MARKETING AND MEDICAL PRACTICE

In the ‘old’ days of medical practice, marketing was considered the same as advertising; it simply wasn’t done  in any type of medical environment. The term marketing, however, is a concept that has dramatically expanded in today’s aggressive and competitive market.  It is more important than ever that each practice have some type of marketing plan.  Marketing is not just advertising in the newspaper and yellow pages, it is the ability to keep attracting new patients.  In today’s medical world where the patients are often driven by health plans and other enrollments, a medical practice patient flow can change dramatically simply by one large company switching to a new insurance plan.

Marketing is considered “the activity set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large” according to wikipedia.  Marketing is used to identify the customer, satisfy the customer and keep the customer coming back. It should also encourage the customer to share his positive experience with friends and family.

The first step in marketing is to assess needs and set goals.  It is also important to set up a plan, budget and marketing metrics to measure success.

Marketing can often be divided into two different areas, internal marketing and external marketing.  Internal marketing is about the patient’s experience, satisfaction, loyalty and proclivity to refer friends and family to that practice.

This includes simple things such as how the front desk handles patients at the window: is the window clear or opaque, is it closed or open, do staff at the front desk have a smile on their face, are they respectful of medical sensitivities, do they let the patients know how long the wait is (honestly)?

 This can also translate to phone etiquette where the same traits apply. Certainly, we all know the frustration of being sent to voice mail and phone queues.  The other piece of this is how the physician treats the patient; is the physician respectful and apologizes when he is late, did he answer all questions, does he return phone calls, does he have a personal touch and remember personal tidbits about each patient?  It is important to let patients know that the practice is accepting new patients and that new referrals are appreciated.  A thank you card to patients who refer friends and family is a nice touch.

External marketing is a focus on the image of the practice.  Physicians and office staff set up press releases, do medical lectures, and network in the community.  These are becoming critical in creating the image of expertise and customer service.

An effective webpage is also critical.  This should be done professionally.  Patients are becoming more and more net-savvy and a professional webpage is a critical piece of that professional image.

It is also important that physicians and staff cultivate their referral base especially for “specialty” practices.  This may include followup phone calls, making sure medical records get back to referring physicians, a phone call when any significant event occurs, and going out and meeting and getting to know your referral bases.  One should not be shy in sharing their appreciation of getting a new patient to the practice.

An additional part of this external referral base is managed care contracts.  Understanding managed care contracts, spending time with medical directors and making sure that a thoughtful evaluation of each new managed care contractual arrangement is essential.

An increasing and important aspect of marketing is using social media.  Many patients now are turning to Facebook and Twitter to communicate and evaluate physicians. Having a plan and process to check online on a regular basis to see what is there, and getting a Facebook page for the practice is important.  Assigning one person to monitor and provide feedback to any of these online services should be considered.

All these things together as well as many others constitute the criticality of a marketing plan in this changing environment.   It becomes more and more important as physicians align and other things change that a physician’s image and marketing plan remain a mainstay.

Tags:

Related:

Bookmark:

Digg

Facebook

Technorati

Newsvine

Google