In most cases, a person’s first port of call for their healthcare journey will be to a GP. General Practitioners offer a wide range of services and knowledge that can be invaluable when it comes to diagnosing or identifying problems but may lack the specific expertise to deal with them.
When this is the case, a GP will write a letter of referral to a healthcare specialist, specifying the details of the patient’s case and any relevant information. When making a referral, a GP usually refers the patient to an affiliate - sometimes someone they know in the same practice or building - or failing that, the first specialist they find in the patient’s general vicinity that they find through searching within the PMS.
As patients rarely, if ever, visit specialist practices without a referral, this is far from an ideal situation when it comes to growing your business. So how do you go about increasing your referrals?
Create a Referral Plan
Having a plan of action is always the best approach when you are trying to increase your bookings, but what goes into this plan varies from practice to practice. If your practice is looking to increase referrals from the local area, then the plan might involve face-to-face meetings, business lunches and local networking. Maybe you’re looking to increase your online presence to increase referrals across the board, in which case your referral plan might involve SEO and digital marketing.
In some cases, a referral plan may require input from a marketing professional who will work with you to create a plan to grow your referrals, but in other cases it may not. No matter the case, having a plan gives you clear guidelines of what you need to do, when you need to do it and how it can be achieved within measurable timeframes.
Leverage Technology
One of the easiest ways to increase your referrals is to embrace technology that makes it easier for doctors to find your practice. EasyReferrals and OnlineAppointments by MyHealth1st gives GPs a fast and easy way to book appointments for referred patients at the time of referral.
EasyReferrals combined with OnlineAppointments lets both referring general practitioners and patients search online for specialist appointments by availability and location. Once the choice of specialist is made, GPs and patients alike can book an appointment online and securely upload referral documentation at the time of booking - a gift to anyone who has ever lost or accidentally destroyed a referral letter. The EasyReferrals process provides increased visibility for specialists, making them easily visible and available to the thousands of GPs in the MyHealth1st network as well as the hundreds of thousands of Australians and New Zealanders who use MyHealth1st for their medical appointment bookings.
EasyReferrals seamlessly and securely integrates with your Practice Management System when a booking is made, either creating a new patient profile for a first time referral or matching the booking with an existing patient record for follow-ups or new referral documentation. The system also enables specialist practices to set up customised practice policies that must be agreed to by the patient and referring practitioner before the appointment can be booked. These policies can include things such as appointment fees and cancellation fees, tests, scans or other additional tests that need to be provided before the initial appointment and other relevant practice policies.
With traditional referrals and bookings, the referring GP has no practical way to discover if the patient actually made an appointment with the specialist to whom they have been referred, but with EasyReferrals, the practitioner is informed of the appointment and attendance. This gives GPs and specialists an easy path to collaborate with the referring GP and follow up with patient care, as well as driving new patients to your door.
Advertise your Business
While GPs often use either personal acquaintance or tools within their PMS to find a specialist for their patient, patients themselves are overwhelmingly likely to to use Google if they’re searching for their own specialist. The vast majority of click through traffic from Google comes from the first page of search results, with only a fraction of traffic coming from page two and beyond. As such, getting your practice onto the first page of Google is incredibly important if you want people to find your practice and book with you.
The easiest way to reach the first page of Google is through the use of Google Ads. This pay-per-click marketing method sees advertisers targeting specific keywords and paying an amount of money (based on the popularity of the keywords targeted) for every click. Google Ads appear above the search results, making your practice the first thing that a patient sees if they search using the search terms that you are targeting (“nephrologist near me” or “dermatologist in Newtown” for example).
Creating effective Google search ads takes practice and skill given the small amount of space available in a Google search ad - three 30 character headlines, two 90 character description lines and a customisable display URL. Creating an effective ad takes practice and skill, something that the MyHealth1st managed Digital Marketing team has in spades. We can take care of your advertising, so you can concentrate on taking care of your patients.
Invest in SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the act of improving your website to make it appear earlier in Google search rankings. There are many factors that contribute to SEO - quality of landing pages, use of keywords, site speed, images or video, links, mobile friendliness, technical detail and more - making it a complex but ultimately rewarding investment.
Being on the first page of Google for relevant searches vastly increases the amount of visibility for your practice and click through traffic, but getting there is a long term process and not one that will show immediate results. Unlike Google Ads, investing in SEO is not a pay per click expense, but rather an initial SEO Audit to identify problems that need to be rectified and then making the changes that are needed followed by constantly maintaining site quality.
Although SEO is not as immediate as advertising when it comes to search traffic, having good organic search traffic (as opposed to pay-per-click) can be far more valuable in the long term when it comes to improving the visibility of your practice.
Introduce Yourself and Keep Communication Open
One of the most effective ways to ensure that GPs think of your practice when making a referral is to meet them face to face. Introducing yourself, having face-to-face meetings or socialising with local GPs can massively increase your profile and all but guarantee that your name is top of mind when a patient needs a specialist consultation.
Once a relationship has been formed, keeping lines of communication open helps maintain that relationship. Keeping GPs informed of any changes to hours, staffing or services, as well as sharing information about referred patients helps cement that relationship and ensure there are increased referrals to your practice.
Re-evaluate Relationships and Modify Plans When Necessary
If a relationship isn’t bearing fruit, then it’s time to re-evaluate that relationship. Is there a different approach you can take when it comes to face-to-face meetings or are your energies better redirected elsewhere? Likewise, if your referrals plan has been tried, tested and proved wanting, how can those plans be modified to help you achieve your goals. While having a plan and sticking to it is important, continuing with a plan that has not worked is folly.
MyHealth1st is dedicated to helping patients get the medical help they need in the easiest and most accessible way possible, as well as helping medical practices across Australia and New Zealand grow and deliver the best service they can.
To find out how MyHealth1st can help your specialist practice increase referrals, all you need to do is schedule a call with one of our expert staff.
