1.7 million calls to health care practitioners in 12 months

While some Doctors may imagine that new patient and GP enquiries mainly come from Google or word of mouth, in the last 12 months, more than 1.7 million phone calls were made to healthcare practitioners via HealthShare’s platforms.

For partners of HealthShare, rich marketing insights are made available to help Specialists understand how many GPs and patients are introduced to their practice via our Specialist Referrals Directory. For others, they may have no idea that their source of new patients appointments is HealthShare.

Let’s take a look at what factors increase the likelihood of patient appointments and GP referrals, and what you can do to stand out in such a highly competitive healthcare landscape.

Increasing patient appointments and GP referrals

One of the key factors GPs take into consideration when searching for Specialists to refer to is special interest areas.

Rhys Staley, Business Unit Manager of Practitioner Solutions explains, “HealthShare’s Specialist Referrals Directory is integrated into GP clinical software, so it is paramount that practitioners keep these details up-to-date by claiming and maintaining their HealthShare profile”.

“This ensures that special interest areas, practice locations, hospital affiliations, etc. are kept up-to-date and GPs have accurate information when referring”, he continued.

Along with special interests, another key consideration for patients and GPs is wait times. “Consistently we see an increase in GP referrals to practitioners who showcase their ability to take on urgent appointments”, Rhys said. “Generally speaking, most patients would prefer to see Specialists sooner rather than later, whether their condition is medically urgent or not”.

This sentiment is echoed by the success of HealthShare’s patient concierge service, SpecialistNow, which aims to match Australian patients with healthcare practitioners who can see them quickly.

A third factor of particular interest to patients and GPs when choosing a Specialist is health insurance gap scheme participation. Every month, more than 50,000 searches are made for healthcare professionals by health fund, via HealthShare’s platforms.