CRH Bandwagon – July 2019

CRH Bandwagon – July 2019

Hemorrhoids in the News

Did you know that hemorrhoids are the third most common outpatient gastrointestinal diagnosis? A recent study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology (Yang et al, 2019) sheds light on the burden hemorrhoids represent. Three key takeaways:

• Economic Burden: $2BN+ spent annually on hemorrhoid diagnosis and treatment. Surgeon referral remains common despite its high expense and the availability of an effective alternative.
• Burden on Patients: diagnosis without treatment accounts for the majority of hemorrhoid-related claims, meaning many symptomatic patients go untreated! Those who are treated are often provided short-term symptomatic relief without resolving the underlying condition.
• Hemorrhoid Treatment on the Rise: hemorrhoid treatment is expected to increase by 23% over the next 20 years.

Check out our infographic for more insights from this article.

Gastroenterologists are in a unique position to effectively diagnose and provide proven, definitive and cost-effective care for, symptomatic hemorrhoids. By offering the CRH O’Regan System, your practice is already doing just that! If you would like to learn about the support CRH can offer in expanding this part of your practice and helping more patients, we would be happy to discuss creating a comprehensive plan tailored to your practice.

Patient Recall – Opportunity for your Practice and Patients

Many patients have suffered from hemorrhoids for years and are conditioned to “just live with them”, thinking ointments/creams or surgery are their only options for relief. One of the simplest ways to address these misconceptions and increase the number of symptomatic hemorrhoid patients you’re able to help is by simply educating your patients about their treatment options.

This is especially true for patients who have already been diagnosed with symptomatic hemorrhoids but were not scheduled for a banding appointment right away. Inquiring about hemorrhoids during a post-colonoscopy follow-up call or appointment ensures your patients have the information they need and provides an opportunity for them to ask any outstanding questions about the procedure. According to our recent survey, practices that do some kind of recall for their hemorrhoid patients treat 10% more of their diagnosed patients, but this process is used by only 30% of practices!

We regularly consult with groups on best practices for scheduling hemorrhoid banding appointments. If you would like to set up a call to discuss further, please let me know. I can also provide a script or template to make this follow up as easy as possible for your practice.

Do You Have a Patient Newsletter?

If your practice has a patient newsletter and would like to feature hemorrhoids, CRH would be happy to provide content, as we did for the practice newsletter pictured below. Feel free to reach out to me directly or put your marketing department in touch with our marketing manager, Alyscia, for more information.

This Month’s Contest for a $100 Amazon Gift Card

For this month’s contest, we’d like to learn more about how your practice handles the process of scheduling patients who are diagnosed in the ASC. Some processes we frequently hear about include:

• The office and ASC share a scheduling system, so office procedures are booked with the ASC staff
• Staff at the office are given a list of diagnosed patients from the physician(s) or a staff member at the ASC and we call them to schedule their appointment
• Diagnosed patients are given information about the procedure and they call the office if they are interested in scheduling the procedure