Today's Wound Clinic - Spring 2008 - (Page 35)

influence 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 direcToday’s Wound Clinic Spring 2008 Utilizing Data for Effective Marketing Heidi Mueller, sales and marketing consultant for wound care companies hile 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. W 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 35

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Today's Wound Clinic - Spring 2008

Today's Wound Clinic - Spring 2008 Contents InTroduction InBusiness Documentation: The 30,000-Foot View Documentation: Clearing Up the Role of Compliance InTech InPhotography InFluence InStruction InNews InCentive Ad Index

Today's Wound Clinic - Spring 2008

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