Articles
Sometimes, you just need to read something to better understand a concept or to visualize the next steps on your journey. Barlow/McCarthy consultants have a variety of articles, blogs and checklists on topics of interest. Learn approaches for creating new physician relations models; re-tooling existing physician relations programs; facilitating physician recruitment and new physician on-boarding; and developing retention and practice marketing plans.
Physician Relations: Field Visit Techniques
Access Is the Priority – So Why Are Referral Strategies Still Stuck in the Past?
By: Susan Boydell | sboydell@barlowmccarthy.com Health system leaders are being asked to show clearer returns on growth investments heading into 2026. In increasingly competitive markets, the ability to manage referrals effectively, not just generate them, is becoming...
Effective Patterns vs Ruts. Are You Stuck?
Kriss Barlow RN, MBA | kbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com Field staff have such an “always on” role. There is internal scrutiny coupled with the need to impress discerning referring physicians, and just getting to them is a whole different discussion! It’s easy to fall into...
The Art of the First Impression: Making Every Physician Interaction Count
By: Susan Boydell | sboydell@barlowmccarthy.com Think back to the last time you met someone new. Maybe it was a neighbor, a new colleague, or even the person seated next to you on a plane. Chances are, within the first few minutes, you had already formed an...
Time to Find New Referral Sources?
By: Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA | kbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com Physician relations teams typically spend their time with providers who already refer to your organization. Historically, that made the most sense- it was the chance to earn more from those who already had a...
Beyond the Referral: How to Build Lasting Physician Engagement
By: Susan Boydell | sboydell@barlowmccarthy.com Securing a physician’s referral is just the first step. The real challenge—and opportunity—lies in fostering meaningful, long-term relationships that go beyond a single patient handoff. Strong engagement isn’t built on...
Physician Relations: Sales Planning
Access Is the Priority – So Why Are Referral Strategies Still Stuck in the Past?
By: Susan Boydell | sboydell@barlowmccarthy.com Health system leaders are being asked to show clearer returns on growth investments heading into 2026. In increasingly competitive markets, the ability to manage referrals effectively, not just generate them, is becoming...
Effective Patterns vs Ruts. Are You Stuck?
Kriss Barlow RN, MBA | kbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com Field staff have such an “always on” role. There is internal scrutiny coupled with the need to impress discerning referring physicians, and just getting to them is a whole different discussion! It’s easy to fall into...
Time to Find New Referral Sources?
By: Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA | kbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com Physician relations teams typically spend their time with providers who already refer to your organization. Historically, that made the most sense- it was the chance to earn more from those who already had a...
Selling Smarter, Not Harder: The Role of Niche Targeting in Physician Relations
By: Susan Boydell | sboydell@barlowmccarthy.com In today’s competitive healthcare landscape, traditional sales approaches often fall short when trying to get a referring physician’s attention. Broad, one-size-fits-all messaging can fail to resonate, leading to missed...
The Hidden Gaps in Your Physician Outreach—and How to Fix Them
By: Susan Boydell | sboydell@barlowmccarthy.com Physician outreach isn’t just about making connections—it’s about fostering relationships that drive real referral growth. Yet even the most well-intentioned efforts can fall short due to hidden gaps that hinder...
Marketing/Practice Development
Why Storytelling is Beyond Marketing
By: Jeff Cowart, MAH | jcowart@barlowmccarthy.com One of the associations representing marketers nationally offers storytelling skills development. The organization begins its course description with this definition: “Capture peoples’ imagination and interest by...
The Vaporous Storytelling of Healthcare
By: Jeff Cowart, MAH | jcowart@barlowmccarthy.com Recently we came across this communication from a healthcare system to its patients or consumers or customers or external stakeholders, or whatever label your health system prefers to describe the people who choose you...
Positioning Against Active Inertia
By: Jeff Cowart, MAH | jcowart@barlowmccarthy.com The inflexibility and even arrogance of holding current position when evidence of threat or opportunity is substantial is perhaps the most common characteristic of failure for companies, products, leaders, causes,...
Shark-like Practice Marketing
By: Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA | kbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com When I saw this quote on LinkedIn, I just loved it. Of course in the case of practice marketing the “chase” and “bite” need to be expressed a bit differently! But if we look closely there is some wisdom here that...
6 Practice Marketing Basics that Set the Course for Success
By: Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA | kbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com Marketers can be heard moaning, “Just add it to the list…” Teams of excellent health system marketers are now up to their elbows in one-off needs of employed practices, tri-fold brochures, requests for...
Physician Relations:
Internal Relations and Systems
Access Is the Priority – So Why Are Referral Strategies Still Stuck in the Past?
By: Susan Boydell | sboydell@barlowmccarthy.com Health system leaders are being asked to show clearer returns on growth investments heading into 2026. In increasingly competitive markets, the ability to manage referrals effectively, not just generate them, is becoming...
Time to Find New Referral Sources?
By: Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA | kbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com Physician relations teams typically spend their time with providers who already refer to your organization. Historically, that made the most sense- it was the chance to earn more from those who already had a...
Access Point Connectivity: A Growth Initiative
By: Tricia Anderson | tanderson@barlowmccarthy.com In our highly competitive markets, innovative and strategic growth solutions are now required for the financial stability of healthcare systems. With the goal of capturing more patients, healthcare systems have spent...
25 Ways to Elevate Your Field Game in 2025
By: Susan Boydell | sboydell@barlowmccarthy.com As the year comes to a close, it’s the perfect moment to celebrate the successes of 2024 and gear up for the exciting opportunities ahead in 2025. To help you start the new year strong, I’ve put together 25 impactful...
What Should Innovation Look Like For Physician Relations?
By: Susan Boydell | sboydell@barlowmccarthy.com We’ve been talking about innovation in physician relations for a while. This is not about the relevancy of what we are doing, but more about how we can make a bigger impact for our organizations and for the physician...
Physician Relations: Retention
Beyond the Referral: How to Build Lasting Physician Engagement
By: Susan Boydell | sboydell@barlowmccarthy.com Securing a physician’s referral is just the first step. The real challenge—and opportunity—lies in fostering meaningful, long-term relationships that go beyond a single patient handoff. Strong engagement isn’t built on...
Access Point Connectivity: A Growth Initiative
By: Tricia Anderson | tanderson@barlowmccarthy.com In our highly competitive markets, innovative and strategic growth solutions are now required for the financial stability of healthcare systems. With the goal of capturing more patients, healthcare systems have spent...
Physician Relations: Leveraging Your Existing Referral Sources
By: Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA | kbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com Most liaisons are far more comfortable working with existing practices than cold calling those who have never referred. And let’s face it, in some geographies, new prospects are slim pickings. Existing practices...
Developing a Regional Referral Strategy
Author: Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA The original version of this article appeared in Healthcare Executive. Content has been updated to recognize the marketplace in 2009. To grow and sustain their business, many hospitals rely on inpatient tertiary care, and the competition...
Communication to Keep Physicians in the Loop
Author: Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA For almost every healthcare executive, managing change seems to be a daily obligation. Change means that people and departments are in a state of flux. What is all of this change doing to impact communication? Tremendous energy is being...
Physician Recruitment
The Early Stages of Change: ADKAR in Action
By: Allison McCarthy, MBA | amccarthy@barlowmccarthy.com One of the frameworks I often use in coaching conversations is the Prosci ADKAR model, which focuses on the individual journey through change: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement. What I...
Strategic Recruitment Starts Long Before the Search
By: Mitzi Kent, RN, BSN | mkent@barlowmccarthy.com The difference between strategic and reactive physician recruitment often comes down to one thing: whether the recruitment team has the access and influence to educate organizational leadership before a crisis forces...
Partnership Beats PowerPoint: Building Recruitment Strategies That Actually Stick
By: Mitzi Kent, RN, BSN | mkent@barlowmccarthy.com “We’ve brought in consultants before. They gave us a 60-page PowerPoint report and left. Nothing changed.” I hear this more often than you might think. And honestly, I understand the frustration. Healthcare...
When Your Interview Process is Stuck in 2005 (And Why That’s Costing You Great Physicians)
By: Mitzi Kent | mkent@barlowmccarthy.com The physician sitting across from you has an impressive resume. Top medical school, strong residency, excellent references. You ask about their clinical experience, review their credentials, and check all the traditional...
When Physician Recruiting Feels Like Driving Without Directions (And How to Get Your Bearings)
By: Mitzi Kent, RN, BSN | mkent@barlowmccarthy.com We've all been there. You're driving to an important meeting in an unfamiliar part of town, and your phone dies. Suddenly, you're making random turns, hoping the next street will look familiar. You're burning gas,...
Physician Retention
Shore Up The Retention Platform
By Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA With so much pressure to grow new referrals and gain additional volumes it is easy to focus exclusively on new business, sometimes at the expense of those physicians whose referrals you need to keep. To start your year strong, take a few...
Physician Satisfaction
By David F. Zirkle, PhD It’s no secret that physicians today face a myriad of challenges and changes – from increased medical malpractice litigation to shrinking reimbursements, from cost containment to quality of care issues and patient safety concerns. While...
Referrals are only the beginning of the story.
If you’re ready to understand what happens after the referral is made and how it impacts access, retention, and revenue, our consultants would welcome the conversation.