Executive Summary

FMG was hired by a nonprofit, public healthcare system to help the organization regain market share for its core service lines. This project was a tremendous undertaking. The service area is rural, yet a number of private medical practices had set up offices that affected critical service lines like Physical Therapy, Surgery, Orthopedics, Radiology, and Primary Care. The healthcare system was losing tens of millions of dollars annually.

By the end of the fiscal year (June 30, 2022), the departments in the pilot program increased revenue by an average of 10.28% and a median of 6.52%. Many departments experienced much higher revenue increases but the results were reduced by the significant losses incurred in the surgery department (-37.26%) and its ripple effect on Radiology and Anesthesiology. Nevertheless, 3 months into the 2022-2023 Fiscal Year, Surgery began generating revenue as a result of our ongoing efforts.

FMG worked with the Board of Directors and the C-Suite to overhaul their marketing strategy and build a new marketing program modeled on the 360-Degree Marketing Program for the entire healthcare system. After standing up the new program using FMG contractors, and growing 23 service lines by an average of 6.6%, we hired a team for the organization to continue the program and further expand success.

How

We had to understand not only what the current marketing staff and contract vendors were doing to promote the healthcare system broadly, and each individual department. We spent 30 days looking at 5 years’ worth of marketing collateral, marketing budgets, patient perception surveys, and interviewing staff, department managers, and providers.

We identified the areas of success and the areas of opportunity. We provided the C-Suite and Board of Trustees with a detailed roadmap for using the 360-Degree Marketing program to promote 23 service lines. We worked with the CFO to develop reports to monitor the number of services delivered/ or patient encounters, the budgeted versus actual revenues of each department, and the marketing dollars spent to promote the organization as a whole as well as individual service lines. We began implementing the revised marketing program on January 1, 2022. 

For a detailed review of our 360-Degree Marketing Program, please visit frederickmtngroup.com/what-we-do.

By February 15th, we could see the number of patient encounters increase significantly, sometimes as much as 20% per department compared to previous years. Our data compared 2019, 2020, and 2021 to attempt to account for interruptions in services due to COVID-19. Walk-In Clinics, Urgent Care Clinics, the Emergency Department, and the Intensive Care Unit were not included in the 23 service lines in the pilot. Two department managers reported they were receiving more phone call inquiries than they had in years. 

The revenue increases were noticeable as early as March 2022, just 2 months after implementation.

How do we know we affected the numbers? There were 7 other consulting teams engaged by the healthcare system to address everything from modernizing electronic health records to optimization improvements in the operating rooms. Those consultants did not begin their work until September 2022. We anticipate with the ongoing improvements aimed at improving patient care and the patient experience, these numbers will continue to rise.