I hope this month’s edition of our practice support newsletter finds everyone well. We would like to congratulate Savannah Gonsalves for winning last month’s contest. We will have another contest this month with a chance to win a $100 gift card (keep reading for more details).
Health Fairs
I’m sure things are ramping up at your offices and ASCs now that colon cancer awareness month is in full swing. This time of year also tends to be quite busy with health fairs and as you know, any time you have a booth, capturing patient attention to educate them about your practice and the procedures you offer is always a priority. Since 50% of people suffer from symptomatic hemorrhoids by the age of 50, hemorrhoids are certainly an attention grabber. In order to help promote the treatment of hemorrhoids and their prevalence with your community, we have a number materials that can help in this regard. In working with various practices over the years, we have found the following to be helpful:
• Playing the patient video on a TV
• Having staff wear our “got hemorrhoids” t-shirts
• Displaying our patient flipbooks so you can educate attendees on hemorrhoids
• Handing out patient brochures so they can take some information home with them (remember to stamp/label the back with your contact information)
• Pens and t-shirts to give away (because everyone likes free “stuff”)
If 50% of people suffer from hemorrhoids by the age of 50, why don’t I hear about them more often?
Some of you undoubtedly read that stat in the last paragraph and are asking this question. If you start asking your hemorrhoid patients how long they have been suffering from symptoms, you will often hear the answer given in the form of years. More than likely, the patient is either too embarrassed to talk about it, or they have brought up the issue in the past, only to be told about painful surgery or temporary solutions like ointments and creams. Identifying patients and educating them on both hemorrhoids and the procedure will go a long way towards increasing the amount of hemorrhoid patients you see.
Are Your Physicians Getting The Expected Results?
When we come to train physicians, we tout some pretty strong numbers in terms of efficacy and complications. If you’re finding that fewer than 95% of your patients are experiencing symptomatic relief, or greater than 5% of your patients are having complications, we would love to head back your way for an advanced training session.
The vast majority of physicians ask us back for these sessions so that we can review our treatment protocols, make any technical adjustments, and deal with some of their more problematic cases. There isn’t a limit on the number of times we visit, so if any of the physicians at your group might be interest, please just let us know.
This Month’s Contest
Reaching out to your referring physician network to let them know you’re offering the CRH O’Regan System can result in a significant number of new patients. By dropping off CRH patient education materials, holding a lunch n’ learn, or sending out letters, there are various ways to get the message out to physicians who often don’t know where to send their patients.
For this month’s content, let me know of a success story you’ve had in reaching out to referring physicians and you’ll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card! As always, thanks for reading this month’s edition and please let us know how we can help.
