Health Systems Marketing

As you know, hospital growth relies on a number of factors. On the physician side, strong healthcare staffing practices, solid physician retention, and minimal referral leakage all contribute to a successful health system. But, physicians and other support staff are only one side of the coin. In this case, the literal coin.

Patient base is also a key factor for consistent growth; it’s just a consumer-based one. Universities can’t function without students, law firms can’t survive without clients, and hospitals won’t subsist if patients don’t come through those doors.

Couple relationships are tricky—but not impossible. From little things like not watching Netflix episodes without one another, to big events such as navigating the logistics of buying a house together, there’s one standing foundation that keeps partners happy: clear communication.

Why wouldn’t you want to apply that same attitude to your relationships with physicians?

Healthcare staffing professionals are no strangers to physician outreach, emphasis on the “out” in outreach. The more proactive they are with their outbound communications, the greater the chances they’ll connect with interested physicians—just like the more at-bats a baseball player gets, the more opportunities he has to get a hit.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t make him a great ball player.

Think about the last time you purchased something new. Regardless of the price tag, new typically equates to “better” (and something worth celebrating!). If your previous car got good gas mileage, the replacement is likely even more economical. Your old pair of running shoes are worn down—causing some undesirable knee or shin pain—but this new pair will get you back to your nine-minute mile.

Thomas Edison is quoted as saying, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” When you’re a scientist working on one of the greatest inventions of all time, you have the luxury of a 1/10,000 trial-and-error rate.

When you’re a healthcare staffing professional, there’s no room for error and barely any time for trial. A physician vacancy is a ticking time bomb. Yet, many staffing attempts don’t take into consideration factors that negate failure and boost success in the quest to fill empty positions.

Cost of referral leakage for U.S. health systems comes in at an estimated $78-$97 million of revenue for every 100,000 physicians, per year. There are other costs to consider as well. For example, when patients are referred out-of-system, coordination of care is often interrupted—impacting patient outcomes. An out-of-network specialist may also order scans or therapies that don’t adhere your health system’s quality standards, compromising patient safety and ultimately the hospital’s reputation.

Patients and their family members associate hospitals and health systems with health care and advancing wellness. So, when an unexpected regression in that care occurs, it’s a disconcerting experience. No one wants to leave the hospital in poorer health than when they arrived—or worse, not leave at all.

Unfortunately, errors, accidents, injuries, and infections are all internal complications health systems must consider. The good news is health systems have an effective tool with which to immediately address internal issues before they turn into a runaway train. That tool is email.

Twenty years is a long time to live in the digital “unknown,” but it’s been the harsh reality health system marketers have had to suffer through. For as long as digital marketing has been on the scene, the anonymity of website visitors has put obstacle after obstacle in front of fruitful hospital growth.

That is all changing.

The Audience Identity Manager^SM (AIM) platform allows marketers to deterministically identify website visitors, down to their NPI number and more.

Email overload isn’t just a modern-day phenomenon, it’s also a big headache. More than 269 billion emails are sent every day (that’s 149,513 every minute). The average employee spends more than 13 hours per week poring over her inbox. For some, exhaustion from tackling all that virtual correspondence sets in even before getting out of bed in the morning.

A number of solutions exist to deal with the digital pile-up, but addressing the issue systematically doesn’t necessarily solve the problem. There will still be as many messages clamoring for the end user’s attention, no matter how they’re structured.

An unsolicited sales pitch is enough to make you see red. Phone scammers have gotten wily in their ways, using local area codes to trick people into answering. Of course, you can always let a number you’re unsure about go to voicemail, but if no message pops up, you’re still left feeling deceived.