If the secret to successful real estate investing is “location, location, location,” the key to maintaining good relationships with referring physicians is “communication, communication, communication.” While this may seem simplistic, the complexities of interpersonal communications can pose challenges even in the most straightforward of physician interchanges.
Recent studies and hospitalists consulted for this report maintain that hospitalists’ communications with referring physicians must be examined, practiced, and fine-tuned continually to ensure satisfaction for doctors—and their patients.
“It’s all about the communication,” says Bruce Becker, MD, chief medical officer at Medical Center Hospital in Odessa, Texas, and a family physician and professor of medicine for more than 20 years. “It’s sometimes not what you say, but how you say it.”
According to John Nelson, MD, medical director of the Hospitalist Practice at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue, Wash., a consultant for hospital medicine groups with Nelson/Flores Associates and a columnist for The Hospitalist (“Practice Management”), it is key for hospitalists to examine and revise oral and written communication processes—especially at critical points during patient handoffs—rather than to assume that good communication will just happen naturally.
Gaining Acceptance
Some primary care physicians (PCPs) are more willing than others to refer patients to a hospitalist. Initially, new programs may have to work hard to gain acceptance with referring physicians. Some referring physicians may not be ready to give up hospital visits and may want to maintain collegiality and control. On the other hand, some family physicians are “ready to step away from hospital practice,” says Dr. Becker, citing diminishing reimbursements due to diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) and managed care.
John A. Bolinger, DO, FACP, medical director of the Hospitalist Program at Terre Haute (Ind.) Regional Hospital, believes that one way to promote a hospitalist program to PCPs is to emphasize hospitalists’ levels of training and efficiency.
“I try to make them aware of how [our hospitalist program] can be advantageous to them,” he explains. “Even if they have only one patient in the hospital, by the time they drive there, get the chart, make the rounds, make their notes, and do the required paperwork, it may take them an hour to see one patient. It makes good economic sense for them to stay in their offices, where they can see a minimum of four patients in the same amount of time for equal or better reimbursements.”
When primary care physicians voice resistance to using a hospitalist program, Dr. Bolinger says he tries to impress upon them the fact that hospitalists do not have outside practices, they will “never try to steal patients,” they stay within referral patterns, and they will make sure that PCPs get pertinent records as soon as possible. Dr. Bolinger believes referring physicians’ biggest concern when dealing with hospitalists is that they “don’t want to lose control.” The way to address those fears is to make sure referring physicians are always kept in the communications loop regarding their patients’ progress.
The policy for Dr. Bolinger’s hospitalist program is to make sure all dictated reports are transcribed and faxed immediately to the referring physician’s office. All scheduled follow-up appointments and medication changes are included in discharge summaries. “If need be,” says Dr. Bolinger, “we will even hand deliver information to physicians’ offices, which we have done multiple times.”
Become User-Friendly
The methods Dr. Bolinger describes often result in referring physicians’ satisfaction with hospitalist services, followed by increased referrals. Hospitalists can ensure continued referrals from their PCPs if they remember hospital medicine’s cardinal rules of availability and prompt, thorough reporting, says Dr. Nelson. It can help to view the interface with the hospitalist service from the PCP’s point of view.