Insight

from the 2013 Physician Summit WITH THE CONSTANTLY CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF HEALTH CARE, NO MARKETER CAN AFFORD TO BE OUT OF THE LOOP WHEN IT COMES TO INDUSTRY-SHAPING IDEAS. FOR THOSE WHO COULDN'T ATTEND THE 2013 PHYSICIAN STRATEGIES SUMMIT, HERE ARE THE CONFERENCE'S GREATEST HITS, TAKEN FROM SEVERAL PROGRESSIVE-THINKING PRESENTERS. 1 EVERYTHING IS VARIABLE. Catherine Ainora, senior vice president of system-development/planning at Barnabas Health, teamed up with Nancy J. Erickson, BA, MSW, principal of New Solutions, Inc., to share how their management of data led to total preparation—with projected profits—for the coming shift to outpatient care. Their method: Minimize the data to only the strategy essentials. Ainora and Erickson found that data should change strategy—which most marketers know—and vice versa. Instead of gathering every bit of market information about community demographics and potential medical needs to develop a strategy, they recommend using specific data that aids your current organizational strategy and mission. By making not just the strategy but also the data variable, marketers could meet current goals before overhauling their strategies to meet the needs their community assessments highlight. Barnabas Health was able to boost its ROI from marketing by using strategy rather than data as a jumping-off point and using its data to help develop the strategy. 2 WHAT'S MARKETING? 3 YOUR AUDIENCE DOESN'T A trio of experts—Dan Dunlop, president and CEO of Jennings Health; Lyle Green, associate vice president of physician relations at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; and Tadd Pullin, vice president of marketing, planning, and network operations at the Nebraska Medical Center—sees their outreach as part of the patient-care paradigm. They discussed how new media can be used to build partnerships with—instead of sell to—physicians and patients. In a nutshell, they recommend that referrals, communication, and education work as an integrated cycle. "The decision to make a referral is a healthcare decision, not a sale or a marketing ploy," Green says. "The marketer's role is really that of a clinical navigator—we help the physicians and patients make optimal decisions and then educate them about using our system to ensure timely care." According to the Council of Accountable Physician Practices, "evidence-based medicine," "integrated care," and "multi-specialty group" are turn-off phrases for patients. Unfortunately, they're also some of the most commonly used phrases marketers fall back on to hype their ACOs. Ellen Barron, associate vice president of marketing and communication at University of Iowa Health Care; Jeff Cowart, senior vice president of growth and sales at Baptist Health Systems; and Suzanne H. Sawyer, chief marketing officer for Penn Medicine, shout a collective, "No more!" These experts agree that the first step to introducing an audience to your ACO is to change the message to something that focuses on the personal benefits of ACOs: stronger patient/doctor relationships, improved treatment, and better communication for patients, along with economic stability, regulatory reform alignment, and better patient outcomes for physicians. WE DO NEW-MEDIA RELATIONSHIPS. CARE ABOUT ACOs—YET. "EVEN WITH THE DATA REVOLUTION, PHYSICIANS ARE STILL ONE OF THE TOP THREE INFLUENCERS OF WHERE PATIENTS GO FOR CARE. BILLBOARDS AND DIRECTORIES DON'T DRIVE THE PATIENT VOLUMES— DOCTORS DO. SO IF WE WANT TO BE INVOLVED IN A PATIENT'S CARE, WE HAVE TO CATER TO THE NEEDS AND PREFERENCES OF REFERRING PHYSICIANS; THOSE ARE ALL COMPONENTS OF MARKETING." —Lyle Green, associate vice president of physician relations at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center 14 INSIGHT V9N2 INSIGHTONHEALTHCARE.COM

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