Utilizing Data For Effective Marketing

While repetition and communication may be the cornerstones of effective marketing; it is the use of relevant, focused data that relates to specific target markets that provides results. There are literally thousands of giveaways that will help referring practitioners with name recognition and contact information. Answer these questions: What do referring physicians remember about a clinic or its services? Do they remember the case study information and clinic services?

Competing in the Market
For most wound clinics and wound specialists, marketing budgets tend to be relatively small. Billboards, radio spots, newspaper ads, and television spots do not typically fall within the allotted dollar amounts for the budget. To focus a large portion of the budget on giveaways is not practical. While some are necessary, it is impossible for clinics to compete with the amount of swag distributed by medical companies. More importantly, the author has found that direct-to-physician marketing provides the largest number of patient referrals for the wound care specialty. The greatest challenge is the retention of referring physicians. This becomes crucial as the specialty of wound care takes a larger presence in most communities. Competition for patients and physicians is more difficult with the number of facilities and physicians increasing. Focusing resources in this area will allow your marketing dollars to stretch further.

Utilizing the EMRs
Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) have amazing capabilities for reporting that go beyond the traditional patient documentation features. Many of these programs can run reports that tell who the referring physicians are, how many patients they have referred, and where they are located. This information sets the parameters of where marketing efforts need to be targeted. One key piece of information is the number of patients each physician has referred. This indicates not only which physician you have established a relationship with, but also how many patients the practice has received from each physician.
The author along with her colleagues conducted a review of 16 clinics in July of 2006 that utilized an EMR like system. Results showed that the majority of the referring physicians in each clinic were the result of a one patient referral with the majority of the patients coming from a very small percentage of doctors. After examining the clinicians in the centers, reasoning behind such results was understandable. In most instances each of the physicians that were referring the majority of the patients had a personal relationship with either the clinical director or one of the treating physicians. There was an established open line of communication between the referring physician and the clinic. This allowed an increased level of trust from both sides. Referring physicians did not hesitate to call the clinic and ask questions. In turn, the clinics reciprocated with increased patient information. This flow of information removed one of the largest barriers that prohibit physicians from referring patients to a wound clinic, the fear that the patients will leave and go elsewhere. If the lines of communication are flowing openly and effectively, the referring physician will feel confident that they will retain their patient in addition to the patient receiving a higher quality of care.
There are standard pieces of information that each referring physician should receive from the clinic that can be generated with an EMR. These pieces are detailed patient information including wound healing progress that contains pictures of the wound at different stages of healing, types of treatments being used to heal the wound, and patient compliance.

Communication is Key
Communicating patient compliance is always an important issue. It is even more important to communicate this to a new referring physician or a physician that rarely refers. If they are operating under the assumption that the wound clinic is providing a certain level of care but the patient’s wound does not heal or worsens, the clinic could lose credibility if the proper documentation has not been provided to the referring physician. It is not enough to rely on copying the physicians alone. It is best to set up an office policy so that referring physicians will receive their patient’s information. Some physicians may want a different frequency of reports. It is always recommended to discuss this with the referring physician and include it in the patient’s profile. This will ensure that each time one of their patients is seen at the clinic, the staff will automatically know the referring physician’s criteria for reporting.
The marketing of a center is the collaborative effort of several individuals. It takes the clinical director, physicians, nurse managers, and office support staff. Each of these individuals has their own areas of expertise so for the sake of the center, it is best to play on the strengths of each professional. The clinical director and/or the nurse manager are best at building a rapport with the office and nursing staff at the clinic. There is an understanding that already exists and to utilize that is extremely effective. It is always beneficial for these individuals to begin to develop the physician relationship, but at some point it is recommended to involve one of the physicians from the wound clinic.

Becoming an Expert
Once a new relationship has been established with a potential referring physician, it is time to introduce the information that will establish the wound center’s position as an expert in the community. Generating case study information from the wound center with the help of the EMR will serve as a powerful tool when presenting clinic credibility. This shows successful wound cases that have been healed by the center and allows the presenter to introduce advanced modalities. The two largest advantages that specialized wound centers have over traditional physician practices is that the centers focus only on wound healing and they carry advanced wound healing products. The more the advantages for the physician referring to the wound clinic are discussed and expanded on with the potential referring physician’s office, the more likely a comfort zone will be established, allowing the referral process to begin. n

Heidi Mueller, sales and marketing consultant for wound care companies. For questions or inquiries, please contact Heidi at heidi.mueller@insightbb.com.