Referral growth guide
Approaching Physician Practices for Home Care Referrals
Some physician practices, especially those that see older adults, hear about patients who are struggling at home. The first useful conversation is often with a practice manager or care coordinator, not a cold pitch to the physician.
Primary care, geriatrics, neurology and some other practices regularly talk with families about safety at home: meals, medication reminders as a non-clinical support, wandering, or a spouse who is exhausted. That does not make every practice a home care referrer, and it does not make the physician the first person you should try to interrupt between visits.
Who to contact first
Ask for the practice manager, office manager or a care coordinator. In a small practice, that may be the same person who answers the phone. Explain that you provide non-medical home care in a defined area and that you are looking for the right way to introduce the agency, not for a meeting with every clinician today. If they have a preferred vendor or social-work process, follow it.
What to say, and what to leave out
- Say your geography, hours you can usually staff, and how a family starts service.
- Give one number a coordinator can actually reach.
- Do not present yourself as a medical provider if you are a non-medical agency.
- Do not ask for patient lists, diagnoses or appointment access.
- Do not promise clinical outcomes, avoided hospitalizations or guaranteed family satisfaction.
A short leave-behind that a coordinator can file is often enough. If you offer to come to a staff meeting, let them decide whether that is useful.
Privacy and record-keeping
Your outreach file should hold the practice name, address, contacts, dates and what they asked for. It should not hold patient names or health information. If a family later becomes your client and wants their clinician involved, handle that through your care and privacy processes, not through the marketing list. For more on this separation, see the practical referral sources guide.
Pacing the relationship
Practices that never refer may still be worth a polite, infrequent check-in, but spend most of your time where conversations are moving. Use the follow-up cadence guide. A territory scan may list physician practices in the connected directory around your ZIP; treat those names as a starting map, as explained in the scan method page.
Questions owners ask
Should we market directly to the physician?
Usually not at first. Physicians have limited time, and many practices want introductions to go through operations or care coordination. If a clinician asks to meet you, take that meeting and keep it short.
Can the practice share patient names with us?
Not as a prospect list. A family or the practice may contact you about a specific person only through an appropriate request. Do not ask for charts or rosters, and do not store health information in your referral tracker.
Which specialties are most relevant?
Practices that often see older adults or people with changing daily needs are a logical starting point. Relevance still depends on your area and services. There is no specialty that will automatically refer.
Is a bought list of doctors a shortcut?
A bought list is only a list of names. It still needs research, a proper introduction and follow-up, and it may be outdated. See the comparison of ReferralOS, spreadsheets, bought lists and liaisons.
Keep reading
- Who Refers Clients to Private-Pay Home Care Agencies
- How Home Care Agencies Approach Hospital and Rehab Discharge Planners
- Working with Geriatric Care Managers on Home Care Referrals
- Building Referral Relationships with Senior Living Communities
- What a ReferralOS Territory Scan Can and Cannot Show
- ReferralOS vs a Spreadsheet, a Bought List, or a Hired Liaison
- A Practical Follow-Up Cadence for Home Care Referral Relationships
- Home care referral sources: a practical guide
- ReferralOS overview
Where ReferralOS fits
ReferralOS is GetPatientNow’s referral growth software, configured first for private-pay home care. You can scan your territory free (no card needed) and then organize follow-up in one workspace. Discovered organizations are potential referral sources, not guaranteed referrers. See the home care workflow.