Health Care Marketing Plan for Primary Care
When promoting primary health care services, there are many factors that must be considered when developing an effective marketing plan. Primary care providers are the gatekeepers of health care in the United States; many patients have to visit them before being referred to specialist providers (Bodenheimer, 2003). They are also being tasked with ensuring patients are receiving preventative services and managing more complex chronic diseases (Akinci & Healey, 2004). Recruitment of primary care physicians is challenging because they are expected to do more and are not being reimbursed proportionally for the added workload (Bodenheimer, 2003). In this paper, a group of primary care physicians in Washington D.C. is looking to research their consumer population base in order to provide them better services and recruit new primary care physicians to their practice (Colorado State University-Global Campus, 2013). A successful primary care marketing plan will recruit quality health care providers while improving consumer accessibility to their services, customer satisfaction rates, and patients’ continuity of care with their health care provider.
Office Setting and Scheduling
In order for primary care practices to be successful they have to arrange their office setting and scheduling to satisfy their consumers’ needs. Bodenheimer (2003) advocates for improving primary care accessibility by arranging their offices into teams. He explains each team would have “one primary care physician, two non-physicians clinicians (nurse practitioners or physician assistants), three nursing staff, and a receptionist” (p.797). He states patients will be greeted by their team who knows their h...
... middle of paper ...
...th care. Greenwood Village, CO: Author.
Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. (2011). Survey of health care consumers in the
United States. Key findings, strategic implications. Retrieved from http://www.
deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-United States/Local%20Assets/Documents/US_
CHS_2011ConsumerSurveyinUS_062111.pdf
Hackworth, B.A. & Kunz, M.B. (2011). Health care and social media: Building
relationships via social networks. Academy of Health Care Management Journal,
7(2), 1-14.
Merritt, J. (1993, January). The art of recruiting primary care physicians. Trustee, 46(1),
10-12.
Robeznieks, A. (2009, October 12). A strong pulse in doc recruiting. Modern Healthcare,
39(41), 25-28.
Rooney, K. (2009, July/August). Consumer-driven healthcare marketing: Using the Web
to get up close and personal. Journal of Healthcare Management, 54(4), 241-251.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010 with the goal of expanding healthcare coverage to all Americans by reforming insurance policies and practices (Tillett, 2011). The ACA upsurges the demand for an increase in primary care providers in order to supply quality care to the much larger population that will have coverage and therefore acquiring healthcare. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) through its report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health has generated a solution to the shortage of primary care providers by promoting a transformation of the nursing profession to fill the gap.
Physician practices are increasingly using medical assistants in place of nurses, for a variety of reasons and with significant impact on office efficiency. Medical assistants are trained in both clinical and administrative functions, allowing one staff member to do the work of two. These assistants can help manage patient flow by working the front desk, performing some billing functions, and also providing some clinical care. As you consider adding medical assistants to your practice or optimizing the work of the assistants you already have on staff, you might be wondering: What is the clinical scope of practice of
The United States offers some of the most established and advanced health care in the world. Practitioners and administers are constantly trying to improve the quality of care received by patients in the US. Data has consistently shown that the presence of a registered nurse contributes directly to positive patient outcomes (Cho et al., 2016). The debate across the country, however, concerns the precise number of staff required to provide safe, high-quality care. The issue of safe staffing is one that is of great importance to all involved in the delivery of health care across the country.
The medical field is among the largest and ever growing career fields, especially when dealing with Physician Assistants (PAs) and Nurse Practitioners (NPs). In the 1960’s when the physician shortage began, the medical field created the PA and NP positions to fill in the gaps (Curren, 2007, p. 404). This matter has opened up numerous questions as more and more PAs and NPs begin practicing, especially concerning their education level. Many patients are concerned that they will not get the proper care. PAs/NPs are beneficial to everyday life by providing patients with the necessary skills needed to successfully treat them.
The healthcare field is a large organization filled with individuals that work towards the common goal of helping others. In the past several years’ health care organization have focused their attention in improving healthcare as a whole by focusing on factors such as access to primary care, control cost, increase efficiency and improve outcomes. A growing trend in trying to meet these challenges has been the use of physician assistants. According to Assistant, physician (PA). (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=8593 a physician assistant is a mid-level medical practitioner who works under the supervision of a licensed physician. Their education qualifies them to examine patients,
In the past few years there has been much debate over the Affordable Care Act and its effects on the healthcare industry in the United States. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) “Will ensure that all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care and will create the transformation within the health care system necessary to contain costs” (The patient protection and affordable care act detailed summary, n.a.). However, what these transformations are and how they will affect the healthcare system, specifically primary care physicians are uncertain. Primary care physicians are the cornerstones for patients in the health care system. They act as a liaison between families and specialist physicians. Primary care physicians provide a variety of patient care services that involve multiple skill sets. They are in charge of diagnosing the patient and managing the plan of care. As a result of the newly implemented Affordable Care Act and the current shortage of primary care physicians “The primary care doctor is a rapidly evolving species -- and in the future could become an endangered one” (Okie, 2012).
It is no secret that the current healthcare reformation is a contentious matter that promises to transform the way Americans view an already complex healthcare system. The newly insured population is expected to increase by an estimated 32 million while facing an expected shortage of up to 44,000 primary care physicians within the next 12 years (Doherty, 2010). Amidst these already overwhelming challenges, healthcare systems are becoming increasingly scrutinized to identify a way to improve cost containment and patient access (Curits & Netten, 2007). “Growing awareness of the importance of health promotion and disease prevention, the increased complexity of community-based care, and the need to use scarce human healthcare resources, especially family physicians, far more efficiently and effectively, have resulted in increased emphasis on primary healthcare renewal…” (Bailey, Jones & Way, 2006, p. 381). The key to a successful healthcare reformation is interdisciplinary collaboration between Family Nurse Practitioners (FNPs) and physicians. The purpose of this paper is to review the established role of the FNP, appreciate the anticipated paradigm shift in healthcare between FNPs and primary care physicians, and recognize the potential associated benefits and complications that may ensue.
Care coordination within health care systems ensures the client of an effective and short stay. Care coordination refers to the coordination between and among professional teams that serve valuable roles involved in providing care to clients. Different disciplines of health care professionals include nursing, medicine, case management, pharmacy, nutrition, social work, and allied health professionals, such as speech therapists and physical therapists. They are found in all health care delivery systems and are extremely effective when the focus is strictly on the needs of the client. Interprofessional teams are valuable because each health care professional has specialized knowledge and skills so that health care plans are determined with patients’ best interests in mind. With the communication of ideas amongst the disciplines, their roles consequently complement one another in an age of exponentially growing information. This team process of care coordination can improve quality of care, enhance client satisfaction, and reduce hospital cost by decreasing length of stay; care coordination ensures the best possible outcomes (Koch, 2014, p. 436).
Primary care clinics are essential in society for people who need urgent care right away or need a place where they know will be the customer service is going to excellent. Care facilities have to make sure they are to provide the patients with excellent care and services or be able to refer them to a place where their issue can be handled. When the opportunity comes for improvement, care facilities should find it essential to listen to their patients to make sure they’re being taken care of in the proper way and the care being given isn’t different from people who have insurance and from those who don’t.
The United States is going through a huge shortage of physicians, which is composing a very severe supply and demand problem in this country. Citizens living in rural areas should be able to receive the same amount of quality care as those living in urban areas. The shortage of physicians in rural America calls for immediate attention and change because the shortage is affecting the quality of patient care. The life expectancy of people living in these areas is declining due to treatable conditions like diabetes, cancer, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Thankfully, these conditions can be managed with proper medical treatment. Many people living in rural America have poor access to medical care. Approximately twenty percent of the population live in rural areas, which is twenty percent not getting adequate healthcare. Healthcare is in catastrophe in many different countries. There are many providers that are unable to provide medical care to an increasing number of chronically ill and the aging population. There are numerous amounts of systemic failures, none are more difficult to fix than the usual basic lack of human resources. There are not enough physicians to service the needs of the entire population. Many physicians get into the more specialized fields. The issue is deepened in rural areas, where specialized physicians are not found within several hundred miles. This healthcare system need to figure out how to do more with less and stretch a limited amount of resources to work more efficiently. There are many programs that are created to recruit and retain physicians in rural communities. Physician shortages continue to threaten the healthcare delivery in rural areas. This area will be hit the hard...
The case study: Crowded Clinic provided some good examples of what many busy clinics have to deal with on daily basis. Lately, there have been multiples computer systems to improve scheduling problems for the outpatient clinics, such as “Open Access”, “AdvancedMD”, “Medical Office Online”, and many more. These programs do help with daily operations of a medical office, however, in order to make patients feel more welcome few other things can be implemented. Such as letting receptionists handle arriving patients right away, instead of making patients wait while the receptionist handles phone calls, assist with prescriptions, and/or handle emergencies. It means that everyone in the office should multi task and should be cross trained, so they all can help with front office duties. This should be required upon hiring. Per Carrie Rossenfeld from Medical Office Today: other medical office personnel can be handling all phone calls, leaving receptionists do their primary responsibilities – checking patients in, answering their questions, and making them feel comfortable. (Rossenfeld, N. D.)
One of the issues involving health care and the aging population is majority of health profession employees being a percentage of the aging population. With the knowledge of health profession employees being a factor in the aging population puts a strain on doctors and nurses that come into the workforce after ones have retired. The fewer employees there are, the greater the work load will become on one person. It is imperative for each nurse in a unit to have four patients maximum. Giving more responsibility to one employee does not make the situation less of a challenge, it more so puts people’s lives at a greater risk of danger. The new demands placed on the health care system for health services will not only include a need for more workers, but also require changes in the way services are provided.
In this unit, we will be discussing real-life healthcare organizations, the 5 P’s of healthcare marketing, and evaluation strategies that may be used to determine marketing potential.
Healthcare professionals in the medical office should be friendly and open. Patients entering the medical office should be greeted immediately with a smile and having a gentle touch also let the patient know you care. “Healthcare professionals in a medical office are held to a higher standard than most professions because they are dealing with the dignity of patients and the ability to be healed” (Wolff). Educating the staff to be professional in the medical office represents the office as being excellent in patient care. Patient-centered care success is required by the whole office which is treatment and patient experience, from the time they enter the office until they leave.
Kotler, P., & Clarke, R. N. (1987). Marketing for health care organizations (p. 265). Englewood