Patient recruitment goes far beyond getting candidates. It’s the quality, retention, readiness and individual experience for the patient that make the difference. At 83bar, we strive to make the patient or customer experience second-to-none. Although you probably stumbled upon this blog to look at Site Management, we want you to know, it’s really much more than that. It’s a partnership to deliver the best and most impactful results to our clients and the patients that need them.

So, now that we’ve established our key focus, let’s consider how you choose a vendor. What you don’t know is that looking for a vendor is not quite enough. You’re really looking for a partner. A company that will bear the weight of the experience with you, to ensure a successful launch or trial.

When you’re looking for a partner for patient recruitment, it’s important to know you’ll receive qualified, high-intent individuals. That’s the gold standard. But a true partner wouldn’t stop there. They’d also find a solution for:

  • Compiling patient data
  • Tracking/updating patient completion of steps for a trial or medication/treatment/procedure
  • Monitoring patient progress throughout their healthcare journey

They would recognize the value in complete visibility into each patient’s status, for a faster and easier way to identify and solve issues that may arise.

Furthermore, a partner would go a step further and provide the option of a support team to get everything set up at the site/office for the patient recruitment project and ensure it runs smoothly from start to finish.

83bar cares about these steps to ensure our partnership is beneficial from every angle. We understand these crucial needs based on experience with hundreds of successful projects. That’s why we offer all our clients a patient information dashboard, or an 83bar Activation Hub, plus the option of a site management team. This team can include a site trainer only or a site trainer and a site manager, and we always recommend both. Curious why?

Let’s take some time to dive into these roles to understand how they assist in the success of a patient recruitment project.

Site Trainer: Getting the site ready for the big launch

The site trainer offers critical support to site/office staff during the pre-launch phase of the patient recruitment process by:

  • Coming alongside the site/office to build the onboarding structure for ease of access to patient information
  • “Customizing” the 83bar Activation Hub to match commonly used terminology within their team
  • Ensuring the Activation Hub tracks qualified leads (patients) from all sources, including our 83bar Clinical Contact Center, physician finders, previous marketing efforts, and more.

83bar site trainer Lauren Castro explains how it works, “We build out project-specific statuses to ensure the Activation Hub reflects the terminology the site or office already uses. For example, which of these terms do they use: “patient,” “lead,” “participant,” “referral” or something else?”

Lauren continues, “We also map out the patient journey. Let’s say we have a project for a procedure using an approved medical device. I might map out that the patient has an initial consultation, they come back for diagnostics, their surgery is scheduled and then their surgery is complete. The patient journey map is very project specific.”

Activation Hub setup results in a wealth of information for the office/site, including:

  • Patient Profiles – Patient demographics such as patient location, phone number and email
  • Call Center – Steps completed by education specialists in the Clinical Contact Center, including patient assessment/qualification, education and preparation (e.g., appointment scheduling and reminders) as well as all interactions with patients (e.g., calls, texts, emails)
  • Pre-qualification Survey – The online survey and each patient’s answers, which were used to pre-qualify all patients
  • Notes – Clinical Contact Center education specialists provide any additional information that the site/office could use. They might describe things such as the patient’s health condition/disease and its duration, unsuccessful treatments, or patient insurance information.

The site trainer also helps make it as easy as possible for site/office staff to enter patient status into the Activation Hub by providing a variety of status categories. After an appointment has happened, for example, site/office staff go into the Activation Hub to update with details to allow the team to take a proactive approach to moving patients forward.

Lauren comments on updating the Activation Hub, “Although it may seem to be a heavy lift, actually this takes on average only 10 to 15 minutes a week. The benefits far outweigh the time it takes to update. This user friendly platform is easy to maneuver and access.”

Once the Activation Hub is set up, the site trainer conducts training for the site/office. This provides the framework for a successful launch, ensuring the whole team can use the Activation Hub to keep the project on target.

Site Manager: Beside the client all the way

As soon as the patient recruitment project launches, the site manager “tags in” for the site trainer, taking over as the 83bar go-to person for the site/office. The site manager works hard to build a strong working relationship with site/office staff, for example, by setting up scheduled calls with the site/office and keeping the conversation going through the Notes folder of the Activation Hub.

The site manager also serves on a larger team of 83bar colleagues, such as the project manager and the strategist. Together, this team meets with the client to uncover opportunities and optimizations. This helps keep the project on target and the patients in the forefront.

Lauren sums up the 83bar account management team in this way: “You can think of us as client experience managers, really. We offer what I call a one-on-one concierge service. It provides a better experience for clients and patients, helps the client’s site/office function well and contributes to the overall success of the project.”

The Activation Hub and site management team really are a match made in heaven. This match strengthens the visibility and communication between the teams, which leads the patient to a faster solution—resulting in a better outcome for your bottom line.

To learn more about 83bar, go to 83bar.com or visit our information resource, the 83bar Patient Activation Hub. If you’d like to find out how 83bar site management can become an extension of your team, please set up a call with our experts today.