jewish community studies

If You Ask, We Answer: Part 2 – Healthcare

June 15, 2017
, , , , Healthcare, The Art of Research

Continuing our series about the common questions that our clients ask us:  our first post focused on the higher education sector.  We now turn our focus to healthcare.

When my kids ask me what I do all day, I respond with, “We answer questions.”  I give pretty much the same response to adults, because while it sounds simple, it captures the essence of my work.  That’s why The Melior Group is in business.

So when it comes to our healthcare provider clients like hospitals and health systems, what kinds of questions is Melior answering, and how are they using the information?

If we build it, will they come?

Investment in facilities, programs and services is costly, and our healthcare clients need data about consumers to support their decisions.  Hospital planning departments and their consultants provide the market information (how many people live in the area, insurance status, etc.); Melior’s work focuses on gathering insights into consumer attitudes and behavior. We ask questions of the market such as:

  • Is there a need in your community for said initiatives?
  • When making decisions for this type of program/service, what are your criteria for selection?
  • If the program/service offers these menu items, how likely would you be to consider using it?
  • What would make you more likely to use it?

With the answers given, Melior is able to guide clients to make “go/no go” decisions, and, if the decision is “go”, to develop a product that is responsive to consumers’ needs and preferences.

Is our consumer-directed marketing and outreach accomplishing what we want it to accomplish, and if not, what can we do to make it better?

We often work with clients when they are developing their consumer marketing strategy.  They may need to evaluate their current brand status, as well as elicit input for future marketing campaigns.  We ask questions of consumers such as:

  • What is important to you when you are making decisions about healthcare?
  • What are your impressions of the different providers in the market?
  • How do you gather information about healthcare providers?
  • What is your reaction to current advertising and other messaging from healthcare providers?

The answers help our clients to develop marketing communications which are believable, distinctive and have the potential to resonate with desired audience segments.

How can we better serve our surrounding community? 

This is an important question for our nonprofit healthcare clients, which are usually mission-driven.  They take their missions seriously, and want to hear, from the audiences they are committed to serving, how they are doing.  As such, we ask questions of those audiences such as:

  • Do you perceive this provider as the “go to” resource for your family’s health needs?
  • Does this provider treat all patients with the compassion and respect that they deserve?
  • Is this provider doing all that it can to improve the overall health of the community?

Though sometimes the findings can surprise, and even hurt, they can provide a starting point for improvement and rededication to meeting mission goals.

In addition to the questions we ask, our rigorous approach to figuring out who we need to reach in order to gather the information we need, and determining the best methodology for gathering information, is central to our work.

Our research can help healthcare providers explore all of these issues and more.  Give us a call or shoot us an email and let us know how we can help.

For more information please contact Elizabeth Cohen at [email protected]/215-545-0054 ext. 103

I Don’t Care What You Think Until I Think That You Care

March 17, 2016
, , , , , , Healthcare, The Melior Group Results

“I don’t care what you think until I think that you care.”

I heard that quote and I can’t stop thinking about how perfectly this applies to health care, specifically to consumers’ thoughts and attitudes about the kind of health care they are seeking.

Over the years, The Melior Group has conducted thousands of focus groups with consumers about their decision-making and preferences for providers. The word “quality” gets used a lot. We hear some version of the statement “I want to go to a hospital/doctor/other provider that is known for delivering high quality care”  in every single focus group.

So what does “high quality healthcare” mean?

I’ve asked this question in more ways than I can count, searching, searching for clarity.

Because every time I would ask that question, I would get what I believed was a naïve answer – something like:  “A quality doctor is someone who listens to me,” or, “ I want to go someplace where I can really talk to my doctor.”

After hearing some version of this for the umpteenth time, I told myself that if I could only ask the question right, then I would get a “better” answer, like “quality healthcare means there are good outcomes”  or “quality means practicing evidence-based medicine.” 

I told myself that the consumers who were focused on doctors’ communication skills and “bedside manner” were missing the point:  to my mind, healthcare “quality” had nothing to do with interpersonal skills.

And then I heard that quote.

It was really an “ah ha” moment.  Of course!  As a patient, why would I value what a doctor was recommending to me – even if he/she was amazingly credentialed, the leading doctor in that field, educated at Harvard, yada yada – unless that doctor seemed to care enough about me to attempt to really get to the bottom of my particular problem, and my goals for treatment?

So what does caring in the medical setting mean? Does it mean…

Wearing a button that says “Ask me”?
Making small talk in the examining room?
Claiming, in advertising, that each patient is more than a number? 

I don’t think so.  Rather, I think that my focus group participants have got it right:  by listening — really listening,  restating the information to make clear that they have heard what their patient is saying, and asking the right questions — medical providers convey caring.  In so doing physicians are  better able to diagnose the real problem, and to suggest a treatment approach that a patient will be more likely to comply with.

Now that sounds like high quality healthcare.

Elizabeth Cohen is Vice President of The Melior Group, and our lead consultant in our work in the health care sector.

For more information please visit our Healthcare page or contact Elizabeth Cohen at [email protected] / 215-545-0054 x103.

Referring Physicians

How Much Influence Do Referring Physicians Really Have?

October 15, 2015
, , , , , , Healthcare

A patient goes to their primary care physician (PCP) for a new medical problem. The PCP believes that the patient should go to see a specialist. What happens next?

The Results Can Be Confusing

The Melior Group conducts numerous studies for hospital clients who have a vested interest in understanding how referrals are made. The results these studies generate, however, can be confusing. On the one hand, the majority of PCPs tell us that they always make specialist recommendations, and that their patients “almost always go where I recommend.” Yet on the other hand, patients tell us that their physicians are only one source among many (friends and family, internet research, etc.) of information about which specialists to use for a given problem.

What’s Really Going On?

After years of conducting qualitative and quantitative research for healthcare clients who want to insure that their institutions, and the physicians affiliated with them, receive their fair share of recommendations, we think we have an answer. Despite the apparent contradiction of what consumers and physicians say about selecting specialists, they are both right.

Defining the Decision-Set

Our work for several specialty hospitals and academic medical centers reveals that in the vast majority of situations, referring physicians provide one or several names of specialists for their patients to consider. In so doing, they provide the “decision-set.” Patients, in turn, use that list as a starting point: they might ask their friends and family (sometimes using social media) to learn what others think of the specialist(s), and they also might conduct some internet research to… learn about the specialist’s education, length of time in practice, etc.; see a picture (does he/she look friendly?); and/or read online reviews. Information gleaned during this process informs the ultimate action: the call to make an appointment, which is entirely in the consumer’s hands.

Using Information Developed from Research to Inform Physician Referral Strategies

There are a number of steps that specialty providers can take to insure that…

1) their physicians are included on the referring physician’s list of recommended providers; and

2) consumers ultimately select one of these recommended providers.

Such strategies can be informed by market research. For example, an evaluation of the referral mechanics of referring physicians can guide development of documentation, work flow, and referral forms: How – in writing or verbally, with pre-printed or handwritten information – do referring physicians prefer to give names of specialists? How, and how frequently, do they want to receive communications about individual patients that they have referred? On the consumer side, knowing what they expect can provide guidance for website development (what kind of information should be available about individual specialists), search engine optimization, social media presence, and overall positioning and messaging strategy about specialty physicians and services. In sum, understanding more about existing referral dynamics can inform both marketing strategy and tactical solutions for building referrals.

For over 30 years, Melior has specialized in conducting market research on behalf of hospitals and health care systems.  Please visit our Healthcare page to learn more.

For more information please contact Elizabeth Cohen at [email protected]/215-545-0054 ext. 103 or Linda McAleer at [email protected]/215-545-0054 ext.104.

Referring Physicians

Hospital Regional Appeal Improves Using Market Research

April 16, 2015
, , Healthcare, The Art of Research

Without the resources to out-spend its competition, an in-city hospital sought a market research partner who could help them improve their image in their local community. In order to maximize the spend, they were in need of smart and efficient direction.

The Melior Group targeted both consumers and primary care physicians to uncover how to convey the hospital’s unique story and build its patient base. Research results helped to direct the hospital towards a new partnership plan, an improved referral process and a deeper focus on the people whose lives were changed for the good…read the full article here.

Elizabeth Cohen is Vice President of The Melior Group, and our lead consultant in our work in the health care sector.  For more information please visit our Healthcare page or contact Elizabeth Cohen at [email protected] / 215-545-0054 ext 103.