I hope that this month’s edition of the “Banding Bulletin” finds you well! In this edition, I’d like to provide some information to help address one of the most frequently asked questions that we receive – “How do we go about building the banding portion of our practice?” I’d like to share a note submitted by Dr. Jose Rodriguez discussing those efforts which have helped to grow his practice and talk a little about the marketing materials that CRH provides to its Partners at no cost:
BUILDING YOUR BANDING PRACTICE THROUGH OB/GYN REFERRALS
BY DR. JOSE RODRIGUEZ – MCALLEN, TX
One challenge of marketing hemorrhoid banding procedures to other specialists is that they don’t always realize the magnitude of the hemorrhoid problem within their own practice, and they do not realize that there now is a painless and effective non-surgical treatment available (the CRH O’Regan SystemTM) . I have found that it is often times more beneficial to communicate directly with physician extenders such as physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and medical assistants in order to better address the scope of the service I offer to their patients in my office. We have started a campaign to educate the medical assistants and “mid-levels” within our OB/GYN referring physicians’ practices.
In addition to directly communicating the benefits of the CRH banding procedure to the clinical staff, we leave CRH marketing materials at the front desk and in their lobby. This has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of referrals in a relatively short time frame. The mid-levels seem to be in a much better position to intervene on the patient’s behalf with specific regards to hemorrhoid ailments. Most of the time, hemorrhoidal difficulties are not addressed by the physicians in larger practices; however, the physician extenders are dealing with these less acute presentations. Although these presentations are not life-threatening, they have a major negative impact on our patients’ sense of well-being, and the CRH O’Regan treatment is truly appreciated by the patients, further reinforcing my relationship with these referring physicians.
I’d like to thank Dr. Rodriguez for his note, and would like to encourage each of you to take advantage of the materials we have available, all offered at NO COST. Whether you want patient brochures, table tents, wall charts etc. for your own practice, referring physician materials or templates for radio, print or TV, they can all be found at https://www.crhsystem.com/order-ligators.html. We also offer our Partners a “Power-Point” presentation reviewing anorectal care. If you would like to utilize the slides in order to present to patient or potential referring physician groups, the “lunch and learn” presentations have been used very successfully by a number of you.
Another tip to help identify hemorrhoid patients is to simply add a question onto your patient intake paperwork – “Do you suffer from hemorrhoids?” You will be surprised by the number of positive responses, and the number of people in need of perianal care! If you have any questions about marketing or building your banding practice, please contact Jennifer Syrnyk.
WEBSITE UPDATES
Ever wonder how new patients learn about the CRH O’Regan System? We utilize search engine marketing and search engine optimization strategies to drive 20,000 visitors every month to www.crhsystem.com and this results in approximately 1,000 leads to our partner physicians. If you visit our website, you’ll notice that we’ve made it easier for patients to find the closest practice to them. We now have a feature where prospective patients can enter their zip code and get a list of practices closest to their desired location. If you’re interested in learning more about the support offered by CRH Medical Corporation, please look at both the Physicianand Investor pages of the website.
GUT CLUBS AND GRAND ROUNDS AVAILABILITY
If you would like us to make a presentation to your organization, Gut Club or Fellowship/Residency Program, please contact me at your earliest convenience. We recognize that most training programs will benefit by utilizing some of the educational resources that are offered by CRH, and are very happy to visit your Program and help by delivering didactic material discussing the care of hemorrhoids, fissures and other anorectal pathology as well as to introduce our Technology and techniques to your staff.
Thanks again for your interest and support, and please let us know if we can help you in any way. It was brought to my attention by one of our Partners that a couple of emails never made it through to me – please note that my correct email address is: mguttenplan@crhmedcorp.com. Have a great month, and we’ll communicate again soon.
Best Regards,
Mitch
Mitchel Guttenplan, MD, FACS
Medical Director
CRH Medical Corporation
T: 800.660.2153 x1022 | C: 770.363.0125 | F: 770.475.9953
