Marketing Employed Physician Practice Servicess

Many hospitals or health systems with an employed physician network struggle to find additional ways to drive profitable volume through their primary care practices and increase referrals to their specialty practices that will generate inpatient volume. When these practices are not seeing the volume or payer mix needed to support them, physician retention often becomes an issue, as the employment model is not sustainable without sufficient production.

Marketing strategy is playing an increasingly important role in supporting physician practice and service line growth. An effective employed network marketing strategy must be operationalized. The focus of this plan should be on increasing profitable volume in your practices and in the hospital, while leveraging the value of your network as an entity of its own that can create perceived ideas of quality for your physician staff and hospital service lines.

While designing promotional efforts around best-demonstrated practices is key to expanding awareness of your physicians and developing a strong brand identity for your network, other marketing-related approaches can have a dramatic impact on the volume and profitability. These strategies include:

• Evaluating and improving the referral process between physicians
• Developing relationships with referral drivers, such as hospitalist programs
• Improving patient retention
• Developing a strong physician liaison program
• Evaluating and improving patient profitability at the practice and inpatient level

The implementation of a robust marketing strategy with an operational focus can be very intricate and overwhelming. Healthcare Strategy Group can help you develop a strategy that is based upon our experience of working with a multitude of employed physician groups across the country and an expert knowledge of best practices within the industry.