An academic medical center discovered the need to communicate more effectively with external referring providers at the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic. An external referring provider works outside the organization and refers the patient to the organization for treatment. A referral is a written request by a care provider that allows the patient to receive care from a specialist or get treatment for special circumstances. Referrals are an essential revenue source for academic medical centers, so it was important to the medical center to maintain relationships with current external providers while also growing referral volumes.

The clinical marketing team and the outreach and network development team determined that a listserve would be needed to communicate with the targeted external providers to maintain referral volumes. A listserve is a database for e-mail addresses and contact information. Many organizations will pay a third party to use a listserve managed outside the organization. However, the academic medical center had a robust data warehouse that allowed the creation of a listserve at a lower cost. The new listserve would help maintain the current referral volumes and contribute to the overall referral strategy to increase external provider referrals throughout the organization.

During the pivotal point of the project, several key leadership members had varying circumstances which pulled them to other opportunities in their career path.

• The project sponsor received a job offer outside the organization. The position of project sponsor oversees network development strategies, and the project lead reports to the sponsor. The position will be filled at a later date after the project goes live.

• The project lead, responsible for maintaining physician partnerships and fostering relationships with external providers, moved out of state and could not work for the organization from the new location. The organization has decided not to backfill this position. Therefore, there will not be a primary contact for maintaining physician relationships.

• The project manager received a job offer outside the organization. The project manager’s role is to ensure all deliverables are complete for the project. A project manager documents decisions, tracks risks, and keeps the project team accountable to the predetermined timeline. Another project manager will eventually fill the vacancy before the project goes live.

Questions

1. What issues does the project team need to consider before continuing?

2. What is the role of leadership in the implementation of the referral strategy project?

3. Should the project be put on hold, or should it continue? Why?