By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    headphones can create health problems
    The Harmful Health Effects of Using Headphones
    September 24, 2021
    Headache causes
    4 Causes Of Headache You Probably Didn’t Know About
    December 28, 2021
    follow these steps to recover from your injury
    What Steps Should You Take to Recover More Quickly from an Injury?
    April 12, 2022
    Latest News
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    private
    Private Exchanges: Getting Ready for Individual Health Insurance to Be the Standard
    January 9, 2014
    valueable healthcare programs
    5 Most Valuable Healthcare Programs in 2023
    March 8, 2023
    Johnson & Johnson to Release Clinical Trial Data in Agreement with Yale Medical School
    February 4, 2014
    Latest News
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 22, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 22, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 22, 2025
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: New School Marketing Shifts That Boost Service Line Profitability [Part Two]
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Business > New School Marketing Shifts That Boost Service Line Profitability [Part Two]
Business

New School Marketing Shifts That Boost Service Line Profitability [Part Two]

Stewart Gandolf
Stewart Gandolf
Share
6 Min Read
increase profitability service lines
SHARE

Editor Note: [Conclusion of a two-part article] Stewart Gandolf, CEO of Healthcare Success, authored this article for print and online publication by Strategic Health Care Marketing. It is presented here with permission.

Editor Note: [Conclusion of a two-part article] Stewart Gandolf, CEO of Healthcare Success, authored this article for print and online publication by Strategic Health Care Marketing. It is presented here with permission. Part One– New Marketing: Improving Service Line Profitability — is available here.

increase profitability service lines[Part Two] In the constantly changing world of healthcare marketing, success, and the continued profitability of services lines, requires adapting to change and setting a new course for success.

There are several concepts that can drive greater success for existing and emerging hospital strategies. Most require rethinking past concepts where hospital “service silos” were narrowly based on individual medical specialties.

More Read

Cutting Costs through IROs, medical loss ratio, healthcare
Cutting Costs Through the Medical Loss Ratio & Independent Review Organizations
Why Are My Receipts Down?
Medical Marketing is Vital to Offset Plummeting Healthcare Operating Margins
MGMA 2011 Conference in Las Vegas
The Price of Obtaining Healthcare Today

If you have been relying on the ways and means of doing “business as usual,” carefully consider the following ideas and shifting to a new course for going forward.

Shift: The strength of a strategic concept beyond revenue alone…

Historically, marketing and advertising direction is revenue driven, and early forms of hospital promotion focused exclusively on the immediate criteria to feed high margin services.

One of the things that changed in this paradigm, however, is how strategic thinking—and the message that’s presented—can foster enhanced revenue with a target audience.

Obstetrics presents a natural opportunity (beyond transactional thinking) to establish rapport with an entire family. The circumstances present a happy, positive reason to come to the hospital, and it becomes a first step in fostering an enduring relationship.

A “healthy mommy and me” concept, as one illustration, acts as a gateway for current and future needs. And, since women make most healthcare decisions in the home, they are likely to choose future services for the family because a trusted relationship already exists.

Shift: Growing one service line to enable a greater good…

I like to share the true story of a client that engaged our company to target growth in spinal surgery and orthopedics. But, beyond growth for this important service area, there was a “greater good” objective to the plan.

Historically, serving poorer patients was a vital part of the mission of this long-established hospital. The strategy—which ultimately was successful—was to use the doctors they had recruited and the more profitable orthopedic surgery as an enabler.

This hospital applied revenue that came from one service area to help fund programs that serve the poor but generate little or no revenue.

Shift: Branding from bland to benefit…

Hospital branding evolved fairly recently and most organizations have embraced the concept enthusiastically. Although long-term branding has a valid and appropriate place in the overall plan, some facilities may be missing the greater value.

Early stage branding messages were stand-alone ideas that leaned heavily on warm, feel-good concepts about the facility or organization. As such, the well-intended, but lofty, concepts failed to connect with producing meaningful and measurable results.

“New School” brand building in a complicated healthcare environment is a complex, multi-faceted and long-term endeavor. The objective is to be top-of-mind, consistently presenting the public, patients, referring doctors and others with a unique and memorable reason to choose you over the competition.

Service lines are the brand experience territory that delivers on the brand promise. Branding must be closely integrated with—and not independent of—producing measurable results for profitable service lines.

Shift: The wellness model…

An innovative model is service line marketing to keep patients out of the hospital. Promoting “wellness” appears counterintuitive to “filling beds.” But with revenue increasingly tied to prevention, traditional service department marketing, and the spectrum of care, take on a new starting point.

This new school model embraces wellness, prevention and lifestyle. The Kaiser Permanente Thrive program has become a system-wide, wellness-driven theme that appeals to health-aware, proactive patients and employers who appreciate that prevention trumps catastrophic care.

The Thrive campaign and others like it engage patients through promotions such as health screenings, nutrition, education and prevention. This extends the patient care continuum, creates trust for later clinical needs, and shifts from episodic, transactional encounters to a relationship-based environment.

The nation’s healthcare delivery system continues to reinvent itself, and to be successful, hospital marketing plans need to regularly evaluate new “new school” concepts that grow your most profitable service departments.

Stewart Gandolf, MBA

© Copyright 2014 Healthcare Success Strategies

 

Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

engineer fitting prosthetic arm
How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
Health care
August 20, 2025
a woman explaining the document
How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
Public Health
August 20, 2025
physiotherapist at work
How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
Health care
August 20, 2025
Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs
7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
Health News
August 20, 2025

You Might also Like

Bipartisan Cooperation on Medicare: I’m Getting More Optimistic

May 24, 2011
Observation Units
BusinessFinanceHospital Administration

Observation Units: Bridging the Gap Between Inpatient and Outpatient

April 7, 2014

Keeping Medical Device Designs Relevant in a Big Data World

February 20, 2014

Humana Bolsters Care Management Capabilities with Acquisition of SeniorBridge

December 8, 2011
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?