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Hike Referrals with Physician Liaisons

 |  By Marianne@example.com  
   May 02, 2012

Improving physician relations and generating referrals are two of the most trying tasks on a hospital marketers to-do list—and the most crucial. But when hospital leadership truly grasps the importance of satisfied physicians and empowers the physician relations team to do its job well, the hospital bottom line reaps the benefits.

Healthcare providers cannot be successful in models such as ACOs if they don't have trusting and collaborative relationships with the medical staff and community physicians, says Jeff Brickman, FACHE, president and CEO of St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, CO, and the president of Centura Health's Mountains North Denver Operating Group.


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"A lot of CEOs really don't know where they get their business from, and that has to change," he says. "The more progressive health systems in the country have always understood the importance of physician relationships. … But the vast majority of hospitals are still struggling to get this right."

Until recently, Sacramento-based Sutter Health had counted itself among the many hospitals grappling with an unsettled physician relations program. The health system is undergoing a transformation from a collection of independent-minded hospitals and medical groups to a large, integrated health system. The organization used the physician relations team to forge the path to a cohesive system.

Using physician liaisons
Sutter did this largely by hiring six full-time physician liaisons, who have been charged with promoting key service lines, identifying and addressing barriers to accessing care, and other issues that impact Sutter's relationship with other physicians and hospitals. They are also working to increase connectivity between physicians in Sutter's network of care that spans Northern California.

Brickman has started to expand the physician referral program at Centura, focusing on using the liaisons to engage community-based physicians in discussions such as:

  • What is or isn't working within hospitals?
  • What can hospitals do to help improve the value of the doctor's practice?
  • How can hospitals help solve operational and strategic issues?

Based on these answers, the health system can identify how physicians' business needs tie into the organization's existing or new strategies and bring solutions to these community physicians that engender loyalty and a greater level of comfort with the high quality that the hospital is trying to deliver.

Building a sense of community
Physicians working with Sutter's liaisons have responded to the new role very positively.

"Most [physicians] are hungry for information, [such as] clinical updates, novel procedures, new indications, and new physician colleagues," says Kimberly Marzullo RN, MBA, system director for the physician marketing and liaison program at Sutter Health. "They are also eager to hear what our system's focus and strategy is since the market is all in flux with many challenges, including health care reform.  Being 'heard' is still very important to physicians."

Brickman, too, has found that physician liaisons help physicians feel more connected to the health system community.

It's important to "connect [physicians] to our mission and strategy in a way that they feel they have a meaningful contribution, and that they have the ear of senior
leadership," he says. "What we have seen over the years, as we have gone out into the field to engage in meaningful discussions, is that we break down a lot of
historic cultural barriers that have previously existed and we are able to demonstrate a responsiveness to the issues that we are picking up in the field."

Capitalizing on engaged physicians
And when physicians feel more connected to an organization and know that their input matters, they are more likely to refer patients there.

At Sutter, the new liaison program is ahead of projections and despite a hiring freeze, has have continued to secure additional FTEs to expand in to new geographies. And at Centura, the liaison team has created a strong foundation to develop more innovative physician alignment models.

"When you implement a physician referral program it begins to open up dialogue and create a relationship with physicians that leads to business opportunities, which then creates trust, which then creates success, which then improves alignment," Brickman says. "It begins to open discussion at a higher and more sophisticated level for some of the ACO and physician-hospital payment reform discussions so we can then go down the path together."

Carrie Vaughan contributed to this column.

Marianne Aiello is a contributing writer at HealthLeaders Media.

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