By: Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA | kbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com
Today’s buzzword is consumerism and health care marketers are eager to capture the attention of the consumer. Once we get their attention, consumers often start their experience at the doctors’ office. Physician relations is accountable to make sure that the physician aligns with the desired health system offerings. This seems like a logical process with clear roles and in many organizations, it is. The challenges start when it isn’t and disconnects are often related to turf, expectations and communication. Here are five ideas to make your process more efficient.
- Create an aligned model
This is not about reporting structure or control, it’s about the benefit to the organization and our patients. The ability to discuss obligations and expectations is a great starting point. Look at what intersects and then consider those actions that are separate. Both functions are about positioning the organization for growth. It starts with a clear vision.
- Collaboration starts with the plan
Once you have a vision for how the teams can better work together, start with the plan. Move away from believing it is a marketing plan or a physician relations business plan and consider the intersections. Plans start with an assessment of what worked in the past for each audience and the data-driven results we achieved. Moving forward, use that information plus the strategic priorities. A huge piece of the plan is accountabilities and timelines.
- Communicate often – both formal and informal
It’s a little ironic that experts in communication are so busy communicating with their audience that they fail to take the time for thoughtful internal communications. Proactive conversations assimilate what we hear from our audience and what we hope to share with them. Start there and take the time to consider how that fits into the plan. Consider service line priorities, the tools needed to impact relationships with the consumer and the physician, the timelines and the expectations. Clinical outcomes are playing a very important role for physician relations. It may be a data point used in discussion instead of a brochure or one-pager.
- Invest in understanding the other side
Share your insights about tools that work, about messages that resonate, and conversations with the service line leaders. Physician relations teams need to understand the consumer strategy and they need to invest in supporting the marketers with “voice of physician” learnings from the field. At the heart of this one is trust; you must trust that your colleagues are sharing the priorities.
- Give the gift of time
If your approach has been two separate functions for a long time, just saying we should collaborate will not make it so. Most organizations that are truly collaborating have started with a commitment to make it happen. It is always about a plan, accountabilities, measures and of course, people willing to meet those 3 areas. Habits take time to change, but this is an area where it is so worth it.