Growing and maintaining your referral base is essential to your practice viability. Here are some simple suggestions that will give you the competitive edge.
Demonstrate to your peers you are the expert on a topic. Giving lectures on topics pertinent to primary care is a good start. Volunteer to give talks at grand rounds or educational meetings locally. This will allow you to demonstrate the depth and breadth of your knowledge and answer questions from doctors who may not be part of your referral base.
For those who want something less formal, consider meeting your referring doctors at their practice for lunch. Spend 30 minutes, answer their questions, and informally discuss difficult cases with them. This will allow the referring doctor and their staff to get know you better. Remember, the staff can also sway a patient (“Oh, I met Dr. Jones and he seems really nice and smart.”) If you are too busy, have a practice administrator visit the practice and try to find out how you can improve your service.
In larger groups, consider assigning a few of your partners to become the liaison to your group. If you break down your top 10 referring doctors and “assign” one of your partners to that doctor, you can ensure that their needs are being met.
Twice yearly lunches with that physician may ensure that the referring doctor is happy with your service and can also identify problems. For example, a patient may have had a bad experience with one of the partners and you can assure the doctor that you will address the issue. Negative interactions with your practice by a few patients (that you may be unaware of) may permanently alter referral patterns. Asking open-ended questions like, “how can we serve you better,” may identify problems in your service that you have never identified.
Giving the referring doctor your personal cell phone number and telling them to call or text you about patients who need urgent assessment will allow the referring doctor to have direct access to you. The ease of referral also is an important determinant of volume.
Consider sending out a quarterly or bi-annual newsletter summarizing novel treatments or discoveries for common GI disorders. This can be sent out via “snail mail” or via e-mail programs like Mail Chimp.
Targeting the top referring doctors with pertinent information, presented clearly and succinctly, will also reinforce the perception you are an expert in the field.
Although these efforts take time and money, it is far less costly than losing one solid referring doctor. Providing excellent service to your best referring doctors may be a better use of your resources than trying to reach doctors who have never referred to your group.
By Dr. Naresh T. Gunaratnam, AGAF, member, AGA Institute Practice Management & Economics Committee; gastroenterologist, Huron Gastroenterology Associates, Ypsilanti, Mich.
