Healthcare marketing resources for private practices.
Employees can make or break a practice. Even the best doctor can’t overcome a bad staff. If you want to keep your practice successful, you need to understand the cost of good employees.
We all know the cliché that your staff is the front line of your practice. They’re the first impression potential patients and patients get of your practice when they call or come into your office. And many of us emphasize this ad naseum to our employees.
In order to gauge the success of your practice, you need to track certain data. In a sea of numbers, you need to know what metrics to measure by.
It’s never easy to raise your fees but sometimes it’s necessary. You don’t want to do it arbitrarily, on January 1 for example, because it will seem to your patients, well, arbitrary!
Summer is over and everyone’s lives are hectic again. When you’re marketing among the madness, make sure your message doesn’t get lost. 
Summers tend to be slow for a lot of practioners. We hope you used your slow summer season productively. But summer is over now and we need to make up for the downtime and ramp up business through smart marketing. However, during this time of year, when people head back to reality, your marketing has to compete with all the other things vying for the attention of potential patients.
To transition or not to transition, that is the question. What are the factors involved in transitioning to a concierge practice?
The biggest fear most doctors have when they consider transitioning to a concierge practice is the loss of patients. When many patients hear the words “concierge practice” they think they can’t afford it.
This is where education comes in. Educating your patients on what this transition means is the single biggest factor that will determine whether your transition succeeds or fails. That means you will have to go above and beyond to help your patients understand that yes, they can still see you and no, they won’t go broke doing so.
There are unique financial challenges facing physicians. We earn more than the average person but we have some problems that our contemporaries do not.
The average student loan debt for recent medical school graduates is nearly a staggering $200,000. The average salary for a primary care physician is $195,000 per year, the average for a specialist is $284,000, the average for an “alternative care provider” can be anywhere from $30,000 to $150,000. Add on another $8,000 in non-education related debt (most likely due to credit cards) and perhaps a mortgage. Being a resident or new in practice may not pay well, and there isn’t time for a second job, so a lot of life’s expenses get charged.
Patient education can make or break your practice. No amount of marketing can make up for a lack of patient education.
It sounds like a ridiculous question, but ask the average person what an orthopedist does. Answers might range from “I don’t know” to, “Something to do with knees.” But what if you’re an orthopedist who specializes in shoulders? A potential patient with a shoulder problem might pass you by because they don’t know orthopedists do more than deal with knee injuries.
It’s up to you to educate patients on what you do…everything you do.
We all want happy patients because they generate referrals. Make sure you’re in touch with your patients and their needs so you can improve patient satisfaction. There’s an easy, low-cost (or free!) way to do just that. 
In 2013, Medical Group Management Associates published a report stating 80% of “better performing” practices used patient satisfaction surveys.
Fortunately, we don’t have to guess if our patients are happy or how we can help improve patient satisfaction. We can go straight to the source and ask! Your patients are a gold mine of data. They can help you improve your practice in ways that matter the most to them.
Even if you haven’t intentionally created an on-line presence, you may still have an on-line presence. Whether you’re aware of it or not, you and your practice are up for review.
If you’re thinking of trying a new restaurant or hair salon, do you hop onto a site like Yelp to find out what others had to say about them? Many of us do, and increasingly, patients are doing the same before choosing a practitioner. A lot of patients are doing this, and as much of 85% of patients let these reviews influence their decision.
Summer is upon us, and that can mean a slow down in business for some. Let’s look at some ways to give your practice a boost during the slow summer season.
Now that things are quieter, you have time to devote to all those projects you neglected when things were hopping. And if you focus on the right ones, they can help drive business to your practice during the slow summer season.
Junk food marketing works in the short term, but it’s not a sustainable way to grow your practice. Make sure you aren’t a junk food marketer!
Have you ever read ingredient labels while food shopping? Almost everything is filled with sugar, even savory foods like bread and tomato sauce are loaded with the stuff! Why? Because it’s a cheap, lazy way to make food palatable. Is it good for you? Certainly not, but it’s cheap and easy. The same thing holds true for practice marketing.
