One of the most critical problems facing hospitals is attracting and keeping patients. Outpatient procedures have increased 30% in the last 11 years while inpatient days have declined 8%. As hospitals have attempted to fight this trend, there have been very few tools proven to help CEOs and Marketing Directors retain and attract patients. However, a company has surfaced in South Florida that targets the attraction and retention of patients in a way that never existed.
Jeff Pate, the COO of MedCenterDisplay teaches hospital CEOs that if they dont take the opportunity to tell current patients and their families all that their hospitals offer, the CEO is missing a golden opportunity. According to Pate, it is critical for hospital CEOs and Marketing Directors to tell current and future patients about the services they provide, why their hospital is different from other hospitals, and what their patients must do to optimize their healthcare. The economic importance cannot be overstated when CEOs consider that a single inpatient admission averages $11,761 in net income and a new or retained outpatient in sub-specialty services like Womens Health or Occupational Therapy will average $3,202 – $6,186 of income.
It makes sense if you think about it. At the most critical point in time when hospitals must communicate with patients, they cant. When patients enter an emergency room, clinic or front door of a hospital, they briefly interact with the check-in person and then wait for their name to be called so their visit can begin.
It is during this wasted down time when patients are waiting that many physicians and nursing staff wish they could teach patients more about a specific illness as well as other hospital services. Now physicians, nurses and administrators can immediately communicate with patients and their families during down time. As Pate explained, everyone involved with a hospital visit is sensitive to time – the patients, the physicians and the nursing team all want to use the visit wisely and in a way that benefits patient care. Pate suggested that “using the MCD system to educate patients about their disease or who they need to call for a particular healthcare problem is wonderfully advantageous and does not exist with any other media.”
Like many other things in todays healthcare environment, technology has allowed advancements in developing patient communication networks, but the age-old business question exists: Should the hospital attempt to build its own system or contract with an experienced third party? Its all about “costs and core business focus,” said Pate. If you have a huge IT budget and several FTEs to throw at learning an ancillary technology, then you may conclude building your own network is an option. However, for nearly no-cost to a hospital, MedCenterDisplay provides a turn-key solution and presents the hospital in a first class manner that is the envy of other hospitals. Pate said that he had several hospitals request his company remove expensive and poor quality home-grown systems to install the higher quality MedCenterDisplay product.
Examples of the MedCenterDisplay system demonstrate that every MCD client looks like one of the national television networks created a customized channel specifically for that hospital, including color schemes and logos. Pate explained that the hallmark of MedCenterDisplays success is that it looks like the hospital designed it exclusively for themselves, but all customers share the technology backbone, designers, and content personnel dedicated to running the patient network very professionally.
So how does it work? MedCenterDisplay places 47″ LCD screens that are remotely managed from their national office. Once the install is complete, digital content for each screen is tailored to the unique audience of each location. The company provides the full potential for patient communication with a focus on education, hospital branding and cross clinical marketing. Screen content changes real time, and updates are immediately seen at any given hospital. Pates MedCenterDisplay support staff counsel each user as to the recommended content that a screen should include each month. Impressively, Pates team can change content by pushing a button in his Nashville office to a screen across the country.
Pate said MedCenterDisplay has an extensive content library for about 60 of the medical subspecialties most prevalent in the US medical system. “We believe that patient education and stronger communication is beneficial to every hospital and every patient.”
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