Cindy Givens, executive director at Surgery Center at Tanasbourne in Hillsboro, Ore., discusses four steps ASCs can take to increase their number of screening colonoscopies.
1. Market to primary care physicians. Surgery Center at Tanasbourne, which is partnered with a local hospital, started by working with and marketing to the hospital's primary care group. Ms. Givens, joined by her ASC's medical director or one of the colonoscopy physicians, would go to the primary care group's physician meetings to talk about the ASC's offering of colorectal screenings and make themselves available to answer any questions from the primary care physicians. Just getting a foot in the door and attempting to change the primary care physicians' referral patterns was the biggest challenge during this time, Ms. Givens says. The next step was to access the independent community primary care physicians.
"My biggest 'in' was my medical director," she says. "She is a GYN physician who has been in the community for 8-10 years, so the medical community already knows her and her reputation had already been established. Tossing her name around has helped in getting the primary care physicians on board."
2. Prepare a packet of information for primary care physicians. Ms. Givens says she worked with her staff to create a patient packet to distribute to the primary care physicians to give to patients they refer to the center. The packet of information included a welcome letter, information on the colorectal screenings, why the ASC offers the screenings, referral forms for the primary care physicians and information their patients may need about colorectal screenings. This way, the primary care physicians really have to do nothing else but fill out the referral form and send over their patients' insurance/demographics information and history and physical, which makes it much easier for them, Ms. Givens says.
"In those packets, there is additional information on how patients can schedule screenings with us, prep instructions, facts about colonoscopies, what a clear liquid diet is and so on," she says. "We also put this information up on our website so our tech-savvy patients can go straight there and find the information they seek."
3. Conduct direct consumer advertising. On top of building a stronger referral base from the hospital partner's primary care group, Surgery Center at Tanasbourne also put together postcards that were mailed directly to a mailing list of residents over the age of 40. Ms. Givens says approximately 19,000 local residents were reached with each mailing, and within 48 hours, the surgery center was receiving approximately 10-15 phone calls daily from patients, including potential self-pay patients. The postcards included a combination of information marketing the ASC as well as factual information about why colorectal screenings are important, Ms. Givens says.
"Two of the postcards highlighted the fact that colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of death but is preventable if screened early," she says. "The postcards also highlighted that the screenings were affordable, easy to schedule and cost-efficient. Probably the biggest selling piece on the postcards was that our ASC has a physician doing colonoscopies who is the only female board-certified colorectal surgeon in Oregon, which gives us a lot of credibility and gives women an option if they want a female provider."
4. Develop good communication habits with referring physicians. After Surgery Center at Tanasbourne was able to start building a base of referring physicians from the hospital, the ASC has worked diligently to ensure the ASC was always on the same page with the referring physicians on the status of patients. This practice will help encourage physicians to continue referring patients to the ASC and help physicians feel more at ease knowing their patients did not fall through the cracks. To ensure physicians were kept well-informed on their patients' statuses, the ASC faxes a confirmation to the referring physician that their patient was reached and has been scheduled for a colonoscopy. After the procedure is completed, a copy of the procedure note and any pathology is sent to the primary care physicians as well, which Ms. Givens says really closes the loop with primary care physicians.
Learn more about Surgery Center at Tanasbourne.
1. Market to primary care physicians. Surgery Center at Tanasbourne, which is partnered with a local hospital, started by working with and marketing to the hospital's primary care group. Ms. Givens, joined by her ASC's medical director or one of the colonoscopy physicians, would go to the primary care group's physician meetings to talk about the ASC's offering of colorectal screenings and make themselves available to answer any questions from the primary care physicians. Just getting a foot in the door and attempting to change the primary care physicians' referral patterns was the biggest challenge during this time, Ms. Givens says. The next step was to access the independent community primary care physicians.
"My biggest 'in' was my medical director," she says. "She is a GYN physician who has been in the community for 8-10 years, so the medical community already knows her and her reputation had already been established. Tossing her name around has helped in getting the primary care physicians on board."
2. Prepare a packet of information for primary care physicians. Ms. Givens says she worked with her staff to create a patient packet to distribute to the primary care physicians to give to patients they refer to the center. The packet of information included a welcome letter, information on the colorectal screenings, why the ASC offers the screenings, referral forms for the primary care physicians and information their patients may need about colorectal screenings. This way, the primary care physicians really have to do nothing else but fill out the referral form and send over their patients' insurance/demographics information and history and physical, which makes it much easier for them, Ms. Givens says.
"In those packets, there is additional information on how patients can schedule screenings with us, prep instructions, facts about colonoscopies, what a clear liquid diet is and so on," she says. "We also put this information up on our website so our tech-savvy patients can go straight there and find the information they seek."
3. Conduct direct consumer advertising. On top of building a stronger referral base from the hospital partner's primary care group, Surgery Center at Tanasbourne also put together postcards that were mailed directly to a mailing list of residents over the age of 40. Ms. Givens says approximately 19,000 local residents were reached with each mailing, and within 48 hours, the surgery center was receiving approximately 10-15 phone calls daily from patients, including potential self-pay patients. The postcards included a combination of information marketing the ASC as well as factual information about why colorectal screenings are important, Ms. Givens says.
"Two of the postcards highlighted the fact that colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of death but is preventable if screened early," she says. "The postcards also highlighted that the screenings were affordable, easy to schedule and cost-efficient. Probably the biggest selling piece on the postcards was that our ASC has a physician doing colonoscopies who is the only female board-certified colorectal surgeon in Oregon, which gives us a lot of credibility and gives women an option if they want a female provider."
4. Develop good communication habits with referring physicians. After Surgery Center at Tanasbourne was able to start building a base of referring physicians from the hospital, the ASC has worked diligently to ensure the ASC was always on the same page with the referring physicians on the status of patients. This practice will help encourage physicians to continue referring patients to the ASC and help physicians feel more at ease knowing their patients did not fall through the cracks. To ensure physicians were kept well-informed on their patients' statuses, the ASC faxes a confirmation to the referring physician that their patient was reached and has been scheduled for a colonoscopy. After the procedure is completed, a copy of the procedure note and any pathology is sent to the primary care physicians as well, which Ms. Givens says really closes the loop with primary care physicians.
Learn more about Surgery Center at Tanasbourne.