New market realities are elevating primary care physicians (PCP) to a new level of importance in service line growth.

Read this brief to learn how activated consumers, value-conscious payers, and narrow networks are changing service line growth strategy, and what you'll need to do to ensure future growth.

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Developing the specialty network of choice

Although health systems have historically driven service line growth primarily by catering to specialists, three emerging market realities—activated consumers, value-conscious payers, and narrowed networks—require that service lines focus more attention on appealing to primary care physicians (PCPs). These market forces are elevating the importance of patient satisfaction with specialty care and service lines’ willingness to embrace collaborative value-minded care when PCPs make a referral decision.

Differentiating through service quality

Service lines have traditionally focused on appealing to PCPs through superior clinical quality. However, clinical excellence has become a baseline expectation for PCPs and may no longer be a reliable differentiator. Instead, service quality has emerged as a key service line differentiator to PCPs. More

Service lines that are well positioned for growth offer unparalleled service quality to PCPs throughout the referral process—regularly surpassing the physicians’ expectations across four dimensions of service quality:

1. Targeted referral decision support
2. Best-in-class specialty access
3. Tailored multidisciplinary care
4. PCP-centric care coordination

10 imperatives for exceeding the service expectations of referring physicians

1. Partner with PCPs on the referral decision

2. Focus support on service lines with the most complex referral paths

3. Enhance existing specialty network capacity by pooling specialists and centralizing scheduling

4. Deploy advanced practitioners to improve throughput

5. Offer virtual consults to expedite access for capacity-constrained specialty networks

6. Identify and prioritize specialty areas for multidisciplinary care investments

7. Invite PCPs to participate in the multidisciplinary care team

8. Facilitate referring physician support for patients throughout the specialty care episode

9. Use physician portals to engage PCPs during the specialty care episode

10. Embed PCPs in discharge planning to smooth transition to primary care

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