KEYWORDS:
Provider Outreach, Marketing Strategies, Provider Recruitment, Technology
BACKGROUND:
Riverside County is the fourth largest and one of the fastest-growing counties in California, comprising over 7,200 square miles and home to over 1.5 million residents. Over 400 potential registry providers currently practice in the county. Registry staff often travel 1-2 hours to reach providers. The Outreach Planner tool was developed to accelerate provider recruitment and enrollment by increasing staff efficiency in the field.
OBJECTIVE:
To illustrate how an Outreach Planner tool accelerates private provider enrollment by enabling staff to rapidly identify non-enrolled providers in a given geographical area.
METHOD:
An Outreach Planner tool was developed as a component of an existing provider management database. It enables Registry staff to target non-enrolled providers in specified geographical areas quickly and easily. It also generates forms that staff use to gather essential data during outreach visits. This allows staff to organize and prioritize outreach visits according to daily travel plans. Efficiency is increased since staff can easily add provider recruitment to a day that would have consisted of only one or two registry demonstrations or trainings.
RESULT:
The Outreach Planner has enabled a single Registry staff member to make 127 new contacts and enroll 62 new providers in the 10 months since its implementation.
CONCLUSION:
The Outreach Planner is an excellent tool for maximizing use of staff time in the field, thereby accelerating provider recruitment and enrollment efforts. If enrollment continues at the current rate, we will achieve 100% eligible private provider enrollment within four years of initiating recruitment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Participants will be able to describe 1) the basic design of an Outreach Planner, and 2) how an Outreach Planner can make staff more efficient and productive in the field.
Handout (.ppt format, 1029.0 kb)
Back to Provider Recruitment Planning
Back to The 2003 Immunization Registry Conference (October 27-29, 2003)