The Economy and Referrals

Comment

Comment by Mary on September 19, 2008 at 1:21pm

I am new to this site, but think this a great post as everyone is worried about the economy and making ends meet. A great way to get your foot in the door in your local health care community is to connect with one of your local hospital education departments and offer a "free" CE/CME class for nurses, physicians and all other hospital employees. The hospital education departments can provide you with the forms needed for obtaining CE's/CME's and let you know the requirements for class approval. Trust me, with all the budget cuts hospitals are making, an offer of a free CE class is well recieved. Once you do the RN CE paperwork, you'll find the CE requirements for other licensed staff is repetitive and easier. I offered a four hour class called "Introduction to Stress Reduction Modalities for Personal and Professional Use" at the hospital I work and invited different holistic practioners to be speakers about hypnotherapy, reiki, massage therapy, EFT and current research for intergrating stress reduction modalities in the healthcare setting... The class was set up to not just learn about the different modalites but to personally experience or practice each topic presented. The class was well attended with an very interesting variety of hospital employees and received only favorable comments with requests for more similar class offerings. The main comment from physicians was that they felt they now had some good referral resources to offer their patients. Melissa is accurate about getting to meet physicians personally, but I would not limit your new contact visits/calls with just physicians. Contact the departments and caregivers who spend the most time with patients. Patients listen to the caregivers they trust. Offer to talk at local support group meetings for heart disease, diabetes, cancer...). If your area has a community healthcare library which is usually sponsored by the local hospitals, drop in and see what they have in their library for holistic care and get to know the staff and volunteers. They have a good idea on what patients are coming in and asking about and can give you information on who to contact at the hospital for setting up a class or which support groups may be looking for speakers. Lots of opportunities can happen because of the economy!

Comment by James Hayashi on September 17, 2008 at 2:43pm

The biggest thing in this economy is to show the clients and referrals the need for hypnotherapy. In other words show them how you are going to save them money. I am currently focusing my practice on working with individuals from the entertainment industry. In this field, if I could show the assistant director how they would save money and have more focused actors, they could then see the need for hypnosis.
So my advice would be to make sure that you show the clients the need for your services and how they would benefit.

Comment by Melissa J. Roth on September 17, 2008 at 11:31am

Scott, I know that you and I have different approaches to getting medical referrals but both approaches work. It depends on how you are comfortable approaching the medical/healthcare community. The point is to find what way is comfortable for you that works and get out of your office and go introduce yourself. How can they know to refer their patients to you if they don't know you exist?

And, when is the last time you've seen an MD, DC, DO or DMD reading a wholistic newspaper that is a free give away at the restaurant or grocery store? Sure some do, but the majority have all they can manage to see patients, do paperwork, read a journal or 2 and have some sort of family life or personal time. So, you have to get out of your comfort zone and become comfortable in theirs if you want to reach them.

Over the past few years I've made thousands of calls on healthcare providers to ask for their referrals. Every rare once-in-awhile someone is rude. But, it is rare. They are memorable because it is not the norm. No, I don't get in to see every doc I call on. But, I do see the majority of them and I do stay booked with clients because of their referrals.
And, all it costs me is my unbooked time and my brochures. I don't pay for advertising that MIGHT bring me a client and might not. And, as the economy tanks and people's stress levels go even higher, more of them will become physically ill from it in ways that pharmaceuticals will not help. This is the perfect time to start your referral quest if you have not done so already.

Comment by Michael Ellner on September 17, 2008 at 6:22am

One sure way to generate referrals and build your practices is to identify all of the hypno-friendly medical, allied and alternative health care pros that are in your hood and when ever it's in your client's best interest to take a more comprehensive approach - RECOMMEND one of them... In a short period of time they will begin to appreciate how you are helping your clients and their patients and they will start sending you their clients and patients as well...

Weight issues - Nutritionists
Pain Issues - DCs, LAc, or MTs
Psychological problems - Therapists
Etc --
Networking works!