Physician Liaisons - Let's Talk About How to Get Noticed by Your C-Suite

Kim Grant MBA, Regional Manager | Tiller-Hewitt HealthCare Strategies

During the pandemic shutdown, everyone working in healthcare found themselves navigating an unprecedented situation. In an industry that has EDs open 24-7 and hospitals that never close on holidays, the sudden shift to remote work was a new and challenging experience for non-clinical staff. Even today, many liaisons don’t go into the hospital or office like they once were as they continue to work from home.

So that begs the question, how are YOU proving value and getting noticed by senior leadership? While this may have already been a challenge pre-pandemic it has only amplified post-pandemic.

As a physician liaison at a hospital or health system, here are three strategies for getting back on the radar of senior leadership – or on their radar for the first time! I know they work, because they have helped me progress in my career.

#1 THIS IS A CONTACT SPORT – THE VALUE OF IN-PERSON
You might be thinking: “As a liaison, I was never really at the hospital before, and my office isn’t even near the leadership offices. So even if I did go in, I wouldn’t see anyone.”

Visibility is something YOU control. When I was a physician liaison, I made myself visible in places I knew senior leaders would frequent, such as the key meetings, physician lounge, or even the cafeteria. By the way, that’s also a great place to bump into colleagues who owed me a response for issue resolution.

Find a reason to meet with one of the senior leaders, whether that be to ask for mentorship or learn more for example from the CFO who can share what initiatives make the hospital money or how physician contracts are structured.

Ask to interview a senior leader to understand more about their role and what’s important to them. Most people love to talk about their jobs, and as a physician liaison it’s YOUR job to learn more about all aspects of your organization.

#2 INITIATE TEAM-TO-TEAM COLLABORATIONS

So many times, we as liaisons are on an island as we go about our jobs of meeting our call goals, resolving issues, or introducing new providers. But to do it right, those activities need to be in coordination with business development, or marketing or even the health system’s clinically integrated network.

At Dayton Children’s Hospital, I serve part-time as the Executive Director of Dayton Children’s Health Partners, a clinically integrated network of private community primary care offices. We partner with the provider outreach and service line marketing teams to share and collaborate on what we are doing with the community practices. This allows us to streamline our outreach efforts, optimize the touch points and avoid interruptions to our practices. Our efforts to collaborate increased staff and provider satisfaction.

#3 CREATE A HIGH-LEVEL ROI REPORT ON YOUR COLLABORATIVE OUTREACH EFFORTS

Just because you haven’t been asked to provide a report doesn’t mean you should not provide a report! Your report should be brief, brilliant and to the point, with an executive summary and visuals that are attractive and easy to read. Remember to review your reports with your supervisor before sending to senior leadership. You will make your supervisor look good to senior leadership as well. The Executive ROI Leadership Summary shared by Dayton Children’s referral marketing, provider relations and clinically integrated team resulted in positive responses from the VP for Strategy, the CNO and even the CEO!

Interested in learning more? Join me at the annual AAPL conference in Denver on Tuesday, June 20^th from 2:30 – 3:30 for my session, Let’s Talk! How can I get noticed by the C-Suite?

Not only will you see the executive report by the Dayton Children’s team, but you will network with your colleagues across the country and learn how they get noticed by the C-Suite. I guarantee you will walk away with at least one new tangible strategy to implement!

If you plan on attending my session, please complete this quick survey before June 1^st. I will share the results for the first time in this session.

Take the Survey!

SEE YOU IN DENVER AT AAPL 2023!