What Every Healthcare Practice Must Know About Gaining and Retaining Referrals

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What Every Healthcare Practice Must Know About
Gaining and Retaining Referrals
With so much competition and the healthcare
landscape changing rapidly, referrals dont come
as easily as they used to unless you take
specific action to secure them. Referrals are
the lifeblood of your practice. Keeping a steady
stream of referrals virtually guarantees you a
more prosperous, rewarding and fulfilling
professional life. But how do you obtain
referrals? For most health practitioners, the two
main sources of referrals are current/former
patients and professional colleagues. For
specialists such as surgeons or radiologists, the
vast majority of referrals will come from the
latter. For primary care physicians, general
dentists and many physical therapists, referrals
come from both professional referrers and
patients. For all practitioners, referral
patterns are likely to change. Referral patterns
can change slowly or suddenly. Take the case of
interventional radiologists. According to
Medicare databases, bypass surgeries in America
decreased 47 from 1996 through 2006, while
angioplasties and stent placements increased
213! During that same time, surgeons
utilization of angioplasty and stenting
skyrocketed 1,095. The rate among cardiologists
rose 395. But the utilization rate among
radiologists increased by only 24. What changed
this referral pattern? Surgeons and cardiologists
saw opportunity in angioplasty/stenting. They
purchased or leased their own equipment so they
could bring this service in-house. Instead of
referring patients out to interventional
radiologists, they began performing the
procedures themselves. In 10 years, they reduced
radiologys share of the angioplasty/stenting
market from a healthy 63 to a paltry 25 by
redirecting the referral pattern.
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Obviously, being an outstanding practitioner
isnt enough to guarantee or generate referrals.
Referrals require ongoing effort and due
diligence. How to increase referrals the easy
way From your existing patients! In terms of
sheer numbers of potential referrals, it makes
sense to focus your efforts on your own patients
first. With spheres of influence that extend
outward to their families, friends, co-workers
and colleagues, your patients are a goldmine of
potential referrals. Soliciting referrals from
them is often much easier because you may see
them in your practice regularly and you already
have access to all their personal contact
information. The single most effective way to
increase referrals from your current patients is
to ask for them. If you are like most healthcare
practitioners, you may be uncomfortable with the
idea of asking patients for referrals. You may
believe that asking makes you appear needy or
greedy or unprofessional so you simply avoid
it. Instead of keeping yourself from a
potentially huge source of revenue for your
practice, remember that you got into healthcare
to help people. Asking for referrals is simply
asking for the opportunity to help more
people. And dont forget the Internet as a
source of referrals. A good, marketing- based
website, proper search engine optimization (SEO)
and search engine marketing (SEM), and social
network marketing through blogs, twitter and
Facebook can help your practice reach out to
potential new patients and other referral
sources. For most practices, a single referral or
two can cover the associated costs. Are you
really selling anything?
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Eliminate the notion that you are selling your
patients on giving you referrals. All you are
really doing is trying to help as many people as
possible. Thats why you went into healthcare and
private practice, right? The best time to ask
for a referral is when a patient thanks you for
your care or their results. At that moment,
theyre giving you an open invitation to ask.
Instead of just smiling politely and thanking
them back, this is your perfect opportunity to
say something like I really appreciate hearing
that, Mrs./Miss/Mr. Jones. I joined this
profession so I could help as many people with
your condition/disease/illness/problem as
possible. If you know someone a family member,
friend, co-worker or business colleague with a
similar problem, please have them call so I can
help them, too. Its that simple. You have
expressed your appreciation and enlisted their
help. You have asked for a referral without
appearing needy, greedy or unprofessional. And
youve created additional goodwill between you
and your patient. If the patient makes a similar
comment to a member of your staff, you might
follow up with a personal note to the patient
expressing the same sentiment as the quote above.
Better yet, make sure every member of your staff
is trained to encourage referrals, too. Ask for
referrals every chance you get and watch your
patient referrals add up quickly. Encouraging
professional referrals. Dont like asking other
practitioners for referrals? If youre like
many practitioners, youd rather get a root canal
sans anesthetic than visit other practices and
ask for referrals. Heres a much better
alternative Hire a practice representative to
do the visiting for you. A good practice rep will
foster and develop relationships between your
practice and non- referring practices (and
strengthen relationships with referring
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• practices!). A good practice rep, properly
  trained, can return several times your investment
  in terms of new revenue for your practice.
• Smart practitioners know that its often the
  practitioners front desk/office staff who really
  generate referrals. How can you increase the
  likelihood that theyll refer to you?
• Flowers, fruit baskets and tickets to shows are
  OK, but they arent long lasting nor do they
  keep your name in front of your potential
  referrer. Instead, try a personalized,
  perpetually filled flower vase, a small ceramic
  vase, imprinted with With sincere appreciation,
  from (your name/practice name).
• Arrange with a local florist to keep a fresh
  flower in the vase for as little as 10 per week.
  By having your front desk periodically call
  referring front desks for quality checks on the
  local florist, theyll have an excuse to talk
  with the staff. Your staff will bond with theirs,
  ensuring that youre the professional theyll
  refer to most frequently.
• Look for useful premium items that are long
  lasting and keep your name
• in front of the referral source. And remember
  that retaining referrals is as important as
  gaining them in the first place.
• When you receive a professional referral, do you
• Give the patient top priority and see them
  promptly?
• Thank the referring physician with a call or
  note?
• Follow up with your clinical findings and
  progress reports?
• Make sure his/her patient is happy with your
  care?
• Make yourself readily available for consults with
  the referrer?
• Return the patient with a personal thank-you
  note?
• Remember, if a referred patient has an
  unsatisfactory experience in your practice, you
  are making yourself and the referrer look bad.
  And you are not likely to see another referral
  from that source.
• Educate referral sources about the benefits of
  referring to you.

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Do referring docs understand all the ways you can
help them and their patients? If not, you must
find ways to communicate these benefits. Thats
where intelligent, strategic marketing comes
in. Whether you have specialized credentials,
advanced technology and/or exceptional outcomes
with certain types of patients, you must
communicate these advantages. Referrals and
Relationships Behind every professional referral
you get, there is a relationship between someone
at your practice and someone at the referring
practice. Its a relationship based on trust.
From cardiac surgeons to gastroenterologists,
from endodontists to podiatrists, many healthcare
providers depend heavily on professional
referrals to keep their business running, growing
and changing. What this means is that these
types of practices are dependent on
relationships. And relationships need to be
maintained. So, pick up the phone and call a
colleague. Or have a designated practice
representative do it for you. Growth- and
success-minded practices are wise enough to
develop and manage effective practice-representati
on programs. As successful as such programs are
for many referral-based practices, they are a
complement to not a replacement for the
direct contact between you and your
referrer. When a doctor sends you patients,
there is trust inherent in the act. And that
trust is placed in you, the individual healthcare
professional. So, you need to maintain, reaffirm
and strengthen that trust by reminding the
referrer that you appreciate and support
them. While your practice representative does
something similar (and vital), he or she is
merely building and supporting the bridge between
your practice and your referrers practice. You
must still walk across that bridge from time to
time to shake the hand of the person who is
entrusting you with his or her patients and
contributing to your revenues.
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Take a few minutes, call a referrer, say hello
and ask how things are going. Start with those
you know best and with whom youre most
comfortable. And be sure to ask them how you can
help them take better care of their patients. To
survive and flourish despite healthcare reform,
seek professional help. Find a marketing
consultant and strategist who has already helped
thousands of practitioners to overcome their
diverse referral problems. Find someone who
understands the needs of physicians in many
subspecialties and the complexities of many
referral relationships. Find someone who will
work within your budget, help you put your
marketing plan into action and help you achieve
your practice goals so you can focus 100 on
what you love to do care for