Physician Relations 2.0: Pillars of a Referral Strategy Rebuild
The physician referral teams at Mayo Clinic, Memorial Healthcare System, and Stanford Children’s Health agree on the need to rethink the strategy or rebuild it from scratch.
// By Devin Healy //
Referrals are an indispensable source of growth for health systems and medical practices. Despite that, many of the processes and tactics around referrals have been playing catch-up in terms of modernized strategies and effective use of data.
With increased competition, including from health care disruptors vying for physicians’ time and attention, and network-related referral limitations, the challenges of forming and sustaining new referral relationships is more complex than ever. The need to provide measurable value backed up by data is even greater and may require a fundamental reevaluation of traditional referral tactics.
Susan Boydell, principal, Barlow/McCarthy
“It’s looking at what we would call ‘Physician Relations 2.0’,” says Susan Boydell, principal at Barlow/McCarthy. She adds, “In a more competitive landscape, data give us the precision to compete differently and grow intentionally.”
Physician relations leaders from Mayo Clinic, Memorial Healthcare System, and Stanford Children’s Health shared the pillars of their physician referral programs in an intensive workshop session at HMPS 2025 in Orlando.
Read on to learn key success factors you can apply to your own organization:
- Establishing expectations upfront
- Cross-departmental collaboration
- Setting priorities based on organizational goals
- Building a robust data infrastructure
- Hiring team members with the right skills