Not too long ago, one of my kids broke something in our home that needed to be glued back together.

We couldn’t use just any glue, we had to use the right kind of glue in the right places to fix the item.

A referral network program is no different.

You need to use the right kind of “glue” in the right places to hold the program together, keep referrals flowing, and stop Leaky Referral Syndrome (which we talk about in this article here).

So, what is this “glue” that holds a referral network program together and how should you use it?

The Collaborative Care Coordinator is the “glue”, and they support field efforts by scheduling referred patients and maintaining internal communications between a practice and its referral partners.

For the past several weeks, we’ve been discussing the 10 Key Drivers to Exponential Referral Network Growth.

Key Driver #8 is a dedicated Collaborative Care Coordinator.

When we talk about referral network programs, we talk a lot about the physician liaison.

The Collaborative Care Coordinator is equally important to the program because they are the “glue” that holds the entire program together.

When I ask a practice about their referral process, I usually learn that there are multiple people handling multiple pieces of the process.

One person receives the referral, another calls the patient, another enters the demographics, another faxes the exam report back to the referring doctor, and yet another schedules the patient’s follow up appointment with the referring doctor.

Whew! That’s a lot of people and a lot of margin for error.

If you’re exhausted just reading about it, imagine how a referring doctor’s office feels being bounced around from person to person.

Which…

Is why the Collaborative Care Coordinator is so valuable to your referral network program.

A Collaborative Care Coordinator can increase referrals in your practice in three key ways:

Streamlined processes.

Referring offices will seek out specialty practices with a simple referral process. 

Just this week, one of my clients learned that a referring office had stopped sending to them because they were bounced around to multiple people when they called making it too difficult to schedule a patient.

In our society of convenience, the last thing a referring office wants is to be placed on hold and bounced around to refer a patient.

Improved communications.

A dedicated Collaborative Care Coordinator offers referring practices a single point of contact they can get to know and trust.

Just like when my husband goes to the same coffee shop every single morning for his large latte with an extra shot.

There are a lot of places he could go to get overpriced coffee. He goes there because they know him when he walks in the door. They see him coming, start his order, and he trusts them to get it right. 

We do business with the people we know, like, and trust. Relationship goes a long way and a dedicated Collaborative Care Coordinator helps to build that trust and relationship.

Empowered practice liaison.

Having an internal Collaborative Care Coordinator frees up the practice liaison to do what they do best…

Grow the business.

The liaison doesn’t have to use their time to verify that patients were scheduled properly and can focus 100% of their energy on field efforts.

My clients have grown referral volume by 25% within 90 days of establishing a Collaborative Care Coordinator.

Having a dedicated Collaborative Care Coordinator doesn’t mean that you have to rush out and hire a new person.

Chances are, this person is already in your practice doing a great job and ready for the next challenge.

Look for someone with excellent customer service and organizational skills to handle all of the referrals and internal communications with referring doctors.

If you’re ready to put the pieces of your referral network program together by using the right kind of “glue”, give us a shout. We’d love to talk!