Nurturing strong relationships with professional referrers

In your physiotherapy clinic, nurturing strong relationships with professional referrers is not only essential for sustaining and growing your service but to enable to curate your ideal caseload full of the type of clients that both you, and your team, love to treat.

Often we put in a lot of effort in at the beginning to actually receive a referral from a professional in the first place. But once you have the referral from a particular doctor landing on your desk, how do you ensure they keep on coming?

Here are some tips on how you can effectively nurture these important connections:

Acknowledge referrals: If you receive a referral from another professional, always acknowledge it! Start by simply replying to the correspondence (email), to thank the referrer for entrusting you with the care of their patient.

Timely Reports: Always send correspondence once you have seen the patient to outline a treatment plan and goals. If a plan or health status changes, send regular updates on the revised treatment plan, progress, and outcomes. Ensure that your reports are written in a way that is concise, clear, and professional.

Over time you my come to understand how to tailor your communications to the individual referrer’s preferences. Some may prefer detailed reports, while others might appreciate brief updates.

Check in regularly: from time to time you may check in with your referrers via email or a phone call to thank them for their recent referral and ask if there is anything more you can be doing to help them or the patients you refer.

This might prompt a request for more referral pads, business cards or brochures. Again, different professional referrers may have different preferences as to the type of marketing material they like to keep on hand! Keep a note of this and consider dropping by to say hello and top up their supplies on a semi-regular basis.

Provide Exceptional Patient Care : This should speak for itself as we know that ensuring that referred patients receive the highest quality care is crucial for maintaining strong referrer relationships. If your patients rave to you about the quality of care you have provided them, thank them and let them know you appreciate their feedback and you appreciate the opportunity that the referrer gave you to help them. This might prompt them to mention their satisfaction to the referring doctor at their next visit.

To help with quality control, ask patients to share their experiences with you so that you can identify any areas for improvement and use these prompts to review and improve your patient care practices to maintain high standards. Automated surveys can make the process quicker and easier. Always act on feedback and address any areas for improvement witt openness and honesty wherever you can.

Collaborate: Where the oppoprtunity arises to work together with referrers on a complex case then don’t hesitate to reach out to the referrer for a discussion. This collaboration can help you both with your management and will not only help the patient more but can strengthen your professional relationship. It might feel daunting to reach out to a specialist for their advice on your case, but most are exceptionally helpful and willing to share their tips and knowledge.

You might identify a professional development area that you can seek out through a professional referrer, for example, observing a surgery or procedure. Don’t be afraid to ask! Often referrers are very keen to showcase their management and help you with your learning in return for you taking such great care of their patients.

Spending time with a specialist referrer will often open up lines of conversation that help you to strengthen your professional relationship and further foster collaboration in shared areas that you are both passionate about managing.

Investing time and effort into cultivating these relationships will not only enhance your practice’s reputation but also ensure a steady flow of patients in need of your specialised care.