Referrals – What do you actually know and understand about your client list?
How many people really self-refer to a clinician? How often do you hear “a friend recommended you”; “my GP mentioned you”; my neighbour has seen you”; “you treated a member of my family” . The reality is very often someone somewhere has seen you before and the information they shared created the “self-referral”. Yes, it didn’t come directly from a GP, Consultant, Insurer or Case Manager but was it really a self-referral? Does it matter? Did you gain consent to write to the GP/health professional or any other necessary individual (if required) for a self-referral?
With a changing demographic and generations used to surfing the web, reading reviews, asking questions, things are changing, do you know your demographic and where all your referrals are coming from?
Do you track your referrals? If not, should you? Consider: –
- This information can be logged at registration, this may even be automated and can be added to your electronic system?
- Can you use a select from list for this question so that you can analyse where most of the referrals are actually generated – is “word of mouth” enough?
- Rather than “word of mouth” – XX Gym, Toddler Group, GP reception, Google review, Trustpilot lets you know far more about where people are seeing and hearing about you.
- If you are making a referral, are you aware of the clinical information referral standard project 1 and the recommendations it made.
- If referring to the NHS could the advice and guidance e toolkit help? 2
How can you use the referral data in your business?
- The tracking information can then be viewed if you are looking at delivering some targeted marketing.
- If a gym is talking about you, could this relationship be developed further? Is there an opportunity to collaborate and work together on functional rehabilitation.
- Conversely if there is a local Gym and there are no referrals, are you missing an opportunity?
- Is there an opportunity to deliver a service for pregnancy and new Mums?
- If the referrals are logged and you cannot service, the need – could this be an opportunity to introduce a service to meet that need e.g. regular requests for women’s and men’s health?
How does your process address an inappropriate referral from another clinical professional?
- If you receive referrals from other clinicians, how do you manage this if it is inappropriate? What is your process?
- Could you consider it as an opportunity to discuss your service further with that clinician?
- By doing the above you may find more opportunities to collaborate further.
How do you use inappropriate referrals constructively?
- They can be a means to start a communication with peers and gather feedback and create understanding. GP service, other therapists.
- They can be monitored and if they regularly come from the same source, could they be used to provide a learning opportunity.
- If monitored and found to be regularly generated by one of your team, this can be reviewed to see where the knowledge gap lies.
Referrals are a powerful tool as they tell others about your business. They share information about your expertise and outcomes. This is why it is important to understand, monitor and utilise the findings.
We can help you work through the steps above, book a free HCPG/virtual-cuppa via this link to share ideas.
The Offer of the Month is Referral Policy (includes self and inappropriate)
this link goes to our store.
Sources:
1 Clinical referral information standard implementation guidance
2 Advice and guidance toolkit for the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS) – NHS England Digital
