For many reasons, the healthcare industry is like no other. First, its consumers—in this case, patients—are largely limited in their choice of hospital or health system. Second, most of these patients report to a given hospital largely because their physician refers them to it. Last, but not least, when the service, or treatment, has been provided, the consumer almost never receives the bill. Instead, a third party—usually, an insurer—pays.
EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE
To provide healthcare clients with valuable communications counsel demands experience in and sophistication about a unique, complex and highly regulated industry—at a time, moreover, of increased costs and shrinking margins. Responsible counsel requires a level of expertise that few traditional communications companies possess.
Fortunately, the Bergman Group possesses this expertise and sophistication and can offer just such guidance. Our very first client, back in 1994, was the Medical College of Virginia, and we have never been without a healthcare client since. Overall, the average tenure of our healthcare clients is 10 years. Our director of healthcare accounts was for most of her professional career a hospital marketing director herself. She spent 16 years at her last hospital and fours years at the hospital before that.
Among the healthcare clients we have helped—and, in some cases, continue to help—are Martha Jefferson Hospital, Children's Medical Center Dallas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Centers, Sheltering Arms Hospital, Beth Sholom Lifecare Community, the VCU Health System ( formerly known as the Medical College of Virginia), The Methodist Hospital (Houston), Beaumont Hospitals (Detroit), the University of Texas-Galveston, and TAP-IN (the Third Age Professional Initiative).
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL PRESSURE
The counsel that professionals with our level of expertise can offer has never been more important as hospitals face increasing pressures both internal and external. These pressures are urgent and specific. Hospital marketing departments are under great pressure, for example, to grow patient volumes. Some are under intense pressure to increase market share.
Others face more immediate, but still important, deadlines for magazines, newsletters, Web sites, ads and brochures that reflect the specialization of their subjects. One such publication is Clinical Front, written by Martha Jefferson Hospital physicians, but which we conceptualize, edit, design, publish and distribute.
BEYOND CONVENTIONAL COMMUNICATIONS
At the Bergman Group, we have helped healthcare systems build their corporate identities through direct-to-consumer communications. We have conducted such branding campaigns for VCU Health System, Martha Jefferson Hospital Cardiology and Joint Surgery, and Children's Medical Center. (We have also provided consulting and support services to hospitals in their capital campaigns. For Fox Chase Cancer Center, for example, we helped its fundraising and marketing department reassess its strategic priorities.)
But we also understand that identity campaigns rarely result, in the short term, in increased market share and volume growth. In such cases, a far greater level of precision is required—one rooted in a firm understanding of the business of healthcare and the importance of measurability and results.
NEW MEDIA
For such highly specific challenges, the Bergman Group achieves significant results by applying the very latest techniques of new media. We have enjoyed great success recently with programs of search-engine marketing and search-engine optimization, and through the development on online videos. (For more information, please see our New Media capabilities page.)
The needs of the healthcare profession are like no other. Let us help you meet them. Contact Us Today.
