1. Market low staff turnover rates. Keeping the same staff members at your ASC helps demonstrate to patients and physicians that the nurses, technicians and other staff members are happy working at the facility, which can attract outside physicians to the center. “We have people working at this surgery center who’ve been here since we opened seven years ago,” Kathie Stewart, administrator of Cascade Spine Center in Tualatin, Ore., says. “Patients see that we have the same nursing staff, the same billing staff and the same CRNA. Just by word of mouth other physicians hear about our low staff turnover.” When the staff members work with surgeons on a consistent basis, they know the routine and the treatment or surgeries can be performed more efficiently.
2. Ask existing physicians to attract their colleagues. If your existing physicians talk to their colleagues about the efficiency, outcomes and ease of scheduling at your facility, other physicians are likely to contact you. “There’s no better referral than [one physician] talking to another physician,” says Bill Gilbert, vice president of marketing at AdvantEdge Healthcare Solutions.
Mr. Gilbert says this strategy can attract physician-investors whose professional fees have waned in recent years. “This is a time for centers to market themselves to new surgeons,” says Mr. Gilbert. “One way is to show the center’s books to new surgeons and get them excited about the financial opportunities,” he says. “If another center down the road closed and the surgeons are talking about going to a center that’s 20 miles away, and you have to go past your center to get there, you need to reach out. You need to show them what the upside is and use the data to show them your center will be a great financial return.”
3. Look for diversity among candidates and current physicians. Many physician groups may be looking for a clean-cut, conservative physician for their group, but there are several qualified candidates who you might pass up if you judge them on looks, according to a report in AAOS Now. Patients are attracted to physicians from different ethnic, gender and racial backgrounds, which means having a variety of physician partners at the practice is important, according to the report.
4. Develop a program around a new subspecialty. Program development is key in recruitment of physicians and marketing that specialty to patients by essentially building programs around orthopedics, says eremy Bradshaw, vice president of operations at Denver-based HealthOne, which includes 12 surgery centers,. For example, we just formed a sports medicine institute at one of our locations, Centennial Medical Plaza, which includes a new pediatric orthopedic facility for kids and adolescents. Through that, we’ve recruited physicians from another facility because we didn’t have enough physicians from this particular specialty. Marketing efforts are underway to promote that program.
