You've seen it somewhere, either in your own organization or elsewhere: a service line hires the first physician liaison or physician representative to increase market share or begin to develop an ACO network. Over time, the number of liaisons grows in a somewhat organic way either via a physician relations department or other service lines. Sometimes, leadership creates a hospital-wide team to support system-wide sales. And, some hospitals have both independent and centralized liaisons.
Here are some facts and observations to consider when evaluating the effectiveness of your organization's physician liaisons.
Is a centralized model better?
A more coordinated model does bring benefits for each service line, physicians and the healthcare system. Considered in the ideal situation, it is a better model for the reasons noted in the above bullet point. However, several issues can de-rail the centralized model, including lack of cooperation by key service line leaders, the wrong staff in liaison positions, not having a physician relations leader, with experience in selling and managing a physician relations or sales staff. An understanding of performance improvement relative to physician selling skills, activities and outcomes and a well-planned incentive program will also be keys in assuring staff support the centralized model.
If you do decide that a centralized department is best for your health system's goals, reorganizing or reconstructing a current system can’t happen overnight. Liaisons may resist as may the service line managers. If you are charged with this unifying effort, it is important that you understand the value the service line managers are experiencing from "their own" liaisons and their concerns about losing a dedicated resource.
In addition, you'll have to be sure the program receives a greater level of support than it did with dedicated liaisons. If the re-structuring is planned and managed effectively, each individual service line should see better results. A key is to make the transition slowly and demonstrate to the liaisons the value they'll experience both professionally and personally.
Kathleen Harkins is principal of Harkins Associates, a healthcare business development and sales consulting/training firm. As a career-long healthcare strategist, seller, sales trainer, manager and company executive, Ms. Harkins’ experience in several healthcare sectors— health insurance/managed care, capital equipment, professional services, information technology, hospitals and pharmaceutical. Prior to establishing the consulting and training firm 12 years ago, Ms. Harkins was employed as Chief Marketing Officer for Progressions Health System, a managed in-patient and out-patient provider system; she also served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Westmeade HealthCare, Inc. In these capacities, Ms. Harkins was responsible for the physician and employer sales area, market strategy, communications and public relations.
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Here are some facts and observations to consider when evaluating the effectiveness of your organization's physician liaisons.
- De-centralized: When a service line or department hires a dedicated physician liaison, it's usually (perhaps even solely) because those services are high-revenue producing and a key hospital service. By reporting to the service line manager, this liaison often has great freedom to create marketing and sales processes unique to the specific needs and goals of the service. The department as a whole is often able to budget with a little more freedom based on the secure revenue stream supported, in part, by the liaison.
- This de-centralized model continues and expands quickly to other key service lines in the hospital.
- However, by working independently, the liaisons might be missing out on synergies of working with a broader focus.
- Semi-centralized: Seeing success from the service line liaisons or through the area's initiative, hospital leadership, business development or marketing create a system-wide physician liaison department. Often times the service line-specific liaisons are established or if in place, remain, and continue functioning independently, while the newly hired liaisons are assigned elsewhere or around the service line people. When this occurs, the system, the referring physicians and sometimes even the patients may experience either:
- Centralized liaisons focused mainly on lesser known or lesser-utilized services — those with a smaller or even negative revenue stream. Related, funds are spread across a number of services. Or,
- The work of centralized liaisons overlaps the efforts of service-line-specific liaisons, which can result in disjointed, uncoordinated outreach and selling efforts. For example, physicians receive visits from two different representatives from the organization, both of whom at times will discuss the same services. With each liaison's more narrow focus and responsibilities, the system also misses revenue opportunities, such as the potential to cross-sell related services like diagnostic services and homecare. And, this model can cause cost-inefficiencies such as duplicate staffing and marketing materials.
- For community physicians, it's challenging enough to interface with one department liaison for the health system let alone having to interface with several liaisons across many service lines. For example, when lab, imaging and surgical care are integral to a patient's comprehensive care, and the health system has three distinct liaisons for each of these services, providing up-to-date information on new capabilities and expertise can be difficult.
- Centralized: When it works well, this coordinated model brings all of the liaison efforts together, broadens the focus of each individual while improving his/her performance, and expands the total number of physicians seen, and the number of services presented. If indeed the health system creates a successful pathway for "more physicians and more services", along with a more unified representation of the health system/hospital, then greater results will follow. That pathway, however, is not a given, and each system needs to consider the capabilities of its liaisons, and its expertise or financial resources to hire the expertise to develop the system-wide program.
Is a centralized model better?
A more coordinated model does bring benefits for each service line, physicians and the healthcare system. Considered in the ideal situation, it is a better model for the reasons noted in the above bullet point. However, several issues can de-rail the centralized model, including lack of cooperation by key service line leaders, the wrong staff in liaison positions, not having a physician relations leader, with experience in selling and managing a physician relations or sales staff. An understanding of performance improvement relative to physician selling skills, activities and outcomes and a well-planned incentive program will also be keys in assuring staff support the centralized model.
If you do decide that a centralized department is best for your health system's goals, reorganizing or reconstructing a current system can’t happen overnight. Liaisons may resist as may the service line managers. If you are charged with this unifying effort, it is important that you understand the value the service line managers are experiencing from "their own" liaisons and their concerns about losing a dedicated resource.
In addition, you'll have to be sure the program receives a greater level of support than it did with dedicated liaisons. If the re-structuring is planned and managed effectively, each individual service line should see better results. A key is to make the transition slowly and demonstrate to the liaisons the value they'll experience both professionally and personally.
Kathleen Harkins is principal of Harkins Associates, a healthcare business development and sales consulting/training firm. As a career-long healthcare strategist, seller, sales trainer, manager and company executive, Ms. Harkins’ experience in several healthcare sectors— health insurance/managed care, capital equipment, professional services, information technology, hospitals and pharmaceutical. Prior to establishing the consulting and training firm 12 years ago, Ms. Harkins was employed as Chief Marketing Officer for Progressions Health System, a managed in-patient and out-patient provider system; she also served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Westmeade HealthCare, Inc. In these capacities, Ms. Harkins was responsible for the physician and employer sales area, market strategy, communications and public relations.
More Articles by Kathleen Harkins:
Cutting Out the Middle Man: Opportunities for Hospitals to Partner Directly With EmployersCritical Mistakes in Physician Relations Programs
Increasing Hospital Referrals: Mastering the Sales Dialogue with Physicians