Contents
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Marketing by the NUMB3RS In today’s competitive health care industry, marketing and public relations are more important than ever.
Reputation Management While personal and professional reputation management is important, many of us can lose sight of applying that same reputation management to what we will leave behind: our legacy.
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From the Publisher
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What Are Patients Really Looking for in a Provider?
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Legal Corner Social Media: A Brief Legal Framework
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Wealth Management Legacy Reputation Management
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5 Marketing Mistakes You Might Be Making
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Cover Feature Marketing by the Numb3rs
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Buying a New Car Without the Drama in Four Easy Steps
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Does Your Online Reputation Dictate the Success or Failure of Your Practice?
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Increase Social Media Engagement: 10 Ways to Optimize Your Social Media Content
Advertisers
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Buying a New Car Without the Drama in Four Easy Steps 2
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5 Marketing Mistakes You Might Be Making Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
&Barr 23 BioSpine Institute 4 Burr & Forman 11 Full Circle PR 9 Jarred Bunch 7 PNC Bank 24 Publix 3 Rutherford Asset Planning 15 Issue 3, 2015
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REVOLUTIONIZING HOW SPINAL SURGERY IS PERFORMED! With over 30,000 patients treated and 13,000 surgeries performed, BioSpine founders Dr. James J. Ronzo and Dr. Frank S. Bono wouldn’t have it any other way. They’re skill and relentless passion for perfection will make the experience as comfortable as possible. An extension of Gulfcoast Spine, The BioSpine Institute provides the latest breakthroughs in minimally invasive technology with an emphasis on strategies that encourage the body’s natural healing responses.
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Surgeon’s Experience • Dr. Ronzo and Dr. Bono have over 23 years of combined experience. • Dr. Ronzo and Dr. Bono have successfully treated over 35,000 patients for spine-related disorders. • Dr. Ronzo and Dr. Bono have performed over 14,000 successful minimally invasive spinal surgeries. • Dr. Ronzo and Dr. Bono are among the top spinal surgeons in the nation as documented by Consumer Reports, Newsweek, ProPublica & Health Grades.
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Minimally Invasive Approach
• Minimally invasive spinal surgery requires an incision that is only 3/4” in length. That’s the same as the diameter of a United States penny. • In minimally invasive spinal surgery, muscles are gently separated and not cut. • Smaller incisions and less invasion into surrounding tissue and muscles means quicker recover times.
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Nationally Ranked Outcomes
• Dr. Ronzo and Dr. Bono have been rated in the top 5 in the nation for back surgery results. • After more than 14,000 surgeries, Dr. Ronzo and Dr. Bono’s infection rate is almost non-existent and is dramatically less than the national average.
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Recovery Time
• All patients receiving minimally invasive spinal surgery are able to return home on the same day of the surgical procedure. • Recovery time for BioSpine patients is consistently half of that for patients who have received traditional spinal surgery.
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From the Publisher
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www.doctorslifetampabay.com
ummer is definitely here and this year felt like it hit us just a little earlier than normal. However, almost anyone living outside of Florida would say we have summer all year round. What I do know is Florida summers bring hot lazy days and most of us prefer to be enjoying one of the many amazing beaches we have here in Tampa Bay. So whether you’re on the beach, taking vacation or working right through the summer, we know the show must go on and the business of medicine is a 24/7-365 day a year business. In this issue of Doctor’s Life we focused on Marketing, Social Media and Reputation Management. The cover features the medical marketing powerhouse team, Michele and Michael Krohn from Full Circle PR. The legal corner discusses possible legal issues when it comes to marketing and social media in medicine and our Wealth Management contributor, Scott Jarred, tackles your financial reputation management and how to secure your legacy for your family and loved ones. Social Media and Reputation Management are often two areas of marketing that are overlooked. Both can be time consuming and have HIPAA concerns. We brought on Jodi Kaplan, CEO of Peak Reputation, to provide the basic steps to maximize your practice’s online reputation and the go to Social Media Guru, Dale Griffen with The Go! Agency, to guide you through the Social Media platform. We also worked with United Physician Services CEO, Rochelle Glassman, to provide her insight on what patients are really looking from you as providers. I wish you and your families a great summer. As always, we thank you for your readership, comments and suggestions.
TAMPA BAY
™
Tampa Headquarters 1208 East Kennedy Blvd. #1029 Tampa Fl, 33602 813-419-7788 Group Publisher Edd Suyak publisher@doctorslifetampabay.com Creative Director Rob Stainback Editorial Director Danielle Topper Associate Publisher CJ Cooper
Be well,
-Edd
Advertising Account Executive Ryan O’Neil Editorial Advisory Board Scott Jarred Robert V. Williams
Edd Suyak Group Publisher publisher@doctorslifetampabay.com
Contributing Writers Heather Urquides Scott Jarred Robert Williams Keith Amburgey Jodi Kaplan Dale Griffen, R.N Rochelle Glassman Cover Image: Michele and Michael Krohn, Full Circle PR Doctor’s Life Magazine, Tampa Bay is always seeking events, stories and remarkable physicians. Please email the publisher if you have an event, an editorial idea or you know of a doctor or dentist who may have done something extraordinary. We want your suggestions and feedback. publisher@doctorslifetampabay.com Doctor’s Life Magazine, Tampa Bay does not assume responsibility for the advertisements, nor any representation made therein, nor the quality or deliverability of the products themselves. Reproduction of articles and photographs, in whole or in part, contained herein is prohibited without expressed written consent of the publisher, with the exception of reprinting for news media use. Printed in the United States of America.
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Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
Issue 3, 2015
What Are Patients Really Looking for in a Provider? By Rochelle Glassman, President & CEO of United Physician Services
Are you looking for ways to increase patient volume? Many practices are, and for a variety of reasons. Whether you have a new provider who needs to build up a practice or you’re experiencing competition from retail clinics, there are many ways to increase patient visits. Before you implement any new strategies to recruit new patients or increase appointments from existing patients, it is important to understand what patients are looking for in a provider today.
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hen patients are looking for a new healthcare provider they no longer just look in the health plan directory for a physician in their neighborhood. They don’t call and wait 30 minutes for somebody to pick up the phone just to be put back on hold. And they really don’t want to wait three weeks or more for an appointment that is during work hours. Can you imagine if retail businesses treated their customers like this? They would be out of business pretty quickly. Patient are looking for availability, accessibility, and efficiency. They want to be able to easily get an appointment where they are seen on time. Many patient are also looking for a practice that offers online scheduling, a patient portal, text reminders, and online billpay. To learn what is important to your patients and potential patients you need to go where they are—social media and physician rating sites. To find a provider who fits the bill many 8
patients are now looking at social media and variety of review and rating sites before they even reach out. They want to know the provider has positive feedback on the criteria they value. Depending on what service the patient is seeking and their level of knowledge they will look to: 1. Medicare safety ratings. Medicare rates from 1 to 5, 5 being the highest score www.medicare.gov. 2. Yelp listings. Yelp allows prospective patients to see current patients’ prospective. 3. P hysician Rating Sites. Physicians are now also rated by their patients for quality and patient satisfaction on websites like www.healthgrades.com. You need to know what patients are saying about your practice on these sites. You also need to be sure your practice can be found by patients. This is why having Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
a good website, a Facebook page, and managing and monitoring your ratings and reviews is so important. You’ll get a sense of what patients are looking for. For example, if they are saying they’d love to have an online scheduling option then you can make that change. If someone says your wait times are too long then you can work to fix that problem. Or if patients say you need extended hours you can consider that option. Use the Internet as a tool to learn about what you do well and what you need to improve. Make improvements as part of you plan to increase patient volume. Then, you can begin to implement programs directed at recruiting new patients like mining your patient data to develop a recall program, launching more active marketing campaign or adding new services types.
Issue 3, 2015
Legal Corner
SOCIAL MEDIA:
A Brief Legal Framework By Robert Williams
Social media is ubiquitous in contemporary American culture. Given that fact, the question that this article addresses is what utility, if any, social media has for your medical practice? And, if potentially useful, how can social media be used without causing unintended legal consequences?
Legal Framework Physicians live in a litigious and highly regulated professional environment. For that reason, any decision to use social media must be made against the backdrop of both state and federal law. This includes privacy laws, consumer laws, fraud and abuse laws, and other legal realities that arise from using or receiving social media. Some of those statutory and regulatory provisions are dealt with briefly in this article.
Privacy The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulates patient privacy in numerous ways, many beyond the scope of this article. At the top of the list, however, is securing Protected Health Information, or PHI. Thus, in deciding whether or not to use social media in your practice, it is mandatory to be familiar with what PHI is, what the protections are, how these protections can be breached, and the potential consequences if there is a breach. Should a patient authorize his or her identity or PHI to be used in social media that will not constitute a privacy breach. Moreover, the HIPAA privacy rule also describes those circumstances under which a covered entity (i.e. physician, medical group, hospital, etc.) is permitted to use or disclose PHI without the patient’s express authorization. Each of those permitted disclosures involves detailed 10
requirements that must be met prior to that disclosure. Although authorized, those disclosure requirements must be carefully adhered to but, in any event, will not allow disclosure for social media purposes. See 45 C.F.R. 164.512. If PHI is “de-identified”, however, there are no restrictions on its use or disclosure. Stated differently, de-identified health information is not PHI and does not require any authorization for its use or disclosure. Deidentifying health information is not always a simple process, however, and requires careful attention to detail. And even if the lengthy list of more objective criteria can be satisfied, the last requirement to de-identify PHI requires that any unique identifying number, characteristic or code must be removed. What does this mean? For example, what is a “unique identifying... characteristic”? The answer, of course, is that it depends on the patient’s individual circumstances. It is this last removal requirement that can make the de-identifying process truly precarious. Thus, if de-identified PHI is to be used, the process of disclosure must be undertaken carefully, and perhaps with the assistance of a knowledgeable health law attorney.
Florida Law Florida has not enacted an analog to HIPAA. Therefore, if a physician utilizes social media Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
to market his or her practice, complying with HIPAA should assure compliance with Florida law. It is worth noting that while Florida does not have a HIPAA analog, Florida Statutes 456.057, Ownership and Control of Patient Records, Reports or Copies of Records to Be Furnished; Disclosure of Information, does have a rigorous privacy component regarding a patient’s records and makes it clear that “the medical condition of a patient may not be discussed with any person other than the patient, the patient’s legal representative, or other healthcare practitioners and providers involved in the patient’s care or treatment, except upon written authorization from the patient.” This prohibition, on its face, is extremely broad and again militates in favor of a great degree of caution when designing a social media strategy.
False & Misleading Advertising Using social media to market your medical practice can also lead to accusations of false and misleading advertising. As an example, facial plastic surgeons often use testimonials in their internet marketing efforts or other social media tools such as blogs, social network sites or video sites. Legally, there is nothing wrong with this informational technique as long as it is done properly. The Federal Trade Commission has issued its “Guides Concerning the Issue 3, 2015
Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”, 16 C.F.R. 255. These Guides address the application of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45), in the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. The Guides provide both definitional information as well as instructional considerations for the use of endorsements and testimonials. For example, “Endorsements” must reflect the honest opinions, bindings, beliefs or experience of the endorser.” Although that statement seems elementary, the Guides provide examples of endorsements that to some may seem acceptable but which, in fact, could actually violate the Act. Thus, if you are going to use endorsements or testimonials in your social media marketing efforts, it would be prudent to review these Guides before doing so. By understanding the Guides and applying them to your social media efforts any doubts about the propriety of your use of endorsements or testimonials can be addressed and easily resolved.
Litigation Risks Trial lawyers use social media too, as does the government, primarily for the purpose of obtaining information about a witness or the adverse party, often a defendant physician in a medical malpractice case. So what you say about yourself in the public portions of your social media account may be used against you at a regulatory proceeding or in a malpractice action. The extent of these kinds of pre-suit investigative techniques and the extent of subsequent pretrial discovery is beyond the scope of this article. Nevertheless, the message should be clear: anything you say in the public portions of your social media is potential evidence in a subsequent legal proceeding.
Legal Opinions Some marketing companies may claim that their marketing services, including social media, have been approved by “legal counsel.” Don’t let that fool you.
Instead, demand a copy of the legal opinion that the marketer is touting. Often, it never comes. But if it does, before you do anything, have it reviewed by a knowledgeable health law attorney first.
Conclusion Because of the regulatory and litigation risks, the decision to use social media in your medical practice is a simple riskreward analysis. The question is whether the rewards are worth the risks. The answer to that question depends on any number of variables, all of which must be determined on a physician by physician basis, often with the assistance of a health law attorney. But, if the decision is to use social media, it is the author’s view that if there is any doubt as to its content, it should be left out; the reward is probably not worth the risk.
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Wealth Management
By Scott Jarred
Individual, business, and online reputation management oh my! A term that is regularly spoken in the public relations and digital marketing fields, the heart of reputation management is the influencing and/or control of an individual’s or business’s reputation; online reputation management measures the impact of your digital footprint. But while all this talk is happening about these areas of reputation management, why are individuals not speaking with their advisor about one of their most important aspects to reputation management: the reputation management of their legacy. By Scott Jarred, CFP®, CEO of Jarred Bunch Consulting 12
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hile personal and professional reputation management is important, many of us can lose sight of applying that same reputation management to what we will leave behind: our legacy. Legacies often come in a monetary form and are left behind to family members as a way to provide financial security, or can even be used to make a large charitable contribution. And why shouldn’t your legacy’s reputation receive adequate attention? After all, you’re leaving behind a small piece of yourself aren’t you?
Reputation Management & Your Legacy’s Bottom Line For marketing and public relations professionals, conversations with clients routinely center on how poor reputation management can damage a business’s bottom line. Poor reputation management in your financial life can negatively affect your legacy’s bottom line just the same. Legacies are not only meant to leave something behind to those we love. They are meant to be a reflection of who we are, causing our desire to personally determine the future of our wealth and how that wealth is going to be distributed over generations to Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
come center stage. To feed this desire, many people create wills, and keep the beneficiary information associated with their different assets up to date. However, transferring wealth from one generation to another is just one piece of a complex puzzle; the other pieces involve the need to protect your interests and your wealth. Up to date wills and beneficiary information may not fill in the missing pieces, leaving your legacy incomplete, your wishes failing to be upheld, and your wealth open to erosion.
A Game Changing Supreme Court Decision A common asset on many people’s balance sheet, IRAs, just like any qualified retirement investment, are creditor protected. In the past, this has made them an ideal medium for wealth transfer and legacy protection. Unfortunately, the law has something new to say about Inherited IRAs. In the summer of 2014, the case of Clark v. Rameker had made it all the way to the Supreme Court. Heidi Heffrom-Clark inherited an IRA with roughly $450,000 in it in 2000, and when she and her husband were forced to declare bankruptcy in 2010, Clark stated that the remaining $300,000 Issue 3, 2015
R E P U TAT I O N M A N AG E M E N T in the Inherited IRA was exempt from the bankruptcy estate, based on the common belief that since it was an IRA, it was creditor protected. In 2014, the Supreme Court disagreed. Their decision: Inherited IRAs are NOT creditor protected. Setting a precedent for cases to come, the Supreme Court concluded that Inherited IRAs are fundamentally different from personally owned IRAs, they lack a retirement purpose, are subject to an entirely different set of rules concerning use and distribution of the funds, and that Inherited IRAs are no longer used for retirement purposes but are rather a liquid asset. The ruling was based on the Bankruptcy Code Sections 532(b)(3)(C) and (d)(12), which states that a creditor exempt asset depends on the conjunction of tax deferral and the assets’ status as “retirement funds;” in other words, just because an IRA provides tax benefits does not mean it is a creditor protected asset.
The Exception or The Rule? Up until the 2014 ruling, there had been previous instances where an Inherited IRA’s status as a creditor protected asset had been upheld. However, these instances typically occurred in states with Issue 3, 2015
specific laws protecting them; many times, this is the exception, not the rule. There are only a handful of states that have laws in place to protect Inherited IRAs. Now, did Clark’s parent know that their state did not have such laws in place? Probably not. And who would know that, aside from legal professionals? If your state says “IRAs are protected,” this can also leave much open to interpretation; rather than crossing your fingers and hoping the plan you have for your legacy works out, or spending hours with legal counsel examining state laws and loop holes that can arise, take to heart the fact that leaving your legacy’s reputation to chance can put everything you have worked to leave behind at risk.
Proactive Legacy Reputation Management A proactive approach to managing your legacy’s reputation starts by implementing strategies capable of safeguarding your family’s success, by leaving nothing open to interpretation. Acting as a double-edge sword, a trust is one such strategy that provides security and compliance with your stated wishes. Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
Rather than naming individuals as the beneficiaries on your personal IRA, a proactive step in legacy reputation management would be implement a trust, and then naming the trust as the beneficiary. A trust of this nature is drafted with creditor protection features that allow the trust to hold the funds and allows the trustee to make distributions to the trust’s beneficiaries. Other benefits include minimizing capital gains and estate taxes, maintaining privacy through its ability to avoid probate, and retaining control of and preserving your wealth should you ever become incapacitated. Your legacy is a piece of you, left behind to carry out your last wishes and to provide security to those you can no longer physically be there for. Poor legacy reputation management can leave everything that you’ve worked so hard to build open to unnecessary risk. We can help you take a proactive approach to managing your legacy’s reputation today. Disclosure: The information addressed herein is not meant to be construed as tax or legal advice. Jarred Bunch Consulting does not offer tax, legal, or estate planning advice. You should consult with a legal or tax professional concerning your individual circumstances. 13
5 Marketing Mistakes You Might Be Making By Heather Urquides
Most doctors don’t have marketing teams. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try to spread the word about their great work on their own. Whatever you decide to do – do it well. Full Circle PR created this list of common medical marketing mistakes:
1. O nly Numbers Matter.
3. Bad Vibe Greetings.
Everyone thinks their golf buddies and neighbors currently refer to them, yet that’s not always the case. Same goes for thinking that once a doctor refers to you, he always will. Know your referral numbers and sources. Make sure the data itself is accurate with periodic spot checks at the data entry point. It’s common for front desk staff to skip this step, or pick one of the top choices in a drop-down menu to save time.
No amount of marketing is going to fix an unfriendly staff. You just spent hardearned money to market your practice, but it won’t matter if prospective patients get a chilly reception. Your front desk staff can make or break your practice just by simply answering the phone. They are key to turning every inquiry into an appointment. Every staff member should help sell and enhance the overall patient experience.
2. Off-Target Messaging.
4. Don’t be Offensive.
Brochures and marketing materials build brand loyalty and establish expertise. Make sure all your materials are worthy of time and germane to your patients and practice. Outdated information that is poorly printed on your office copy paper is not going to make a good impression.
This seems like common sense, but we’ve seen it time and time again. Physicians looking to build lucrative referral relationships with other physicians will engage in off-color jokes or political talk that has the potential to kill the deal before it even begins. Stay friendly and upbeat and neutral.
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5. Spending a Ton on a Website and Failing to Use it. Congratulations on getting a fabulous, interactive website that is both informative and attractive. Bonus kudos if your site is mobile friendly. But too many physicians, or business people overall, create a website and then forget about it. A website should be a work in progress, a platform for continued conversation between you and your patients. Your website, and any social media accounts, need to be updated and supplemented with new information. Use them to tout your latest service offerings or new equipment, share testimonials from happy patients and keep patients informed of the latest treatment trends and insurance issues. Also, don’t have a Facebook page or a Twitter account if you’re not going to use it.
Issue 3, 2015
Does your financial advisor work as hard as you do?
Does your financial advisor... ...ask you the right questions? ....have the right credentials and experience? ...listen thoughtfully to your concerns? ...provide regular, comprehensive check-ups?
Is it time for a second opinion? R U T H E R F O R D A S S E T P L A N N I N G KEITH A. AMBURGEY MBA, CFP Š , CFA
813-343-4501 A FU L L S ERVIC E, ZERO -COMMI S S ION, F E E -ONLY A D V I S O R Y
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Marketing by the I
n addition to doctors’ core mission of providing quality care to patients, they also are facing lower reimbursements, competitive referral patterns, HIPAA regulations and increasing challenges with insurance companies -on top of maintaining and growing their patient base. “All of these challenges underscore the need for marketing and public relations,” said Michele Krohn, president and founder of Full Circle PR, a national medical marketing firm. “It’s important for physicians to differentiate their practices from the competition and to develop fruitful relationships with other medical professionals and the community to grow their businesses. That requires outreach that is consistent, persistent, and carefully targeted.” Krohn started her marketing career working for BayCare Health Systems in Clearwater. She soon noticed that physicians were desperately seeking ways to grow their practices. She knew she could help. She started Full Circle PR out of her home in 2007. Since then the agency has grown to assist nearly 300 physicians across 17 states. Based in Tampa, Krohn’s unique approach to medical marketing employs traditional marketing and public relations professionals, as well as physician liaisons who develop and establish relationships as the face of the clients with referring physician offices and other community networks to increase patient volume. The agency represents solo practitioners, new and established, and large national 16
In today’s competitive health care industry, marketing and public relations are more important than ever. But finding the time for such efforts can seem like a luxury for physicians given the increasing complexities required to run a successful practice. health care systems. Services range from generating media exposure for the client and managing online physician reputations to creating patient brochures and colleaguefocused case studies to generate referrals. The Hillsborough County Medical Association has used Full Circle PR since 2009. “Michele and her team have revamped our brochures twice, recommended modifications for our website, and introduced us to more professionally electronic communication methods – providing fresh and more appealing marketing tools for the association,” said Debbie Zorian, the association’s executive director. Effective marketing and public relations can help so many physicians, but are often overlooked by small- to medium-sized groups, Zorian said. Often, practices feel like they don’t have the money for marketing.
“The best investment you can make to care for more patients is to partner with experts to market your practice,” said Michael Krohn, Full Circle’s vice president and general counsel. Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
A well-established Tampa Bay area cardiology practice saw a 17 percent increase in new patients after working with Full Circle. Over a three-year period, Full Circle also generated media exposure for the practice that was equivalent to $825,000 in ad space. Krohn agreed to share some basic tenants of medical marketing with Doctor’s Life physicians and practice administrators looking to grow.
Know Your Numbers Analytics are key to growing a practice. Doctors need to understand their current base patient base to determine how to expand it. Where are patients hearing about the practice? Have you identified your top referral sources? Find out where patients are coming from, and thank the sender. If patients have great personal stories, ask if they’d be willing to write an online review or be featured in a news release. Did patients find your contact number from your website directly? Or from another online listing or social media account? The answers to these questions can help reveal areas that need improvement. Have you Googled yourself lately? Your online reputation can be the first thing potential patients see. Doctors can lose potential patients over something as simple as a bad review or comment.
Strategize Once a baseline is established, develop a growth plan. Which patients do you want more Issue 3, 2015
NUMB3RS not only educate and build relationships while conducting in-person office visits, they also help plan open house and thank you events to cement new and existing relationships. For example, Full Circle planned a movie night for a group of cardiothoracic surgeons in Venice, Fla., to help the practice develop new relationships and maintain current referral relationships. The feedback made it clear that the event helped generate goodwill for the practice within the medical community, and the CEO of the sponsoring hospital asked that the event be repeated. “Full Circle has played a key role in generating new patient referrals for us,” said Dr. Debra Freeman of CyberKnife Centers of Tampa Bay. “They have been our ‘face’ out in the community, making connections between our practices and both patients and physicians.” Freeman said topic-focused luncheons, community presentations, media promotions and patient and physician appreciation events helped increase the numbers of radiation therapy patients they were receiving.
Stand Out
of? Is there more of a specific private payer or more of a higher reimbursed procedure you would like more of? Achieving this can be as simple as thanking referring physicians who send you those types of patients or procedures, and making time each week or month to reach out to new potential referral sources. At Full Circle PR, physician liaisons Issue 3, 2015
It’s not enough to simply reach out to potential referral sources. Doctors need to have materials and messages that explain their experience and expertise. They need to convey why they are better than their competition, their areas of specialty, their training and experience, and also include practical information like office locations and insurances accepted. 21st Century Oncology, the largest global, physician-led provider of integrated cancer care services, has contracted with Full Circle for several years. The Fort Myers-based company operates 182 treatment centers, including 147 centers located in 17 states and 35 centers located in six countries in Latin America. “We love the team’s energy, focus, creativity, and dedication to our business,” said Julie Boynton, the company’s corporate brand manager. Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
“Full Circle PR is more than a public relations agency; they are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, no matter what curve balls you throw at them,” she said. “Knowing you have that kind of dependability on your team is an invaluable asset.”
Be a Data Disciple Practices that stop at outreach are missing a crucial element required for expansion. Tracking results is imperative to ensuring continued growth and focusing your marketing budget to maximize the return on investment. What strategies are working the best? Which ones aren’t? Did the event bring in new patients? What are the latest trends in referrals? It is important to have a system in place that tracks referral and patient patterns. At Full Circle, numbers are everything. It allows the agency to be able to report, for instance, that after a year of handling marketing for a radiation oncology group in the Tampa Bay area, the office saw a 21 percent increase in patient volume. Of the 96 new physicians that referred patients to the office that year, 50 percent had been visited by a Full Circle physician liaison. A Tampa Bay area dermatology practice reported a 137 percent return on investment from Full Circle’s efforts. The practice, which has two locations, saw 147 new patients attributed to Full Circle’s marketing efforts over 10 months, and 30 new referring physicians. Tampa Bay E.N.T, which has six convenient locations in Hillsborough County, recently hired Full Circle. “We partner with Full Circle PR to manage our social media, customer satisfaction and referring sources in the Tampa Bay area,” said Carlos Vargas, practice administrator for Tampa Bay E.N.T. “They provide a new spectrum in networking that fosters business relationships and profitability.” 17
Buying a New Car without the Drama in Four Easy Steps By Keith Amburgey CFP® CFA® EA MBA
We recently decided to trade in our 9 year old family SUV for a new one. I wanted to share my experience and some tips, which can save you from a lot of aggravation the next time you buy a car. Step 1: Shopping This is the fun and easy part. My wife, Annette, and I visited several dealers and test drove a variety of vehicles. We eventually settled on the Mercedes ML Class. The goal here is to figure out exactly what you want but do not start negotiating with the dealer. Tell them you are still deciding.
absolute terms because your MSRP will vary depending on options, just understand the typical discount you should expect. Note that the average discount from MSRP will vary greatly with the make and model of the car. Mercedes ML’s trade at a big discount, but buyers of the Land Rover LR4 are paying full price at the moment due to supply / demand imbalances.
Step 2: Research Pricing Online
Step 3: Get Actual Quotes from Several Dealers
I did not follow the advice above precisely, but rather I let the Mercedes of Tampa dealer quote us a price on our ML400. At least I was smart enough to get out of the dealership, and had the salesperson call me later that day. He said he was only able to offer a discount from MSRP of $2,000. There are a variety of websites that will tell you the average price a car is being sold for. In our case, truecar.com suggested a $3,000 discount from MSRP, while edmunds.com suggested $5,000 on average. So I knew his offer was low, and tended not to believe him when he said that “since I wanted to order the vehicle, they could only discount what Mercedes would allow”. Goal: Know average price cars are trading relative to MSRP. Don’t think in 18
There is nothing worse than negotiating inside a dealership. Fortunately this can be completely avoided. Almost all dealers have an internet sales department. They generally will respond to internet requests and email requests. I used edmunds.com to spec out the car I wanted and also to contact several dealers. The website asks for a phone number and email. Be prepared to get a lot of calls – but let them all go to voicemail!! Most of them will also communicate by email. I went to the mbusa.com website and created a “build” of my ideal car. I then sent this to 4 dealers, including one in Orlando. A dealer in St Pete offered me $4,500 off of MSRP. The Orlando dealer, who was part of the huge national chain Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
AutoNation, offered $6,200 off MSRP. So we decided to order from them. Goal: Get ‘apples to apples’ quotes from several dealers by email. Avoid phone calls and visits, because that is just an opportunity for the salesmen to talk you into something. Note that it is a common trick for dealers to add options to your build that you don’t want or need - be on the lookout for this.
Step 4: Sort out the Trade-In and Financing It’s best to consider your trade-in as a separate transaction. You can sell the car yourself, or to a variety of used car dealers. There is a company for example called CarMax.com, which I have found to be a great way to sell a used car. Their prices Issue 3, 2015
are often better than what the dealer will offer, since they sell the cars themselves whereas a dealer will most likely unload the car in the wholesale market. Note that the best price will always be if you sell the car yourself, but this is a hassle and might not be worth your time. We were trading in a 2006 Lexus GX, which according to edmunds.com had a $15k trade-in value. The Tampa Mercedes dealer only offered $13k. Even the Orlando dealer, who was so good on the new car sale, only offered $13k. By far the best price we received was from CarMax, who conveniently has a store in Tampa. They offered $17,000. Also, consider other sources of financing such as a home equity line of Issue 3, 2015
credit or a bank loan. Penfed.com, for example, has great auto loan rates. Focus only on the upfront price with the dealer, not monthly lease payments. This is the best way to keep things clean and simple. You can always add on financing or a lease after you agree on the price.
Summary So in the end we will save $4,000 on the new car as compared to the first price we received while in a dealership. We also saved another $4,000 on the trade-in as compared to the first dealer’s offer. The process was relatively stress free for us because: 1) We already had a source of financing via a home equity credit line, Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
2) We were not in a hurry and could afford to order a car with exactly what we wanted, 3) We insisted on negotiating by email, 4) W e have options regarding the trade-in, so we were not beholden to the dealer for a package price AND I didn’t have to show up in person with the old car to get a trade-in price. As for leasing vs. purchase, this depends on your circumstances. In general, if you tend to own cars a long time then I suggest outright cash purchase or some form of car loan. If you like to get a new car every few years, or you are trying out something very new and are not sure you will like it, then perhaps a lease makes sense. 19
Does Your Online Reputation Dictate the Success or Failure of Your Practice?
By JODI KAPLAN CEO Peak Reputation, Inc.
What MUST you do to maximize your practice’s positive online reputation? 1. M anage Your Offline Reputation Your online reputation is built first upon the offline experiences of your patients. Most negative online reputations are not the result of a competitor or disgruntled exemployee sabotage. (Although some are!) Real reviews, from real patients heavily influence how your practice is perceived online. Ensuring patients have a positive experience with your services, products, facilities, and staff translates into positive reviews online and a strong foundation for a positive web presence. Having a system in place to deal with dissatisfied patients while they are still in your location or still engaged with your staff adds a layer of security against poor online reviews. It allows you to answer questions and make decisions that address and resolve issues before they become online complaints.
“Clinic wait times do not just affect overall patient satisfaction, but also specifically affect the perception of providers and the quality of care.” Source: AJMC - 5/20/2014
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2. C ollect and Monitor Patient Reviews and Feedback If you don’t know what people are saying about your practice, you don’t know what your online reputation is, much less what must be done for effective management! Negative reviews and comments on popular sites need to be addressed immediately. If you feel they highlight actual problems with your practice, take the time to respond both publicly on the review and privately with the patient through an email or phone call to make it right. This allows you not only to lessen the impact of that review, but also provides the opportunity to correct an issue and satisfy an unsatisfied patient. You may be able to change that negative experience into a positive one. As an added bonus, fast and thoughtful patient-centered responses to less-than-positive reviews show future patients that you care about their experience and value their feedback as a way to improve your practice. People really want to be heard.
3. Learn a little SEO to rank higher in organic search results Search Engine Optimization (SEO) might sound like some high tech service you need to pay for, but if you are able to produce your own web pages, blog posts consistently on your website & regular Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
social media authentic and unique content, you have enough technical knowledge to employ a lot of the most important tactics involved. Simple SEO steps like picking your keywords, structuring your titles a certain way, and using tags and headers appropriately can greatly increase how search engines view and index your site.
Healthcare Search by the Numbers • 70% of appointments start with search engines. • 90% of patients have no healthcare brand in mind when they begin their online search. • $3000 - The average amount each patient spends on hospitals per year. • $280b - The amount of healthcare revenue influenced by local search each year. When SEO is done correctly a search engine will go into their index (databank) and easily see that your webpage clearly has the information a search engine user is looking for and rank it higher in search results. Take some time to educate yourself on SEO tactics by reading up (in books or online) on search engine optimization, or seeing what classes your local Small Business Administration offices are providing in online marketing. It’s very important to remember to find current information as search engines improve the way they gather information a couple of times of year, so SEO tactics from 2009 aren’t going to help you today. Issue 3, 2015
4. Claim your profile on social media sites If you are not active on social media you might not know that very little information is required to open a social media account in any name you want. Claiming your company name/practice name is a crucial step in protecting and building your online reputation. The good profile names – those of big name companies, witty phrases and involving high ranking keywords – are usually snatched up quick, but so are common names and words that may be part of your practice’s name. On the rare chance one of your competitors notices that your practice’s name has not been claimed they can register it simply to keep you from having it, or worse create an account and use it for fake postings that could confuse your patients. In order to repair your online reputation, you must
Issue 3, 2015
actively post content to social media sites. At least twice per day every day will greatly aid in squashing the bad posts as well as improve your SEO. Building a healthy social media presence on the social networks your patients use is a powerful and effective marketing tactic that any practice will benefit from. But if you don’t have the time and know-how, or just aren’t ready to start, protect your future social media efforts and your online reputation by claiming your practice and personal names on social media sites. Use a photo or your logo, write a brief one or two sentence description and fully register your business on the major sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. Then consider what social networks impact your specialty, and register on those as well. If you are not going to monitor or actively use a certain (or any) of the social media accounts, be sure to clearly state so on your profile with a “Great at diagnosing health issues, horrible at Facebook. Visits us at DiagnosticClinicTampa. com.” posting to let people know you aren’t active on that site and where to find you.
Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
“About 65% of American adults are aware of online physician rating websites, according to a poll published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association.” Source: U.S. News & World Report, 12/12/2014
5. Claim your profile on review and local sites The same way social media sites help practices be found online, review and local sites show up high in search engine rankings, providing more exposure so it’s vital that you claim your profiles on these high traffic sites. Yelp, Google, Yellow Pages and similar sites let you claim your practice and reply to reviews and comments. Additionally, you are able to provide your locations, photos, open hours, description of your services, payment options and more. You even have the ability to offer website-specific coupons and discounts or advertise specials and sales. Many of the websites already have practices listed or allow patients to create a page for a practice that is not listed if they want to leave a review. Don’t let a disgruntled patient fill out a profile for your practice. Think of review and local site listings as free, hands-off marketing at work 24/7, and claim or create your business profile. Fill in as much information as the site allows, including photos, and put a system in place to monitor what customers are saying about you on these third-party sites. HIPAA compliant software like GetYourReviewOn™ automates this process for you. Online reputation management might seem like a big practice or hospital problem, but if your small practice isn’t monitoring and managing what is being said and found in search engine results online, you are at great risk of suffering the negative effects of a bad online reputation. Lack of exposure, negative reviews, false or old information online is just a few of the issues that could hurt your practice. However, not benefiting from the free advertising and marketing that a positive online presence will provide a small practice might be the more tragic side of not managing your online reputation. 21
Increase Social Media Engagement:
10 Ways to Optimize
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Your Social Media Content By Dale Griffen, R.N., VP The Go! Agency
hen it comes to social media, the nucleus of all engagement is content. No matter what changes occur on social media sites, the one thing that will remain the same is the importance of well-executed, optimized, and engaging content. Can you imagine if retail businesses treated their customers like this? They would be out of business pretty quickly. Patients are looking for availability, accessibility, and efficiency. They want to be able to easily get an appointment where they are seen on time. Here are ten of my favorite tips for helping your social media marketing content truly “pop” online so that you will get increased engagement through shares, likes, comments and much more! 1. Keywords: These are absolutely essential. The words or phrases that your target audience use to find your company (both online and offline) should always be handy and used as much as possible when you are writing your content. These keywords can be turned into hashtags and will help increase your visibility and engagement. 2. Be Conversational: When you read your posts out loud, do they sound the way you would say it to someone? Does the post draw you closer, or push you away? Remember to be “social” i.e. conversational. Having your content sound “human” and not scripted is absolutely essential. 3. Use Different Content Lengths: Not every social media site limits you to 140 characters. So writing one update and sending it through to all social media networks is not the best rule. The ideal way of optimizing your content for size is to begin by writing a short update for Twitter (keep it to 120 characters to promote sharing and retweets with comments). Then write a slightly longer one for Facebook and LinkedIn, enhancing those posts with more engaging 22
Attempting to master social media marketing can be both confusing and overwhelming at times. Keeping track of all of the latest changes and trends, while trying to implement all of the newest tips and tricks can be challenging for a busy company. content, adding further optimization with differing hashtags, tags, links, and more. 4. Call to Action: There’s a lot of power in asking for what you want. People move through social media content so fast that they don’t have time to read between the lines. If you want someone to perform a certain action, tell them what you want: “read this story”, “click this link”, “sign up today”, etc. 5. Shorten Your Links: With many social media sites, size matters. So when you are sharing a link and it takes up nearly 60% of your available character allocation, a link shortening tool will save space, and prevent the long link from potentially getting broken and unusable. 6. Hashtags: Add a # in front of 1-2 keywords per post to make it easier for users to find your messages and their specific theme, content, or terms. In basic terms, a hashtag indexes a post to be about a certain topic, rather than just mentioning it in the conversation. By hash tagging your KEYWORDS within your social media content, you will enhance your “find-ability” on the social web exponentially, thus optimizing it. Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
7. Tagging: This is a way of connecting YOUR social media content with another person, company, topic, or event. So whereas #hashtags connect general KEYWORDS together, tagging a person, company, brand, or event will connect your post to those specific social media accounts. This is a great way to increase your visibility with potential customers, referral sources, and influencers. This is essential in helping your content gain more visibility, and engagement through association. 8. Photos/Images: A picture is worth a thousand words. By adding a complimentary image, you further engage your audience. For example, think about when you scroll through the newsfeed, are you reading the content or looking at the pictures? You’ll find yourself engaged with visuals more quickly than the actual written words. 9. Videos: Videos also really promote enhanced engagement. Many times, a video can lead you to actually read the social media post associated with it, which you might have normally overlooked. 10. Don’t Always Rely on Third-Party Scheduling Tools: Especially when it comes to Facebook and LinkedIn. Your hashtags won’t work, your tagging won’t show up, and your previews are tough to edit. Not to mention the fact that many sites don’t add posts scheduled through third-party tools to the insights that help you understand what posts are successful and which ones aren’t. Add your content directly to Facebook and LinkedIn to escape this risk, and you will have full control over how effective your content is. It will take extra time, but will increase your overall effectiveness! While the tips above may take a little extra time, it is a worthwhile investment. Engaging your audience and having the tools to make your content more findable is absolutely essential to social media success! Issue 3, 2015
Want to help the world? Do nothing. Time is a scarce resource. And these days we all spend way too much of it with our noses buried in a phone. Even when we’re with family, friends, driving our cars – that darn phone is in our hands and in our faces. So we created an app that encourages you to take breaks from your phone on a daily basis. And as a reward for the time you spend doing nothing on your phone, we’ll go out in the world and do good on your behalf. The more breaks you take, the more good we do.
Just download the app. Start the timer. And take a break from your phone for the greater good.
donothingdogood.com
A good for nothing app from