Marketing Cornerstone: The Physician-Patient Relationship
One of the most crucial aspects of concierge medicine is the physician-patient relationship. It’s a key differentiator between you and a traditional fee-for-service practitioner.
As I’ve mentioned many times before, building a comprehensive, relationship-based practice isn’t easy. It’s time- and labor-intensive. But concierge physicians know it’s worth it, because the relationships are worth it.
But what about the public? Do they know how important relationship-based medicine is? Do they even know a physician-patient relationship is possible?
Physicians are sometimes hesitant to highlight the “relationship” part of relationship-based medicine in marketing materials. In this post, we’ll address those concerns and delve into why the physician-patient relationship should be a marketing cornerstone for concierge and DPC practices.
We’ll also discuss several ways to integrate this key differentiator into your marketing strategy.
Getting To a Physician-Patient Relationship
What is the essence of what we want to communicate to consumers, prospective patients, and our own members about why the physician-patient relationship is so important?
This isn’t a new concept to you, but if you’ll indulge me for a moment, I’d like to take a 40,000-foot-view of why we’re all here.
You remember your own PCPs (or maybe you don’t). They certainly don’t remember you, no offense. Even at the time you were a patient, they probably couldn’t have picked you out of a lineup, much less known the names of your family or the details of your health concerns.
This is because they had 2,000 to 3,000 patients in their panel and saw you for maybe 15 minutes (or less) once a year.
Such a system is fundamentally incapable of producing a physician-patient relationship. And this is one of the many reasons you got out of the traditional fee-for-service practice of medicine in the first place.
You don’t just want to recognize your patients’ names and faces; you want to know them and they you. And you want to provide first-class care based on that knowledge.
The ONLY way that’s possible is by making room for it through limiting the number of patients per physician and seeing them more frequently.
In this framework, the physician can develop a real relationship with patients. They know patients as fully realized human beings with their individual lifestyles, habits, backgrounds, and families, and can evaluate and treat them with a depth of knowledge and care otherwise impossible.
Since the physician-patient relationship is such a key differentiator, why would concierge doctors be reluctant to mention “relationship” in their marketing?
Concerns Over Marketing the Physician-Patient Relationship
The concern around using the term “relationship medicine” is two-fold.
One fear is that by using the word “relationship,” physicians are opening a kind of Pandora’s box that leads to patients expecting 24/7, on-demand access.
It’s not an unreasonable fear, but fortunately, it rarely, if ever, plays out in reality. Instead, patients honor the boundaries you set, but they have access to you and your practice when a legitimate need arises.
Another, perhaps bigger, concern is that touting relationships in marketing materials feels awkward and may appear disingenuous. You’re talking about a real relationship, but does discussing it in marketing cheapen the very thing you want to highlight?
Sometimes physicians substitute words like “access,” which isn’t bad, though it isn’t quite the same thing.
As we’ll see, there are ways to be direct and authentic in your marketing that don’t cheapen or commoditize the physician-patient relationship while still communicating its unique value to consumers.
Physician-Patient Relationships Can Take Center Stage in Your Marketing
It’s easy to forget that, by and large, consumers don’t even know concierge medicine exists. They don’t know it’s possible to have a genuine relationship with their PCP.
And yet people need it — they need you — now more than ever.
Between COVID, rising mental health struggles, broader economic worries, and more, people are seeking a sense of security. They’re deeply dissatisfied with the traditional healthcare system, and they crave a more personalized option for themselves and their families.
But the only way they’ll find out such an option even exists is through your marketing.
It simply doesn’t make sense to neglect how relationships fit into healthcare when marketing your practice. You’ve put in all the costly and resource-intensive work to make physician-patient relationships possible, and people are specifically looking for the service you offer. But if you don’t mention it in your marketing, the two may never connect.
By building the physician-patient relationship into your marketing — with the same care that you’ve built your practice — you’ll attract more members, and you’ll build your existing members’ commitment to you.
This is especially important in light of a subject we discussed previously — that the concierge medicine industry is primed to explode with competitors in the coming years. The physician-patient relationship will retain existing members and attract new ones.
Best Practices for Highlighting Physician-Patient Relationships in Marketing
Let’s look at some simple but effective strategies for integrating the concept of physician-patient relationships into your brand using website copy, testimonials, and other tools.
Testimonials
There’s a reason you see a lot of testimonials in marketing. They work — especially video testimonials.
Testimonials are a way to communicate important information about your practice, but without you saying anything directly.
Written Testimonials
Testimonials can feature actual members talking about almost anything. For this purpose, you can find specific testimonials in which members talk about their experiences with you and your practice. Some might include a direct mention, in which the patient describes their relationship to you specifically: I have a great relationship with Dr. ___. They really know me.
They can also indirectly imply a relationship, sharing meaningful stories about how their physician anticipated their needs, for example. This highlights the relationship without ever using the word “relationship.”
Video Testimonials
Additionally, video testimonials are particularly effective because so much nonverbal communication can come through. Patients speaking authentically — in their own words and with the feeling behind those words — can really convey what those relationships mean to them.
New Patient Meet-and-Greets
Meet-and-greets are an effective, organic way to start relationships with new patients before they even become members. They’re also a great later stage of the marketing process to emphasize the physician-patient relationship in a particular way.
You can weave the concept of relationship into the fabric of your meet-and-greets. Here you have the opportunity to discover if patients will be receptive to a relationship style of care. You won’t just be their pill dispensary, but a trusted partner in their healthcare journey.
You can even communicate the necessity for the physician-patient relationship to be two-way. It’s an investment on the physician’s part in really knowing their patient, considering them, thinking ahead for them, and being available to them, and it requires a commitment on the patient’s part to accountability and two-way communication.
Online Content
It turns out that you can mention relationships directly in your marketing copy without sounding insincere. You simply need to show readers why you consider the physician-patient relationship so valuable in your practice.
Your “About Us” Page
The About Us page is one of the most important pages of your website, establishing your bio and credentials, the story of your brand, and your company culture and values.
This is your chance to state clearly and in your own words why you value physician-patient relationships so highly and how that guiding principle leads to great results and positive health outcomes.
You can also personalize your page with a picture of your family and other personal touches. I’ve even seen physicians post pictures of their dogs as the practice mascot.
This humanizes you and gives patients a glimpse into your world. By providing this opening, you increase the likelihood that patients will open up to you as well. It starts a certain reciprocity that’s a fundamental part of relationship-building.
Blog Posts
Blog posts establish you as an authority and a leader in your field. Google and other search engines factor them heavily when determining how you rank in search results, which makes blog posts indispensable for SEO.
Your blog is also an opportunity to expand the knowledge of prospective patients and current members with regard to concierge medicine. As such, it’s the perfect place to share your personal and professional views on the importance of the physician-patient relationship.
Emails
Emails are a staple of marketing, and they can also provide an opportunity to talk about your views on the importance of the physician-patient relationship. You might set up newsletter-style emails that share your blog posts, or customize specific content to educate your email subscribers.
Connect With Your Market
Marketing is a special kind of expression with near-infinite options for nuance. It doesn’t have to be salesy or hollow. So many people today are desperately seeking a better form of healthcare — and we have it. We just need to let them know we’re here.
Dr. Scott Pope serves as the Chief Growth Officer at In Scope Ventures, a growth consulting firm focused on early stage healthcare companies. Scott is passionate about healthcare entrepreneurship and has been involved in various advocacy efforts to promote innovation in the industry.
Scott earned his PharmD from Ohio Northern University, where he participated in Habitat for Humanity, Phi Mu Delta, Order of Omega, and NCAA basketball. After graduating from ONU, Scott completed a pharmacy residency at Cone Health, followed by a specialty residency in infectious diseases, internal medicine, and academics at Campbell University and Duke University Medical Center.
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