Pediatric Orthopedics Leverages Sports Medicine to Reach Parents
// By Sheryl S. Jackson //
Treatment for musculoskeletal conditions in children is a subspecialty within a subspecialty. How do you stand out in a highly competitive field? Los Angeles-based Orthopaedic Institute for Children has achieved success using its Sports Medicine Center and community outreach to extend brand and name recognition.
Pediatric hospitals and other facilities that treat children face a number of marketing challenges that health providers treating adults do not face. The two most significant barriers health care marketers must overcome are that they are marketing to parents, not the actual potential patient, and that parents do not want to think about children being sick or injured — until they are.
Los Angeles-based Orthopaedic Institute for Children (OIC) faces these challenges. In addition, its focus solely on musculoskeletal conditions in children means that marketers have to differentiate the organization from its competitors and also explain that their organization offers only specialized care.
How best to reach potential parents and patients, and build brand awareness?
Mark Kriegsman, senior director of marketing communications and strategy, Orthopaedic Institute for Children
“OIC is the largest pediatric orthopedic program in the western United States, and we have over 70,000 patient visits annually,” says Mark Kriegsman, senior director of marketing communications and strategy for OIC. “There is an increasing demand for specialized pediatric care, and there is competition from children’s hospitals, orthopedic physician practices, and general acute care hospitals and surgery centers all trying to draw from the same patient population.”