Critical Responsibilities of Physician Liaisons in Healthcare Settings
Physician liaisons need to understand how to connect with providers on an interpersonal level. They should clearly understand the healthcare industry, their facilities’ payer mix, referral patterns, and other vital data.
They also need to have a system for measuring outreach goals and success. Ideally, they will use a PRM platform integrating market intelligence with claims, patient registries, referral patterns, and other information.
Professional Presence
Physician liasons cultivate relationships between local physicians and healthcare facilities, promoting medical centers’ patient referral networks. Although they may be clinically trained health professionals, they focus on marketing and sales. Liaisons must be able to build rapport and establish a trusted relationship with physician prospects. It requires an exceptional level of communication, including verbal and written skills. They should also be able to develop accountability systems that ensure they continuously chat with physicians and prospects.
Providing physician liaisons with the tools for success is essential, as they are a unique type of marketer within the healthcare industry. It is where a PRM comes in handy, as it enables physician outreach teams to identify leakage and develop targeted strategies that drive measurable growth in strategic referral volumes.
Creative Mind
Medical liaisons must be able to think outside of the box and develop novel solutions when facing challenges. Typically, these barriers stem from a lack of relevant information or a viable way to measure ROI on their outreach efforts. With advances in technology (like PRM software), however, medical liaisons can categorize interactions (did they speak with a physician or drop off branded materials) to better understand their performance.
Whether in the field or behind a desk, physician liaisons must be self-motivated and able to work independently. They should also be committed to developing professional sales skills and learning to deliver measurable growth on strategic referral volumes, improve service, and keep communication channels open. The best candidates are energetic, personable, and able to think independently. They are also highly organized and have an eye for detail. They are often expected to be a point of contact for multiple physicians and their office staff.
Team-Oriented Mindset
Medical liaisons work closely with other team members, so a team-oriented mindset is essential. For instance, a liaison working with marketing to develop strategies to increase patient referrals must be collaborative and flexible when the strategy doesn’t immediately yield results.
Liaison teams must also coordinate with leadership to establish a clear reporting structure that appropriately allocates responsibilities and meets measurable outreach goals. The most successful liaison programs can break down siloes between hospital operations, recruitment and patient retention, marketing, and physician practice administration.
Liaisons need to demonstrate that they understand what doctors want and need. To do so, they must genuinely talk to physicians or their staff and find out what matters most. They must also consistently demonstrate knowledge of the services offered, show accessibility, and be reliable. They also need to be able to manage their workloads, especially when multiple meetings are scheduled.
Organizational Skills
A successful medical liaison has organizational skills that allow them to manage multiple tasks and meet objectives. That is especially true in the case of a highly specialized, high-revenue program.
For example, the goal is to increase in-network referrals for orthopedic procedures. In that case, a liaison needs to be able to report on this progress both to leadership and to their team members. It ensures that all team members work together towards a shared goal, eliminating silos between teams.
Part salesperson, part relationship-builder, and physician liaisons are essential to a healthcare organization’s strategy to grow referrals. A well-run strategic outreach program starts with comprehensive data analysis, including claims, referral patterns, and patient access, and tries to identify and close the gaps limiting growth. It also includes a rigorous training program that offers professional sales techniques. It demonstrates to physicians, advanced practice providers, and their office staff that your organization is committed to creating the path of least resistance for accessing high-margin services.
