Competition is tough in private practice physical therapy, and if you don’t have a physician liaison working for your practice, your competitors probably do. Physicians are still the dominant gatekeepers in physical therapy, so you have to take your referral relationships seriously, and focus on creating new ones as well.
A physician liaison will make a positive impact by serving as a brand ambassador for your business: generating more referrals and improving your brand reputation. Your physician liaison should have a clear plan to visit and communicate with physicians who already refer to you, physicians who’ve stopped referring to you and those who don’t yet refer to you.
Not having a physician liaison means no one is out there building relationships in the community on behalf of your practice. Someone has to be out there showing physicians why YOU are the best PT to send their patients to and why YOU should be an extension of their care. Without knowledge of your expertise and unique services, physicians won’t refer to you or even know you exist. A physician liaison is essential to growing and nurturing your business.
You may be thinking that you don’t have the money to support a full-time physician liaison, and many private practice owners have this challenge. However, a physician liaison doesn’t have to be a full-time role to start out. If you can hire someone to market for your practice part-time, you can still see success and an increase in referral relationships.
In fact, if you can’t even afford to hire a part-time liaison, YOU can be the liaison. It’s not ideal – as you already wear many hats, BUT, if you are hurting for more business, it is critical you take on this role until you CAN hire someone.
According to FYZICAL’s “Referral Queen” (as we like to call her), Taylor Huggins, if you spend just 10 hours per week out in the community acting as a liaison for your practice, you will see an improvement. All it takes is just 10 hours of building and nurturing relationships each week to help grow your business in a big way.
These are just a few of the reasons why a physician liaison role is essential to your practice’s success, and there is so much more that goes into a successful physician liaison program in your private practice.
For more tips on:
…listen to our free PT Talk podcast with guest, Taylor Huggins, Director of Marketing at FYZICAL Las Vegas. In this podcast, Taylor shares the most effective ways to approach physician offices, how to manage a “doctor route” and much more. Taylor even shares how she brought in 89 referrals in one day! Click here to listen!