Lessons from the Field – Nine Learnings on Physician and Patient Engagement in Specialty Pharmacy

 

Image by photosforyou from Piaxabay

I was thinking the other day about the lessons of patient and physician engagement in specialty pharmacyand how that could transfer to providers. That is meaningful engagement for managing population health, changing health behaviors, keeping physicians, referrals, and patients in the network, while improving engagement and experience.

It occurred to me that specialty pharmacy has been engaging physicians and patients for a long time, long before "engagement" and "experience" became the corporate buzzword in hospitals. Specialty pharmacy is more than just a transactional drug fill. Due to the expense and side effects of many of the specialty pharmaceuticals, a high level of patient engagement by clinicians, customer service, and feedback on patient compliance and side effects is essential. Specialty pharmacy also requires a seamless and well-designed experience for physicians and patients.

Image by Tina Koehler from Pixabay

Nine lessons from specialty pharmacy for physician and patient engagement, experience.

1. Reach out and touch someone. If you want patients and physicians to be engaged, you must establish a personal connection. That means a human connection all the time, not just when the patient is in the hospital or the physician is in the medical staff lounge.  Without a human connection to the organization, engagement never has a chance.

2. Do what you tell the physicianyou are going to do right now.  Saying you will take action with a patient or commit to act with a follow-up report of the outcome to a physician is right now, not days later.  

3. Invest in process and training for customer service methodology across the hospital so that it's done right the first time, every time.  Marketing should lead the effort. It must be one physician and patient to the hospital and one hospital to the physician and patient. That will mean investing in a CRM system to manage and collect information from interaction regardless of time or setting.

4. The same high standards you have for interaction with physicians and patients are the same high standards for your employees interacting with one another.  That means proper training, creating the right culture, and having good performance measurements.  If your employees are not engaged and happy, then the physician and patients won't be satisfied—view provider engagement as a continuous process.

5. Computerize the encounter. Not just scripting but an integrated approach using current physician and non-patient PHI information utilizing branching logic in response to questions and follow-ups. It is more effective and efficient and can enhance the encounter medically, personally, resulting in better outcomes.

6. The same personinteracts with the physician regularly.  Constant turnover destroys any potential meaningful engagement. It creates uncertainty, doubt, and fear and is negative because the physician loses confidence.  People go on vacation, take days off, get ill, and life happens; doctors get that.

7. Understand the physician you are talking to, what they want from you, and how they want the engagement to occur will define your engagement strategy to a great extent.  Physician engagement in specialty pharmacy is a personal one-on-one encounter, and one size does not fit all. Yes, you have processes and systems, but they need to be adaptable and ever-changing.

8. It's not uncommon in specialty sales and marketing to have a problematic patient program. Every physician has one or several difficult patients in a specialty pharmacy, so a problematic patient solutionis usually the preferred course of action.   You gain trust and utilization. The physician achieves a compliant patient and improved outcomes.

9. Eliminate the hassle factor for the doctor and help improve the practice of medicine and patient care. And fixthe most critical hassle factor that the patient is complainingabout you to them.

Of course, there are more, but these are the nine essential and most addressable lessons I thought are most important in transferring physician and patient engagement experience from one healthcare industry segment to another.

Michael is a healthcare business, marketing, communications strategist, and thought leader. As an internationally followed healthcare strategy blogger, his blog, Healthcare Marketing Matters, is read in 52 countries and is listed on the 100 Top Healthcare Marketing Blogs & Websites ranked at No. 3 on Feedspot.com. Michael is a Life Fellow American College of Healthcare Executives. An influencer in healthcare marketing strategy, communications, digital marketing, and social media, Michael is in the top 10 percent of social media experts nationwide. For inquiries regarding strategic consulting engagements, you can email me at michael@themichaeljgroup.com. 

Connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Flipboard, and Triller. Use 815-351-0671 to message me on WhatsAppor Telegram for safe and secure end-to-end message encryption. Video conferencing available via Zoom,Goggle Hangouts, and for Skype use live:michael0753_2.

Signup for the e-newsletter Healthcare Marketing Daily and have the latest healthcare marketing and business news for providers and vendors delivered right to your mailbox daily. Add your email address in the signup in the blog sidebar. You will not receive additional general or specific marketing emails.

For more topics and thought-leading discussions like this, join  Healthcare Marketing Leaders For Change, a LinkedIn Professional Group.

The opinions expressed are my own.