Patient Lifetime Value: How Christus Health Uses LTV as a Foundation for Research into Consumer Preferences and Loyalty
// By Lisa D. Ellis //
Many health care organizations today focus their marketing efforts on bringing new patients through their doors. But they often stop there instead of going a step further to ensure that these patients will stay with them long term. If this sounds familiar, your organization’s own health could be at serious risk moving forward.
Navigating the Current Marketplace
Preston Gee, vice president of strategic marketing, Christus Health
Times are rapidly changing and these days, taking patient loyalty for granted is no longer an option. To be successful in today’s health care marketplace, it’s important to recognize the lifetime value of your patients — and also to go the extra mile to ensure they are satisfied with the care they receive so they’ll want to stay in your network, both now and in the future.
This advice comes from Preston Gee, vice president of strategic marketing for Christus Health, a Catholic, not-for-profit system with more than 600 locations throughout Texas, Louisiana, and New Mexico as well as in Latin America. Gee is also a member of the Strategic Health Care Marketing Editorial Advisory Board.
He recently shared his insights on patient lifetime value in a seminar he co-presented with several colleagues at the 23rd Annual Health Care and Physician Strategies Summit.
Understanding Patient Needs and Priorities
Gee points out that while the concept of lifetime value plays an important part in most retail brand strategies, for many in the health care industry, this premise runs contrary to all that they know.