<p>I am thinking of starting a magazine where I would introduce physicians and health care professionals to the community of potential patients. I am wondering what the best, most effective way would be to market these doctors/professionals.</p>
<p>As CC has a large percentage of intelligent people - and people who make these kinds of decisions regarding who to choose to treat their families - I am wondering what you look for in a potential doctor. Is there any type of advertisement/article that would make you interested in a certain physician?</p>
<p>I would like to go beyond the traditional ad and perhaps write articles about each provider. Would this have value and interest for you?</p>
<p>I had an acquaintance who started a business helping doctors switch from traditional to concierge. Her method (and she became quite successful) was to have the physicians write informative articles about their specialties, their approach and the like.</p>
<p>I know that I (more than once) read several of the articles and felt that some of these physicians had similar outlooks to mine. Had I been in the market for a new doctor I may have picked up a phone to schedule an in person meeting to see if I had found a match.</p>
<p>We have several local magazines that rate medical providers annually. Also local consumer publication that does so in even greater detail.
I also use other providers to get recommendations and even yelp and other sites to get a good selection.
Of course it also depends on what insurance they take. ;)</p>
<p>Our local free newspaper that is mailed to most households on the island weekly interviews (with a photo) a different MD every month, asking questions about their job, training, cases they treat, etc. It seems like a good way for people to learn more about different medical issues and some of the docs who work in varied fields.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine anyone taking the time to read a magazine that is basically all advertising. I think the $10 sports physical is a more likely approach…people switch based on their own experience or word of mouth from trusted friends.</p>
<p>Good doctors do not need any marketing. I would never go to one who advertises on TV, print media or internet. One reason some doctors get good “reviews” on yelp, facebook etc not because they are good in diagnostics,but because they give the patients what they want, eg, medications that other physicians deem unnecessary.
Most new doctors join multi-specialty group practices now, they have all the business they need through internal referrals.</p>
<p>^^^Exactly. We get a free glossy circular every month that is filled with ads for quack plastic surgeons. The best doctors rely on referrals from their patients to build their practices, I would never visit a doctor that had to resort to advertising in a magazine. All of the major health plans in California have web sites that list doctor credentials and often include a paragraph from the doctor regarding their philosophy and hobbies.</p>
<p>Nearly all the docs I know have no need for additional business and are very careful about selecting new patients–referral basis only or primarily. They don’t want to get stuck hiring a translator (out of their own pocket) and/or patients who won’t pay their bills and/or haggle over the cost of care and/or are non-compliant.</p>
<p>Most patients are happy to refer good healthcare professionals to their loved ones and that is where many of us find our patients. The primary care docs refer the patients to specialists or they can’t be seen for ages (even with referral, sometimes there are very long waiting lists).</p>
<p>Membership on an insurance panel dictates patient flow. New docs have no trouble finding patients, though rude doctors may have trouble retaining patients.</p>
<p>Not necessarily. Mrs. Kluge is working on advertising for a “Doc in the box” medical clinic - an urgent care center set up to deal with sprains, strains, minor illnesses and the like. A lot of worker’s comp, uninsured patients, etc. It’s a very competitive business. (Local hospitals are setting up their own on- and off-site limited service urgent care centers in direct competition.) Figuring out how the get the most bang for your buck is a tough one. This area of medicine is not really relationship driven, which makes it more akin to commercial product marketing.</p>
<p>And yeah - they did the “article written by the doctor” approach among other things.</p>
<p>I’ve had a few strains and sprains and didn’t go to the doctor for any of them. You can get a surprising amount of stuff to help those things heal at CVS. I have had other lower leg problems that I’ve solved with parts from Home Depot that the podiatrist couldn’t fix - because the fix, while simple, wasn’t well-known among doctors - this was before the real age of the internet.</p>
<p>I remember one time a few years ago when I went after a tennis ball, got caught up in the netting dividing courts, and tripped and rolled off the ground. I had a sprained wrist, cuts around one eye, a bruised chest and some cuts on my leg. I went into the bathroom, cleaned myself up and then finished out the match. Of course things hurt quite a bit later on and I realized that I had a sprained wrist and drove to CVS to get a wrist support.</p>
<p>BAD IDEA. Physician here. The doc in a box clinic, not the physician, was advertising and those cheap sports physicals are a community service, not a way to drum up business. I find the thought of trying to make money by advertising doctors horrendous, not very ethical. What would be your source of verification of information? How can you promise accuracy? Good physicians don’t need new patients, they have too many once they get established. Most physicians today are part of a group that will announce their addition to their staff. I don’t see a need to advertise the way you propose, I only see it as a way for you to make money.</p>