referring physician omni-channel experience

Physician Marketing & Outreach Omni-Channel Experience

Gelb, An Endeavor Management Company

2700 Post Oak Blvd P + 281.759.3600 Suite 1400 F + 281.759.3607 Houston, Texas 77056 www.endeavormgmt.com/healthcare

Physician Marketing & Outreach

© 2015 Endeavor Management. All Rights Reserved.

Overview

With referring physicians accounting for more than 50% of new patient volume in many hospitals and healthcare systems, assessing, tracking and improving the referral experience is a strategic imperative. Many healthcare organizations experience challenges when it comes to streamlining the referral process for referring physicians. Some common challenges in providing the ideal referral experience include:

• Multiple entry points for scheduling and access • Gaps in technology • Inconsistent communication • Lack of alignment between customer-‐preferred and organization-‐preferred channel usage

This whitepaper examines the omni-‐channel experience. We will outline five steps to develop an omni-‐channel strategy to address these common challenges and to improve the referral experience helping organizations attract, grow and retain physician relationships.

Omni-Channel Referral Experience

What is an omni-‐channel experience? Omni-‐channel (“omni” meaning everything) examines the experience holistically, across all touchpoints, delivered by multiple stakeholders. Gelb has been organizing the efforts of its clients for over 15 years to reach this goal, with the advancement of metrics and communications channels, this has become more a critical ideal to reinforce. Physician satisfaction with the referral process can have a big impact on referral patterns. As the healthcare environment is becoming increasingly competitive in terms of clinical outcomes and cutting-‐edge care, performance in other aspects of care, like the experience, can help organizations stand out within the competitive set. We often find that physicians have preferences for selecting a referral partner for care. While outcomes are almost always the primary factor in choosing a provider, the referral experience impacts this decision. If the referral process for a preferred provider is complicated, inefficient, or otherwise dissatisfying (e.g., perceived as disrespectful), a physician may shift referrals to another comparable provider. Often times, a hospital or healthcare system may not even be aware of this “leakage” and why it is occurring. In other industries, development of omni-‐channel strategies have become a primary focus to improve and streamline the experience across sales channels, ensuring that customers have a high quality, consistent experience regardless of channel or channels used. Applying best practices from



these industries can help hospitals and healthcare systems design an omni-‐channel referral experience – to stop leakage and grow volume.

Gelb’s Five Steps to Developing an Omni-Channel Referral Experience Gelb has worked with many of the top-‐rated hospitals and academic medical centers to assess the current referral experience and design strategies to deliver the ideal experience. In our work, we have identified five steps for creating and executing an omni-‐channel referral experience. Step 1 -‐ Frame The first step is to outline the goals and objectives of the omni-‐channel referral strategy. This is an important step in creating a clear vision, defining success factors and creating a case for change to gain alignment within your organization. Below are some examples of common goals for an omni-‐channel referral strategy: Goal Objective Increase Referral Volume • Increase number of physicians who refer to brand

• Increase number of referrals from each physician/practice • Increase number of referrals from physicians across service lines

Increase Efficiency • Reduce redundancy and resources required to process referrals Strengthen Referral Relationships • Increase physician overall satisfaction and reputation with brand

• Increase physician satisfaction with referral process • Increase physician advocacy • Increase consistency of the referral experience across channels

In addition to clearly defining the goals and objectives of the omni-‐channel strategy, it is important to determine the scope and timing. As an example, if your organization is implementing a new EMR system in the next two years, how will that impact your scope today? Incorporating future key initiatives into your omni-‐channel strategy today will ensure long-‐term flexibility and success. Step 2 – Discover Next, we recommend discovery and thorough information review. Starting with an outside-‐in approach, assessing the current referral experience from the perspective of the referring physician will provide a unique perspective in usage and satisfaction with the referral process across each channel.



Example: Experience Map (above) Using an Experience Map as a framework, key touchpoints across the referring physician experience and be identified and assessed for performance using primary research. The Experience Map is a helpful tool in communicating the strengths and areas for improvement from the perspective of the customer to internal stakeholders. We recommend a careful review of how this experience may differ across market segments (specialists vs. PCPs, local market vs. extended market). In our experience, we have found that channel satisfaction and preference varies among segments. It will also be important to identify at what point a physician may cross channels. For example, does a referral initially begin on the portal but then require a phone call to the service line for a special circumstance? Understanding how physicians may switch channels for making a single referral or for different types of referrals will highlight inefficiencies in the referral process. In addition to using primary research as a means to capture data about the current referral experience, analyzing referral behavioral data can be insightful. Gaining access to current referral patterns by physician segment can highlight how physicians are accessing your services.



While not an exhaustive list, below is an example of integrating primary data with behavioral data to organize insight into referral channel performance and preference: Channel Performance Metric

Usage

• Awareness of portal • Number of new users by segment • Number of visits per month per user by segment • Number of appointments scheduled • Top pages visited by segment

Efficiency • Time from first request to appointment

Portal

Satisfaction/Preference • Stated channel preference • Satisfaction with process

Usage

• Number of calls by segment • Number of appointments scheduled

Efficiency • Number of minutes on call for single referral • Time from first call to appointment • Number of transfers • Staff perceptions of efficiency

Referral Hotline


Usage • Number of calls by segment • Number of appointments scheduled

Efficiency • Number of minutes on call for single referral • Time from first request to appointment • Staff perceptions of efficiency

Service Line


Usage • Number of calls by segment • Number of appointments scheduled

Efficiency • Number of minutes on call for single referral • Time from first request to appointment • Staff perceptions of efficiency

Doc-‐to-‐Doc


It is important to note that the above table provides a framework for assessing channel performance but is focused solely on the interaction of making a referral. Assessing channel performance should include all activities across the referral experience such as choosing referral provider, communication about patient care and transition of care back to care provider. Step 3 -‐ Analyze Integrating data from primary research and operation data can be used to develop an Omni-‐Channel Journey. The Omni-‐Channel Journey incorporates the following elements:



Personas Personae are a characteristic representation of each market segment describing their goals, wants and unmet needs. It outlines their current channel usage and preferences. Each persona also provides insight into challenges and barriers with the referral process and channels.

Channel Map The Channel Map demonstrates current usage, satisfaction and efficiency by persona (market segment). It also visually depicts how referring physicians may switch channels throughout the referral experience. Journey Summary The Journey summary outlines strengths and areas for improvement by highlighting: process issues (redundancy, process gaps, etc.), customer channel preferences versus current usage and satisfaction both internally (staff) and externally (referring physicians).

Example: Persona (left) and Channel Map (right)

The Omni-‐Channel Journey organizes insight collected and visualizes the referral process to help stakeholders quickly see how channels are currently being used and identify opportunities for streamlining processes between channels. Step 4 – Design Using the Omni-‐Channel Journey, the next step is to design the ideal omni-‐channel referral experience. Starting with your Experience Map, referral channels and usage is mapped across the experience. This addition to the Experience Map will help stakeholders visualize how each physician segment chooses and switches channels throughout the channel experience.



Typically, we recommend assembling an Experience Team that consists of stakeholders from departments that may influence the referral channels or referral process. A diverse group of participants will engender cooperation and collaboration across departments that may be impacted by potential change. There is not a single solution to developing an omni-‐channel referral strategy. It is dependent on your goals, current capabilities, resources available and readiness for change. Designing the ideal referral experience begins with referencing the goals and objectives of the omni-‐channel referral strategy from the framing stage. These goals and objectives will drive priorities and guide decision-‐making throughout the design process. Based on the goals and objectives, the Experience Team will work together to determine how to eliminate redundancy, reduce process gaps that may lead to channel switching and to incorporate customer channel preference by segment into overall referral process. The end result of this collaboration is an ideal Omni-‐Channel Journey. This document will serve as the roadmap for the omni-‐channel referral strategy execution. Step 5 -‐ Execute Developing a clear, concise plan for execution will pave the way for change. When developing an execution plan, each initiative should be link directly to a business goal and objective. One method for developing initiatives to support strategy execution is to present the omni-‐channel referral strategy to the departments who will impact change and engage them in the planning process. Creating departmental initiatives and integrating such with the overall strategy and execution timeline can encourage staff engagement and facilitate change. Working with the experience team, departments should also select key performance indicators to track performance of initiatives and overall omni-‐channel experience. Using the initial Omni-‐Channel Journey as a baseline, the Experience Team can benchmark improvement and impact of execution.

Taking Action

Referring physicians play an important role in growing new patient volume. While clinical outcomes are important in choosing a provider, the competitive landscape is becoming more and more crowded in terms of providers with a reputation of providing high-‐quality care. Providing the ideal referral experience can become a differentiator.



Developing an omni-‐channel referral strategy can help your organization provide a consistent and efficient referral experience regardless of the channel your physicians prefer. An omni-‐channel referral strategy can consist of incremental change over time or may be a complete redesign of the referral process. Either way, creating a case for change, recognizing that the referral process has a substantial brand and business impact, is the first step in taking action:

• Is there a decline in referrals from certain physician segments? • Is referring physician satisfaction and/or reputation decreasing? • Are there a growing number of lapsed referrals from referring physicians? • Is there in increase in cases/support for physician referrals?

Answers to the questions above can indicate issues with the referral process and channel inefficiencies and help you determine if exploring an omni-‐channel referral strategy is right for your organization.



About Endeavor

Endeavor Management, is an international management consulting firm that collaboratively works with their clients to achieve greater value from their transformational business initiatives. Endeavor serves as a catalyst by providing pragmatic methodologies and industry expertise in Transformational Strategies, Operational Excellence, Organizational Effectiveness, and Transformational Leadership.

Our clients include those responsible for: • Business Strategy • Marketing and Brand Strategy • Operations • Technology Deployment • Strategic Human Capital • Corporate Finance

The firm’s 50 year heritage has produced a substantial portfolio of proven methodologies, deep operational insight and broad industry experience. This experience enables our team to quickly understand the dynamics of client companies and markets. Endeavor’s clients span the globe and are typically leaders in their industry.

Gelb Consulting Group, a wholly owned subsidiary, monitors organizational performance and designs winning marketing strategies. Gelb helps organizations focus their marketing initiatives by fully understanding customer needs through proven strategic frameworks to guide marketing strategies, build trusted brands, deliver exceptional experiences and launch new products. Gelb can help you to develop and implement the right strategies. Using advanced research techniques, Gelb can help you to understand the complexities of your market, to develop your strategic decision frameworks and to determine the best deployment of your resources and technology to monitor your successes.

For over 50 years, Gelb has worked with marketing leaders on:

• Strategic Marketing • Brand Building • Customer Experience Management • Go to Market • Product Innovation • Trademark/Trade Dress Protection

Our websites: www.endeavormgmt.com www.gelbconsulting.com www.gulfresearch.com

referring physician omni-channel experience

Healthcare