flow for your referring physicians. If you are a bottleneck in that flow, referrers will send their patients elsewhere.
- Know who your referral sources are. With the increase of contracted physicians in primary care, it is a good practice to periodically (quarterly is recommended) look at your referral population to ensure they continue to direct patients to you. Having mechanisms in place for patients to call after-hours can be a key strategy for avoiding the patient getting referred to a competitor.
- Remember the Three As
Affable. Make sure your patient leaves you with a pleasurable experience. Smiling and being friendly is important, even when it is a dump consult. Say thank you. Rude staff, long waits, and unanswered phones can kill your referral relationships. There is no such thing as too much business. As you think about the business of medicine, keep in mind you need to build your practice every day because if you don’t, it will shrink.
Able. Able means more than capable. Don’t position your services as high-end and complex. If you do, referrals will only send you complex cases and “spread the rest out.” Instead, position your services as “one-stop for everything GI.” Send us the case and we’ll take it from there.
Available. Knowing what staff time looks like is extremely important and should be properly communicated. There should be clarity with the referring physician knowing how to tell the difference between availability for procedures and availability for cognitive workups and treatment. Engage referring physicians and their staff and don’t just talk about the problems of referred patients but also the cases in general.
- Drivers of referrals. Nearly all physicians start their careers referring to whomever the practice used when they joined. When you develop a good referral relationship with primary care or specialty practices, you become the norm physicians coming into the practice will follow. If there are new physicians in the practice, ask them to send you their patients. Remember that referral patterns don’t change unless the referrer is disappointed. A slight or insult is remembered far longer than kindness or consideration. Also, consider training opportunities for APPs. Many APPs train in an area and stay there. If you are part of their training rotation, it can provide referral opportunities in the future.
- First mover advantage. When new providers come into the community, get in touch via medical society news, hospital medical staff, or become a member of local hospital’s credentialing committee. Take new providers to lunch and provide mentorship.
- Collegial relationships. Lose any hint of the ‘specialist disease.’ Don’t be a specialist, just be another physician. Don’t behave like you are better.
- Thank you, thank you, thank you. Take every opportunity to thank them for referring their patients.
Hear a clip from Frank’s presentation where he expands on Pearl 8,
keeping referral sources satisfied.
Frank Chapman’s complete presentation is part of the November 21, 2020, Looking at GI Practice Management Differently course. This course is available on-demand in GI Leap.