Surgery centers occasionally deploy a variety of onsite and offsite marketing channels like social media, blogs, pay per-click advertising, SEO, direct-to-consumer television, direct mail, radio and billboards to generate a high volume of in-bound traffic and patient leads.
While lead volume is vital, an ASC should also develop a strategy to optimize those leads once they come through the door, according to Jimmy St. Louis, CEO of Advanced Healthcare Partners in Tampa, Fla.
A revenue optimized patient coordination system will do just that. Patient coordinators are individuals who speak with patients throughout their decision making process to assess their medical condition, diagnoses, treatment, costs and scheduling, which will allow the patient to make an effective decision about their healthcare and where they will be treated.
"The better the patient coordination system, the higher the likelihood that the patient will make the right decision is," says Mr. St. Louis. "The key to all of this is offering a differentiated form of service, and allowing the patient coordinators to best educate the healthcare customer on those forms of treatment, which will lead to an optimized transition to treatment."
Mr. St. Louis provides three steps for implementing a patient coordination system to manage and enhance patient volume.
1. Define the patient coordinator's responsibilities. In a more traditional setting, when a current or prospective patient contacts a surgery or treatment center, they will first speak with a receptionist. Patient coordinators differ from receptionists, however, in that they handle everything from start to finish for a particular patient and they typically report to the corporate organization.
"The overall objective is to give the patient a one-stop shop for all things information-related so that when they make their way to the facility, they can have a comfortable treatment process and their expectations are aligned," says Mr. St. Louis. "This results in a better focus by the patient on their healthcare, and not the cost of their healthcare."
Patient coordinators are intended to function as an advocate for patients, handling responsibilities ranging from educating the patient about treatment options, informing them of the physicians' backgrounds, making travel arrangements and answering questions about billing, scheduling and financial concerns. After interacting consistently with the same patient coordinator, "the patient has all these answers prior to them walking in the door, so when they do arrive at the facility, their expectations are set more appropriately and accurately," says Mr. St Louis. This also delivers directly to a much higher level of patient satisfaction across their entire experience.
2. Asses the volume of patient leads. There should be at least one patient coordinator on staff, depending on a surgery center's marketing budget and the amount of patient leads being generated as a result, says Mr. St. Louis. For example, if a patient coordinator can handle 200 leads and averages a 10 percent conversion rate, but a surgery center is generating a total of 2000 leads, 10 patient coordinators will be needed to handle the volume.
It is also important to assess other key metrics as they relate to the facility, including lead volume, quality lead volume, cost per surgery from a marketing perspective, and overall conversion rate. "A great example is that we recently engaged with a client who was not open to any marketing strategies, but we began to manage his existing lead base," says Mr. St. Louis. "He has since seen a 250 percent increase in patient volume and delivering at the same exceptional quality that he was prior."
Patient coordinators should spend several weeks in training to become familiar with the surgery center's procedures and patient correspondence etiquette and cycle. When coordinators are trained at Advanced Healthcare Partners, for example, the process can typically span four weeks prior to making their first phone calls, and this includes a lengthy ramp-up period during which the coordinators are assigned a higher volume and monitored more closely. All calls are recorded for continued training and team collaboration, says Mr. St. Louis.
3. Choose a compassionate person for the role. Effective patient coordinators should be empathetic and compassionate toward understanding patients' symptoms and, ideally, possess a college degree with a combination of customer service and sales experience. A medical background is not necessarily required, Mr. St. Louis says, because the coordinators can be introduced to the necessary concepts while being trained.
A patient coordinator should ultimately have the correct balance of compassion, education, and professionalism necessary to interact with a high volume of current and potential patients while instilling confidence in the patients' questions.
"Healthcare is often confusing, and the patient's treatment can be a life-changing experience," says Mr. St. Louis. "You want to make sure they feel comfortable and are enthused about their patients, and you want patient coordinators to deliver the highest level of service."
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While lead volume is vital, an ASC should also develop a strategy to optimize those leads once they come through the door, according to Jimmy St. Louis, CEO of Advanced Healthcare Partners in Tampa, Fla.
A revenue optimized patient coordination system will do just that. Patient coordinators are individuals who speak with patients throughout their decision making process to assess their medical condition, diagnoses, treatment, costs and scheduling, which will allow the patient to make an effective decision about their healthcare and where they will be treated.
"The better the patient coordination system, the higher the likelihood that the patient will make the right decision is," says Mr. St. Louis. "The key to all of this is offering a differentiated form of service, and allowing the patient coordinators to best educate the healthcare customer on those forms of treatment, which will lead to an optimized transition to treatment."
Mr. St. Louis provides three steps for implementing a patient coordination system to manage and enhance patient volume.
1. Define the patient coordinator's responsibilities. In a more traditional setting, when a current or prospective patient contacts a surgery or treatment center, they will first speak with a receptionist. Patient coordinators differ from receptionists, however, in that they handle everything from start to finish for a particular patient and they typically report to the corporate organization.
"The overall objective is to give the patient a one-stop shop for all things information-related so that when they make their way to the facility, they can have a comfortable treatment process and their expectations are aligned," says Mr. St. Louis. "This results in a better focus by the patient on their healthcare, and not the cost of their healthcare."
Patient coordinators are intended to function as an advocate for patients, handling responsibilities ranging from educating the patient about treatment options, informing them of the physicians' backgrounds, making travel arrangements and answering questions about billing, scheduling and financial concerns. After interacting consistently with the same patient coordinator, "the patient has all these answers prior to them walking in the door, so when they do arrive at the facility, their expectations are set more appropriately and accurately," says Mr. St Louis. This also delivers directly to a much higher level of patient satisfaction across their entire experience.
2. Asses the volume of patient leads. There should be at least one patient coordinator on staff, depending on a surgery center's marketing budget and the amount of patient leads being generated as a result, says Mr. St. Louis. For example, if a patient coordinator can handle 200 leads and averages a 10 percent conversion rate, but a surgery center is generating a total of 2000 leads, 10 patient coordinators will be needed to handle the volume.
It is also important to assess other key metrics as they relate to the facility, including lead volume, quality lead volume, cost per surgery from a marketing perspective, and overall conversion rate. "A great example is that we recently engaged with a client who was not open to any marketing strategies, but we began to manage his existing lead base," says Mr. St. Louis. "He has since seen a 250 percent increase in patient volume and delivering at the same exceptional quality that he was prior."
Patient coordinators should spend several weeks in training to become familiar with the surgery center's procedures and patient correspondence etiquette and cycle. When coordinators are trained at Advanced Healthcare Partners, for example, the process can typically span four weeks prior to making their first phone calls, and this includes a lengthy ramp-up period during which the coordinators are assigned a higher volume and monitored more closely. All calls are recorded for continued training and team collaboration, says Mr. St. Louis.
3. Choose a compassionate person for the role. Effective patient coordinators should be empathetic and compassionate toward understanding patients' symptoms and, ideally, possess a college degree with a combination of customer service and sales experience. A medical background is not necessarily required, Mr. St. Louis says, because the coordinators can be introduced to the necessary concepts while being trained.
A patient coordinator should ultimately have the correct balance of compassion, education, and professionalism necessary to interact with a high volume of current and potential patients while instilling confidence in the patients' questions.
"Healthcare is often confusing, and the patient's treatment can be a life-changing experience," says Mr. St. Louis. "You want to make sure they feel comfortable and are enthused about their patients, and you want patient coordinators to deliver the highest level of service."
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