Leaky Referral Syndrome.
It’s a condition all practices suffer from in some form or fashion.
Chances are, you’ve experienced Leaky Referral Syndrome, and you may not even realize it.
What exactly is Leaky Referral Syndrome?
Leaky Referral Syndrome is a condition within a medical practice characterized by leaks in the patient referral process resulting in the loss of referrals.
Leak·y Re·fer·ral Syn·drome
/ˈlēkē/ /rəˈfərəl/ /ˈsinˌdrōm/
noun
A condition within a medical practice characterized by leaks in the patient referral process resulting in the loss of referrals.
The symptom of Leaky Referral Syndrome is the loss of referrals.
But…
The the root cause is a broken referral process.
Which…
Can occur for any number of reasons from disorganization, to poor communication, to not having a process to begin with.
Whatever the cause of your Leaky Referral Syndrome, there’s good news…
Leaky Referral Syndrome is 100% curable.
The #1 cure for Leaky Referral Syndrome is to have a Solid Referral Process in place.
Recently, we’ve been talking about the Ten Key Drivers of Exponential Referral Network Growth.
The second Key Driver of Exponential Referral Network Growth is…
You guessed it…
A Solid Referral Process.
Without a good process or follow up plan in place, referrals will continue to slip through the cracks.
The best referral processes should be simple and seamless for the referring practice and their patients.
I’ve seen practices require referring partners jump through complicated hoops just to be able to send a patient.
If you’re making the process too complicated, you will lose referrals to the competitor who makes it easy.
Think Blockbuster versus Netflix. Would you rather be Blockbuster or Netflix?
A great referral process also makes things easy on the patient.
Don’t make the patient call you.
Call the patient and reach out to them right away.
True story…
One time I was referred to a specialist and it took them a month to call me. By that time, I had long moved on to another provider.
Call patients the same day you receive the referral before they have time to go someplace else.
And if you don’t reach the patient on the first try…
Try again. And again. And again.
How many practices miss out on the opportunity to care for patients because they contact the patient one time and forget it?
You may be thinking, “Hey! Our referral process is pretty good.”
That may be the case.
But could it be better?
There is no time like the present to take inventory of your referral process.
Here are some questions to get you started:
- How does a referral come in?
- What happens to the referral once it’s received?
- Who is responsible for getting the patient scheduled?
- How quickly is the patient contacted?
- What is communicated back to the referring doctor?
If you find some leaks along the way, don’t be discouraged.
Remember, this is 100% curable.
If you’d like to know more about how to cure Leaky Referral Syndrome in your practice, give us a shout.
And…
Put a stop Leaky Referral Syndrome today!
