Turning doctors into MDs (marketing disciples)
August 1, 1998 3 minutes read
Turning doctors into MDs (marketing disciples)
By John F. O'Malley
President
Strategic Visions Inc.
Birmingham, AL
Top health care experts estimate that there is an excess of 100,000 physicians in America, mostly practicing in large urban areas. The same experts share the growing concern as payers and consumer watchdogs do, of the limited national continuity in practice standards, patient care, and medical outcomes among physicians practicing medicine.
The sum total of these trends is that autonomy is out and team medicine is in. If you're a "me too" physician, life (independence and income) in the medical profession is going to get rough unless you become an MD - a marketing disciple. Physicians who become marketing disciples will proactively market themselves, their cost-effective outcomes, and their benchmark services to others.
To help you painlessly start establishing yourself as the physician, specialist, or medical group-of-choice, I prescribe the following 25 MD strategies, and if adhered to daily, are guaranteed to keep you or your group in marketing compliance. The 25 MD strategies are as follows:
1. Go out of your way to be nice to your patients, your personnel, and support people outside your practice, such as hospital staff, case managers, and your patients' family members.
2. Return phone calls promptly, especially to referral sources.
3. Lose your adversarial mindset toward managed care. They are your best customers.
4. Proactively self-manage your time and you will have more time for your patients.
5. Treat all of your patients with great respect and dignity, and see that your practice staff does the same. After all, your patients see them as a reflection of your skill.
6. Start benchmarking your medical skills and outcomes with accepted standards.
7. Aggressively expand your personal, professional, and business networks.
8. Proactively pursue self-promotion by actively participating in professional and community activities.
9. Out-source practice operations when doing so increases your cost-efficiency, quality, and outcomes, not to mention income.
10. Gain an understanding of basic marketing principles: read a book, take a course, engage a consultant.
11. Start identifying, associating with, and learning from market-oriented physicians.
12. Accept all patients, regardless of reimbursement.
13. Make presentations at local, regional, and national professional meetings. Consider running for office in your professional organization as well.
14. Make an effort to refer to those physicians referring to you, and let them know you did.
15. Create an image in the medical community as a quality, state-of-the-art caring physician and practice by putting careism before capitalism.
16. Realize that the cemeteries are full of indispensable people; yes, even doctors.
17. Establish close and friendly relationships with your referring physicians' office staff.
18. Create opportunities to encounter other doctors by attending and participating in medical staff meetings, functions, and events. Learn to work the room.
19. Educate prospective doctors (referral sources) about your skills and outcomes, and how the same will enhance their practice (saving them time and money).
20. Volunteer to be on medical committees with potential referral sources.
21. Create and conduct a CME-approved educational program for local physicians, such as a CME luncheon series.
22. Direct mail a one-page, quick-read, case-history newsletter to area doctors and case managers about medical situations and conditions that you handle.
23. Write a letter of introduction and thank-you to each new referring doctor. Place a special introduction call, and seek the referring doctor out at meetings.
24. Remember referring physicians' birthdays, anniversaries and personal events of importance to them with a card or phone call.
25. Consider learning more about alternative medicines and therapies, and as appropriate, refer to and/or include the same in your practice.
My prescription is to create a personal/practice marketing action plan. Start proactively working the plan and making things happen. n
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