In a blog post last month, I outlined five strategic focuses as the foundation for effective physician marketing. I’ll address the first two of these in this follow-up post and the last three in a subsequent post.
Ten Adams’ experience leads us to focus on five vital areas as we work with clients on physician engagement and marketing.
- Administrative Leadership Engagement (Leveraging Openness and Operational Authority)
- Outreach Program/Coordinators (Extending Balanced, Personalized Sales/Service)
- Education/Medical Orientation (Providing Valuable Insights)
- Print/Electronic Communications (Providing Access to Credible Information)
- Data on Utilization/Referral Patterns (Identifying and Targeting Opportunity)
As healthcare industry leaders, we need to find ways to create balanced relationships that work, engaging physicians as vital partners in successfully negotiating a dramatic shift in how healthcare is delivered.
Strategic Focus #1 Administrative Leadership Engagement Leveraging Openness and Operational Authority
Effective physician marketing starts with the attitude and positioning of the organization’s administrative leadership and management groups. The posture of the management group typically reflects perspectives at the executive level of the organization, serving to amplify executive leadership's point-of-view on building quality working relationships with physicians.
It is important to understand that physician engagement is a key responsibility shared by each of the organization’s top administrative leaders. The impact of a solid, well-focused outreach program is enhanced immensely when the efforts of outreach coordinators (physician liaisons) are coupled with those at the executive level of the organization.
The most important engagement is on the part of senior executives with direct administrative responsibility for key service lines. Physicians and other medical practitioners understand and respect the influence that these senior leaders have over operations and the ability to directly respond to a physician’s operational issues and concerns.
Strategic Focus #2 Outreach Program/Coordinators Extending Balanced, Personalized Sales/Service
The outreach coordinator (physician liaison) sits at the intersection of hospital goals and physician/practice needs. They are charged with "balancing" attention to the hospital's interests and needs/priorities of physicians, working to optimize utilization and referral patterns. This role is absolutely vital today but will be even more so as healthcare reform elevates the importance of hospital/physician integration under accountable payment systems.
The most effective outreach programs are designed to meet the needs of the organizations they serve. These needs range from a strong focus on organizational growth (sales orientation) to a strong focus on resolving service issues (service orientation). Most organizations’ outreach efforts reflect a balanced emphasis of sales and service with the majority leaning toward service. This reflects the general evolution of healthcare as organizations across the country move toward fuller hospital-physician integration. This sharpens the focus on collaborative efforts to improve clinical efficiency and service delivery.

Experienced healthcare leaders point to three factors determining the effectiveness of outreach efforts, each worthy of attention.
- Driving Outreach with Individual Physician Data – selecting physician outreach targets using individual physician data analysis to maximize the impact and return on investment in the outreach program.
- Aligning the Focus of the Outreach Program with Hospital Strategy – alignment of the outreach programs principal focus and goals with organizational strategy to ensure the proper objectives drive the work of outreach consultants.
- Personalizing Outreach to Physicians – gaining the support and involvement of engaged physicians in performing outreach activities, taking advantage of existing relationships to enhance the overall effectiveness of the outreach program.
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