Recruit refractive patients with practical marketing approaches, experts say

Educating your staff, targeting your audience and maintaining an up-to-date Web site are some of the ways to attract new patients.

The approval of custom ablation systems and accommodative IOLs and the impending approval of phakic IOLs have re-established the need for surgeons to stay active in their refractive marketing campaigns, according to Daniel S. Durrie, MD.

“Surgeons should be involved in their advertising campaigns every step of the way to really know what’s going on because it’s their image that’s being marketed,” Dr. Durrie, director of Durrie Vision in Overland Park, Kan., told Ocular Surgery News.

The Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Alcon’s CustomCornea, Visx’s CustomVue and Bausch & Lomb’s Zyoptix wavefront systems, along with the impending approval of the Visian ICL (STAAR Surgical) and other phakic IOLs, have surgeons revamping their marketing strategies in order to appeal to consumers.

“You want to make sure that you are being well represented in the community because that’s the community that you live in,” said Dr. Durrie, who also is the Refractive Surgery section editor for Ocular Surgery News.

Educating your staff

“The very first thing surgeons should do when implementing a new marketing plan is to update and educate their staff,” said Dawn Cavanaugh, president of Cavanaugh Consulting LLC in Jefferson City, Mo. “First, confirm your plan of action in writing, prior to delivering the new updates to your receptionist, the technicians at all power levels because all these people interact with your patients and will ultimately sell your surgery.”

Ms. Cavanaugh consults for several high-volume refractive clinics throughout the country. She discovered the importance of educating staff members after her firm carried out a study. She discovered that a large number of refractive clinic employees were not convinced of the advantages of new procedures.

“Employees of clinics weren’t sold on wavefront-guided ablation. They didn’t think that it was worthy of additional pricing because they didn’t know much about it,” she said. Thus, receptionists, refractive counselors and other people answering telephones were giving misinformation or not answering patients’ questions.

“We realized the value of educating staff members,” Ms. Cavanaugh said. “Now, at our clinics, new staff members go through a thorough training process that includes informational seminars and a refractive screening exam, as well as all-hands staff meeting. The refractive counselors are given one-on-ones with the doctor to answer questions and role play.”

Tracking refractive results can reap surgical recruits

Surgeons who track their refractive outcomes can increase their patient turnover, said Dawn Cavanaugh, president of Cavanaugh Consulting LLC. “The clinics that track all of their outcome data and put it on the table to show a patient, without overwhelming them with figures and numbers, are the clinics that are getting more patients,” Ms. Cavanaugh said. She said that when surgeons give patients outcomes for their own practice, rather than the national average for LASIK they improve their capture rate. Surgeons who use the fact that they have participated in studies to improve patient outcomes are also winning patients, she said. “Patients want to see what you are doing, why your services are better than your competitor,” Ms. Cavanaugh said. “Often, I’m concerned when surgeons tout a message in their seminars that says they have the best outcomes, but have no data to back it up.” To avoid conflict and possible litigation, Ms. Cavanaugh said that all surgeons should track their outcome data. “Track your outcomes for each patient, and take time to discuss it with your staff. Figure out what it says about your practice, put reports together and address the negative issues. Then, figure out what you’re going to do about it,” she said. In his Houston center, Jack T. Holladay, MD, MSEE, tracks all of his outcome data with sophisticated software. “We have software called the Refractive Surgery Consultant. Every single case that we do has their outcome data put in the third or fourth month. This program continues to revise our nomograms specific to age, corneal thickness and power so that it optimizes the laser all the time,” Dr. Holladay said. With such an approach, surgeons can relay the refractive outcome probability to a patient who is considering refractive correction. “Patients like hearing their outcome and enhancement rate probability according to their age, sex and other parameters,” Dr. Holladay said. “This system builds trust in our patients, but to do it, you have to keep up with the statistics and enter data on all your patients.”

Appropriate advertising

When choosing to advertise elective procedures to potential patients, refractive surgeons walk a fine line, Dr. Durrie said.

“People generally find medical marketing distasteful,” Dr. Durrie said. “As a result, surgeons should be conscious of this mindset and try not to exacerbate consumers.”

Surgeons also should not overpromise patient outcomes, said Jack T. Holladay, MD, MSEE, of Holladay LASIK Institute in Houston.

“We have to be careful not to make promises that we can’t meet,” he said. According to Dr. Holladay, surgeons in Europe, who have been using wavefront technology for years, have exposed themselves to litigation with overzealous claims of being able to create “supervision.”

“There is a rebound from that type of marketing in Europe, and we have to be careful not to make the same mistakes,” Dr. Holladay said.

To ensure legal and appropriate marketing material, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has implemented a Refractive Surgery Advertising Policy. The policy, supported by the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), lists specific criteria for surgeons to adhere to.

Targeting your audience

While staying within FTC guidelines, surgeons should target individuals who may be candidates for refractive surgeries, such as wavefront-guided or standard LASIK, PRK or conductive keratoplasty (CK).

“The ad should be very focused and reach out to the kind of patient you are seeking,” Dr. Durrie said. Since the availability of CK for presbyopia and hyperopia, Dr. Durrie has placed advertisements in newspapers and restaurant menus to target a specific audience.

“My CK ads say, ‘Do you need glasses to read this menu?’ or ‘Do you need glasses to read this newspaper? If so, you might be a candidate for CK,’” Dr. Durrie said. He explained that this marketing technique is extremely targeted because in many cases the person reading the advertisement has just put on reading glasses in order to read the menu or newspaper.

Dr. Durrie said that advertisements should be clear and concise, directing potential patients to one of three educational sources.

“You want a patient to come into your center, your seminar or log onto your Web site,” Dr. Durrie said. “It is difficult to add disclaimers, or all your informed consent information to your advertisement.”

Dr. Durrie believes that a simple message that directs patients where to go for more information is the best approach in surgical marketing.

Local media

Surgeons who cannot afford to pay for newspaper, television or radio advertisements can try cost-effective media outlets that are often overlooked.

“Your local media really needs stories,” Dr. Durrie said. “You don’t have to be someone who does clinical trials or a ‘pioneer’ in anything to provide your local newspaper, television station or radio station with a good story.”

Dr. Durrie said that if you are offering something new to your community or have gone to a meeting and learned about something of public interest, your local media outlets may want to cover the story.

“Weekend and early-morning talk shows are very much looking for information. This is a very cost-effective way to get your message out,” Dr. Durrie said. For surgeons who are hesitant to appear in front of a microphone or camera, public-speaking training is available through the AAO and the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, he noted.

Internet

Another cost-effective way to stretch the marketing dollar is by having a Web page.

“Web sites are great marketing tools because they usually don’t cost too much to upkeep and they effectively communicate your message to a mass audience,” Dr. Durrie said. Since nearly 75% of his patients are Internet users, Dr. Durrie said he has implemented a system of checks and balances among his staff to maintain the clinic’s Web site with information on surgical procedures, clinical trials and new technology.

“Keeping your Web site up to date is necessary in order to keep up with your patients,” Ms. Cavanaugh said.

Some innovative clinics have developed a special section within their Web site for this, referring physicians to click — open up special updates, forms, etc.,” she said.

Surgeons or their staff can use management tools on the Web to determine how many hits the site receives per day, how potential patients come to the site and how long they stay at the site. “This information is useful in determining who is visiting and how they’re learning about you,” Dr. Durrie said.

Dr. Holladay agrees that maintaining a Web site is key. “Once I get patients to my Web site, I’ve usually captured them,” he said. However, directing patients to clinic Web sites may not be as easy as it seems, he said.

Today, surgeons pay top dollar to get primary billing on search engines or online referral services through search engine optimization, Dr. Holladay said.

“Surgeons can hire a search engine optimization specialist to teach them how to navigate through Internet spiders and get high ranking on search engines, or doctors can pay to be on a referral service,” Dr. Holladay said.

Referral services such as www.locateadoc.com and www.lasikdocshop.com are effective marketing tools that give surgeons national publicity. However, services such as these can be costly, from $10,000 to $15,000 a year, he said.

“There is a cost issue involved with these services, but if they give you one extra patient a month, it pays off,” he said.

Word-of-mouth referrals

Experts agree that the best-selling tool for surgeries is word-of-mouth referrals.

“If you do a good job on your patients and they have a nice experience, they will tell their friends,” Dr. Durrie said.

“The best-run practices get 95% of their business from self-referral,” Ms. Cavanaugh agreed.

Dr. Holladay said, “Our greatest marketing strategy is from word of mouth. We’ve done a lot of patients so they spread the word if they are happy with their results.”

“Whatever your strategy, keep in mind that the ultimate goal of your marketing is to have patients come in and sit one on one with you for a full refractive surgery evaluation,” Dr. Durrie said. “That’s half the battle.”

For Your Information:

• Daniel S. Durrie, MD, can be reached at Durrie Vision, 5520 College Blvd., Suite 200, Overland Park, KS 66211; (913) 491-3737; fax: (913) 491-9650.
• Jack T. Holladay, MD, MSEE, can be reached at 5420 Dashwood St., Suite 207, Houston, TX 77081; (713) 668-7337; (713) 668-7336.
• Dawn Cavanaugh, president of Cavanaugh Consulting LLC, can be reached at 1828 Lisa Drive, Suite A, Jefferson City, MO 65101; (573) 632-2661; fax: (573) 632-2776.