Turn satisfied physicians into loyal physicians
Turn satisfied physicians into loyal physicians
Customize communications to meet doctors' needs
"I don't like to refer patients to home health. Home health agencies don't do what I want, then they do what I don't want for too long."
Any home health representative who visits a physician to hear these words knows that getting referrals from this practice is not going to be easy. In the case of Mercy Home Care Oakland in Bloomfield Hills, MI, a member of Livonia, MI-based Trinity Home Health Services (THHS), not only were they able to get this physician, who actually said these exact words, to make some referrals to the agency, but he is now one of their most loyal physicians and someone who is willing to go on the record in presentations as a supporter of their services.
Why the turnaround? It may sound simple, but the staff at Mercy Home Care asked this and other physicians what they wanted.
"There is no cookie-cutter approach that will create physician loyalty," points out Barbara Samson, RN, BSN, MS, CRRN, director of clinical services at THHS. "It's important to ask each physician what he or she needs from the home health agency," she says. The agency always has sought feedback from physicians, but rather than send out survey forms, staff members hold one-on-one conversations with physicians. "We often hear tidbits during these conversations that we wouldn't pick up on surveys," she explains. These little bits of information can lead to ideas to improve the relationship with the physician, she says.
"We have learned that physicians value three things," says Lisa Anderson, PT, director of rehabilitation for THHS. The three things that physicians want from a home health agency are:
to save time;
to save money or other resources;
to help them gain recognition from satisfied patients and improved outcomes.
To help physicians save time, Mercy Home Care staff members customize their method of communicating with each physician, says Anderson. "One physician may want written information sent by fax, while another believes a telephone call to the office manager is the best use of his and his staff's time," she says. Because THHS is comprised of nine home health agencies and three hospices in four different states, it is critical that each agency work with each individual physician to identify the best form of communication. "With that many agencies in different locations, we have physicians that want totally different methods of communication," she points out.
In addition to asking physicians how they prefer to receive information, staff members also ask what type of information they want. "We do have a report that includes standardized information that all physicians receive on their patients, but we also add information that the individual physician wants," she says. For example, an orthopedic surgeon might want to know at what therapy visit did the patient attain a certain range of motion, while an internist might ask about the interval in which a patient's medication needed adjustment. To try to set a standard report and expect physicians to accept it because it is easier for the agency won't develop a loyal relationship, she says. "Our goal is to build a relationship with our physicians, so that they are part of the team," she adds.
"We save money and resources for them by streamlining paperwork and reducing the number of telephone calls to them," explains Samson. Guidelines and protocols that give home health nurses and therapists opportunities to make decisions within approved parameters not only enable the home health staff to begin treatment of an exacerbation of a symptom quickly, without waiting on telephone calls back and forth from the nurse to the physician's office, but quick intervention produces better outcomes, she points out. For example, guidelines for a congestive heart failure patient might give the nurse the ability to double the patient's dose of diuretic if there is a weight gain of 2 to 3 pounds overnight, without a phone call asking for permission. The only way this works is if the physician is comfortable with your relationship and trusts the training and experience of your clinicians, she adds.
Another way to increase the physician's trust in your clinicians is to make them part of the team, says Anderson. "We ask physicians to present educational sessions to our staff. For example, an orthopedic surgeon presented updated information on total knee surgical procedures," she says. Not only does this type of interaction improve the physician's opinion of the agency staff, but it also improves the clinical staff's morale when they have opportunities to meet and interact with physicians, she points out.
Another way the agency is hoping to improve communication with physicians and the ability to share information is the development of a physician web portal that the agency is evaluating, says Samson.
When evaluating your physician relations program, be sure not to confuse physician satisfaction with physician loyalty, points out Anderson. "Physician satisfaction says that the doctor is happy with the service you provided to the patient, but physician loyalty means that you have a relationship that will result in ongoing referrals."
"I don't like to refer patients to home health. Home health agencies don't do what I want, then they do what I don't want for too long."Subscribe Now for Access
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