17 Jun How do Physician Liaisons Help Doctors?
You may have heard or seen physician liaisons working for doctors but do you know what they do? Physician liaisons work to strengthen the relationship between a doctor and a referring doctor or hospital. By creating a dialogue between doctors physician liaisons aim to increase the amount of patient referrals their clients receive.
Physician liaisons visit doctors that may refer patients to their clients. They update the offices about the services their clients provide and follow up about previous meetings. Generally, they also bring materials to give such as business cards, pamphlets and referral pads. This helps for the doctor to remember the client and to better refer patients. Physician liaisons act as the middleman between the doctors. After talking to referring doctors they bring feedback and comments back to their client. If a physician liaison feels the relationship is strong enough they may arrange for their client to meet face to face with the referral doctor.
Most of the time physician liaisons are out of the office. They travel around to visit different physicians in the area of their client. In order to maintain a good relationship with referring doctors they visit them frequently and offer updates regarding their client. Having a physician liaison can greatly help doctors. They not only increase the amount of referrals they receive, but by increasing relationships with other doctors they can benefit current patients. If they do not offer a certain service that a patient needs they know other doctors in the area they can send them to. By sending referrals to doctors a physician liaison has created a relationship that will be more likely to grow over time.
Having a physician liaison can increase the amount of patients a doctor sees but also improve upon his practice. The doctor is able to develop relationships with other doctors without having to take time out from seeing patients in his own practice.