MDreferralPRO software was created through a partnership of healthcare administrators and physician liaisons. The software program geographically targets providers by specialty, and creates a prioritized list of healthcare providers for physician liaisons to focus upon.
MDreferralPRO Case Study & White Papers
CASE STUDY #1
‘How MDreferralPRO exposed a single problem with a referring provider, resulting in a positive business process change for the entire healthcare facility.’
CLIENT: Alabama Orthopaedic Clinic (AOC) is one of the largest Orthopaedic facilities along the Gulf Coast with 20 orthopaedic specialists; 16 orthopaedic surgeons, one radiologist, 2 pain management specialists and 1 physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist. AOC is located in the 78,000 square-foot Orthopaedic Center on the campus of Springhill Medical Center. The Clinic boasts a state-of-the-art orthopaedic specialty surgery center and a physical therapy center for excellence. AOC provides care in multiple satellite locations throughout south Alabama.
CHALLENGE: Alabama Orthopaedic Clinic has always placed a high priority on relationships with referring providers. The group implemented electronic medical records and had a physician liaison program in place, but still faced difficulty recognizing which referring providers were dissatisfied with their service. The clinic needed a way to share liaison notes with administration, prioritize which providers to call upon, and identify potential problems with referring physicians before the relationships were beyond repair.
SOLUTION: AOC relied on the business intelligence provided by MDreferralPRO to identify downward trending provider referral patterns. Those providers whose patient referrals dropped below a defined threshold were placed at the top of MDreferralPRO’s Priority List. Equipped with this strategy, the physician liaisons could easily identify which providers in the community were the highest priorities. They could then call on those providers and share feedback from those meetings with clinic leadership in real time.
FINDINGS: MDreferralPRO identified a large, local primary care group as a facility where patient referrals were trending downward. The physician liaison promptly called on the group to discern any issues that the facility may be having with AOC. Providers at the primary care group stated that they were unhappy with the way AOC providers were delivering progress notes. The notes were either delayed, or not delivered at all. Therefore, the primary care group decided to stop sending patients to AOC.
RESULTS: AOC leadership used MDreferralPRO to quickly view how the problem with this primary care group was affecting referrals and took steps to fix the issue with the progress notes. By identifying a problem with one referring facility like this large primary care group, AOC realized they needed to address their process for delivering progress notes to all referring providers. AOC implemented a new electronic process for transcribing and delivering progress notes. As a consequence, not only did referrals from the primary care group increase, but also communication with other referring providers became timelier and more efficient.