Kathie Stewart, administrator of Cascade Spine Center in Tualatin, Ore., discusses three ways the spine center recruits spine specialists.
1. Promote the facility's reputation. Ms. Stewart says one of the physicians at the spine center has such a sterling reputation that physicians coming from out of town reach out to the surgery center first.
"We have a physician that meets with other physicians in the area, and he keeps in touch with them for our main referrals, but we also usually get phone calls from physicians from out of town," she says. "He has a great reputation because he does some spine procedures that some other spine specialists don't do, like procedures around the cervical area since those are so complicated."
2. Market low staff turnover rates. Keeping the same staff members at your ASC helps demonstrate to patients and physicians that the nurses, technicians and other staff members are happy working at the facility, which can attract outside physicians to the center.
"We have people working at this surgery center who've been here since we opened seven years ago," Ms. Stewart says. "Patients see that we have the same nursing staff, the same billing staff and the same CRNA. Just by word of mouth other physicians hear about our low staff turnover."
3. Demonstrate patient satisfaction. Hearing about excellent patient experiences can also draw in interested physicians. Cascade sends a patient satisfaction survey to patients after their procedure. Ms. Stewart says the satisfaction surveys continuously demonstrate a 99 percent satisfaction rate among patients that return their surveys.
"Patients visiting here will spread their experience by word of mouth, and their physicians will hear about it, too," she says. "I would say one out of every 50 surveys we get back has had something they complained about, and they're usually pretty minor."
Learn more about Cascade Spine Center.
1. Promote the facility's reputation. Ms. Stewart says one of the physicians at the spine center has such a sterling reputation that physicians coming from out of town reach out to the surgery center first.
"We have a physician that meets with other physicians in the area, and he keeps in touch with them for our main referrals, but we also usually get phone calls from physicians from out of town," she says. "He has a great reputation because he does some spine procedures that some other spine specialists don't do, like procedures around the cervical area since those are so complicated."
2. Market low staff turnover rates. Keeping the same staff members at your ASC helps demonstrate to patients and physicians that the nurses, technicians and other staff members are happy working at the facility, which can attract outside physicians to the center.
"We have people working at this surgery center who've been here since we opened seven years ago," Ms. Stewart says. "Patients see that we have the same nursing staff, the same billing staff and the same CRNA. Just by word of mouth other physicians hear about our low staff turnover."
3. Demonstrate patient satisfaction. Hearing about excellent patient experiences can also draw in interested physicians. Cascade sends a patient satisfaction survey to patients after their procedure. Ms. Stewart says the satisfaction surveys continuously demonstrate a 99 percent satisfaction rate among patients that return their surveys.
"Patients visiting here will spread their experience by word of mouth, and their physicians will hear about it, too," she says. "I would say one out of every 50 surveys we get back has had something they complained about, and they're usually pretty minor."
Learn more about Cascade Spine Center.