Posts Tagged ‘physician relations tracking tool’

Physicians Relations Tracking: Using Technology to Support Your Strategy (Part 4)

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

You have made a guiding plan and your assessment team has been selected. Take one more preparatory step that will help you move deftly into the selection and execution phase of your physician tracking program. This step may seem simple but it is often the most time-consuming. You want the assessment team to discuss the overall priorities of the program and to agree, before even getting close to vendor selection, on the essential elements.

We recommend to our clients that this step happen before they get excited about a particular program so that the principles of what is required to be successful leads the thinking. It is surprising about how many different thoughts exist for some of these issues so it is wise to discuss them first and make criteria for selection:

• How will the data be housed and the implications especially if within a multi-hospital system
• Data security
• Access to the system – how and where users and managers will access the system and what type of access will they have?. While end-users need to input and navigate on the account level, will they also require report-writing/viewing capabilities? Will there be different access features for management?
• Access to the system beyond the department. Are there ancillaries or clinical areas that will require viewing or input capabilities? How will system reports be shared?
• If you have more than one hospital in your system, will you share access on all of the accounts? Are there reasons to have some limitations?
• Will the program be web-based or installed with the hospital’s technology architecture? How facile will this be for the end-users?
• If you currently have a rudimentary or old system, should the historical data be imported into the new system? What elements in that data are absolutely necessary to transfer? Would there be an objection to this data being transferred internally or with manual mechanisms if cost is prohibitive?
• What kind of data will be required for the system? Where will this data come from – this is especially important to discuss if you are initiating a new system but have multiple data pools within the organization.
• Will other departments/functions integrate in the future, i.e. will your call center share some functionality or require data feeds?

There also needs to be one person who is responsible for the system and is considered the “go-to” person for all first line issues. We recommend that this individual have enough technical abilities to generate reports and do basic system problem-solving but also be sensitive and aware of the needs/demands within physician relations.

Okay, once you have completed these three preliminary steps outlined in the four parts to this multi-post, you are ready to start comparing vendors and begin the selection process. Feel good about taking the time to do this preliminary planning for it will make the next steps toward execution all that much easier and your team will be more adroit in the selection process. Following these steps make it more likely that you will select a better fit between your organization’s needs and the system’s abilities.

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Physicians Relations Tracking: Using Technology to Support Your Strategy (Part 3)

Monday, April 6th, 2009

You have your plan and now you need an internal assessment team. This team of individuals provides the glue that holds your planning together with eventual execution. The team’s composite is organization wide both for pragmatic and political reasons. This group often gets to be un-wieldy in size but given this choice between inclusion and exclusion, default to inclusion.

You will need a C-suite leader who will be the champion of the concept and comfortable serving as the corporate leverage point on your team. This individual will be a leader in the decision making and be the agent to develop collaboration across departments. In a sense, this executive must be ready to do some silo-busting especially in information strongholds. As we all know, silos impede an organization’s ability to be nimble and consistent. When dealing with information capture and dissemination, the stakes are even greater.

Of course, you will want someone from IT who not only understands the technological foundations and capabilities of the organization but who sees IT deployment in an integrated framework and understands the corporate vision. It is not unusual to have two IT representatives – one for the technological execution and the other for the integration strategy.

Often left out of the early assessment and planning is the actual end-user. You want this individual on the team as early as possible. It is this individual, most likely the physician liaison that you want to hear the most from as you consider the manner and role of a physician tracking system. This individual knows the job, know the finite actions they employ and will be able to articulate if a system will actually be useful – time saving, beneficial and productive – to the role and goal of the actual job.

As you add other key players to this team, be mindful of your organization’s power players for they can break a plan if not invested and informed. The success of your program is just as much about cultural acceptance as it is about the best tool. Other voices on the team may include the medical staff office, decision support, operations and once selected, the vendor.

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Physicians Relations Tracking: Using Technology to Support Your Strategy (Part 2)

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

You’ve made your case and have approval to develop a physician tracking system to assist your physician relations efforts. You might have talked to other organizations that have already employed a tracking or customer relationship management (CRM) program. To get this far, you certainly know what a tracking system can do and why you want it. You are ready for the most primary of steps –developing a plan for use.

Developing a tracking system is not just about purchasing the software and installation. The software is the tool, but the overall goal is to develop or augment your process with the tool. You will benefit by having a plan first and everything will be easy if you don’t see the tool as the “silver bullet.” It is the strategy and process that will lead to success not the software. Our experience with hospitals makes us believe that it is this very expectation that leads to dissatisfaction with the tracking system – regardless of the software being used.

Utilize the physician relations business plan as the core to building out the process. Having this plan in place, including the goals and tactics, should be the starting point – not the tool. Don’t build your strategy completely around your tool. Instead assess how the tool will complement and augment your strategy. If one of your plan’s elements is to provide everyone with a repository of information about the physician and the medical practice, then you will need a tool that allows for shared information or can synchronize information so that all team members work with updated information and history. If a key element in your plan is to track issues and to facilitate resolution of these issues, you will need a tool that can identify and track issues.

Carefully determine the capabilities required and how they will impact your current work process. This plan will inform future steps in the actual implementation so no need to rush your plan. Discuss work flow and desired outcomes with those who will use the tool (i.e. physician liaison reps, service line managers, ancillary services, call center folks). O

Once you have your plan detailed and understand what you want from the tracking/CRM system you are ready for the next step…

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Physicians Relations Tracking: Using Technology to Support Your Strategy (Part 1)

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

When it comes to developing a strong bottom line, most hospitals begin with the same fundamental strategy – build a solid relationship with the physician. But after that global approach, organizations take a variety of paths to solidify those essential relationships. The best intentions are obvious – enhanced efforts recruiting new physicians, formal physician relation programs, joint ventures, new medical office buildings, etc.

It has also become increasing clear that there are no new frontiers. Market share gain and boosting volumes are more about finesse and patience than ever before. Augmenting strategic efforts and limited resources with the right tools is imperative. In this market where the patient experience well delivered can be a game changer, it is just as important to make sure the physician experience is being monitored, evaluated and improved.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an overall strategy that integrates outward facing initiatives and seeks to create a system where the individual is provided consistent service tailored to their needs. In a hospital setting this can involve billing, call centers, marketing departments, referral development, ancillary services, specific service lines and more. It is important to begin with an overall strategy and to map out the components just like with any program. What this post is focusing on is one part of that overall strategy – tracking the activities and outreach in your physician relations efforts.

I will save “tool specific” information for another post and will focus on the general steps necessary to establish and build a tracking system. There are three main steps:

1) develop the plan
2) develop the internal team
3) determine the priorities

In my next post, developing the plan will be the subject.

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