Marketing is a topic that most private practices are interested in. Who doesn't want to get the word out about their practice and draw more patients, right? When we think about marketing, however, we often focus on the tactics. In other words, we think about whether an ad in the paper or a post-card or social media is better than mailing a letter to daycares in the area announcing the new doc that joined the practice. But marketing is … [Read more...]
How to Leverage Our Voices, Our Patients and Social Media
October 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Fed up with learning that many kids in her community were getting the measles, Dr. Natasha Burgert decided to take the vaccine epidemic in her city head on. Over the 12 weeks of summer, she partnered with her patient's families to support ShotAtLife. This vaccine advocacy group allowed her to have a way to actively respond to the measles epidemic that affected her Kansas City community. In just a few weeks, she collected $6,740. That is … [Read more...]
NCE AAP: Do You Know How To Market Your Medical Practice?
October 17, 2012 By 2 Comments
Most of the time, we think of marketing as a direct mail piece or an ad in the paper or a Yellow Pages ad. These things, however, are merely marketing tactics. They are not the essence of marketing. Marketing is much, much more. It is more than a pretty Facebook page or a website. It is more than an ad in the Yellow Pages or even an newsletter from your practice. All those things are important, mind you. But it isn't the extent of a marketing … [Read more...]
I Don’t Know How Else To Put This, But My Ebook Is Kind of a Big Deal
May 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you probably know about my e-book, 101 Ways to Transform Your Practice. If you haven’t picked it up (it is free by the way) I wanted to give you a little nudge to do so. Not everything in the ebook is going to work in your practice. But at the very least, I think the ebook will spark ideas that you would have not had otherwise. If you are still not convinced, then let me share this little … [Read more...]
Social Media: How to Use it to Improve your Practice
April 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment
If you are in the Chicago area, I wanted to let you know about a chance to hear me speak. I will be speaking about Social Media: How to Use it to Improve your Practice at the CCPA Annual Meeting. If you are not a CCPA member, I'd suggest to become one. They are a great GPO. If you dont' know what a GPO is or how it can help your practice out, click on THIS link to learn more about how a GPO can save you serious money. And to learn more … [Read more...]
Social Media, More Than Just a Presence
March 21, 2012 By 1 Comment
Having an online presence does five things: 1) It allows the practice to engage patient outside of the practice which is appealing to parents. 2) It creates a sense of community which shows what the practice is about. 3) It gives parents/patients a platform to share their positive experience about the practice; which is critical in the context of potential patients/parents evaluating one’s practice from online reviews. 4) It allows … [Read more...]
Do you need a social media policy for your medical practice?
April 27, 2011 By 2 Comments
I don't think you really need one. And here is why. Social media is merely a communication tools just like a telephone. We don't have a phone policy in place for employees yet I would assume they already know what is appropriate and what is not when talking with patients or parents on the phone. Thus we don't need a document to tell employees how to act online. A well written employee manual ought to be enough to set the proper … [Read more...]
New Pediatric Blog: So We Can Be Heard
April 2, 2011 By 1 Comment
Here is an example of how a simple video (in this case an ad) can make a point about an issue in a pretty clever way using YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPk5mtLMv94 What does this have to do with Pediatrics? Glad you asked. If we want to be heard, own our message, get the word out, we have to leverage social media. Why use social media? Because it has democratized media. 93 thousand hits rivals many small town publications (see … [Read more...]
Pediatric Practice Management Conference
May 8, 2010 By 1 Comment
At the risk of sounding like a “fan-boy” again, I wanted to inform you about an awesome pediatric focused practice management seminar coming up this summer. The seminar is hosted by Physician’s Computer Company and the courses include some pretty cool topics: EHR Panel Discussion How to get Government Funding for EHR How to be Successful in a Tough Economy Top Ten Legal Issues Practices Need to Know Negotiating in the New … [Read more...]
How Does One Deal With Physician Rating Sites?
February 21, 2010 By 10 Comments
It seems that every couple of months, I hear a story about how a group of doctors that are trying to stifle patient’s ability to post negative comments online. The online community of course strongly opposes the notion of giving patients “gag orders.” People argue that if one can rate their local restaurant or mechanic shop, then why can’t patients rate physician and their offices. I’ve given doctor’s rating sites a lot of … [Read more...]
I'm a practice administrator at a Pediatric office located in the western suburbs of Chicago. I write mostly about running a small business that happens to be a medical practice.
