09-29-2006
Chances are, at least one of the health care practitioners in your life (eg, doctor, dentist, or physical therapist) is actively marketing his or her private practice. According to Stewart Gandolf, a partner with Healthcare Success Strategies, that wasn’t always the case.
“Private practice marketing for professionals was actually illegal until a 1977 Supreme Court case, Bates v State Bar of Arizona,” he says. “And while the various health care boards begrudgingly deemed marketing to be ethical over ensuing years, it wasn’t until now that we have seen an explosion in health care practice marketing.”
Gandolf has been marketing private practices of all kinds—physicians, surgeons, dentists, physical therapists, optometrists, veterinarians, chiropractors, podiatrists, psychologists, etc—for nearly 15 years.
“I’ve spoken to, and consulted with, many thousands of doctors over the years on the topic of private practice marketing,” he says. “Declining reimbursements are a primary reason for the explosion of health care practice marketing, but there are many other factors as well, including rising costs, increased paperwork, staff problems, longer hours, aggressive competition, etc. Furthermore, many doctors see practice marketing as a way of changing the very nature of their practice, so that they can spend a higher percentage of their time with cases that they either enjoy or simply reimburse well.”
Doctors can market their practices in many different ways.
According to Gandolf, “It runs the gamut from simple marketing strategies like asking patients for referrals, professional networking, passing out practice brochures, and the like, to more sophisticated practice marketing tactics including marketing-based medical Web sites, Internet marketing strategies, yellow pages, print ads, radio and even sophisticated television ads.”
The No. 1 reason cited by doctors for marketing their practice is that they want to be able to spend more time with their families, he says.
[SOURCE: PR Web, September 20, 2006]
