Physician Onboarding — Frequently Asked Questions

Why is onboarding important?

Effective physician onboarding is critical for healthcare organizations. It helps new providers feel welcome and prepared, which improves retention rates. It also ensures physicians can start seeing patients and providing care as quickly as possible, maximizing productivity.

What is the physician onboarding process?

The physician onboarding process typically involves several key steps, including application and credentialing, enrollment in payer networks, scheduling orientation and training, setting up the physician with necessary technology and equipment, and introducing them to the organization and staff.

What is onboarding software?

The terms ‘onboarding software’ or ‘employee onboarding systems’ traditionally describe human resources (HR) software designed to deliver a quick, streamlined, and engaging experience for new hires. For physicians and providers, that need is significantly different. First, in many cases, HR is not the primary driver of physician onboarding. Second, because of the number of complex tasks and departments involved in physician onboarding, a software platform ensures that all administrative, regulatory, quality/safety, training, practice, marketing, and personal boxes are checked. This process is time-consuming, to be sure, which makes software essential in keeping all participants on the same page both before and after the new physician’s start date.

How can the right software help improve the physician and provider onboarding process?

The right physician and provider onboarding software turns all those siloed departmental checklists into a master onboarding process of sequential key activities to be completed within a certain timeframe. By storing this information in a centralized location, all responsible parties can access, communicate about, and complete their tasks in real time. Leaders and/or onboarding coordinators can also utilize pre-made dashboards and produce roll-up reporting. These reports highlight key trends, gaps, or lags in processes, as well as at-risk providers that need attention to help them meet their start date.

What does an onboard manager or coordinator do?

Your onboarding manager or coordinator has an eye on the big picture and keeps all the moving pieces in sync. In many cases, they are also the primary source of communication between departments and new physicians/providers. Lastly, onboarding coordinators or managers, with that big picture per view, can also identify where there are barriers or delays and opportunities for system-wide process improvement.

Why KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are helpful to review for physician onboarding success?

To assess provider onboarding performance, evaluate the number of new providers over a given time, the percentage of tasks completed on time, the reasons given for changes to a start date, level of engagement (pre and post-hire feedback), new patient volumes at key checkpoints (post-launch), proforma performance, retention, and more. A physician strategy platform such as Marketware can help you easily track and measure these KPIs.

Here are some great questions to start conversations about physician and provider onboarding within your organization. How many can you readily answer?

• How many candidates do you have onboarding in the next 30 days, 6 months, or even this year?
• How many departments are involved with physician and provider onboarding?
• Do you know all the activities or timelines for each of those departments?
• How do you know where your team or other teams are in the process for each provider?
• How do you know if there are changes to the process or start date?
• How do you identify process improvement opportunities?
• How do you obtain the data to have those meaningful conversations?
• How do gaps/delays/errors in the process impact the provider’s experience/perception of your organization?
• How do delayed start dates impact revenue, patient care, and even employee retention?

What is Marketware’s Physician Onboarding Platform?

Marketware’s Physician Onboarding platform supports the complex, system-wide processes involved in effective physician integration. Strategic construction and continual refinement of an onboarding program are critical to the success of newly acquired physicians. Successful onboarding yields results that are sustainable and far-reaching by increasing physician satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately, retention.