Creating a United Front for the External Stakeholder

By Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA

Have you ever purchased an item only to learn that nobody is as eager to respond to service questions or implementation needs as they were to “do the deal?” In our household, it really hit home with a new TV and the remote. We need three remotes to work the marvelous new TV system and when we tried to learn how to consolidate, everyone thought someone else would have the right information. Ugh. Could the very same thing be happening within our organizations?

Having a responsive and knowledgeable internal team is critical for earning and maintaining successful relationships with our prospective referring physicians – actually with everyone. It requires preparation and accountability.

To provide realistic service expectations for the physician, the representative must have a baseline understanding of the deliverable, including who is involved and how the process works. If you are working to grow outpatient diagnostics, you need to have the scheduler, the tech, and their director involved. If it is inpatient referrals, there may be many pathways to admission and each one needs to be functional. The representative needs to understand and communicate the process and then the department must deliver on it with good service.

How do you create that united front and gain synergy internally?

1. Accept the fact that it’s your job to earn credibility, learn internal process – to sell internally.

2. You will need to explain background and why you have been asked to grow the service. Don’t assume that everyone inside wants new business. Help them understand the impact with stories and examples from other departments.

3. Expect that some individuals will be reticent to change. Stay on it and try other approaches to bring them along.

4. Provide feedback about positive reactions from the field. Let the individuals know that their consistent performance is recognized. Write down
actual quotes to share; they are powerful.

5. Draw out a process map of the way patients are seen and moved through the system. A picture is worth a thousand words – or an enhanced referral opportunity. This lets all the internal stakeholders see the gaps and often forces several internal members involved in the delivery to collaborate in a solution.

6. If there are consistent outliers, document the facts. Make certain you are in a position to decline growing this service if internal delivery is known to be below expectations or erratic. This is tough love to be used rarely and it is only effective if you have data and details to back up the approach.

With the right internal players on-board, leverage your approach and further position the team’s interest. Bring the internal stakeholder to a physician call. Let them meet with the staff and the physician, have them be prepared to speak and to ask questions. Encourage these individuals to share their learnings with other members of their department or peers in their department meetings.

Make sure you have a service communication plan that is shared by all the internal stakeholders. When a physician has a need, it’s important to make sure anyone who hears it passes it on. Equally important, the responsible department must respond. Listening and passing along issues is so logical, yet so often not well done. The ability to wear the hat of the organization first and then the specific service is the mark of a team that really demonstrates a united front.

And as always, if things aren’t going as well as you like in this area, change. Revise or re-work your internal plan, meet again with the service leaders or departments, clarify roles, or confirm leader expectations. Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” So, if something isn’t working, you need to make a change.