Physician Relations

WebMD and Mercury Healthcare: What the Acquisition Means for Physician Strategies

Jane Weber Brubaker

WebMD Provider Services seeks to align physician and consumer strategies holistically, using data and analytics to guide the journey from both sides. // By Jane Weber Brubaker // When WebMD announced its acquisition of Mercury Healthcare in June 2022, the press release focused on patient engagement solutions. The headline reads “WebMD Health Corp. Acquires Mercury Read More

How Data Modeling Can Improve Your Health Care Marketing Strategy

George Danner Endeavor Mgmt

Sometimes, the best input on health care marketing comes from an outside party. In a new article, George Danner, chief data scientist at Endeavor Management, offers a fresh insight on how data modeling can help improve the health care marketing process. He puts it like this: “I am not a marketer, but I have listened Read More

Maybe It’s Not Marketing’s Fault

How to use data to identify the real culprits inhibiting encounter volume growth. // By George Danner // I am not a marketer, but I have listened to conversations among our marketing team members and their clients about the difficulty of the marketing role in health care. When patient volumes and/or market share are down, Read More

Physician Relations: Increasing Referrals and Driving Growth

Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA, principal at Barlow McCarthy

Connections between hospitals and doctors working outside the hospital aren’t as strong as they used to be. “So many organizations have realized we have completely lost touch with our primary care physicians,” says Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA, principal at Barlow McCarthy. “They don’t come to the hospital, they use hospitalists.” The pandemic has added to Read More

The Role of Physician Relations in Driving Growth

Jane Weber Brubaker

While health system marketing departments largely focus on consumers, physician relations professionals, aligned with business development, focus on building relationships with referring physicians, overcoming barriers, and growing referrals. // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Connections between hospitals and doctors working outside the hospital aren’t as strong as they used to be. “So many organizations have Read More

Has Your Health System Adopted Person-Centered Care?

Marcia Nelson, MD, chief medical officer, Enloe Medical Center

If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a thousand times: Health care is complex, dysfunctional, and slow to change. But one person can still make a difference. For Angelica Thieriot, it took a horrific experience as patient in a U.S. hospital in 1978 for her to imagine how different things could be if patients Read More

At Renown Health, Employees Have a Friend in Senior Leadership

RenownHealth

When you think of the view from the C-suite, you think of a physical or metaphorical high-rise vantage point. A position that sits above many others, taking in big-picture ideas and providing direction for the masses. But Renown Health’s Suzanne Hendery tries to keep that C-suite view on a similar level to her managers and Read More

Successful Physician Relations Require a Multifaceted Approach

Endeavor Management

“Successful physician relationship management has been a longstanding goal of health care leaders,” says John McKeever of Endeavor Management. “No doubt its importance remains, but success requirements continue to evolve. If your organization is questioning what industry leaders are doing to maximize results from physician relations, you are not alone.” Here’s an excerpt from McKeever’s Read More

Why Health Systems Must Manage and Accelerate Growth Going Forward

“Growth is important for every organization,” says Daniel Fell of Optum. “Whether it’s for-profits or not-for-profits, start-ups or established market leaders, every business depends on some level of growth to succeed in the near term. Growth is also essential to long-term sustainability, especially when navigating dynamic markets and overcoming unforeseen market disruptions.” Here’s an excerpt Read More

Avera Health Takes a Precision Approach to Improving the Patient Experience

Bruk Kammerman, senior vice president and chief information officer, Avera Health

// By Brian Griffin // Learn how one health care organization uses a unique new process supported by technology to enhance care and maximize the revenue potential of patient relationships. Avera Health is launching an innovative venture to improve the patient experience called Precision Patient Relationships (PPR)TM — a multifaceted marketing, clinical, and operational initiative Read More

Sneak Peek at HMPS 2022

Judy Neiman, president, the Forum for Healthcare Strategists

Looking to recharge and reconnect? Head to the 27th Healthcare Marketing and Physician Strategies Summit in Salt Lake City, May 16-18. Not only will you finally be able to emerge from the metaverse of nonstop Zoom meetings and spend quality time with your peers — in person — the lineup of sessions will give you Read More

Struggling with Referral Growth? Align Your Physician Relationship Management Channels

John McKeever

// By John McKeever // When marketing, outreach, and operations collaborate to meet the needs of physicians, everyone wins. Successful physician relationship management has been a longstanding goal of health care leaders. No doubt its importance remains, but success requirements continue to evolve. If your organization is questioning what industry leaders are doing to maximize Read More

The Growth Imperative and Why Marketing Must Lead

Daniel Fell, marketing consultant and senior strategist at Optum

// By Daniel Fell // Growth is far from one-dimensional and shouldn’t be thought of in terms of new patients and new revenue only. Growth is important for every organization. Whether it’s for-profits or not-for-profits, start-ups or established market leaders, every business depends on some level of growth to succeed in the near term. Growth Read More

Report From the Front: Weathering COVID’s Ongoing Storm

Ann De Los Santos, director of physician relations and strategic growth, Ascension Texas

In spite of the population of Austin, Texas growing by a net of 150 people a day — and with it, an increase in demand for services — surgical volume at Ascension Texas dropped during the pandemic’s early days, when Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order mandating a pause in elective surgeries. “Our leadership Read More

Riding the Waves of COVID and Pushing Progress in Physician Relations

Jennifer Lofgren, regional director of network development, Loyola Medicine

// By Jane Weber Brubaker // The urgent need of health care organizations to make up for lost business during the pandemic creates an opportunity for physician relations teams to become the critical communications link between service-line leaders and high-priority referring physicians. In spite of the population of Austin, Texas growing by a net of Read More

Share of Care: A New Way to Think About Health Care Metrics

D.J. Sullivan, director, HSG Advisors

Measuring brand loyalty is a constant challenge for health care organizations. Marketing professionals use different measures to determine if they’re capturing patients throughout their health care journey. One of the parameters being used today is called Share of Care. Share of Care is a revenue-based measurement that gauges the health of the patient relationship, according Read More

Measuring the Health of the Patient Relationship

Eric Andreoli, director, HSG Advisors

// By Wendy Stark Healy // How much of a patient’s health care spending goes to your organization? And how much goes to your competitors? “Share of Care” is a revenue-based measurement that compiles multiple data points to give you the full picture. Measuring brand loyalty is a constant challenge for health care organizations. Marketing Read More

Healthcare Marketing & Physician Strategies Summit 2021: Preview

Chris Boyer, vice president, digital & marketing intelligence, Beth Israel Lahey Health

// By Jane Weber Brubaker // This year’s conference is October 6-8 in South Florida. If you want to rub elbows with top industry leaders and learn from the best, this is the place to be. Among all the health care marketing and strategy conferences that had to upend their plans for in-person events in Read More

A Physician Reflects on His Hospital’s COVID Battle Strategy

Dr. Ron Nutting, chief medical officer, Reading Hospital, Tower Health

Health systems activate their hospital incident command systems (HICS) during a crisis, but usually the crisis doesn’t last for more than a year as the coronavirus pandemic has. From the start of the pandemic, hospital incident command centers became the temporary headquarters for crisis management. Leaders had to adapt day-to-day to keep their organizations and Read More