Gastroenterologists need to develop an aggressive marketing program that targets both referring physicians and patients and includes the following five key elements: 1) awareness; 2) education; 3) availability; 4) appropriate quality/performance measures; and 5) appropriate office protocol.
A few thoughts in each key area:
Awareness. Market yourself as a person. Include a personal profile [on a Web site, patient information documents, etc.] so that both referring physicians and patients can easily learn about you, your family, your interests, your education, what you do when you’re not at work, etc. You need to have a Web site, and you need to keep it current. The Web site needs to be on your business cards and all other marketing materials in your office.
Often the referral base you depend on today has been the same one for many years, but it’s likely that some of those physicians are not around, either relocating or retiring. It’s wise to develop a relationship with the younger physicians in town who need to rely on the community’s best specialists. New primary care physicians want to know which specialist to send their patients to.
Hold an open house periodically and invite the medical community as well as the town’s mayor and local council. They are highly invested as to what is happening in the community.
Finally, try tapping into the media by contacting the local newspaper’s health or medical editor and see if you can provide information about your practice or be interviewed for a topic related to your specialty in an upcoming issue on colon cancer or digestive health.
Education. Referring physicians need to be educated about the specialty of gastroenterology. They need to know what it is you do, what types of problems you specialize in, what health maintenance routines you can help them with such as colorectal cancer screening and the guidelines related thereto or reflux or IBD or Crohn’s disease.
Take every opportunity to meet with the referring physicians/groups in your community and those associated with the local hospitals. Invite them to a business lunch or schedule some time to meet them at their office. Have them personally visit your center so they can see firsthand where their patients will have procedures done, and provide them with educational materials regarding your specialty. Having some face time with these physicians can go a long way.
Availability. You need to make people aware of your office hours and how you handle calls or issues outside of office hours. Don’t assume people know. It’s not enough to leave a voice message on an answering machine. Let patients and physicians know in advance. Take the time to educate your office staff on your schedule and your accessibility. Let people know and actively set expectations. Put yourself into the patient’s shoes and provide well thought out solutions so they don’t have to guess or search too far for information. Let patients know if they should expect to be seen by a PA versus you, the physician.
Communicating with your patients is so important. If you can take a few minutes at the end of the day to check up on them, as well as provide test or procedure results on a timely basis, having the physician personally call a patient can go a long way to making them feel extra special.
Appropriate quality/performance measures. It is important that the secret gets out. Referring physicians, patients and payors all want to know how you stack up [against other GI physicians]. It is important to make available CQI measures. The Task Force on Quality in Endoscopy, a joint effort by the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the American College of Gastroenterology, has developed several quality indicators for the four major endoscopic procedures. The ASGE has guidelines that specifically address standards for training, assessing competence and granting of privileges to perform endoscopy. It is important that gastroenterologists are aware of these guidelines and that they gather appropriate data and use that data to promote their proficiency and clinical competencies. Remember, patients are increasingly in charge, and you need to provide evidence of safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable care. Ultimately measurement sets should seek to collectively address all six areas.
Appropriate office protocol. This is all about controlling the experience of the patient and referring physician. This focus area may be the one that is most often overlooked but which can have the most impact upon both patients. Your office staff needs to market you and your services. Your practice/ASC administrative and clinical staffs need to recognize that they are in a customer service business and act accordingly. Patients typically form their opinions regarding the quality of the patient encounter during the first 30 seconds after entering the office or ASC. Make sure that the patient is greeted quickly and appropriately, treated with respect and with the recognition that their time is equally valuable. Be sure that the office has a fresh and professional look and that the patient is comfortable and kept informed at every step along the way. Never let the patient wait more than 10 minutes without some form of communication or status update. If the physician is running late, explain and apologize or offer alternative solutions. Patients judge the quality of care they receive as much by how they were treated and their assessment of the surroundings as by their assessment of the physician’s clinical skills. Benchmarking in these areas is as important as clinical benchmarking. Patient wait times for the office, for procedures, patient satisfaction measures and average call response time are all vitally important and patients want to know.
Out of everything, the most important marketing asset to your practice is the people — the staff, the physicians and the patients. The service you provide needs to go above and beyond whatever else is happening in similar practices in your community. Be committed to making you patients feel special and important — they can be your number one referral source.
Q: How should gastroenterologists and their offices approach marketing their specific service lines? Should surgical and non-surgical procedures be included with basic medical examinations or should each facet be handled separately?
BT: Gastroenterologists need to make sure that both patients and referral sources know the scope and breadth of their expertise across the broad spectrum of surgical and non-surgical care. Patients need to better understand where the gastroenterologists fits into their spectrum of care and how and when to utilize their services.
If you decide to provide an additional service line to compliment what you already offer your patients, make sure this information is included and highlighted on your Web site and have the information handy for your patients when they enter your office. For example, if you have incorporated a new technique into your practice (such as hemorrhoid banding), the referring physician should be aware of this so he or she can discuss these treatments with patients who may not typically seek out a gastroenterologist on their own.
Q: You mention patient education as an important element to marketing efforts. In what ways should physicians look to provide education?
BT: Patients are looking for education in a broad spectrum of areas including: 1) physician education and competencies; 2) specific disease and health maintenance initiatives; 3) quality and performance indicators for endoscopy procedures; and 4) education in the soft areas such as wait times, call-back times, patient satisfaction measures, etc. These are all things that patients want to know.
Most people are information hounds, especially when it comes to their health. The most sought after way a patient searches for information is via the Internet. Your Web site should be a valuable source of information for your patients as they trust information provided by their doctors.
Q: As you mentioned, working with local media is a critical step in effective marketing. How can physicians better work with the various media outlets in their area? What are some key outlets physicians should look to develop relationships with?
BT: I believe that the most important media outlet that physicians should have is a great Web site and participation in other social networking media such as Facebook and Twitter. Participation in local health fairs, colon cancer awareness month and perhaps an occasional open house when the physician invites patients and even referring physicians to learn more about colon cancer screening and awareness, dietary issues or general health assessment and maintenance could also be quite effective.
As mentioned previously, contact your local newspaper’s health or medical editor and ask if you can provide information about your practice or be interviewed for a topic related to your specialty in an upcoming issue on colon cancer or digestive health. Many local hospitals provide an informational and educational newsletter to the community. Try to find out what is on their editorial schedule throughout the year and see if your practice can get on their calendar.
Q: More and more patients are Internet-savvy and have used this as a primary tool for health education and consumer research into their healthcare. What can GI physicians do to make sure they are making the most out of online marketing opportunities?
BT: Patients are more educated and involved in their healthcare than ever before. It’s not uncommon for patients to research or “Google” their conditions online, prior to seeking a physician for an official diagnosis. Once they are armed with knowledge of what they may be suffering from, they then utilize all of the technical resources available to find a specialist for care. A physician’s online marketing opportunity begins at the moment a patient typed their condition into a search engine or a social media outlet. A practice should certainly have a Web site, and that Web site should be optimized so that it is in the top five search results for any number of items a patient might search relevant to that practice’s specialty. A paid search ad is another effective marketing opportunity.
Today, patients will reach out for answers from others like themselves on social media outlets. It’s common for people to “tweet” health questions or post on Facebook even before they visit [a site such as] WebMD. Physician practices may benefit by having a Facebook fan page for their practice or even post a customized Facebook ad directed to a particular audience. Marketing to established patients is also important. Physicians may want to think about engaging patients in those social media spaces. Patients are starting to expect their physicians to be available through methods of communication that they use regularly. This may seem invasive to some physicians, but it is fast becoming the norm. If you aren’t available on these levels, a patient will find a physician who is.
Mr. Tanner is president and CEO of Physicians Endoscopy, which specializes in development and management of free-standing, single-specialty ambulatory surgery centers. Learn more about Physicians Endoscopy.
Read Mr. Tanner’s insights into the Five Biggest Problems Facing Gastroenterologists Today.
