During a presentation during Becker’s ASC Review’s 12th Annual Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference + the Future of Spine, June 12 in Chicago, Jimmy St. Louis, CEO of Regenerative Medicine Solutions, Bob Reznik, president of Prizm Development and Daniel Goldberg, CEO and creative director of Gold Medal Marketing, shared four ideas for marketing spine surgery practices in an increasingly competitive market. The session was moderated by Peter Cunningham, founder and COO of CCO Healthcare Partners.
1. Accentuate differences. “The biggest challenge is communicating what you do and showing [patients] the points of difference between you and the practice next door,” said Mr. St. Louis. He recommended using patient coordinators to engage patients to show the unique offerings of a specific practice.
2. Identify targeted populations and market to them. To achieve an ideal payer mix, many ambulatory surgery centers and spine surgery practices, it is important to identify the targeted patient populations and then create customized marketing campaigns. “To capture those 35 to 60 year old patients, you need to market and communicate to them,” said Mr. Goldberg. “A 45 year old wants to know he’ll be able to go back to being a weekend warrior, that has to be part of the marketing.”
3. Don’t overvalue social media. The panelists all agreed social media has limited benefits and often comes with a moderate return on investment at best. “Social media for medicine is not the same as social media for retail,” said Mr. Goldberg. The goal of social media, he said, should be to engage patients and direct them to a website, which could then result in new patients.
4. Market to employers. With an increase in the share of employees’ healthcare costs employers will be asked to shoulder under healthcare reform, employers will be looking for the lowest-cost providers that provide high-quality care, said Mr. Reznik. “Employers are increasingly motivated to go someplace where there’s a good rate and they’re not doing crazy fusions or anything,” he said.
More Articles on Spine Marketing:
Young Spine Surgeons Entering the Field: 5 Key Trends
Post Sunshine Act: How Spine Surgeon Relationships With Industry Are Evolving
What the Best Spine Surgeon-Referral Source Relationships Look Like Today