Women's Health: Connecting with the Breast Care Medical Community

• By Sherleen Mahoney, Ralph C. Jensen
• Apr 01, 2004

The medical community is a prime source of new business referrals. Women who have had breast surgery look to their surgeons, oncologists, nurses, and radiologists for information and advice. These people often wield significant influence in a patient's decision-making process. That is why it is so important to include them in your network. Educating this group about your products and services is an excellent way to build your business. The better informed you keep members of the medical community, the more likely they are to recommend your retail outlet, your fitters and the products you carry to their breast surgery patients. Patient education is highly correlated with patient satisfaction. By providing education materials to a health care professional, you have the opportunity to add value to his or her practice. As surgery trends continue to change and reimbursement pressures increase, it's critical that you are networked with good referral sources.

Identify key contacts.

Your first step is to identify your target health care professionals. Here are several ways to build your list:

Capture health care professionals' names from prescriptions and Medicare 1500 forms.

Look on hospital Web sites for department and contact information.

Request a directory of health care professionals from the hospitals in your area.

Use the Yellow Pages.

Ask each new customer to complete a Customer Information Form.

Research health care facilities such as hospitals and surgery centers, oncology centers, radiology centers, breast centers, mammography centers and plastic surgery centers.

Identify key individuals. While physicians are your target group, your primary contacts will likely be the nurses, social workers and other staff members in the doctors' offices, clinics and hospitals. Nurses have the most interaction with patients and are key to referrals. It is just as important to develop a relationship with these members of the medical community as it is with the physicians themselves.

Search professional organizations. Most health care professionals belong to a peer organization such as the American Society of Breast Surgeons or the Oncology Nursing Society that has a national membership and sometimes even a local chapter. Visit the organization's Web site for professionals who practice in your area.

Set-up and define goals of the meeting.

After identifying contacts, determine what you would like to accomplish at the meeting. Some goals could include being added to their retail referral list, setting up an in-service with the nursing staff or agreeing to place educational brochures in pre-surgery patient information packets.

Develop a marketing packet for health care professionals.

After you have established your meeting objectives, develop a packet of information that supports your goals. The first packet of information should include a letter introducing yourself, your business card and a sample information patient packet.

Prepare a sample patient information packet.

An integral part of your introductory medical marketing packet is a sample information patient packet. The packet should include:

A letter to the patient introducing your shop's products and services. Be sure to mention that you have products for lumpectomy as well as mastectomy.

Your business card with your e-mail address and phone number.

Store hours, location and directions or a map of the store location.

A list of the managed care plans for which your facility is a preferred provider.

Samples of educational and product brochures. Many companies provide these free of charge.

Deliver the packets to your target health care professionals and call for appointments.

Once you have assembled your packets and delivered them to your list of target health care professionals, start off on the right foot by calling for an appointment. Remember, this is your chance to begin developing a relationship with the physician or health care professional. You may end up dealing primarily with other staff members instead of the physician. This includes office managers, receptionists, secretaries, nurses, and social workers.

Prepare for the meeting with the health care professional.

It's important that you be prepared for your initial meeting. When meeting with the health care professional, be sure to emphasize that you are there to add value to his or her practice by providing patient education and a highly sensitive and skilled service to post-breast surgery patients. Keep your presentation brief. Since you may only get 10-15 minutes with the health care professional, you should practice your presentation beforehand. Know exactly what you want to say and pick two or three key points you want to convey. The first few calls you make, you will be tempted to tell the health care professional everything you know. Do not give in to this urge or else you will have no reason to come back for a second or third meeting. Instead, focus the initial call on one group of innovative breast forms that the health care professional may never have seen before. This will peek the health care professional's interest. Bring samples of each of the types of breast forms you stock, but focus the conversation on only one type. This will give you a reason to come back and present other products. Keep in mind that the majority of surgeries done in this country are breast conserving, so the health care professional may be more interested in partial products than in full breast forms initially.

What to Do and Say at the Meeting

Establish a rapport with the health care professional and determine their objectives. Try to identify a need you can fill such as patient education. In addition, ask some specific questions such as, Do you address body asymmetry with your patients? What solutions do you recommend for body asymmetry with your patients? Do you prescribe partial prostheses for women undergoing lumpectomies?

Once you have determined the health care professional?s needs, you can begin your presentation. Tell the health care professional that you have extensive knowledge and experience in working with breast prosthetics and that your customers express a high level of satisfaction with the service you provide. If you have done a customer satisfaction survey you may want to share those results with the health care professional. Begin with a demonstration of a breast form and outline the product's features and benefits. Be sure to demonstrate products that are appropriate following a lumpectomy as well as a mastectomy. Match the features and benefits to the particular needs of different patients. Ask the health care professional to give your packets to appropriate patients and to include your store on a list of retailers who provide breast prostheses. Remind the health care professional that you will keep them supplied with additional patient information packets free of charge as needed.

You may meet with a nurse practitioner or other staff member during your first visit. Be sure to provide them with all the information you would a physician. Keep in mind that they are likely to be your best contact. Be sure they completely understand all of the psychological implications that breast surgery has on women, and the exact services and products that you provide.

Follow-up on Action Items

After your meeting, conduct an evaluation. Ask yourself if your objectives were met and determine the key issues to cover in your next meeting. Keep track of any follow-up needed from the meeting. Send a letter thanking your prospect for the meeting. Review key points that were made and assure your contact that you will follow through with any commitments you made at the meeting. Invite calls from the health care professional. Perhaps suggest that the health care professional or someone from their staff visit your shop to observe a personal fitting and examine the products you have available.

Build the Relationship

One meeting is never enough. Plan a strategy that will allow you to periodically visit the office with new information. Set aside time on a regular basis for keep-in-touch letters, phone calls, and visits. Reasons for additional contact may include offering to conduct an in-service seminar over lunch one day, telling a health care professional about a new product or an improvement to a current one and asking the health care professional whether he or she needs additional patient information packets.

Find other ways to work with the medical community.

Consider sponsoring regular informal seminars for new breast surgery patients in partnership with local hospitals. An invitation to attend could be given to each breast surgery patient at the participating medical center. The seminar itself might include tips on recovery after surgery presented by a hospital nurse, an explanation of the sensitive service you provide, a demonstration of the products you offer and light refreshments.

The medical community is a prime source of new business referrals. Surgeons, oncologists, nurses and radiologist wield significant influence over the product choices patients make. Building a strong network of referral sources will help you grow your business even as surgery trends continue to change and reimbursement pressures increase. At Amoena, we have created a step-by-step medical marketing guide to assist retailers in establishing relationships with the medical community. Guides can help you create a referral process that will link you with newly diagnosed breast cancer patients and help you grow your business.

This article originally appeared in the April 2004 issue of HME Business.