Getting More Physician Referrals

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Permalink Reply by Susan French on July 29, 2008 at 11:00am

Hi Janice,

Talk to Melissa Roth.

Susan French

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Permalink Reply by Melissa J. Roth on July 29, 2008 at 1:08pm

Janice,
Nice to see you in this forum. 60+% of my client base comes from physician referrals. The others come from referrals from that 60%. I do not advertise. I get asked this question all the time so I wrote out my program in a step-by-step cookbook of how to build a practice on medical referrals. It isn't the only way, for sure, but it works like clockwork.

Basically, I advocate calling on docs much like the pharmaceutical reps do. Having said that, the drug reps make it look different than it is. There are some differences with what/how you approach them.

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Permalink Reply by Janice Manson - MindClickPartners.com on July 29, 2008 at 3:17pm

Melissa...did you write this out on this forum or do you have that process documented elsewhere? How would I get access to this? I don't want to reinvent the wheel.
Thank you so much!
Janice

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Permalink Reply by Melissa J. Roth on July 29, 2008 at 5:54pm

It's an actual book and you can get it off my website, www.tranceworkers.com. It is under the section of products for professionals and is called How To Get MD Referrals. You can tell I'm good at titles. :-) I wrote it because I didn't have time to teach it to everyone who called up and asked how I got my clients. It's a cookbook of sorts---do this, don't do this.

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Permalink Reply by Janice Manson - MindClickPartners.com on July 30, 2008 at 8:40am

Perfect...thanks for this. I will go have a look.
Regards
Janice

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Permalink Reply by J. Crit Harley, MD, C.Ht. on August 7, 2008 at 4:46am

My two cents worth ...
When dealing with physicians, be professional.
Physicians appreciate follow up.
When you get a referral, send them a note expressing your appreciation.
When things went well (after your intervention) send them another note.
Physicians have a short attention span (that is why drug reps visit so frequently).
Keep your name fresh in their mind. Send them pertinent articles with your name attached.
J. Crit Harley, MD, C.Ht.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa J. Roth on August 7, 2008 at 8:49am

You are so right about keeping the physician in the loop after they have referred a patient to you. How are they supposed to know what worked if you don't send a letter for the patient's file. Otherwise, they are left to wonder why the patient hasn't come back. Was it because the hypnosis worked or because the patient got freaked and found another doc? No one likes that kind of uncertainty. Besides, it's just good manners.

And, in those follow up notes you should tell the MD what results the client got from your work and their prognosis. You need to be able to say the client got a 40% reduction in symptoms or totally out of pain, etc. They don't expect that you are going to be able to help 100% of the people 100% of the time. But, they need to know what has happened, good or not so good.

Do you still see drug reps? How many do you average seeing a day? I think around here the average is 8/day.

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Permalink Reply by Katherine Zimmerman on August 7, 2008 at 9:29am

I'd like to keep them in the loop but what about physicians who just won't sign the initial letter? My new IC clients sees a doc at the VA and was told that the VA "doesn't sign letters." Period. It's the first time it's happened. Do you have a method for getting compliance from a doctor? (grin)

Katherine

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Permalink Reply by Melissa J. Roth on August 7, 2008 at 9:40am

They may not sign letters but they write prescriptions. Get a prescription instead. It doesn't have to be the prescription form in my book, even though that is the best one. I'd fax that over to the VA doc for his signature. If he doesn't sign it then have the client get ANY form of Rx from him the next time they are in or go to the VA and ask him to give them a script for hypnotherapy.

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Permalink Reply by Susan French on August 14, 2008 at 5:30am

Hi Katherine,

My thought here is that doctors and doctors at the VA are not the same animal. My ex-fiance had a lot of trouble getting VA docs to sign anything, including a note to go back to work after a minor accident.

One of collegues here in LA is married to a doctor and she says they get flooded with requests and information. I think J. Crit's suggestions are not only valid but encouraging.

Susan

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Permalink Reply by Melissa J. Roth on August 14, 2008 at 2:36pm

Actually, the VA issued a directive to all their hospitals, clinics and staffs a couple of years ago that they were to comply with the pain as the 5th vital sign and that they were to utilize non-pharmacological therapies for pain control. This specifically mentioned hypnotherapy as one of those non-pharmacological therapies. Anyone can get a copy of this document. I had a copy at one time that I got on line. Can't remember the site now but I'd probably start at the VA site. Just in case he needs support.

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Permalink Reply by Shirley 3 hours ago

www.va.gov/MS/docs/MS_and_Pain_Newsletter_article.doc

This article from the VA mentions hypnosis for the treatment of MS.

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