Referrals from Doctors

by Lynn Grodzki, LCSW, MCC

Published in the Private Practice Success Newsletter, March 2011 Edition

_______________________________
Each month in this newsletter, I help you think about the future of your private practice. This month, I explore how to develop closer ties with medical referral sources.

Given our uncertain economy, those who own and operate a private practice have some important choices to make about their future.

In an earlier newsletter (read it here), I explained that the future of your private practice will follow one of three tracks or business models:

• The consumer-driven practice
• The insurance-driven practice
• The theory or belief-driven practice

In my December email  I explored the first model listed: the consumer-driven practice. Read about that model here:

The Insurance-driven Practice

This month, I look at the second business model: The insurance-driven practice.

Even if you don’t get involved with insurance, this month’s article has ideas that can help you generate more referrals.

I will explain what pharmaceutical representatives already know about gaining entree to doctors. I will show you how to adapt some of the strategies they use that might help you have more influence.

The Challenge

Psychologist and author Nick Cummings, often called the father of behavioral mental health, says that we therapists have lost our rightful place within the medical model.

According to Cummings, “We have drifted so far away from health care that we have created two silos. We have a huge silo called health care, and it gets a trillion dollars a year. And over here we have a tiny silo called mental health that gets the crumbs.”

Cummings believes that embracing a medical model is one way to be more profitable and viable. (“An Interview with Nick Cummings, PhD. by Victor Yalom”2008.)

A primary way to thrive within a medical or insurance-based private practice is to develop strong referral sources with the medical community: doctors, nurses, and other traditional referral sources.

Many therapists want these referrals and have tried their best to make contact with doctors, without success.

Therapists who need this type of referral can’t help but wonder: What does it take to make this happen?

The Hallway Hand-off

One big problem is that the average therapist, approaching a busy doctor’s office often can’t get past the front desk to see doctors.

And even when a therapist does get in to see a doctor, there are obstacles to referrals. Patients can have a hard time overcoming some reluctance about needing therapy, and getting themselves from their doctor’s office to ours.

Ideally, Cummings says, referrals from doctor to therapist would be easier and much more direct.

In the best of all possible worlds, Cummings suggests that a mental health practice would operate within the same office as the referring physician.

Then patients seeing their doctor could be “handed-off” to a therapist right in the hallway, without the patient having to leave the facility.

Closer Ties

This is a great vision for a medical model, but most therapists have offices off-site.

So the challenge is this: How can you, as a private practitioner, approximate the “hallway hand-off” with a physician or medical referral source?

I have some ideas about how you can do this.  Read on to see how.

Learning from the Reps

We can learn a few moves from the masters of the hallway hand-off:  pharmaceutical representatives.

They have perfected the way to get close to doctors (gain access) and help doctors refer (write prescriptions) for their products.

The pharmaceutical reps achieve results using three basic strategies. The good news is that, with some modifications, you can implement these same steps.

If your goal is to increase your referrals and close ties to medical professionals, these strategies are important to consider.

Best Hallway Hand-off  Strategies

The strategies that pharmaceutical reps use fall under these three areas:

• Presence
• Preparation
• Packaging.

Presence

Physicians (and their gatekeepers) have little time to spend with patients, let alone with marketing or pharmaceutical representatives.

The pharmaceutical representatives understand this. Yet they need to have a presence. Here is how they make this work:

They visit frequently, but make sure their visits are for very short duration (statistically they spend no more than 2-5 minutes per visit.)

They make each visit educational and focus on giving the docs useful information. A pharmaceutical rep will visit physicians repeatedly, on a 1 week to 2 week cycle. They have very clear objectives for each visit.

I know you don’t have the resources (time, money, backing) for marketing that a rep has, but you can borrow from this model.

Start with a small list of physicians who are in close proximity (remember the metaphor of the hallway hand-off — keep your target list of doctors close to your office.)

Pharmaceutical reps understand that physicians have come to expect routine and frequent visits.

Don’t be shy.  Ask the front desk what days the physician or key staff see representatives and then set up a workable routine. Maybe you can’t visit weekly, but how about monthly? Or every other month for 5 minutes?

Preparation

Have you ever seen a pharmaceutical rep enter a doctor’s office? They are well prepared – so you must be too. Be professionally dressed and groomed. Bring materials, but keep things organized and easy to reach (think briefcase.) Plan your visit ahead of time and decide what to say.

Have a script and follow it, but be relaxed. Use a friendly and conversational approach when you talk with the staff, nurses, and doctors. Make your contact a dialogue, not a monologue.

Keep a journal and afterward, track what happened so you can build on the relationship.

Packaging

As Lori Moshier of Novaetus, Inc., a healthcare marketing firm, explains, physicians are “conditioned” to expect that you will make it easy for them to refer. Package your marketing materials.

Have tools such as fax referral forms, on-line referral forms, brochures with cards attached that are easy for the docs to give out to patients. Maybe they will let you put out a display of your materials on a shelf within easy reach; then when you visit, you can keep it filled.

(See more ideas from Lori here)

Your Action Steps

OK, let’s summarize some of the steps you can take to create your own version of the hallway hand-off:

• Ask the front desk what days the physician or key staff see representatives and then follow this routine.
• Develop a routine “call cycle” of a few physicians that you visit often.
• Make sure that you determine who makes the referral – the doctor, nurse, practice manager or others. Develop relationships with these centers of influence in the practice, not just with the doctor.
• Make the visits informational for the doctor. Focus on data the doctor can use –patient results you are getting, special tools you offer, or programs you deliver. Say it all, but say it quickly.
• Make it easy for the doctor to refer by supplying the doctor or referral source with brochures, cards and packaging that is easy for them to give out to patients.
• Send a thank you for each and every referral.

That’s a start. Need help to move forward with this process? Schedule a consult with Lynn by clicking here.  More next month!

Share This Page With Friends and Colleagues