1. Set competitive physician salaries. Your practice must compete in its own market, Mary Sturm, RN, director of patient care services for Surgical Management Professionals, says. This means that while national data on employee salaries can be a helpful tool, local market data is essential to ensuring competitive salaries for regional candidates. “We have several centers in the Minneapolis metropolitan market which have a very urban wage scale,” she says. “What we determined to be the [Minneapolis metropolitan] wage scale is very different from a smaller Iowa community,” she says.
She says this data can be acquired from national surveys that break down data into regions, but the best source may be the candidates themselves. “You get general information about what various categories in your community are getting paid just from the candidates in front of you,” she says. “You will find out what they’re requiring and demanding.” Set your salaries at a competitive rate to ensure employee attraction and retention. During the interview process, you will probably find out quickly if your proposed salary rate is too low.
2. Hire an established administrative and medical staff. We brought on an established administrator and hired nursing staff and scrub technician staff, which ultimately made a very efficient center that was patient-friendly, says David Ott, MD, founder of Gateway Surgery Center in Phoenix, Ariz. Now, the efficiency of the center is the best it’s ever been. The room turnover, which is measured from the time patient leaves the waiting room to see a physician to the time he or she comes back, is very quick. It’s as low as seven minutes, and that’s very key. That’s probably the most important sales point that physicians deal with. That comes from a very tightly established team approach.
3. Acquire latest technology. For anyone in the orthopedic industry, keeping up on the latest treatments available for patient healing and satisfaction is necessary, especially in diagnostic and interventional radiology and other ancillary resources, says Les Jebson, executive director at The University of Florida Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Institute in Gainesville, Florida.. The UF Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Institute has one of the largest motion analysis laboratories in the country, and are researching and examining concussion management technology software systems and laser therapy systems as other resources in their patient care arsenal. The practice can also consider bringing on physicians who are trained in new treatment options or from subspecialties that weren’t previously represented at the practice. These additions can be marketed to potential patients and give one practice an edge over another.
4. Keep the patient informed.Becky Mann, director of the Houston Orthopedic Surgery Center in Warner Robins, Ga., says that a well-informed patient is critical to the center’s mission of putting the patient first. The staff at Houston Orthopedic calls patients several times before and after their surgeries, according to Ms. Mann. During these calls, office staff members at Houston Orthopedic discuss scheduling and billing information while clinical staff members discuss preoperative and postoperative instructions with the patient. “We provide the patient with detailed preoperative and postoperative instructions in addition to a detailed account of what will occur on their day of surgery,” says Ms. Mann. “We don’t want any surprises for the patient.”
Tracy Moore, who works in the billing office, works to provide a personal touch to each financial phone call she makes to patients. “I try to explain how their insurance will pay and what the patient will need to pay,” she says. “These calls take time, but it is an excellent step to establishing a relationship with the patient.”
Michelle Reitz, office manager at Houston Orthopedic, says that informing patients about their insurance benefits is essential to patient satisfaction. “I feel it is essential for patients to understand their insurance benefits. I am here to offer any questions the patient may have regarding their insurance or financial concerns before or after their surgery,” says Ms. Reitz. “Often, patients have questions once they receive their Explanation of Benefits from their insurance company, and I am always willing to help explain how the claim was paid.”
In addition to keeping patients informed about their surgery and the facility, Houston Orthopedic’s physicians and nursing staff communicate with the patient frequently. “Our surgeons greet every patient before his or her surgery and meet with each patient’s family immediately after,” says Ms. Mann. “We want the patient-physician line of communication to go all the way through their time at our facility.” Each anesthesiologist assigned to a case also greets the patient and family before the procedure. Ms. Mann says that this introduction gives patients the opportunity to ask any questions about going under anesthesia and helps reduce billing questions about anesthesiologist fees that may arise later. “Our patients aren’t surprised when they get an anesthesiology bill,” she says. “Reducing uncertainty about billing is just as important as reducing uncertainty about the medical procedure when it comes to patient satisfaction.”
5. Build a marketing campaign that establishes the brand. One of the simplest ways to make a practice stand out is to dedicate marketing services toward building the facility’s name. Something as simple as using a recognizable logo can help the facility reach a better and more competitive position in the market. “We have a national approach to having a consistent look [across our multiple facilities in the country], so when somebody who is deeply involved in the spine industry sees our logo, they recognize without seeing the facility’s name that we are Laser Spine Institute,” says Dotty Bollinger, chief of medical operations at Laser Spine Institute in Tampa, Fla..
