Healthcare Strategic Growth Blog

Drive More Patient Volume and Improve Your Bottom Line

By Jackie DeGroat and Megan Reeves

Here’s something you already know: hospitals need physicians in order to drive patient volume. Opening a new service line or expanding an existing one is dependent on successful physician recruitment.

What you may not fully understand is how to involve physicians in a way that engages them at a strategic level. It can be a challenge to incorporate their input, even when you know it’s important to do so. And it can be a particularly difficult prospect for hospitals who have not prioritized this approach in the past, as it means a change to the status quo.

But the reality is that involving physicians in your planning can improve their connection to your hospital and their loyalty to your mission, vision, and values. It can also increase their buy-in, leading them to be more productive and willing participants in service line growth. Additionally, physicians have a firsthand understanding of your patient’s needs. Their input into your strategic growth strategy can lead to better alignment with the needs of your market.

Tags: physician relations, strategic growth, strategic growth planning, hospital strategic growth, physician recrutiment, strategic growth plan, healthcare physician strategy

We hope it’s been an incredible year of growth and learning through Stratasan's Strategic Growth blog series. We’ve learned how to apply the principles of “good strategy” to our annual planning, outlined how to achieve organizational alignment, and discussed how to thrive as an independent hospital in challenging healthcare times.

As we close out the year, we thought it would be helpful to share the 5 most popular blog posts from 2018. These posts received the most hits and seemed to provide the most helpful growth guidance to you, our readers. If you’re traveling over the holidays or just enjoying some downtime before the new year begins, this is a great way to review helpful blog posts that you may have missed or revisit your favorites for fresh insight.

 

Tags: Blog, physician relations, strategic growth, health care, healthcare, healthcare marketing, healthcare strategic growth, marketing, software, healthcare service area, physician recrutiment, service area, 2018

How to Gain Leadership Trust, Support, and Collaboration

By Stephanie Johnson

Many healthcare organizations have a physician relations effort, but the value that c-suite leaders place on this effort can vary significantly. Leading programs establish a system for how to communicate the right information and demonstrate the right value to their leaders.

This session, titled Does Your Organization Really Value Physician Relations? Was led by Kriss Barlow, Principal of Barlow/McCarthy, and Mitzi Kent, Vice President of Strategic Growth and Provider Recruitment/Relations for Lifepoint Health. It had the following key learning objectives:

• Understand the need for aligning program goals with the organization’s strategic goals
• Clearly describe the must haves for demonstrating value to the internal stakeholders
• Create a plan that details the steps to achieve a stronger value with internal leaders

Tags: physician relations, SHSMD, shsmd18

Tags: Blog, physician liaison, Physician Pathway, physician recruitment, physician referral, physician referral tool, physician relations, physician tool, strategic growth, strategic positioning, data, health, health care, health strategy, health system, healthcare, healthcare strategy, hospital, hospital strategy, hospitals, medicare, pathways, Physicians, referrals

Use the Right Data to Stay Competitive and Optimize Physician Outreach

Whether it proves to be an opportunity or a curse, one thing is certain; today’s healthcare providers are living in interesting times. The US healthcare system is facing a monumental physician shortage due to population growth, an increase in the number of aging Americans, and the retirement of practicing doctors. Additionally, despite increased medical school enrollments over the last half decade, the physician shortfall is projected to grow to 100,000 by the year 2030, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Concurrent to these headaches has been the onslaught of big data—seen by many as a potential elixir to a myriad of problems, and seen by others as merely a new conundrum. 

One thing is certain: hospitals and health systems have never had a more urgent need for accurate, actionable intelligence—especially with regards to fostering and maintaining their physician relations to drive strategic growth.

Tags: Blog, physician liaison, Physician Pathway, physician referral, physician relations, strategic growth, health care, healthcare, physician liaision, white paper

A Surprising Trend in Patient Care Patterns

By Dave Sellers

We recently tested a theory as to whether or not distance to a physician referral affects how quickly a patient seeks care.* All other factors being equal, we hypothesized that patients would not act as quickly in scheduling a physician visit if that physician is far away. Conversely, if the doctor is close by, we assumed patients would be more likely to book their appointment sooner.

In a previous post, we discussed a similar idea. Are patients more likely to go to the hospital closest to them when in need of care? In that case, tif all other factors are equal, then the answer was yes. But rarely are all other factors equal. Factors such as a hospital's CMI, their community perception, and relative patient satisfaction rates all come into play and can often be more important than proximity.

With this new theory, we were still considering the role of distance, but this time, we wanted to know how it would affect a patient’s responsiveness when needing to schedule time with a referred physician. Our findings surprised us.

Tags: physician referral, physician referral tool, physician relations, healthcare physician strategy, physician outreach strategy, physician retention, physician patterns

Physician Patterns and Loyalty

By Jackie DeGroat, Tony Camarata, and Rebecca Groner

In case you missed the earlier announcement, Physician Pathway is now comprised of two tools: Physician Loyalty and Physician Patterns. Here is a quick overview of what each tool offers:

• Physician Patterns shows you where physician referral patterns and any leakage is occurring.
• Physician Loyalty shows you where physicians are treating their cases.

Together, these tools provide focused intelligence around physician and provider relationships and uncover physician behavior in your market. Your team will spend less time mining data and more time strategizing.

Important note: For existing users, Physician Pathway has been renamed to Physician Patterns. It’s the same product, just with a new name!

Tags: physician liaison, Physician Pathway, physician recruitment, physician referral tool, physician relations, physician tool, healthcare physician strategy, physician outreach strategy, physician retention, physician patterns

We hope it’s been a wonderful year of growth and learning through Stratasan's Strategic Growth blog series. As we close out the year, we thought it would be helpful to share the 5 most popular blog posts from 2017. These posts received the most hits and seemed to provide the most helpful strategic growth guidance to you, our readers.

If you’re traveling over the holidays, this is a great way to review helpful blog posts that you may have missed or revisit your favorites for fresh insight.

 

Tags: Blog, physician relations, strategic growth, health care, healthcare, healthcare marketing, healthcare strategic growth, marketing, software, healthcare service area, physician recrutiment, service area, 2017

Why the Right Referral Software is Necessary to Ensure Goals Are Being Met

By Jackie DeGroat and Sean Conway

Hospitals depend heavily on their referring physicians for patient volume and revenue, which is why developing and maintaining relationships with these physicians is so important. Physician Liaisons are the face, voice, eyes, and ears of this demanding effort. Physicians have a lot of options for referrals and this competition puts even more pressure on physician relations teams to effectively manage provider relationships.

Physician relations teams are responsible for strengthening relationships between physicians and their hospital or health system, with the goal of driving more referrals in-network. There are many components that make up a quality physician relations program, such as a strategic sales plan, effective encounters, and meaningful conversations. But to ensure program goals are being met, physician relations teams must track and measure their initiatives so they can successfully identify opportunities for improvement.

Tags: Physician Pathway, physician referral, physician relations, strategic growth, healthcare data, healthcare marketing, healthcare strategic growth, healthcare strategic planning, marketing, healthcare physician strategy, healthcare data analytics

Session Summary: Physician Relations Inside and Out—Launching and Fueling Your Program for the Long Haul

By Sean Conway

The first day of SHSMD Connections 2017 was jam-packed with excellent educational opportunities, just as you would expect. The SHSMD website promises a conference that will equip healthcare professionals with the information and resources needed to face the rapidly evolving future of healthcare, head-on. Day one of the main educational sessions lived up to this commitment.

The “Physician Relations Inside and Out” session was a perfect example of an instructional, learning opportunity created with future growth in mind. Carol Koenecke-Grant of Valley Health System has built a physician relations program from the ground up, using a well-planned strategy. In this session, she shared how to develop a business plan integrating communication best practices, gain ongoing access to physicians, and deliver results.

Tags: physician liaison, physician relations, conference, healthcare, healthcare conference, physician liaision, SHSMD, healthcare physician strategy, shsmd17, healthcare meetings, meetings