Tips for Hosting Effective Virtual Physician Marketing Outreach Visits

Most healthcare marketing plans include physician marketing outreach visits by liaisons like me. Some of the visits are discovery visits that I make directly to the practice, and some are in-person meetings or lunch-and-learns that I schedule between my champions and targeted referral sources. I also will often partner with marketing and physician champions to plan and execute other support events, including CME dinners and community lectures. Over the last 6 months, I’ve slowly been transitioning from doing these visits in person to hosting these virtually using tools like Zoom and FaceTime. As my providers have gotten more comfortable using these formats, I have noticed some really great benefits to hosting events virtually.

As a large academic health system, many of our referrals come from tertiary markets. Visiting these areas can mean taking a surgeon out of his practice for a full day, depending on how much time has to be carved out for the drive from any scheduled meetings. When actively marketing a new program, pulling the surgeon from the office and/or operating room can cut down on patient access, volumes, and revenue. By hosting provider-to-provider events online, liaisons can cut down on the time they are pulling providers from their patients. Additionally, they may be able to complete more visits in the same amount of time because the physician champion can use the time they would have spent on the road to complete virtual visits with additional providers. Mine have also been able to use the time between calls to catch up on charts

While some were initially hesitant to move towards virtual visits, both my physician champions and fellow liaisons have really seen positive results from this new approach. For these reasons, this virtual format is likely here to stay beyond COVID-19. That doesn’t mean that virtual visits don’t have their challenges. Technology sometimes fails, providers run behind schedule, and sometimes it can be difficult to connect through a screen. This is where a liaison’s approach to pre-call planning can make or break.

Below are some tips that I have found help create a more seamless virtual physician marketing outreach visit:

What are your top tips and tricks for creating a more seamless virtual visit? What problems have you run into? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn to continue the discussion.

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