Lessons from the Field: What is the Hospital Ambulatory Strategy and Branding?

Image by Pattie O'Loughlin from Pixabay.

My primary care physician ordered a couple of tests and left me the option to choose the location. Near me was a free-standing hospital system-based ambulatory care center.   When I called the central scheduling department of the health system in question, I asked if the center near me did those tests. I scheduled one of the tests because of some pretest requirements and the other test nearly immediately as diagnostic radiology was available on a walk-in basis.

Now, understand that I drive by this ambulatory medical center regularly and never had a clue that all this and more was available. In all honesty, I didn’t pay that much attention to the marketing either, as it focused on providing senior physician services that I did not need or have any interest in.

Why did the system place ‘senior” in the name?

When you put “senior” in the name, which is biased age-based segmentation and marketing, you automatically define the center’s perceptions to a significant portion of the area’s population. Who wants to go to a “senior medical center” for ambulatory medical services from a patient standpoint?

Image by Sarcifilippo from Pixabay

Now part of me understands why the health system did this as there are two sizable retirement communities in the area. The head-scratcher is that those “senior” individuals already have a long-term well established primary care relationship and may be unwilling to change primary care physicians. It is also a head-scratcher for why the health system would go head-to-head and compete with their admitting physicians in the community. Those “new targeted patients” already use the health systems area hospitals as two hospitals serve the area.

It may come down to the question of what are your ambulatory brand, location, and naming strategy?

At a fundamental level, have you considered your overall ambulatory center branding strategy or just dusted off an old branding and marketing plan, updating where necessary?

Image by Peggy und  Marco Lackmann-Anke from Pixabay.

Planning, executing, and marketing a tree-standing ambulatory medical center is more than owning a piece of land, sticking some pins in a map, and making assumptions based on an area’s demographics.

It is retail-based medicine, not hospital-based medicine. That means the rules of thumb are different.

Rules of thumb.

From my experience in ambulatory care center planning and marketing, I learned several rules of thumb for locating, branding, and marketing a patient-centered, hospital-based ambulatory facility. 

1. Never to put a hospital-based ambulatory center in an area where I had admitting physicians to not compete with them.
2. Always place a dental practice in the center to drive foot traffic.
3. Have essential diagnostic radiology and lab services for primary care referral to drive foot traffic.
4. In naming, never use the words “senior medical center.” It fosters an inappropriate age bias and a baseless perception that you only provide care for “older people.”
5. Build out the primary care physician services carefully as not to compete with your admitting physicians in the area, first adding specialist capabilities over time.
6. If the hospital or health system has purchased a practice, relocate that practice to the center.
7. Please work with the admitting physicians in the area to refer their patients to the center for more convenient and accessible testing.

After all, if the hospital doesn’t clearly understand the ambulatory brand strategy, how can one expect the market to know?

Michael is a healthcare business, marketing, communications strategist, and thought leader. As an internationally followed healthcare strategy blogger, his blog, Healthcare Business & Marketing Matters, is read in 52 countries and ranked No. 3 on 100 Top Healthcare Marketing Blogs & Websites to follow by Feedspot.com. Michael is a Life Fellow American College of Healthcare Executives.  For inquiries regarding strategic consulting engagements, you can email me at michael@themichaeljgroup.com. 

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Opinions expressed are my own.