FIVE QUESTIONS WITH SEAN DUFFY –Physician Liaison Programs, Client Success & Product Management
We had the opportunity to sit down recently with Sean Duffy, Vice President of Client Success and Product Management at Doctivity Health, to talk about his new role and many years of experience with physician relationship and physician liaison programs. For our full podcasts, please visit https://shows.acast.com/actionable-insights.
DH – Hi, Sean, and thanks for talking with us. You were instrumental in developing and expanding the successful physician liaison program during your years at Geisinger Health System. How did you and your colleagues put that program together?
SD – There’s a spark of excitement in my voice when I talk about this. Dr. Michael Ryan, who was then chairman of pediatrics and the Janet Weis Children’s Hospital at Geisinger, was instrumental in bringing me to Geisinger. I had an opportunity to see what the physician liaison program – then in its beginning stages – was all about, and I brought a sales aspect to it because, if you are going to have some time in front of referring physicians, let’s make it worth it. So, we started using sales strategy and began using analytics and data to drive decisions and build strategy. That’s sales 101, and analytics and data are critical in the growth of any physician relations program. Geisinger at that time – like many other healthcare organizations are today – was data-rich and resource-poor. There are all kinds of data out there, but nobody knew how to use it. We really dissected the data and knew we were off to a good start, so we established a baseline and went to work from there to set metrics and obtain goals.
DH – Please comment on the various attributes of an effective and professional physician liaison.
SD – Effective physician liaisons must be focused on developing and maintaining good relationships with referring physicians and their teams. They must have the ability to connect with people, read conversations, and build trust. Trust leads to great relationships. Physician Liaisons are leaders, nurturers, communicators, and navigators. They need to be great listeners and really evaluate every conversation to identify needs and respond effectively. They must know the organization’s services they are promoting and must be seen by the doctors and their teams as problem solvers. And they must be able to switch gears immediately, as you never know when a great conversation can turn on a dime because there is an issue that has not yet been resolved or it’s a pain point for that referring provider.
DH – That’s where physician relationship management and having a good PRM program in place come into play, correct?
SD – Without a doubt. A good PRM is your toolkit, where you communicate and document everything you do in relationship development. Now it’s interesting with the Doctivity PRM being built by folks who have been in the fire, so to speak, who have many decades of frontline healthcare experience, and designed the Doctivity PRM specifically for physician liaisons to easily enroll data into it. They can document all of their activity, and the physician relationship team can run reports, metrics, and activity-based reports, and communicate with key stakeholders within the organization. And if there is an issue, there’s accountability. Everything is funneled through the PRM system. And I will say that Doctivity has nailed it, and the reason why is it is out of the box – and the out-of-the-box version is about as perfect as you can get.
DH – What are some of the issues or problems that physician liaisons uncover when interacting with referring physicians and their teams?
SD – I want to answer in a way that we talk about referring physician relationships, really what it is, it’s referring practice relationships. So, if you talk to physicians the minority of the time, then most of the time you are talking with their practice staff or office managers. You get different perspectives on issues and what the practice needs to easily refer patients to your organization. For example, you visit a practice and talk about a new cardiologist, then two weeks later when you visit the practice again you hear that they tried to refer patients but couldn’t get them in for 90 days. That’s an issue, so you need to work with the clinical operations and scheduling teams to identify where and why that problem exists and fix it. The most important part is that you follow up with the referring practice to say, yes, we heard you, this is what we’ve done to resolve it, and here’s how you can manage it if it happens again. Liaisons also hear about experiences the referring practice team has with some of the organization’s staff members. I always told my physician liaisons they must get to the point where they are seen by the referring practice as a partner. Your organization may sign your checks, but you are also, really, working for that referring provider. That takes time. It isn’t accomplished in one visit. It's built over time with a history of being responsive, solving issues, and all the good things the liaison has done.
DH – Please share more about your exciting new role at Doctivity and what you are doing to support clients.
SD – I am very excited about joining the Doctivity team. There is so much opportunity here. PRM, data analytics, and integration are areas where I have significant experience. I’ve utilized data throughout my career to help develop strategically focused planning. I’ve used data to prove the liaison value in an organization, really peeling the onion, so to speak. You have a global insight data set, and then how do you peel that onion – each layer – all the way down to develop strategy and identify opportunities. Healthcare is always evolving and technology reigns supreme when it comes to finding your position in the healthcare market, and evolving the product is critical in a way that you must make sure you’re connected to the client. What are their specific needs? What are their pain points when it comes to whether it be data analytics, communication tools, operational improvement, and optimization? Remember I said we are data-rich and resource-poor, and that is common across the healthcare industry. So, really being able to wrap your arms around good data, allow it to make sense, and put it in a format or way that makes it easy and effective to use.
It comes down to the whole book of business in healthcare. It starts with recruiting good physicians and being able to retain them. It costs significant money for organizations to recruit doctors. One of the main channels for Doctivity is our ability and history in terms of improving efficiency and productivity for new or stagnant providers. The quicker you can ramp physicians up through the utilization of good data insights, the better. If you use Doctivity correctly, you’re going to identify opportunities to drive new revenue. That’s the value of Doctivity’s actionable insights. If you have them and know how to use them, you can quickly make a huge impact.
Watch for more of our FIVE QUESTIONS with our Actionable Insights podcast guests. For more information on Doctivity and to listen to our library of podcasts, please visit https://shows.acast.com/actionable-insights
