Patient Communications Management Services

Investing in collateral (printed materials) and media without researching your market base is a long and expensive road to travel on with little or no return. With Patient Communications Management (PCM), patient marketing research involves a complete internal and external communications audit, followed by a comprehensive look at the market/s, identifying your competitors and your target/s. We offer three unique services examining each of these areas.

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Patient Communications Audit

A communications audit determines if your communication materials are in tune with your brand and reflect your practice both internally and externally. An audit includes a complete review of your practice's stationery package that includes letterhead, business/appointment cards, general and billing envelopes, mailing labels and any other necessary items. From there, the audit checks all patient-based materials, such as intake forms, appointment cards, treatment/surgery instructions, prescription pads and reminder postcards, etc. If we find the materials to be dated, reflective of numerous brand identities, or they don't match the investment you've made in the interior of your practice, we'll recommend a brand facelift.

In many cases the audit uncovers instances where the brand has simply been lost over time. The primary goal of a communications audit is to seek out these issues and correct them, ultimately to prevent further patient confusion and brand erosion of your practice. Just as your practice grows over time, it is critical that your communication materials evolve along with your growth and keep up with the times.

Patient Marketing Research

Patient Profiles

How you communicate with your patient base is greatly influenced by their social, economical, and behavioral characteristics. Several criteria separate your patients from the rest of the population and altogether help direct your communication efforts, including demographics, geographics, psychographics, and generational behaviors.

Demographic profiles place your practice on a map, framing both the area surrounding it and any outside areas from which you draw patients. Patients that fall within the framework are categorized by age, gender, income, educational level and occupation.

Geographic profiles take into consideration the geographic location of your practice and evaluates the size of the town or city in which you are located, the population and its influence on the location, as well as climate and landforms.

Psychographic profiles assess the behavioral side of your patients, taking into consideration their general personalities, behaviors, and lifestyles. Patient's personal needs, expectations, and underlying attitudes are uncovered by psychographic research.

Generational profiles acknowledges the many different life experiences, memories, and key characteristics of different age groups. If your patients are of the Generation Y cohort and you are communicating with them the way you would a Baby Boomer, they may react with blank stares. Of course, you don't need a translator on staff to put it in their language, just an understanding of what makes each group unique and how to communicate with them.

Environmental profiles consider the environment of your medical office and its influence on the emotions of your patients. Is your office clean, warm and inviting? Does it calm nerves or create additional anxiety? Is there adequate and interesting reading material? Coordinating the look of your office with the kind of medical care you provide is important for keeping patients comfortable and stress-free during their appointment.

Competitive Analysis

Researching your competitors doesn't involve an undercover doctor's visit to see what goes on behind the waiting room door. You need a more comprehensive approach that asks the right questions. What are your competitors doing online? What are people saying about them? Where are they advertising? Finding the answers to these questions provides you a better understanding of how your practice rates against the competition. Once a clear image of the competition has been formed, the next step is to complete a SWOT Analysis.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT Analysis of your practice is equally important during the competitive analysis process. You can't pinpoint where you are in the market unless you've been honest and completed a thorough inspection by looking at your strengths and weaknesses, then identifying opportunities and threats. Each of these benchmarks are meant to provide insight into problems, areas of success, and offer a lead on what steps need to be taken next.

Patient Communications Services

Branding

The development and management of your brand is a never-ending cycle. A well- developed brand sends patients the message that your practice can provide services that meet all of their needs. Delivering that brand promise time and time again to each patient is vital to building your brand as well as gaining long-term trust and credibility.

Logo & Corporate ID Packages

• Logo design/redesign
• Letterhead
• Envelopes
• Business/Appointment Cards
• Mailing Labels

Web

If you asked patients where they get most of their information about prescription drugs, illnesses, and other medical information, many wouldn't say they learned about it from their doctor. Patients today are online, seeking information about medications, disease, and even searching for consumer reviews on local physicians from web sources. Patient's increased reliance on the web for medical information and finding new doctors is why having an updated, user-friendly website is so crucial for patient growth.

Our web services provide everything from the redesign of your website, social media development, search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click, and content management.

Web Development/Redesign

Web development and redesign services focus on providing custom, branded design with fast-loading pages, clean code and intuitive navigation, cross-browser compatibility, search friendly, easy to follow layouts and clear calls to action. These criteria attract new patients seeking medical services and give current patients confidence in your practice and your brand.

Social Media Development

Signing on with social media may offer your practice several benefits at an affordable price, including the opportunity to connect with patients on a closer level, researching what patients may be saying about your practice and increasing traffic to your current website. Social media accounts work alongside your website to continue building your brand and encouraging interaction amongst patients. Whether one individual or your entire staff will be responsible for updating your accounts, we offer and easy, comprehensable approach to applying social media strategy and making it work for you over time.

SEO/Interactive Marketing

Usability and content is what sets one website apart from others in the search engine rankings. Creating value alongside branding, imagery, and navigation positions your site at the top of crowded search engine results. A search engine optimization (SEO) strategy helps your website climb the search rankings and attract more unique visits. SEO applies pay-per-click campaigns, link building, ad marketing, directory listings, direct mail campaigns, blogs, wiki's, forums, and/or user-generated content.

Pay Per Click

The ultimate goal of an SEO campaign is to boost your website's rank in search results, which is accomplished by increased traffic to your website. Pay per click campaigns target advertising at the appropriate, selected audience. Pay per click services offer flexible spending options for strategy consult and implementation, keyword research and analysis, creative ad copy, geo-targeting, advanced bid management tactics, dedicated landing pages, and analytic tools for tracking results to guarantee the highest return of investment for your practice.

Content Management

Updating your website shouldn't induce a panic attack or force you to take a course in HTML. All you need is a user-friendly content management system that provides an easy-to-use interface to modify web content and track visitors. We offer a content management system allows you to smoothly add or remove pages and links, change images, and manage content from a secure login that's accessible anytime, anywhere.

Collateral

• Brochures
• Patient Information Packets
• Postcard Reminders
• Information Sheets
• Invitations
• Claim Envelopes
• Health Event Materials
• Registration Forms
• Premiums
• Folders
• Patient Notifications

Printing

PCM offers medical forms printing services inclusive of patient recruitment marketing and everyday medical forms. With nearly 20 years of expertise in medical form layout and design, production and printing, you can be assured that your needs will be managed with time and cost efficiencies. We offer 24-hour turnaround on most everyday medical forms and quick turnaround on other printed items.

Printing services for medical forms include:

• Patient Intake/Evaluation Forms
• Appointment Cards
• Prescription Pads
• Medical Records
• Patient Sign-in Sheets
• Discharge Summaries
• Progress Records
• History and Examination Records
• Intake Output Charts
• Temperature, Pulse, Respiration Charts
• Nurses Daily Records
• Consent Forms
• Diagnostic Forms
• Lab Forms
• Outpatient and Inpatient Forms
• Billing Invoices and Statements
• Medical Release Forms
• Medication Records
• Blood Pressure Tracking Chart
• Route Slips
• HIPAA Compliant Forms
• Appointment Reminder Postcards
• Surgery/PT Instructions
• Medical Insurance Claim Forms
• Return-to-Work Forms
• Follow-Up Forms

Advertising

All too often, medical practices advertise their services before taking into consideration the need for branding. Today, it takes a professional with advertising experience and know-how to navigate the many media landscapes that exist within this ever-changing industry. Sorting through media entities such as newspapers, tabloids, magazines, radio, television, cable programming, online, billboards, indoor signage, and an entire array of specialty mediums is a tough job for someone with no knowledge of how to gauge the value of the investment. Growth of your patient base cannot occur unless you are utilizing media to reach a well-defined target market. When one or more of these media entities are necessary, PCM can provide media representation to eliminate sales pressure, personal biases and time consumption.

Public Relations

With consumers readily expressing their opinions online and out in the open, one right or wrong move committed by your practice could be heralded or criticized within an instant of its occurance, and shared with everyone. PR strategy and sound PR counseling may be necessary to prepare for moments like these and help produce favorable conditions for your practice in the market. Services include all aspects of PR including traditional methods such as print or broadcast story plugging, crisis management, as well as assistance with developing a social media presence.