H&HN Video: Physician-Hospital Relations Sets Path for Sustainable Growth

What is the key to a physician-hospital relations program that will drive sustainable growth? As highlighted in this videotaped interview by Health Forum’s Hospitals & Health Networks, it comes down to consistency.

Growth requires consistent presence of liaisons in the field talking to physicians and staff in their environment, uncovering their needs and bringing them back to leadership.

“The physician liaison serves as a messenger,” according to Tammy Tiller-Hewitt, CEO of Tiller-Hewitt Healthcare Strategies. “He or she is out in the field, collecting market intelligence on what’s making us better or where the hospital is having business leaks because we are not offering the same level of service that our competition is.”

Tammy emphasized that information brought back every single day can make the organization better and enable it to earn this incremental business.
Consistent data analysis gets to the heart of what is going to be the primary growth opportunity.

“Every month, I review the reports that tell me my payer mix, how much revenue we’ve produced, in what areas of the hospital and how we can improve it,” states Hervey Davis, CEO of Franklin Hospital. Tiller-Hewitt Healthcare Strategies’ contribution to Franklin Hospital’s rapid improvement, including $1.9 million in incremental in the first year, was reviewed at the Rural Healthcare Leadership Conference.

To stop leakage and patient outmigration, Tammy advises, “It is critical to look at data on a monthly basis, and you have to look at it on a provider by provider basis. Otherwise, hospital leaders will not know that the practice wasn’t using the hospital anymore until the business is gone.

“And, this is generally business we’re losing from our own backyard for services that we offer,” Tammy adds.

To effectively stem patient outmigration and keep the hospital laser-focused on growth areas, it requires the hospital CEO’s commitment to having the right systems, data and people to make it work. There is plenty of competition, and patients have a lot of choices they can make.

“If you don’t have the support of leadership to consistently secure data and intelligence from the field, and the commitment to act on it, you don’t get the job done,” Hervey emphasizes.

When you are evaluating physician-hospital relations programs, please learn more about the drivers of success for our clients and contact us with any questions.