Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/528054
4 4 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