How to Build Sustainable Medical Referral Relationships | Podcast Ep. 289

Foreign hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. On today's episode we're going to talk all about building relationships with MDs or other healthcare providers in your community. This is still an area. I've been talking about this for a decade and I still think this is an area where a lot of docs either don't get the results they desire, they don't know the steps to implement, or, or you don't understand the benefits that having referral relationships can have on your practice in the long term. So we're gonna go through all of that and some action steps that you can take to start bridging the gap in building relationships, referral relationships in your community. Before we get started, I'll say a few words about the Smart chiropractor. If you are looking to market your practice at the highest level, check out the Smart Chiropractor. We're gonna take care of all the stuff you know you should be doing to market your practice. But aren't all of the email campaigns and email marketing posting consistently on social media to Google my business, all the streaming video in your practice and much, much more. Let's just face it, most stocks don't get into practice so they can spend each and every day marketing. But we do so we can help you with that. We can help you get better results. So head on over if you want to check out a demo, see if it's right for you atthe smart chiropractor.com I'm going to encourage you again. Hop on a demo with our success team, have them go through, see if it's a great fit for your practice and take it from there. It might just be the best step you make in 2021. But as I said at the top on this episode, we're talking all about bridging the gap and building relationships with other healthcare providers. So this is an area where I kind of have some unique expertise based upon my history. So when I came out of school I practiced as an associate for a little while, I practiced as a clinic owner for a little while and then I moved into the first multidisciplinary orthopedic group that I was with here in Tampa, Florida called Florida Orthopedic Institute. At the time it was about 50 docs, 49 surgeons, one other, the other was me and it was maybe 12 practices. And this is a deeply embedded sort of traditional orthopedic group, all hospital based surgeries. They owned two ASCs that they did outpatient surgeries in, and they're all involved with USF Health, the local hospital systems, the chiefs of staff, et cetera. So it really gave me fantastic insight into understanding how can you get out there and really build a relationship. And I see a lot of chatter online all the time about questions about building relationships. And some of the advice is really good, some of it's really poor, and some of it just is incomplete. And when I say that, what I mean is this, is that understanding how to build a relationship is much more than just getting great results and sending a case note. And that's sort of traditionally what I see. Oh, well, you want to know how to build the best relationships. Like you should send a case note and do great care. Yeah, that is okay and a starting point, but that's not gonna really get you the results that you desire. Like with anything, if you really want to lean into building relationships with other healthcare providers, you need to have systems and processes. Without systems and processes, you're just gonna be kind of meandering and floating around. Maybe you'll get a relationship here and there's, maybe you'll get a couple patients coming in here or there. But unless you're just lucky, and I don't think luck is a great strategy for success, then you're never gonna get the traction that you really desire. So if you're interested in building relationships, number one, check out what we have going on at the evidence based chiropractor. We've helped hundreds of docs do this throughout the world over the last 10 years. We have a completely dialed in system and process, but I'll sort of touch on it right now. You really need to establish a target list. If you're reaching out to like, oh, well, this one doc sent me one patient and you're putting all your eggs in that basket, you're very likely to be disappointed. So number one is kind of building that target list. So we recommend, quite frankly that our doctors reach out and have a target list of 50 docs in their community. Why is that? Because the expectation is, is that maybe 20% of that list is who you're going to build a relationship with, who you resonate with, who resonates with you. And when we talk about a target list of 50, it's not just MDs, it could be an MD, it could be a DO, it could be a physical thera. You know, any other healthcare provider who has your patients in their practice. That's the way I think of it. And a 20% quote unquote conversion on that list would mean out of 50, you build 10 really great relationships. And for most chiropractors out there, if you had 10 great relationships that referred over even just two to three patients per month, man, you'd be doing really, really well from that side of your marketing. And I'm going to tell you the number one thing that I hear, and I just got this back on another email this past week, and I say this during even the implementation calls with the evidence based chiropractor is this is all about implementation. You know, the number one reason nobody's not found success building relationships specifically when using the systems and processes with the evidence based chiropractor. But implementation is lacking. I cannot tell the number of docs that I have worked with that have come back and say, ah, it's just not right. The timing's not, the timing's never going to be right. But here's the thing. When you build relationships with other healthcare providers, you're not at the whim of Facebook's algorithm change on how they're showing your ads, you're not at the whim of Google Ad changes. You're not at the whim of any of that. And that is such a powerful position to be in. I love controllable marketing assets. It's why within the smart chiropractor we're so big on email is because it's a controllable marketing asset. When you're at the whim of all of these other, you know, companies, all these other platforms, things can go up and down pretty dramatically, pretty quickly and that makes you super vulnerable as a business owner. But when you have a great email list that you can communicate with all the time and you have consistent referrals coming in from other healthcare professionals, man, I, you just cannot go wrong as a business owner and as a chiropractor. These are patients that are more qualified, ready to come in. These are patients that are, I'm gonna say, higher quality, meaning they are there for the right reasons. That's what it's all about. Curating your ideal patients, working with people you want to work with in marketing in a way you can be proud of. And there's so many docs out there that aren't willing to put in what I'm going to say, the time and the work and the effort and the energy to do that. Now systems and processes are great. That's exactly what we build with Evans based chiropractor, smart chiropractor. But it takes two to tango. It doesn't Mean you need to and you should not spend all of your time marketing your practice. But man, you need to have those playbooks and those systems to make things easier so that you don't end up trying to go kind of an end around. So long winded way of saying first step is building that target list. Because a target list is how you measure results. What gets, you know, measured gets managed. And if you don't have a target list, good luck, your starting point is going to be very compromised. Now, once you build that target list, you're going to want to go through the process of verifying that list, making sure that you're not wasting time and energy. We go through all the scripting and step by step on that within the evidence based chiropractor. But when you start really building relationships, there's three big levers that you want to pull. There's three big pillars or steps to relationship building. One of those, one of those three is case notes. Not all three, right? One of those three is sending case notes. The second one is sending research updates. And the third one are taking meetings with those doctors when you can. And certainly meetings were kind of put on hold for a little while. A lot of docs were doing them digitally, some docs were not doing them at all. But as things have gotten back to normal, meetings are picking back up, which is a great third pillar. So let's briefly go through all three of those pillars. If you're listening to this and you're a new doc, maybe a student, you jot some notes down, really take this to heart. Because this is a process that's not only worked for me, which is where it started from, but now has been proven out throughout hundreds of other docs around the world. So build that target list and then start by sending those case notes. Now, super clear here, case notes do not flood your practice with referrals. It just doesn't happen that way. But what they do is provide an unbelievable foundation for the other two pillars, your research and your meetings. So case notes, exquisitely important to keep them short. I find that if you export the direct note from an EHR, you could get 20 pages on a single patient visit. You don't need that. You want this thing to be less than one page. We build out the templates and all that for you within the evidence based chiropractor. However, keep it short and keep it tidy. Who came in? When did they see you? What did you find and what are you going to do? Patient name, data service, diagnosis, treatment plan. Those are your Four items that you want to have on any case note. Don't overcomplicate it, that's the number one thing. And make sure you're getting them out not every day for every visit, but on your exams and your re exams. Those are the perfect ticklers to say, okay, cool, time to send out a case note. So during your exams and re exams and with that, these are meant to be quantity based. So you want to be getting these things out the door to do a couple things that kind of talked about the how. This is the why of case notes. Why would you send these things? You'd send them to show that you actually co manage with these docs to get that you get great results, that you exist. Case notes are fantastic foundational aspect, but I can tell you 99% of the time, if you're only sending case notes, you're gonna fall way short of what you're actually hoping to do. Building relationships. So that's where number two comes in. Number two is sending research updates. Sending research updates monthly provides you with an opportunity to touch these doctors every 30 days. And people are super, super busy right now, as they always have been. And it continues to be that way. So if you are wait, you could go months without send note. If you just happen to not co manage with the doc, those months will crush your relationship. So the research each month is designed to fill in the gaps between case notes. That's why the research is so critically important. The research is a great way, it's a great medium to again remind them that you're there, showcase that you are up to date with what's going on, keep that relationship moving forward. That's where the research comes in. Again, less than one page. Keep it simple, keep it actionable. That's the way we do things. We build that out each and every month for everybody with the evidence based chiropractor. But you could do it as well. But keep those things tidy and make sure you're getting them out to your entire list of 50. That's the whole point there. So that's an important component. And the third pillar is, are the meetings themselves. So when you have the opportunity to really, you know, shake hands, have a conversation with a doc, this is what really accelerates the process dramatically. When you could build trust and rapport by understanding more about what they're doing in their practice, and now you can better position you in your practice. And it starts by that reciprocal nature. This is not. Meetings are not designed to, oh, I can't wait to stand at the podium and talk 45 minutes about chiropractic. I can tell you nine times out of 10, that's going to be a terrible meeting for both you and them. But when you can go in and have a plan, we go through all this scripting as well, of course. But when you can go in and ask directed questions about their ideal patients, about how they take care of those individuals, about what and who they are currently seeing, now you start to be able to better position your practice as somebody that can be helpful. And as they see you in the meeting, as they see the research, as the reminder that you're there, and as they see the case notes showcasing the great results that you get in your practice, now you're really curating, you know, fertile ground for a relationship. But if you're only doing one of those, if you just happen to be sending a research update once a month without case notes, if you take a meeting but never follow up with anything else, if you send a case note but never, you are going to be, it's going to be very difficult to get the results that you desire. I see a lot of systems and programs that have sort of a portion of this or again, people asking online and coverage is doing their best trying to explain exactly how to do this and you know, like a Facebook comment. There's a lot more to it than that. This was a very, very brief overview. But this is the thing. When you can generate off of your 20% of your target list of 50, 10 great relationships that are putting in, let's just say two patients a month, that that can make a dramatic 20 additional new patients per month into your practice just off that list. Now that's not gonna happen tomorrow. Relationships take time to build and it is some effort. But as you can see when we're talking about case notes, research and meetings, this is not something that requires 10 hours a week of your time. It's probably not even something that requires two hours or maybe even an hour of week of your time. But when you can do that and build that relationship, you should have a partner for your entire career. Now you start to talk about return on investment. And we look at it from a business context. Is there anything better than having a relationship that sends in pre qualified patients ready for your care? Absolutely not. And I'm going to say that is completely priceless as a marketing channel for your practice, yet dramatically overlooked. We know that 90, 90% of docs are asked about chiropractic and yet less than 10% actively refer to a chiropractor. That gap is your opportunity that if 99% were being asked about chiropractic and 99% referring to chiropractors already, man, you basically would only have to be way cheaper or way better than the competition. The benefit of 90% being asked and only 10% referring is there is a ton of opportunity in that space. But as we say with the smart chiropractor results follow actions and are you taking the action steps and action steps is not one action step a month or I think this is a good idea. Never implement Action steps is getting down to business, taking it seriously and ensuring that you can have success. If you take the action steps today, you will see the results in the future. But you got to take those steps each one at a time so it can be done. It is done each and every day. And yes, you can build an incredible practice that is relationship and referral based. But you got to start taking those steps today. You got to plant those seeds so that in the coming weeks, months and years you can really reap what you sow. So with that being said, if you are going to be out of your practice as things open up, if you are going to go on vacation, maternity, paternity leave, you're going for continuing education credits or you even have an unfortunate injury, check out Cairo Office coverage. We're within the Cairo Matchmakers family, so if you are looking for coverage or if you're a doc out there looking for your next great opportunity and you'd love to provide coverage or we have over 100 associate jobs opened right now, all with starting salaries of about 75k and above. Check out Cairo office coverage@cairomatchmakers.com we would absolutely love to have a conversation and work with you. So if you have any input, you have any comments on this, you can hit me up. As always jeff@the evidencebasedchiropractor.com and if you have not left us a rating or a review on itunes, I love seeing those. Thank you so much for tuning in and if you have left a review, thank you. If you have not, you're on an iPhone. Scroll on down, leave us a rating or review. That's helped more docs find out about this podcast each and every week. I greatly appreciate you tuning in. Have a fantastic week in practice and I will talk to you soon. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Evidence of Based Chiropractor. If you want to grow your practice, come back for next week's episode. If you want to grow faster, visit the evidencebasedchiropractor.com and join our MD Marketing membership today.