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O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 5
Patients absolutely want price transparency
and are willing to travel long distances to get
surgery done at facilities that offer it. Still, get-
ting the word out to potential patients about
our pricing system has been the most difficult
and frustrating aspect of this process.
So many factors go into trying to market your
facility and your services. I reached out to every major news outlet in the St. George,
Utah, area and reaction was tepid. However, a local news service did do a story that
increased our web traffic by 500 times its normal volume and other outlets started pick-
ing up on the story. Now I get requests for interviews nearly every day. We're on the cusp
of an exciting time.
People know about St. George, a beautiful location close to the Grand Canyon and Zion
National Park. We felt like patients would appreciate coming to this area for surgery, and
perhaps tack on a few days to their stays to check out the beauty of the stunning land-
scapes within short drives of our center.
We're also close to Las Vegas, and trying to break into the Los Angeles and Phoenix
markets that are just an hour's flight away. St. George is also a popular destination point
for tourists from the Salt Lake area. We've launched local marketing initiatives and word
of mouth has been a huge part of our current success, but a lot of patients are finding us
through Google searches. To increase our online presence, we've hired a team of mar-
keters that specialize in optimizing our website's SEO to get our facility's name at the top
of search engine results.
Roughly 75% of our patients come from outside of our area, with the biggest interest
in California. We've had patients drive 14 hours for surgery and end up staying an extra
4 days to check out the area. I've taken calls from Canada and New Jersey, so interest is
growing, and we expect that to continue.
— Jerry Hadlock, CRNA
LONG DISTANCE INTEREST
Self-Pay Patients Come From All Over
z DESTINATION SURGERY Patients head to St. George for sur-
gery and the amazing sites within a short drive of the downtown.
City
of
St.
George