Marketing: Independent Vs Employed Practice

Marketing an independent or employed practice both have their own advantages and disadvantages in each setting. The marketing techniques that are used would depend on the type of office the physician is in whether it be private or employed, and the resources readily available if any. For example, an employed office already has their own marketing team to market the physician whereas an independent physician markets himself. A challenge that both settings may experience is that of a marketing budget. There are a variety of low-cost options routes that can be best used to market an independent medical practice. Employed physicians before accepting a positions with a hospital should be well aware of their contract in regards to their healthcare

Private physicians are business owners who provide the budget to the marketing of their business themselves. The idea of this may all be new for a physician that decided to open their own office, because they went to medical not business or marketing school. If one decides to promote their business there are different techniques that would be used in compared to that of an employed practice. Budget or funding is going to be a huge hurdle for an independent practice physician. The business owner will already have to worry about pulling in enough money to cover everything else, that spending additional costs on marketing may seem like a challenge. Low-cost marketing would make the most sense for these type of practices. Marketing digitally is perfect for a private practice. Some low free to low cost marketing tools could be as we have discussed in class recently, the importance of online reviews. The business would want to make sure they are showing up on popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and Yelp. Also, let your customers know that they are able to leave a review on your business via these websites (Blake, 2016). Having a social media presence is going to be key to success as well, so creating a Facebook page and Twitter for customers to follow along with and find your

Physicians that are employed through the hospital assume that it is the responsibility of the hospital to market him or her through their employment there. This may not be the scenario if there is no agreement with the marketing, or if they did not include specific written language in their contract to cover marketing activities. Another issue, is that if they do have this contractual agreement in place, but there are not specific hospital-approved activities or specific marketing dollars, there could be an issue where the physician’s expectations are broader than the budget allows (Padilla & Swank 2014). Another challenge an employed physician should watch for is equality vs. preferential treatment in hospital marketing. Favoritism could be shown over another doctor who has high activity with patients against one who has low activity. Hospital marketers may be more inclined to promote the doctor who produces more over the other. Though, the practice of favoring physicians is obviously can be an abuse of laws and violation of fraud it still happens. It is recommended these employed physicians note these policies and procedures and how they are outlined in regards to marketing (Padilla & Swank