Four Ways Practices Can Conduct Effective, Cost-efficient Outreach

3. Pounding the pavement

Huron Medical Group, a Cleveland Clinic practice located in East Cleveland, OH, practices patient outreach by integrating their efforts within the community.

"We've looked at innovative ways to do this because we have a lot of challenges that we face in the community that we serve," says Michael O'Connell, MHA, FACMPE, vice president, operations and physician services for Huron Medical Group. "A large portion of the patients we care for live below the poverty level and a significant proportion of the people we care for have diabetes or other chronic diseases. We also have the second most penetrating trauma patients in the state of Ohio, so we have a lot of gunshot and knife wounds."

So Huron talks to patrons in barber shops, holds a free breakfast with Santa for children, runs a program for at-risk youth, and constantly visits fire stations, police stations, grocery stores, and libraries to keep the community informed of their services.

"We go out to barber shops and we go out to beauty parlors and we give information to them and they do screening there and it's a great way for people to come together," O'Connell says. "It's been great to be able to do something like that. It really doesn't cost us any money—it means getting some commitment from beauty parlors and barber shops to do something like that."

4. Creating a great experience

Of course, one of the easiest ways to keep patients coming in is to provide a friendly, efficient experience for your current patients.

"Make sure you take outstanding care of the patients you got because they go out and talk," Baum says. "Each patient knows several dozen people that they can talk to about their healthcare problems. Each of those people know dozens, so if you take outstanding care and you're known as a compassionate caring physician—that you see people on time, that you call people back in a timely fashion, that you have a staff that is kind and gentle—if that word gets out there there's no better marketing or practice promotion than good word of mouth."

It's also important to be inviting when you're giving a screening or seminar, O'Connell says. Huron often gives participants relevant takeaways, such as gift bags filled with body wash, lip balm, soap, and a pedometer.

Making a little go a long way

All of the outreach methods mentioned here can make a big impression on your community without making a large dent in your budget.

"We don't have a lot of resources and we had to be creative and innovative in our approach," O'Connell says. "We've been able to achieve a growth of 10%-12% over a three-year period. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money—it's really about relationships and thinking about who you want to communicate to."

This kind of outreach doesn't necessarily mean you have to hire a community liaison; existing employees and brand advocates can easily fill that role.

"It's not about saying we need $100,000 for a marketing budget and if we don't have that we're not going to be effective," O'Connell says. "Our employees are wonderful advocates to spread the word about the services we provide. It doesn't have to be one person you hire to do this. You can get the current people that you have to build these different efforts and you have to build on that success."