Pennsylvania Heart and Vascular Group (PHVG) has begun to market their cardiology practices in Philadelphia via the unique approach of direct marketing pioneered by Practice-Reps Medical Practice Marketing. PHVG, a 20-person, 40-year-old cardiology practice, recognizes the need for bold initiatives in this time of declining reimbursements.
"We have big plans for Q2 2010 and we need to take a proactive approach to driving revenue in our current medical environment. Practices cannot continue to do things the same way they always have in light of the pending changes in Washington," explained Mike Fraietta, President of Advanced Physician Management Services, LLC.
"The advantage of Practice-Reps is that we employ and manage our marketing team on a day-to-day basis for our clients. Once we become fully acquainted with their entire practice, we should be able to move from site to site as we emphasize new capabilities or new associates within their entire network," said Al Romanelli, Senior Advisor with Practice-Reps.
"PHVG has recognized the value of our unique, personal approach to marketing their practices' capabilities to the primary care community. Our company assigns our own local, dedicated representative to each site so that they gain an in-depth understanding of the practices' capabilities and the community referral patterns. Our rep then works with our in-house design team to produce customized marketing materials for each practice, but more importantly, they use these materials when they visit a client's referral network. It's this personal representation in the referral community that sets us apart from traditional marketing firms," said Ranson.
Practice-Reps was formed by Michael Ranson and his associates to meet the needs of specialty practices that require experienced marketing support on a part-time basis. In addition to personal representation, the company is able to offer a full range of turn-key marketing services from brochure and flyer design to website management and patient education materials customized to each practice.
"We felt there was a need for specialty practices who wanted to promote their capabilities on a personal level with a team of professionals who bring a track record of return on investment in the medical marketing industry. The literature has shown that practices that institute a rep-based marketing program can experience an increase of referrals – 20-48% over the previous year. This is still an emerging trend in medical practice management and we bring a unique set of skills and experience to the table," explained Ranson. "My experience in medical sales and marketing management and my associates' extensive hands-on experience as practice reps enable us to hire, train, mentor, and manage a dedicated rep for each of our clients. This works especially well for practices that aren't used to managing remote employees. They find it hard to manage a rep's activities, goals, and accountability, but that's what we do. We are accustomed to managing remote employees and we know how to monitor their activities to gain results for our clients."
Some practices do not warrant the cost of a full-time marketing rep, so Practice-Reps offers its services on a part-time basis, giving clients an experienced marketing team without the burden of hiring more employees. "The market seems to agree as we now represent various specialists – gastroenterologists, vascular surgeons, vein centers, cardiologists, neurologists, radiologists, sleep specialists, ENTs, orthopaedics, physical therapists, and more," said Ranson.
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