the Grace Report Provides Important Private Intelligence, Gathered Exclusively
for OBs & GYNs, Their Practice CEOs, and Key Administrators.

Headlines- July 17, 2006
THE GRACE REPORT

Headlines- July 17, 2006

Commentary and Opinion by Robert L. Michel:
Physician, Consultant Agree: Web Offers Marketing Advantages

TO ATTRACT NEW PATIENTS AND TELL THE STORY ABOUT SUPERIOR SERVICE Ob-gyns should use the Internet. “An effective physician Web site should include testimonials from patients and collect and publish patient satisfaction data,” advised Anthony D’Eredita, Founder of the D’Eredita Group, consultants in Tampa, Florida.

“Such marketing is absolutely critical today as more patients join
consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs),” said D’Eredita, who is also
affiliated with Southwide Health Partners in Nashville, Tennessee. “If your group surveys patients, then you should ‘walk the walk’ and post your results. Few doctors think about marketing to patients, but they should be. Competition for physician services is intensifying, because patients can now choose walk-in medical clinics, urgent care centers, and other options for care.”As you will read on pages 10-12, D’Eredita recommends five business strategies critical for the clinical and financial success of ob-gyn groups.

Use of the Web to market directly to patients is also a major business
strategy for gyn surgeon Thomas L. Lyons, M.D., Founder of the Center for Women’s Care & Reproductive Surgery in Atlanta, Georgia. (See pages 3-9.) Lyons is a shrewd marketer and created his first Web site back in 1996. Ob-gyns and practice administrators should take note of this important fact: half of the regular flow of new patients into Lyons’ practice come directly from his Web site!

Even as many physicians hesitate to publish their e-mail addresses,
fearing they will be swamped with queries from patients, Lyons freely
publishes his e-mail address.When patients send him questions about
gynecology care, he personally answers each one. Often he surprises
patients with a direct telephone call.

While other physicians are reluctant to take advantage of new capabilities on the Internet, Lyons shows the advantages of reaching out to patients as a way to build his practice. The GRACE REPORT observes that Lyons is on the front edge of a new trend in the ob-gyn profession. In coming years, successful ob-gyns will have a well-designed Web site and will be answering e-mails from consumers who then become patients.

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Gyn Surgeon Builds Patient Volume in Effective Ways

Atlanta surgeon adds cosmetic services and opens two offices in resort areas of Georgia

CEO Summary: Thomas L. Lyons, M.D., is one of the nation’s leading
experts in minimally invasive gynecological surgery and an innovator in developing laparoscopic surgical techniques. Less well known is his success at attracting and serving new patients. Earlier this year, he added cosmetic surgery to the list of services he offers. He has opened two offices in resort towns outside of Atlanta and has had an interactive Web site since 1996. This Web site has consistently brought him in contact with women who become patients. About half of these new patients come from states other than Georgia.

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Patient-Friendly Medicine Supports Growing Practice

Lots of patient education, effective use of Web brings in patients from all over the U.S.A.

CEO Summary: In Atlanta, Georgia, gynecological surgeon Thomas L.
Lyons, M.D., a leading expert in laparoscopic surgery, is using several strategies to attract new patients to his practice. He has built an effective, sticky Web site. He has expanded into resort towns outside Atlanta, and he now offers cosmetic surgery services to his patients. In adopting these strategies to build his practice, he is well positioned to take advantage of the newest trend, consumer-directed health care. So far, the regular flow of new patients into his practice, half of whom come from outside of Georgia, proves these strategies are working.

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Fertility Practice Builds on Patient-to-Patient Referrals

Most effective form of business development is satisfied patients telling friends & relatives

CEO Summary: There’s one major difference between an ob-gyn practice and a practice that provides fertility treatment. It’s the fact that a fertility treatment practice doesn’t see many repeat customers. For that reason, the business strategies a fertility practice uses to attract a steady flow of new patients have useful lessons for other ob-gyn groups. At the ART Fertility Program of Alabama, patient-to-patient referrals are the primary source of the new patients seen at this practice. These referrals directly result from high patient satisfaction, along with ART’s use of its Web site and video conferencing.

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Five Key Business Strategies Ensure Super-Group Success

Expert works with physicians to bring business management principles to group practices

CEO Summary: Anthony D’Eredita, J.D., M.B.A., helps physician groups apply business strategies to their practices. One client is Regional Women’s Health Group (RWHG), in Voorhees, New Jersey. RWHG has instituted each of D’Eredita’s five principles as it grew into a large regional super-practice of 55 physicians in southern New Jersey. RWHG is a compelling example of how obgyn super-groups that use these business strategies can swiftly transform the status quo and deliver higher reimbursement, better payer relations, and many operational benefits that continually elude small groups and IPAs.

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Ob-Gyn Technology Update

CDC Committee Recommends New HPV Vaccine for Girls

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Patient Choice Trends: Performance Ranking of Docs Spurs Some to Drop Specialty

Public reporting of quality data sparks debate, triggers behavior change with some physicians

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INTELLIGENCE: Late and Latent

• LAST CHROMOSOME IN HUMAN GENOME IS SEQUENCED
• OB-GYN ELECTED TO BOARD OF TRUSTEES
  AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY
  

Look for the next briefing on Monday, August 7, 2006.

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