Oncologist
We conducted validation interviews with doctors to find out their feedback and thoughts regarding Physician Liaisons. They provided insightful responses that will surely help better our services and what we can do for their practices.
Here are the questions that were asked:
1. What are the top specialties you refer out to most (ortho, OBGYN, Pain, ENT, etc), and for what (conditions/symptoms/treatment)?
2. Besides excellent patient care, when referring to a physician, what factors help you make that decision to send to that physician or practice? (examples: cell phone number, them meeting, you face to face, location, etc)
3. Is there something a physician liaison or medical rep that stands out to you in a positive or negative way, and why?
4. If a physician liaison comes to your practice to discuss building a patient-referring relationship between you and their specialists, what can they say/ do that would provide value for you or your staff?
5. What is the greatest value a physician liaison would be able to provide to your practice?
Written Validation Interviews:
Dr. Wael H.
1. Radiologist, interventional radiologist, radiation oncologist, pathologist, surgeon, GI, pulmonologist.
2. Access to their cell to secure timely appt and communicate, having previous experience with the physician, met face to face
3. Responsive to coordinate care if needed. They tend to show up once and communicate once and not hear from them again
4. I would rather communicate with the physician.
Dr. Lorie H.
1. Top referrals from Rad Onc go to Medical Oncology, Surgery, and IR. These would be for the treatment of their cancer and procedures, etc.
2. The top reason to refer to a person is not only patient care but their ability to see the patient quickly and communicate their opinions to me quickly. This can be as easy as a text back to me the day they see the patient with their opinion
3. A physician Liaison from my institution has been invaluable in literally taking me j around and quickly introducing me personally to people at their offices that can refer patients to me. So they can meet me in person and feel warm and fuzzy about sending people to me.
4. These liaisons can figure out how to make it as easy as possible for me and my staff to schedule and send a patient ie with phone numbers to office and cell numbers of docs for a doc to doctor calls/texting. For example, I send all docs I work with my contact with a professional photo and every keyword I can think of in the contact so they can find that “nice female doc in Rad Onc” in case they forget my name. Want them to be able to find me in a second on their phone if they have a patient to refer
Dr. Waleed M.
1. My specialty is mainly to receive cancer patients from all other disciplines. Based on the tumor site, symptoms start, then get diagnosed accordingly by surgeons.
2. Symptoms are mainly mass, pain, bleeding in adults. Peds mainly mass and loss of function or lack of activity
3. Good human doctor. Who will treat my patients as family members rather than business
4. Positive thoughts on how to serve our patients and caregivers more than helping our employers
5. We listen and respect everyone, however, I trust my patients word of mouth more than any liaison. Same way when you look up doctors to treat yourself, and your family
Dr. Lilo S.
1. Surgery for surgery
2. Call me with results
3. Just the facts for the service.
4. Get patients in soon and let me know the results. favor individuals over the system
Dr. Dev P.
1. As a radiation oncologist, I am typically the recipient of a referral (from med onc or surg onc), not an initiator of a referral. But if I do refer out, it is to medical oncology first and foremost for consideration of systemic therapy (e.g. chemotherapy) or surgical specialties (e.g. neurosurgery) for consideration of surgical resection. I also routinely refer patients with unusual or persistent pain medication needs to pain management, especially given the scrutiny over our prescribing habits which has emerged from the opioid crisis in America.
2. The main factor in referral is affiliation. I work for a community hospital so our bias is to refer to other providers affiliated with the hospital if it is a straightforward clinical case. In complex cases, I refer to tertiary care/academic centers and select according to expertise and geographical proximity for the patient. For example, I will refer to Academic Hospital X for complex head-and-neck cancer cases if they have a great head-and-neck service but may refer to Academic Hospital Y for a complex neurosurgical case. I typically refer regionally if specialized care is required (i.e.. the Midwest).
3. I have no experience with physician liaisons, but we do use oncology nurse navigators (ONNs), who help coordinate care for patients, who are especially useful when multiple oncologic providers are involved (same institution or different institutions). The best ones are hard workers, independent, intuitive, and communicative with both myself and the patients they serve. I like to be "kept in the loop" but also value the hard-working, independent ONN.
4. I don't have experience with physician liaisons so can't answer this question intelligently.
5. Same answer as 4
Dr. Andrew S.
1. As a radiation oncologist, my field is often considered a tertiary specialist, i.e. since we are hyper-specialized, we are most likely towards the end of the referral food chain. That being said, I will refer to medical oncology, orthopedic oncology, neurosurgery, dermatology, and other physicians as needed for covering a range of cancers.
2. I strongly believe in building rapport with everyone involved. A face-to-face meeting always helps, but the current pandemic makes that challenging. Ease of access, e.g. cell phone is extremely valuable.
3. Not knowing the relevant physicians/specialties for my practice referral patterns are negative. On the flip side, being prepared with the appropriate referral network is positive.
4. Provide a flash drive, or send me an e-mail with a PDF with photos, names, specialties, and cell phone numbers. In addition, scheduling a brief Zoom meeting between mutual providers would be great.
5. A consistently updated network of physicians for referrals.
Dr. Linda G.
1. Medical oncology - cancer patients
2. Patient convenience, good communicator/ease of communication with the med oncologist
3. Positive - if they clearly have something to offer our patients. Negative - too many emails/phone calls/visits
4. Make the visit short, provide data/literature on the practice and what they can offer
5. Opening up lines of communication between physicians - make it easy to refer and to get feedback
Dr. Faiz R.
1. Cardiology (atrial fib, PFO, syncope), interventional pain (radiculopathy), Neurosurgery (central canal stenosis/spondylosis, IIH for shunting, Chiari, CNS tumors), ENT (vestibulopathy), vascular surgery (aneurysms, vascular stenosis, PVD)
2. Location, prompt response, feedback, ease of appointment
3. Being too pushy-negative, know it all-negative, caring/compassionate/resourceful-positive
4. Being resourceful, knowledgeable, pleasant, able to help build strong networking
5. Help establish/build referral relationships with local and external PCPs and improve/streamline the referral process.
Dr. Nick C.
1. Radiation Oncology: Palliation of pain due to bone disease. As part of treatment for cancer.
General Surgery: Resection of lesions.
Thoracic Surgery: As part of combine modality of treatment for cancer.
Dermatology: Evaluation of skin lesions and resections.
2. Good experiences with prior referrals.
3. Understanding of my time and respect for my questions is positive.
Disregard for my time and not listening as a negative
4. Addressing relevant points and asking to see where they can help.
5. Help expand the practice and provide resources that improve patient care.
