How To Market A Hospital – Push Over Old Ladies??

When I was marketing private hospitals years ago it was pretty simple.

All you have to do, as in any marketing, is identify who makes the buying decisions and get your offer in front of them.

You also look at what influences your target market to buy.

One of the main ways a hospital gets a sick person in is when an Ambulance rocks up at the front door.

Admissions via Ambulance are more profitable for a private hospital than most other admissions – it’s because they tend to be sicker and stay in the hospital longer.

Who decides where that Ambulance goes?

Generally it’s the Ambulance Officer – he either makes the decision himself or will very heavily influence the decision of the patient in the back of the truck.

So the Ambulance Officer is our target market – he’s the one making the buying decision.

What Influences the Ambo?

Okay, what influences him?

That’s pretty easy too – he wants to know the patient will be getting the appropriate care from a hospital that has the right facilities to cater for their needs (there’s a few other things, but let’s go with this one for now).

So to the marketing.

The way you effectively market to the Ambulance Officers is this.

Marketing Is As Easy As Having A Party

You have a party.

More specifically, you arrange a get together of your Emergency Room staff :

• Doctors,
• Nurses,
• Admissions, etc – and
• the Ambulance Officers.

They Meet, Mingle & Get Educated

What happens is they all meet and mingle.  They have a chat.

The Ambulance Officers see how professional your team is.

They hear about their experience in general conversation.

The Ambos learn of the hospital’s new Cardiac Centre/the broken bones specialty of the newest Doctor in the Emergency Room/the new Cat Scan machine/Whatever.

(It’s not like you have to tell your Emergency team to say all this – this stuff comes out in general conversation.)

The Ambulance Officers now know the team.  They’re no longer just another hospital.

They’ve made connections.

What Happens Next Time…..

And what happens the next time a patient having a heart attack is in the Ambulance?

Or a broken leg?

Or will need a Cat Scan?

Yep, that Ambulance goes straight to your hospital because you got in front of your target market (the Ambulance Officers) and provided them with the right information for them to make their buying decision.

Simple marketing.

• People like to buy from people they like.
• People need information on which to make a buying decision.
• Demonstrate your product and show/tell how it will meet the buyers needs.

Pretty easy really.