REFERRAL AND SALES RESULTS ARE VERY PROMISING
The Better Hearing Institute announced today that enrollment in its Physician Referral Development Program surpassed 1,000 participants during the month of August and is on track to meet its goal of 1,400 total enrollees by year end. BHI Executive Director John Olive stated, "We continue to be amazed at the growth of this program. With a critical mass of over a thousand hearing professionals now participating, we are beginning to see what can happen with a major, nationwide initiative. As the program grows, our message takes on more credibility, and physicians are beginning to listen to what we say. With 80% of all cases of hearing loss still undiagnosed and untreated, there is enormous 'patient potential' out there, and primary care physicians are the universal key to those patients." Program enrollment is 52% audiologists and 48% hearing instruments specialists
But even more exciting than the sheer numbers growth (total enrollment), according to John Olive, are the results which participants are reporting to BHI. For the 3rd Quarter of 2002 (June - August), hearing professionals who are fully implementing the program reported selling an average of 2.2 additional hearing aids per week as a results of physician referrals. "Sales growth of 10 additional units per month represents a significant revenue increase for any dispensing practice in the country," said Olive. "And bear in mind that these are very early results from people who have only been implementing the program for some part of 2002. Things will only improve as their relationships with the physicians mature." Olive repeatedly reinforces the message that the program is very simple and direct. "It simply takes a commitment of about an hour and a half per week," he says, "but as you can see, that small time investment can revolutionize a practice. It's happening all over the country."
The BHI Physician Program is designed to link hearing professionals and primary care physicians at the local level. The program includes a training module (on CD-ROM) in The Basics of Physician Marketing which maps out clinical facts and statistics and provides comprehensive strategies and materials for educating physicians and their nursing/office staffs about hearing loss and creating patient referrals for evaluation and treatment. "It is a very straightforward program," says Mr. Olive who has worked in various segments of the healthcare industry for 16 years. "There are very specific strategies and tactics that work with physicians and lots of others that fail miserably. We built this program with actual input (on video) from the physicians themselves and from hearing professionals who have been successful." The program also features an accredited 1-hour Continuing Medical Education course for physicians and nurses (also on CD) about hearing loss, its impact when untreated and the fact that 90% of all cases will benefit only from amplification and can be referred directly to the hearing professional (and not the ENT physician). Every enrolled hearing professional receives unlimited supplies of these materials to enable referral relationship development with as many physicians as desired.
The BHI Physician Referral Development Program is open to every hearing professional in the U.S. and Canada. Go to www.betterhearing.org to enroll. The program is sponsored by all the manufacturers and suppliers in the Hearing Industries Association.
For more information, contact John Olive, BHI Executive Director
Office: 703-684-3391
Cell: 703-625-3294
Email: jolive@clarionmr.com
