Here are five efficient and effective ways for spine practices to increase patient volume.
1. Use marketing tools to brand your practice. Surgeons must market their private practices to drive patient volume and promote brand recognition. Khawar Siddique, MD, a fellowship-trained spine surgeon with Beverly Hills Spine Surgery in California, says it's important for practices to have a moniker that reflects their commitment to high level care, which is why his group decided to practice under the name "Beverly Hills Spine Surgery."
"Beverly Hills denotes a quality of care," says Dr. Siddique. "The name of your corporation should tell patients about the level of care you provide; such as Premier Spine Surgeons, Inc."
Focus on any aspects that make your group special in your marketing efforts. For example, if your group includes all fellowship-trained spine surgeons, tout your expertise to show you are a quality organization.
2. Develop an internet strategy. Online space can bring in new patients to the practice and provide additional information for patients who are referred by friends or primary care physicians.
"I think clearly the internet is going to be front and center in terms of driving patients into the practice," says Bryan Oh, MD, a neurosurgeon who focuses on spine surgery with BASIC Spine in Orange, Calif. "You can still go out and shake the hands of primary care physicians, but I think the Internet is the new frontier in terms of marketing practices and bringing patients in. We work with a practice management group to help us be more successful. I’ve gone from a practice of zero to a full clinic in almost nine months and I attribute this to Internet marketing."
If you are out there with targeted ads and other internet marketing, whoever is doing your marketing campaign should be able to give you concrete data about how many hits your website gets and what your conversion rates are. They can also tell you the patient demographics who are clicking through. If you are spending those marketing dollars, you need to make sure it’s translating into a good return for you.
3. Become involved with community events. Since it is important for a spine center to have patients and make a profit, external marketing is necessary. One method is to gain exposure for the practicing physicians.
"Consider what organizations or societies in your community physicians should be involved with. Organizations like the chamber of commerce or non-profits," says Stephen Hochschuler, MD, founder of Texas Back Institute in Plano. "Look into areas of children education, sports and disadvantaged individuals. You have to keep your eye on everything."
Physicians that become involved with community groups may not only meet potential patients but also other physicians who could drive patient volume through referrals. Relationships are integral for acquiring patient referrals and driving patient volume whether those relationships are community or medical based.
4. Go beyond clinical excellence. Success for your business in a competitive market depends upon differentiating you product from others on the shelf. The same rings true for orthopedic practices. When launching their practice, the original Rothman partners were keenly aware of this concept. "In order to be a sustained leader in our market, we had to differentiate ourselves," says Alexander Vaccaro, MD, PhD, a spine surgeon and one of the founding partners of Rothman Institute. "Instead of just being the best surgeons clinically, we had three additional criteria our partners strove to meet: we had to be clinically productive, a good citizen and active in academic work."
Maintaining clinical productivity meant the surgeons were seeing an appropriate patient volume and optimizing their time; being a good citizen meant respecting all employees, being a team player and contributing to the positive culture at the practice; having a focus on academics meant the surgeons were also required to research and write papers, deliver lectures at professional meetings and participate in community events such as sitting on the sidelines at youth sporting activities.
"You can't just be a productive orthopedic surgeon because everyone does that, and their practices can still fail," says Dr. Vaccaro. "If you give back to the community and participate academically, that's different."
5. Add new specialists or services. Bringing on pain management physicians and other back pain specialists can increase patient flow to the practice. At The Southeastern Spine Institute, physicians do more than 1,000 injections and rhzotomies per month. Overall, the pain management physicians have performed spinal cord stimulator implantations for 7,000 patients since joining the practice.
The increased patient flow means additional revenue, and if the patients reach a point where non-operative care isn't effective, they will use your surgical services as well.
"It's convenient because we are in the same building, so the surgeons will send patients to the pain management physicians, but it's also not unusual for pain management physicians to send us their patients who have developed more complex problems, such as disc degeneration," says Don Johnson, MD, medical director at Southeastern Spine Institute. "When their patients have a new trauma, I get a call from the pain management physician saying they have a patient they need the surgeon to see right away. We can deal with those patients here as well, so it's not a one-way referral street."
More Articles on Spine Surgeons:
5 Ways for Spine Surgery Centers to Save on Implants
8 Factors Impacting Spine Surgery Coverage Rates
6 Top Advocacy Issues for North American Spine Society
1. Use marketing tools to brand your practice. Surgeons must market their private practices to drive patient volume and promote brand recognition. Khawar Siddique, MD, a fellowship-trained spine surgeon with Beverly Hills Spine Surgery in California, says it's important for practices to have a moniker that reflects their commitment to high level care, which is why his group decided to practice under the name "Beverly Hills Spine Surgery."
"Beverly Hills denotes a quality of care," says Dr. Siddique. "The name of your corporation should tell patients about the level of care you provide; such as Premier Spine Surgeons, Inc."
Focus on any aspects that make your group special in your marketing efforts. For example, if your group includes all fellowship-trained spine surgeons, tout your expertise to show you are a quality organization.
2. Develop an internet strategy. Online space can bring in new patients to the practice and provide additional information for patients who are referred by friends or primary care physicians.
"I think clearly the internet is going to be front and center in terms of driving patients into the practice," says Bryan Oh, MD, a neurosurgeon who focuses on spine surgery with BASIC Spine in Orange, Calif. "You can still go out and shake the hands of primary care physicians, but I think the Internet is the new frontier in terms of marketing practices and bringing patients in. We work with a practice management group to help us be more successful. I’ve gone from a practice of zero to a full clinic in almost nine months and I attribute this to Internet marketing."
If you are out there with targeted ads and other internet marketing, whoever is doing your marketing campaign should be able to give you concrete data about how many hits your website gets and what your conversion rates are. They can also tell you the patient demographics who are clicking through. If you are spending those marketing dollars, you need to make sure it’s translating into a good return for you.
3. Become involved with community events. Since it is important for a spine center to have patients and make a profit, external marketing is necessary. One method is to gain exposure for the practicing physicians.
"Consider what organizations or societies in your community physicians should be involved with. Organizations like the chamber of commerce or non-profits," says Stephen Hochschuler, MD, founder of Texas Back Institute in Plano. "Look into areas of children education, sports and disadvantaged individuals. You have to keep your eye on everything."
Physicians that become involved with community groups may not only meet potential patients but also other physicians who could drive patient volume through referrals. Relationships are integral for acquiring patient referrals and driving patient volume whether those relationships are community or medical based.
4. Go beyond clinical excellence. Success for your business in a competitive market depends upon differentiating you product from others on the shelf. The same rings true for orthopedic practices. When launching their practice, the original Rothman partners were keenly aware of this concept. "In order to be a sustained leader in our market, we had to differentiate ourselves," says Alexander Vaccaro, MD, PhD, a spine surgeon and one of the founding partners of Rothman Institute. "Instead of just being the best surgeons clinically, we had three additional criteria our partners strove to meet: we had to be clinically productive, a good citizen and active in academic work."
Maintaining clinical productivity meant the surgeons were seeing an appropriate patient volume and optimizing their time; being a good citizen meant respecting all employees, being a team player and contributing to the positive culture at the practice; having a focus on academics meant the surgeons were also required to research and write papers, deliver lectures at professional meetings and participate in community events such as sitting on the sidelines at youth sporting activities.
"You can't just be a productive orthopedic surgeon because everyone does that, and their practices can still fail," says Dr. Vaccaro. "If you give back to the community and participate academically, that's different."
5. Add new specialists or services. Bringing on pain management physicians and other back pain specialists can increase patient flow to the practice. At The Southeastern Spine Institute, physicians do more than 1,000 injections and rhzotomies per month. Overall, the pain management physicians have performed spinal cord stimulator implantations for 7,000 patients since joining the practice.
The increased patient flow means additional revenue, and if the patients reach a point where non-operative care isn't effective, they will use your surgical services as well.
"It's convenient because we are in the same building, so the surgeons will send patients to the pain management physicians, but it's also not unusual for pain management physicians to send us their patients who have developed more complex problems, such as disc degeneration," says Don Johnson, MD, medical director at Southeastern Spine Institute. "When their patients have a new trauma, I get a call from the pain management physician saying they have a patient they need the surgeon to see right away. We can deal with those patients here as well, so it's not a one-way referral street."
More Articles on Spine Surgeons:
5 Ways for Spine Surgery Centers to Save on Implants
8 Factors Impacting Spine Surgery Coverage Rates
6 Top Advocacy Issues for North American Spine Society