Practice
Management: Reach Out and Become a Community and Market Leader
One of the most effective and meaningful ways you can promote your practice
is by reaching out to the community. “There are generally two things
that motivate practices to participate in community outreach,” says
Nancy Smit1, president of Baltimore-based consulting firm SHR
Associates. “One is when they’re in practice-building mode when
adding a new partner or looking to expand their patient base. The other
is that most groups want to make some contribution—which is also good
for business.” Through these efforts, a practice stands to gain positive
exposure, make contact with prospective patients and referring physicians,
and promote bonding of the staff. The type of community outreach activity
you choose may depend on whether you are a primary care or specialty practice.
For pediatric, family care, and internal medicine practices, community health
fairs are an excellent venue. Smit suggests sending staff to conduct complimentary
health screenings for problems such as high cholesterol, hypertension, and
high blood sugar. “Screenings can identify patient populations immediately,
with a high probability that they’ll become patients,” says
Randy Bauman2, principal of Delta Healthcare in Brentwood, TN.
He recommends you schedule patients for appointments right at the screening
and plan ahead. For example, if you’re expecting a large influx of
patients who just learned they have high cholesterol, set up a special day
at your practice to see just those patients. With adequate staff lined up,
you and your partners can see more new patients in one day.
School and hospital venues
Schools are often eager to have providers such as nurse practitioners
and doctors visit to conduct special presentations for their students.
For instance, an OB/GYN practice could team up with a community college
to conduct a lecture series on women’s health issues. Presenters
should bring their appointment books and cards with them because these
programs are successful at generating new patients. Local hospitals are
also ideal for community outreach, says Bauman. For example, the hospital
could invite local citizens to a monthly luncheon where they can meet
the new physicians on staff, or to a health-related lecture or presentation.
There will be no fee to rent a room, and you can advertise simply by posting
fliers in the elevators or other busy areas in the hospital.
Reaching out to referrers
For specialists, community outreach strategies have to be different because
you want to make yourself known to referring physicians. “Typically,
patients don’t self-refer to specialists,” Bauman says. Your
speaking engagements should focus on new technology or procedures you
offer, getting the word out to primary care physicians that your more
advanced services may be better for their patients. Specialty practices
can promote their practices by becoming a resource for the local media.
Smit’s firm helped an allergy group make contact with a key local
news station. The health reporter came to use that practice as a resource
whenever new stories arose regarding allergies or asthma. Likewise, the
practice would contact the station and offer interviews with the doctors
when a new medication or study was released. Smit encourages all practices
to send press releases to local media when appropriate. “Press releases
often lead to other articles and contacts with the media that give the
practice great exposure,” she adds. Even if you have trouble keeping
up with your existing volume of patients, don’t disregard community
outreach. “Not all outreach activity is done out of a need or desire
to promote or market,” says Bauman. “Profit doesn’t
have to be the motive.”
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