Emotions & Loyalty: Root of Patient & Physician Decisions in Health Care

People are people, whether they are identified by their career or their role in the health care process. So whether you’re dealing with a referring physician or a patient, it’s important to consider emotions, their role in the sales process and how they drive and destroy value.  One of the most valuable emotions to have in our business is loyalty. Loyalty is what providers work towards with referring physicians and what they’re trying to earn from their patients, and in a society where health care is catching a lot of heat for a lack of transparency, loyalty and honesty are key.

Lloyd Banks said, “I take things like honor and loyalty seriously. It’s more important to me than any materialistic thing or any fame I could have.” It’s funny because a lot of practices think that the best way to attract referrals is to give gifts and tip-toe through shades of gray, tickling the line of propriety and Stark Laws, whether they can afford it or not.  Matt Schneider says that when your relationships are built off of gifts however, you’re only as good as your next present. Don’t think about yourself and your service from a strictly monetary scope, consider your value, because it is more important than any materialistic thing you could provide, as long as you’re not handing out keys to new Ferraris.

In Colin Shaw’s program Beyond Philosophy, he points out that in sales, professionals brand their customer experiences with their own emotional signatures. Over 50% of a customer’s experience relies on how they feel, which will then either drive or destroy their decision path. With 20 emotions ranging from happy to trusted to disappointed to neglected; your perception of value hinges heavily on your customers’ emotions, indicating whether they will become long-term, short-term or no-term customers. In health care it is hard to look at patients as “customers” but their emotional drive is intrinsically the same.

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It makes sense that in health care, more than in any other industry, emotional-selling plays a vastly important role. From a patient perspective, the health care industry is a confusing, money-hungry monster that is supposed to be able to fix the illusive medical issues they face before they die. They are operating in a state of flat out fear. Transparency in the system is a good start to helping patients sort through their emotions, aiding in their comprehension of what happens with their doctors and the bills that come out of their appointments. This is why it’s important for health care marketers and physicians to enter the conversation that patients are having already in their minds about price and quality.

The jump from reaching and making an impact on referring physicians is not all that far off as emotions go. Doctors have their own set of worries, whether it be about; patient loyalty, patients wellness, happy staff, having enough time to get everything accomplished, all while making money and keeping their practice alive.  This is especially challenging for independent physicians that don’t have the support of a hospital system.

Trends towards independent physicians getting bought out by hospital systems have cut down the number of private practices and many physicians and patients have been left wondering why hospital-owned physicians decided to sell.  The root of all patient and physician decisions resorts back to loyalty; emotional and financial support and security. With the changes that will occur over the next few years in our profession, we predict the rise of patient loyalty to independent physicians due to their ability and freedom to adopt transparency and patient-focused quality care.

Infographic: A Snapshot of the Radiology Industry

Consultative Health Care Sales and Marketing

Every sales pro has their own unique take on the sales process and has their own way of attracting new business.  Working in health care, the sales process is a uniquely laser-focused experience, which means developing new leads requires more care.  The difference between selling a product and patient experience is that it is a continued process and not a one time sales relationship, making the consultative process exponentially more important and valuable. 

It is imperative to consider that the focus should always be on your potential lead’s needs, rather than your own. In most cases of health care marketing, your lead is a staff member at a referring office. By conducting a needs-analysis and sorting out those individuals’ “haves” “wants” and “needs” you will be in a better place to provide guidance and earn their trust as a leader in the market. Your goal must always be to get your lead to explain their needs because if they are talking about their goals and what they need to accomplish them, you’re not wasting their time, rather you are being of value to them.

Your consultative process does not have to be an exact science, as each of your referring physician offices will have different needs, but it is important to consider the following steps:

• research
• asking
• listening
• teaching
• closing/continuing

Research:

This stage of your sales process is one of the most important, as it is vital that you do the appropriate research to gain lead intelligence on their situation. Once you’ve gathered data on your potential client or in our world, referral source, you’ll be in a better place to help them in the future.

Asking:

It’s important to conduct a needs-analysis, asking questions that require open-ended answers.  This gets them talking about their goals, plans and challenges. When you understand the issues they face, you can propose solutions to mend their problems and you won’t be selling them on services that they do not need.

Listening:

Do not just ask your referring offices consultative questions and not take into account what their responses were. It is important to be an active listener and use a CRM program, like Salesforce to keep track of your conversations and their needs.

Teaching

Your goal should be to help your referring offices no matter what.  You want to prove to them that you will do everything you can to help them find success, which begins before they even send one patient to you.

Closing/Continuing

In a regular sales process, the close is the last step, however when what you are selling is personalized patient care and the opportunity to serve as an extension of a referring physician’s practice, the sales path is more of a cycle in that it does not end.  This process becomes a relationship, which should feel natural and mutually beneficial.

 

Transparency's Effect On Doctors Ordering Imaging Procedures

Recent articles point to physicians saying that they’ve been ordering imaging procedures at an increasingly alarming rate. These doctors, according to reports, are ordering expensive scans without taking into consideration the financial burden that is then placed on their patients.  It is for this reason that patients must be able to access better information about their care and information about the price of those necessary procedures.

            The Journal of the American College of Radiology recently decided to research this trend because patients need to be able to know going into an imaging procedure what it is going to cost them, whether they’re insured or not. Daniel J. Brotman, M.D. researched this occurrence at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Brotman studied a group of doctors for six months, during which time the doctors were not given the price of each imaging procedure they ordered. Then for six more months they got access to the pricing of ordered procedures before they prescribed them to their patients. It appeared that the number of procedures ordered did not differentiate a substantial amount from one test period to the next.

            These results do not lean in favor of the patient. For a long time doctors have been ordering procedures and not taking into consideration the financial burden on the patient. However, many would argue that it is not the doctor’s responsibility to be concerned over price, but rather to be focused on the wellness of their patient. Brotman says; “Cost transparency must be part of the solution to solving fiscal challenges in medicine,” this starts with our doctors. Price transparency is something that people can rely on in order to alleviate some of the stress of an imaging procedure, so that they do not need to go without necessary services.

            Independent radiology centers have an advantage over hospitals because of the relationships that can be formed between doctor and patient. Doctors and hospitals are dealing with a large amount of patients everyday which hinders their ability to form a greater relationship with patients. Since there is a minimal relationship doctors are not in a position to be concerned with a patient’s financial background. With this they simply look at what the patient needs to have done in order to get well regardless of the price. Doctors at independent centers have the ability to form a more in depth relationship because they do not have to handle near the amount of patients. With this comes better care, which is a key element in the process of having a procedure done. There are many advantages when seeing an independent radiology center, care and price are just a couple.

            Save On Medical is a website that can help provide the patient with price transparency, providing them with centers where they can go to find affordable care. Patients are able to compare facility costs between different independent centers in their area. Patients can also see the quality of the doctor at each location on Save On Medical. Save On Medical gives patients in need of imaging procedures the ability to compare prices well as compare quality of doctors. This information helps ease the hassle of finding health care, while also, taking some of the pressure off of the shoulders of physicians who are being scolded for over-prescribing scans. 

Why Doctors Should Stop Battling Transparency

Demands for quality and price transparency in all sectors of healthcare have journalists, patients and healthcare companies alike, believing that it could be the cure-all for our broken system.  Billions of dollars have been reported over-spent in the industry and it is clear that we need a solution, so why is it so hard for doctors to accept that transparency could be the first step?

As care providers, there are a number of issues that we could have with the full transparency model. The most apparent is a doctor’s concern with being commoditized, especially if their procedures are considered high-ticket price services. If a patient has to come out-of-pocket to pay for a procedure, the likelihood that the procedure will be put off is high.  This is a common concern for radiologists especially, who have uninsured patients or patients in need of studies for elective procedures. 

What most physicians concerned about commoditization don’t realize, is that by “succumbing” to transparency, they can become more competitive with their pricing strategies. For example, if a patient is able to compare your quality in comparison with your less appealing competition and your pricing is the same, your patient can make their own educated decision and a wiser choice. You can bet 10-to-1 that when pricing is the same, higher quality will win out, even in healthcare where high price does not necessarily point to high quality.

Traditionally, patients have made their care decisions based off of word of mouth. Whether a family member, friend or their physician advises them; other people’s opinions of your practice matter to your potential patients. So, most commonly if a doctor tells a patient they need further care, the patient will go wherever they tell them to go. Times, they are a’changing though. Patients are becoming more consumer-driven which means that having your pricing and quality available makes you more accessible to a growing patient population.

For particularly price-sensitive patients, listing yourself on transparency websites could make all the difference, especially if other similar or competing practices are still batting the need for transparency.  It is equally as helpful to referring offices with patients in need of affordable options, because they won’t have to waste time calling around to various practices for pricing. 

Physicians do not like to change their ways. It is as simple as that. Transparency however, is an aspect of change that is on the horizon for all of us, just as much as EMRs and social media, so the sooner you jump on board, the better.