Dental Sleep Medicine Insider January DSM Insider 2018 | Page 18

DAN MCCANNA
WORKING WITH PHYSICIANS:
WHAT EVERY SLEEP DENTIST NEEDS TO KNOW
E
stablishing working relation-
ships with physicians is key to
any dental sleep practice, but
where do you start?
Over the 20 years I’ve been work-
ing in the medical industry, I’ve
talked with thousands of physi-
cians about what they need. It’s
not complicated. They want to
know the doctor they are refer-
ring to is knowledgeable in the
field, that their patient will be
taken care of, and most impor-
tantly, they want to be kept up-
dated on the patient’s status.
Introducing your
practice
When approaching physicians,
it’s good to have a packet of ma-
terials that introduces your prac-
tice, and makes referring patients
easy. Here is what I like to put in a
dentist packet:
1. Biography and profiles of the
dentist
2. List of certifications, accredita-
tions, and affiliations
3. A copy of the current AASM
guidelines and a short list of
some relevant dental sleep medi-
cine articles
4. A referral pad or printable
form to make it easy to send
patients
5. A page on what they can ex-
pect:
- Bill to medical insurance
- Medicare participating (if you
are, of course)
- Regular updates on patient
- Return patient for a follow-up
efficacy test
- Referral of severe cases to the
physician
The purpose of creating this
packet is to allow you to make
the case for sending patients to
your practice in under 15 min-
utes and leave them with some
supporting materials that will re-
mind them why later and make it
easy to refer.
an opportunity to drop off your
packet and introduce yourself.
Make an appointment and let
them know it will be short. Then
keep that promise. Like you, phy-
sicians are very busy. You need
to make the case quickly and let
them get back to what they were
doing. Not everyone will take
your appointment, and not ev-
eryone will be receptive to your
message. But don’t lose heart and
don’t give up. A referral relation-
ship goes both ways, you are in-
terviewing them too. It has to be
a good fit for both practices.
INTERESTED?
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NADSM SYMPOSIUM.
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So now what?
After you have created your pack-
et, you need to identify physi-
cians in your area who would be
a good fit. Start with your person-
al network, are there physicians
you already know? Can a mutual
friend introduce you? Broaden
your search with specialists like
ENTs and pulmonologists, then
expand to GP and PCPs. Once you
have a list, it’s time to start call-
ing. What you are asking for is
DAN MCCANNA
Dan McCanna is the Director of
the Physician Referral Program
at N3Sleep.