Are you a physician who is trying to build your base of patients? Do you want to offer higher-quality service to better treat your patients? Do you want to be able to better compete with other practices in your area? If so, you may want to consider joining a physician referral network. A physician referral network is a group of doctors who communicate with each other regularly and even meet once or twice a month. The primary goal is to refer patients to each other, but you they're also great ways to learn from other doctors. Some networks are formal and are run through hospital networks. Others are more informal. Here are three reasons why a physician referral network could be good for you:
To gain new patients. The top objective of any referral network is to refer patients back and forth. Most networks have limited numbers of each type of doctor. For example, there may be a handful of general practitioners, a couple orthopedists, a dermatologist, an ear, nose, and throat doctor, and so on and so forth. As part of the network, you'll have direct contact information for doctors in nearly every type of specialty so you can refer your patients. On the flip side, the other doctors in your network will refer patients back to you.
To provide better service to your patients. Your patients probably trust you. So when they ask you for advice, they're counting on you to deliver something of value. When you're part of a referral network, you can refer them to the appropriate specialist with confidence. You'll know the specialist firsthand so you can be sure that they'll get high-quality treatment.
As a bonus, the specialist or other doctor may treat your patients as their own. That means they may be able to get on the schedule earlier or get their preferred time. Your patients will appreciate that kind of "white glove" treatment.
To learn from other doctors. The referrals are certainly a great benefit of any physician referral network. However, the shared knowledge may be even more valuable. When you get together with the other doctors from your network, you can pick their brain about things that only other doctors will understand. How do they manage their staff? What services do they offer to patients? How do they streamline their billing processes so they get paid quickly? That shared knowledge can help you improve your practice in any number of ways.
If you're not part of a physician network, talk to other doctors in your area. They may be able to recommend one or even invite you into theirs. Also, talk to area hospital systems. They sometimes manage referral networks, even for doctors who aren't part of their system.
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