Not so long ago a new physician started a practice from scratch. He was new to the area and had very few professional relationships established. Fortunately, he had a strong relationship with a local hospital and their attentive marketing department.
This physician approached us and asked for a one year outreach plan…something he could follow that would help him establish good outreach habits and develop relationships. He was keenly interested in placing ads because he thought that was what promotion was all about. We coached him along the way until he felt more confident.
In the growing suburban area, there were many other primary care physicians. We wanted to see how our physician could stand out – be interesting because of his service offerings. We did some research in the community and learned that there were two concierge type practices but most of the practices were traditional and did not offer much more than what most people have come to expect. We also took a tally on which practices were open to new patients and corresponding wait times. It was too late to help the physician select the site for his practice, but we wanted to have a good sense of the competitive landscape.
The physician had training in geriatrics and augmented his services with some spa and wellness features. We used this information and mixed in alternative service hours and a user friend website for scheduling, patient education and an interface with EMRs to help differentiate the new physician in the community. We wanted his service to appear different from the very beginning. While we helped the physician define his service offerings, we also helped him profile likely patient candidates.
We then needed to help the physician develop a reputation and build meaningful relationships. The physician agreed to put his visions of glossy ads on the back burner and worked diligently with the hospital to obtain speaking engagements in a variety of civic groups. One of his most popular topics was “Aging Well.” Not quite ready to commit to a blog, the physician initiated a quarterly newsletter that he posted on his website and sent out to his growing patient panel as a patient education device. They collected email addresses with their intake information.
The physician also sent out the traditional practice announcement to his new colleagues on the medical staff. He went a step further and made face to face visits with some of the bigger multi-specialty practices making sure they were aware of his interest in older people. He asked the hospital’s marketing staff to help him make introductions and made sure he attended any hospital sponsored CME events. This physician also introduced himself to local fitness centers and even joined one.
It wasn’t easy at first, but the new physician joined the local chamber of commerce and did some face to face visits with employers. He talked about prevention and aging well. He also used his newsletter articles to re-purpose into a monthly health column for the local paper.
Good to his word, he listened to us and the hospital’s marketers. He stayed consistent in his service delivery and his approach. He was careful with the hiring of his staff and made customer service attitude the most important asset he looked for in a staff member.
Today, just short of two years after he started his new practice, he has busy days with a full schedule. He is thinking of offering a concierge service so he can spend more time with patients. One thing he liked about the early days is that he was never rushed and always had time to do a little extra research. He doesn’t have as much time to consider and research but he doesn’t mind that his time has been taken up by seeing patient after patient. He loves the pace and feeling of tending his patients.
By the way, he never did ask us to put those glossy ads in the magazines.
