Referral Service Program A phone and Web resource for patients

by Deanna Wooten, DCMS director of membership/member services

DCMS receives about 15 calls a day from patients looking for a physician or requesting more information about a physician. In addition, the most popular page on the DCMS Web site (www.dallas-cms.org) is a physician finder tool that gets approximately 800 hits a month. Both of these services offer a great advertising opportunity for your practice.

DCMS sends patients to you via its Referral Service Program. For a $50 annual participation fee, your subscription in Referral Service BASIC provides names of physicians by specialty to callers in their area of town. We provide background information, and healthcare and plan information. Included is a basic profile listing on www.dallas-cms.org under “Physician Finder” that lists your name, office address, office phone, and specialty. Look yourself up online to see what your patients see!

Referral Service PLUS includes BASIC service and enhances your online profile to include additional information about you and your practice including your photo, a map link to your office, e-mail (if preferred), a link to your Web site, your medical school and year of graduation, hospital affiliations, and board certifications. The annual participation fee is $125. For a sample listing, go to www.dallas-cms.org/search/search.cfm and search for Dr Gregory Echt.

If you have your own Web site, Referral Service PLUS enhances your ability to reach patients by providing that direct link to you when they visit our site. Even if you don’t have a Web site, patients enjoy seeing a photo of their physician before their visit, and appreciate the assistance of the map and other information.

Patient input from the Physician Finder section of our Web site has been phenomenal. Join your colleagues online.

For more information or to participate, call the Membership Department at 214-948-3622 or e-mail deanna@dallas-cms.org.