A Physician Relation Manager (liaison) (PRM/ PRL) is someone that is in the health

profession to help strengthen the relationship with physicians and hospitals or medical

facility, by retaining an open line of communication to maintain and grow their patient

referral database. Interning at Hahnemann hospital, I was assigned to work with

Jessica Ghionni the Lead Physician Relations Manager. Doing some research on what

a Physician Relations Manager does, found it a bit interesting and quite honest

understandable. It is a beneficial role for such facilities to have. Going to the big

hospitals, not knowing the ins and outs of how the hospital truly functions, I can see how

Physician Relations Manager would be a great asset to have. You wouldn’t think so

until you have interned at Hahnemann. It is a tight ship that is needed to keep things

running the way the hospital functions. Working with a huge list of contacts, connecting

with the contacts, and building the relationship between the hospital and the physician is

crucial for the hospital business. A patient does not know that this is all going on. This

is how well the need of this department is for the hospital. To provide a much needed

database to have patients utilize and still be connected with the hospital. You would

never know that having referrals is very crucial for a hospital business to be able to

function. What have I been opened to in my time as an intern?

To get a better explanation of what a Physician Relations Manager job function,

found some articles that felt informative in providing me with a better grasp of how this

role is important to a hospital or other medical facility. ‘Physician Relations programs

developed out of need’ (Harkins, 2013). From this article: The Growing Value of

Physician Relations in an Ever-Changing Health System, Harkins shared that running a

hospital is more like a business when you think about it. You need people to run the

facility, you need product and services, need to hire people to do the everyday

operations, and need consumers/ patients to have the business grow. Just like with any

other business out there, word of mouth from consumers is the best way for businesses

to acquire more “sales” along with advertisement. Hospitals to require word of mouth

as well, this would be called referrals. With acquiring the relationships with physicians

and nurses, this will help the facility to bring the draw of patients to utilize the facility,

such as operation rooms, vacant rooms to be used for seeing patients, use of the

technology like radiology and high tech machines. Utilizing a big facility is important as

I learned in the Economics course in regards to cost value, opportunity cost, elasticity

and revenues. You do not realize how the affect of patient’s have on a hospital facility

and insurances with the demand and supply. Learning these concepts in Economics, I

learn how the course could provide great tools for Physician relations liaison to

understand the needs for a physician and the medical facility. I learned that healthcare

is and inelastic industry. When the demand and supply are inelastic, this is less efficient

at allocating goods and services (Scott, 2015). Healthcare being an industry that has

ups and downs, have to have a better understanding of patients and physicians needs

in a concentrated and competitive industry. May have to make adjustments and use

resources to obtain a strong referring system. Interning at Hahnemann with Jessica,

learning what the team of people together for the same goal, I found that everyone is

supportive of each other. Although each person had their ‘specialty’ in certain area of

the hospital, such as with heart transplant, kidney transplant, diseases, and many many

more, each of their goal is to meet and work with the ‘specialty’ physicians to help build

relationships for the facility to have consistent revenue and the flow of traffic it needs to

run such a facility.

To learn more about how PRM work with physician, Harkins share how

communication is a key factor in her articles. PRM provides a customer service attitude

when dealing with medical profession (Harkins, 2013). My observation during the days

attending Hahnemann, there are surveys that physicians had to fill out. The surveys

seem to be more like a 360 degree review. The PRM take the results and as a team

discuss the common complaint and suggestions that the physicians feel needs to be

addressed for their needs. Some suggestions seem to stem from difficulty getting an

appointment, speaking with someone knowledgeable, long waits on hold, long waits in

waiting rooms, the use of technology, among other variety of patient’s grief. The

reviews helps the PRM team on what needs are to be improved on, to help the

physician stay compliant to CMS policies as well as updates in the ACOs (Harkins,

2013). There is a strong need for Physician Relations Managers/ Liaisons in the

medical profession. With more use of technology being more complex, patients

needing higher level of care, and the rising cost in the medical profession, PRM can

alleviate most of these concerns for the physicians by collaborating with the team of

each department in educating goals to have more of an efficient facility.

I have experience the database of the Hahnemann. I am surprise how outdated

the database is from 2012. A lot does change within months to a year. Personally, it

is a time consuming operation to tackle for one person at a cost that does not seem to

be sufficient. Having an outdated database can stem from much lost to one’s facility,

lost in patient revenue turnover and referral. When I started my internship, I was given

a task to update a particular database for the hospital. The updates are needed, but the

time I have spent on it will never provide the accuracy that the hospital will need in a

timelier fashion. I have used civil resources to update what I can by using the internet

database. Can’t go by that either, as most of the sites and information on the internet is

not updated as well. I end up calling offices confirming information that is given and

making the changes. I have used Hahnemann’s website as well to get physician’s

names and see that the site can use a clean up as well with physicians no longer active

due to retirement, deceased, or moved. This here can lead a patient to look elsewhere

for services if the time is not spent on these sort of updates now with the use of

technology. With having the most up to date referral list and information, PRM’s goals

for retaining doctors would be very efficient. I am just not sure having one person doing

the searching is as efficient than having a database cleaner doing the work for more

efficiency.

Besides the need of updated database, PRM connections with physicians is just

as crucial. Hahnemann’s PRM team meets with physicians, either by a dinner meeting

or try to arrange meetings at the physician’s office in between patients. It is a very

demanding job. With my discussion with Jessica and Beth (one of the PRMs), both

shared that it is crucial and feel that personal contact with the physicians is the best

approach. Just to be able to meet face to face and have a conversation seems to build

a bond of trust with the physicians and to the facility. This approach seems to be more

effective than using marketing- billboards, magazine advertisement, media (radio and

television). But PRM cannot use the referrals alone to build the referrals that are

needed to have the facility function to its capacity. Improve Growth Outcomes by

Aligning Marketing and Physician Relations Strategies, Harkins share how the use of

the marketing depart and PRM can together build strong relations with physicians with

their patients. “Physician liaisons and sales directors can find great support from the

marketing team. They're actually one of the strongest allies that a sales or physician

liaison group has, and they're often right down the hall” (Harkins, 2012), States that

having both a marketing department and PRM, together will be able to meet the needs

for the physicians. Not one can do it alone. Most doctors, from my time spent

reviewing some of the surveys that HUH has collected, all share that the physicians

would like more advertising of the hospital due to the competing hospitals in the

surrounding Philadelphia area. Most physicians at HUH feel that to help with the patient

referrals, it would be nice to highlight some things about the facility so that the patient

can have visual concept of where the physician will be working from and at.

My short but extensive time spent at Hahnemann University Hospital with the

Physician Relation Manager department and Jessica, I have learned that it take more

than just having the physicians, nurses, and administration to keep the facility in

operation. With the great team of the PRM, their dedication with working on having that

relationships with physicians is top goal that they have achieved. I have seen how

important it is for a big facility like HUH to have such a referral base with both the

physicians and the patients. The physician need to be focus on their important role-

taking care of patients. Having the PRM to meet directly with physicians to provide

them for their patients a safe and established facility. And this is marketing with more of

a deeper and personal connection to build trust. I have learned that establishing trust is

what drives a company- hospitals, hotels, restaurants, etc. It is good to have trust, as it

is an important component with health care.

Citations:

Harkins, K. (2015). The growing value of physician relations in an ever-changing health

system, 2013. Retrieved August 18, 2015, from

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-physician-relationships/the-growing-

value-of-physician-relations-in-an-ever-changing-health-system.html

Harkins, K. (2015). Improve growth outcomes by aligning marketing and physician

relations strategies, 2012

. Retrieved August 18, 2015, from http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-

physician-relationships/improve-growth-outcomes-by-aligning-marketing-and-

physician-relations-strategies.html

Scott, C. (2015) Econ 240: Terms and Concepts 6: Price

Elasticity.

Personal Collection of C. Scott, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA