Historically, most hospitals have had a physician relations program. In most cases, it operated either within the marketing department, the medical staff office, or reported directly to the CEO. The Physician Liaison had the responsibility for maintaining contact with the members of the medical staff and their office employees. Few programs enabled the liaison to produce measurable results, and physician practices had few, if any, complex needs or issues.

Times changed. In the 1990s, when the emphasis of hospitals shifted to the primary care gatekeeper, and most of the available financial resources were shifted to acquiring physician practices or recruiting new primary care physicians to the service area. Many hospitals terminated their physician liaison programs as a result of “accountability mentality”. The programs produced few measurable benefits and were, therefore, expendable. The importance of maintaining strong relationships with physicians has not gone away, however, and may actually be more important than ever.

As hospitals have moved away from the affiliated physician model, where physicians are employed by the hospital, they needed a way to maintain a strong relationship with their medical staff. Physician relations, and physician liaisons, became an important issue again. Hospitals had to find a way to maintain high physician satisfaction levels, and ultimately, to ensure that their hospital volumes increased, or at least were protected against other hospitals in the area. By 2004, 32% of hospital CEOs ranked hospital/physician relations in their top three concerns.

According to a national study conducted by Merritt, Hawkins, and Associates in 2004, the average specialist generates $1,915,524 in revenue for a hospital every year. Primary care physicians generate an average of $1,596,852 each year. Any hospital that can maintain their current admission bases while increasing the volumes of just a few key physicians can realize significant improvements to their revenue.

Did you know?
According to studies, physicians still control 70% to 80% of where patients go for outpatient procedures, where they're admitted for in-patient hospital care and what specialists they see.- "Physician Marketing: Not Overlooking the Obvious" - HealthLeaders October 17, 2001.

Effective physician relations programs seek to not only measure physicians' satisfaction with the hospital, but they actively work to improve relations. An effective physician liaison serves as the community physicians' link to the hospital and its resources. At the same time, the physicians are an important resource to the hospitals, not just for the admissions they bring to the hospital. Physicians are an important customer of the hospital. As such, they are in constant contact with hospital staff and departments, and can provide important feedback to the liaison regarding the level of service being provided to them, and ultimately the patients. Physicians can also serve as a sounding board for new initiatives or programs that the hospital is considering.

To efficiently provide all of these services, a liaison must be well organized and must have access to data. Med-Track™ was designed from day one with these goals in mind. The system assembles important data regarding physicians, their practices, their hospital volumes, their financial impact on the hospital, and their thoughts and ideas regarding the hospital's performance. By combining this data, the physician liaison can generate outcome reports, monitor their relationships with physicians, and identify new opportunities.