Insights: Healthcare Marketing

• A lack of clarity
• A relationship issue
• An energy issue

We’ve all heard of the glass ceiling, but what about the glass wall?  It is that barrier to service -- sometimes real and sometimes just perceived -- when you first walk into a Dr.’s office and no one welcomes you. No doubt you remember the old sliding window with the sign-in clipboard outside it that basically said “Whatever I’m doing is more important than saying Hello to you and making you feel welcome in our practice.”  Never mind that you may be nervous, scared, confused or just not feeling well. We don’t care yet.

Want to improve patient satisfaction? Strengthen referral relationships? Attract new patients/customers? Try these on for size.

A colleague of mine recently shared a story that hit home.

At a recent Dr.’s appointment, her physician re-authorized a daily health maintenance prescription and with a click of a button on the EHR, sent it to her pharmacy. Beautiful. Efficient.

Only, it didn’t work ...

My friend was headed out of town that week and ran into the pharmacy to pick it up the next day -- but it wasn’t there. The pharmacy said they never received it. She called the Dr.’s office, had to leave a message and received a message back, assuring her they had sent it. Called the pharmacy -- they still hadn’t received it. And the finger-pointing blame game began.

He said.  She said

Back and forth, back and forth, for two days.

The field of medicine is changing at a breakneck pace, and no doubt you experience this in your own practice. The diagnostic tools and treatments available to you today are probably quite different from what they were a decade ago. Yet, you probably have less personal contact with those who need to know what you are doing and how you can help patients than ever before. So what to do? Send a letter? E-mail? Run an ad? Update your Web site? Tweet? Facebook? All of those things can help, but with all the “clutter” we contend with every day, the most powerful tool to share your message is still you. So make the time to meet face to face. It may be the best New Year’s resolution and marketing strategy you can make for your practice.

We live and work in the electronic age. More and more, personal and professional communication occurs via text messages, e-mails, social media, etc. We simply don’t have as many face-to-face communications as we once did. While all this technology can be great -- enhancing efficiency, accessibility and accountability -- we sometimes sacrifice quality of communication for quantity.

In this information age, real relationships are more important than ever. Don’t lose sight of the power they hold, especially when nurturing referral relationships.

1. Place a prominent announcement banner and link on the home page of your Web site.

2. Put posters in your reception area/waiting rooms. Better yet, include a laptop station or two where patients can sign up/register.

3. E-mail your patients with a link to the portal.

4. Create postcards/flyers to hand out at registration/check-out and/or snail mail if necessary.

5. Share the news on your social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc.).

1. Access: Patients can more readily and easily communicate with you on a convenient, secure channel.

2. Accommodation: Demonstrates that you understand and respond to patient needs. Makes it easier for them to interact with you and obtain their health information.

3. Availability: Patients can communicate with you when it is convenient for them, 24/7, and get more timely responses.

4. Accountability:  Improves accuracy and efficiency. Provides transparency.

What can a patient portal do for your patients and your practice?

1. Online registration
2. Medical history/forms
3. Appointment requests/scheduling
4. Prescription refills
5. Online bill pay
6. Communicate lab/test results
7. Specialist referrals

... and all more conveniently and more efficiently than the “old” way of doing things.  Now that is effective medical marketing.