Marketing Your Wound Care Program on a Budget

Plans for internal and external marketing campaigns should always be determined by a budget. This article offers practical guidance for wound care clinics. 

Any business professional serving in a leadership position is going to have the dreaded discussion about budgeting. Many of us know that this discussion occurs regularly. Even when the business’ numbers are up, appropriate control of expenses must always be exercised and monitored. When the numbers are down, we often have to send staff members “home.” Then there’s the “spending freeze,” which tends to result in such decisions as rescinding plans to attend business-related conferences and seminars or cutting back on the company’s booth “giveaways” intended for local health fairs. When the Physician Payments Sunshine Act ended the popular “donut-and-coffee” breakfasts for referring doctors, many healthcare facilities also had to be more cautious about the simple purchasing of snacks and meals for the workplace in relation to their budgets. Additionally, budget cuts will result in fewer funds being made available for expenditures related to marketing and advertising. So, what are those in leadership and managerial roles to do when faced with these limitations? How do we get the “word out” about our life- and limb-saving wound clinic services when there are budget cuts? If you’re reading this and worrying about your wound care program’s budget at the same time, don’t hit the panic button just yet. It is possible to market a wound center on a shoestring budget, when necessary. This article will offer advice on how to get the most out of one’s marketing initiatives when the budget is not anything to brag about.

Internal & External Marketing

First, let’s discuss the difference between internal and external marketing, and why both are necessary to help a wound center succeed from a business-operations perspective. Francois Pretorius, marketing manager/consultant at Succeed Group, a company that provides a range of specialized marketing, media, and training services, explains the differences between external and internal marketing,¹ which have been further simplified in Table 1. 

As Table 1 shows, partnering with employees can lead to increased job satisfaction and retention. However, we form relationships with customers to promote the business. Relationships are the source of outside referrals. Let’s take a look at the tools we already have at our fingertips, specifically, the staff members we work with and the electronic health records (EHRs) we use every day. Wound centers typically have a very high staff satisfaction rate and a very low turnover rate. That indicates that the concepts involved with internal marketing are already being utilized successfully. How can we help our employees become program champions outside of our centers? There are several models that work well, but the most effective internal marketing involves a targeted communication plan that’s consistent and prolonged. Table 2 summarizes internal marketing of the wound center. For example, weekly staff meetings should include: 

1. One positive work experience that each employee had the prior week.

2. One positive “fact of the week” given by management staff to show appreciation for the staff and to share with peers outside of the department, such as statistics from the previous week or month that staff members could share in their everyday interactions. For example:

• The wound center healed nine patients last week.
• The wound center improved our healing rates by 6% compared to last year.
• The wound center had the best patient satisfaction scores in the hospital last month.

The staff was congratulated on the successes and encouraged to share them inside and outside the hospital. They were given information to have at the ready when walking the hallways. Another variation of this would be when hospital administrators conduct weekly “walking rounds” in which they visit departments and ask staff members to discuss how things are typically going. 

3. Meetings with administration, during which staff members share thoughts with their managers that can be brought to the attention of administration. For example: 

• “Mrs. A” has lived with an ulcer on her leg for 23 years. It’s finally healed, and she is going on vacation for the first time since 1995.
• “Mr. B’s” lymphedema is under control for the first time in 10 years. He was so excited that he could dance with his daughter at her quinceanera.
• The manager would share the “hard” data and the “soft” data, as well as the employee examples with the management team and hospital administration.   

4. Hospital-based meetings:

• Managers should volunteer to present findings to the medical staff, the executive board, and the internal committees. 
• Managers and staff should participate in committees such as care quality, case management/continuum of care, patient satisfaction, and staff education and engagement.

Using the aforementioned internal approaches to marketing, patient referrals at one wound center (where this author worked previously) went from less than 1% to more than 18% of all patient referrals within one year. Additionally, 81 patients said they received care that they did not previously know was available to them. As a result, available marketing dollars increased by 50% for the wound care outpatient department during the next budget season. 

__________________________
RELATED CONTENT
Effectively Marketing The Hospital-Based Wound Care Center
Social Media Marketing in the Wound Clinic: A Primer for Facebook
__________________________

Tactics related to external marketing of the wound care clinic are summarized in Table 3. Most wound centers in the United States utilize an EHR to document the patient care given in the center and to track overall quality metrics, patients’ individual progress, and various benchmarks that can show the effectiveness of one’s care delivered as compared to national statistics. The EHR is perhaps the most powerful marketing tool for the wound clinic. Hospitals might spend thousands of dollars annually in print marketing materials that are often considered “junk mail” and thrown away. However, no provider can simply throw away the patient correspondence that’s generated by an EHR if the program is set up effectively. Consider utilizing these approaches to the EHR’s software: 1) program the EHR to send initial and follow-up letters to the primary provider that are automatically generated before and after each patient visit, 2) program the EHR to insert the initial and follow-up photos of each patient’s care within those letters, 3) program the EHR to “copy” all physicians involved in the patient’s care, 4) program follow-up letters to be generated on a monthly basis to serve as a reminder of the wound clinic’s availability, and 5) print out progress reports regularly and validate the results by reviewing them with the referring physician. If conducted routinely, EHR communication may be the extent of the external marketing required, which can save the facility/company money as well as staff time. For wound clinics that are in their first year of operation, the hand delivering of hard-copy letters is advised, if possible. Otherwise, consider mailing them as opposed to using fax. However, that’s not to say that physically visiting the referring physician’s office to introduce oneself or to “catch up” is a bad idea. Bring progress reports to these visits. If the physician is not available, speak with a nurse or medical assistant and the front-office personnel. Take the time to review the reports with anyone who will listen. Explain the progress made with their patients. Don’t be afraid to ask when a good time would be to speak with the doctor and/or nurses if they are not immediately available. Don’t be afraid to ask if the practice has any other patients who could benefit from specialized wound care. Be knowledgeable of the average revenue generated by each patient referred to the clinic, including the average profit per episode of care. Show administration the cost-to-benefit ratios when there’s a desire to spend money on marketing activities. Be able to prove how much money will be saved by sending patients to the wound clinic. Spend time with the people who can influence the decision-makers and promote the wound clinic to physicians, administration, and community organizations. In addition, whenever the wound clinic staff is conducting point-of-care documentation, it’s advisable to provide a copy of the correspondence to the patients so that they can personally deliver the materials to the referring and/or primary physician at their next visit. This tactic also allows patients the chance to be active participants in their wound care. Patients might also enhance these efforts by serving as referral sources themselves to family and friends. 

Collaborating With Vendors 

Wound clinic staff members can also consider partnerships and relationships with their vendors and other companies that may serve as valuable referral sources for patients. Consider engaging in joint marketing activities with such entities as product representatives, home health agencies, orthotic providers, diabetes clinics and educators, bariatric clinics, infusion clinics, sleep clinics, geriatric psychiatric programs, assisted-living providers, visiting physician services, and chronic pain clinics. The relationships formed with these ancillary clinicians are invaluable because they all will have a vested interest in the clinic’s success. The better outcomes the clinic produces, the more potential referrals to be received. Most ancillary staff will be willing to introduce the clinic’s program manager to the physicians and the decision-makers on the physician’s staff to assist in creating a new referral source. Develop a plan based on the goals and agendas of those participating in these partnerships. Follow that plan, assess results, make adjustments as needed, and know the financial impact of that plan. Communicate to each department every month about how many patients were seen in the last month as a result of that plan. Doing this will not only help with the sharing of the success, but perhaps assist colleagues who may be faced with similar budget restrictions.

Moira Sykstus is director of solutions delivery at Intellicure Inc., The Woodlands, TX, and is a member of the TWC editorial advisory board.

Reference

1. Pretorius F. Internal Vs. External Marketing. Succeed Group. Accessed online: www.linkedin.com/pulse/internal-vs-external-marketing-francois-pretorius