Rajiv Chopra and Tom Faith of The C/N Group in Merrillville, Ind., suggest four ways for ambulatory surgery centers to boost surgical volume and enhance referral relationships.
1. Reach out to primary care physicians. Invite primary care physicians and their staff to an after-hours reception at your ASC, hosted by your surgical specialists, and take them for a tour. They are going to remember the surgery center and all its features. When discussing a specialist referral with the patient, they will be able to talk about the center, its location, state-of-the-art equipment and exceptional staff. "The goal is to inspire confidence in your ASC setting so that primary care physicians can promote an integrated care model to their patients," Mr. Chopra says.
2. Engage the schedulers. Forging strong relationships with schedulers in your surgeons' practices is one of the most effective marketing tools because the surgeon's scheduler often determines where the surgery will take place. "We often discuss the concept of one more case per physician, per month," Mr. Faith says. "Strong relationships with a surgeon's office staff can help drive that." Invite practice schedulers to your ASC, meet with them regularly and make sure they meet your ASC's scheduler. "It makes a big difference if you can put a name with a face and build a personal relationship," Mr. Faith says.
3. Make scheduling easy. Streamline all aspects of the scheduling process to make scheduling cases at your ASC easy for your surgeons and their staff personnel. "Minimize your initial data needs and engage the patient for more details," Mr. Faith says. "That also allows you to initiate a relationship with the patient and enhance customer service."
4. Manage the schedule aggressively. Make sure to receive regular and timely updates on when your surgeons will not be using their block times. When future block time becomes available, contact other surgeons' schedulers at least a month in advance to provide adequate time to arrange the appointment. "Unused OR time is like two-week old cheese rotting on the supermarket shelf," says Mr. Chopra. "You have to find alternative surgeons to absorb unused time."
Learn more about The C/N Group.
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