MedQuest Finds Data-Driven Radiology Sales and Marketing Contributes to the Bottom Line

MedQuest Radiology Management Services has found that maintaining a focus on data can increase radiology sales and marketing success, resulting in a significant boost to revenues and the bottom line. This is a more sustainable solution than the more common reaction of cutting overhead when radiology departments and centers start feeling the pinch from decreasing reimbursement and rising costs.

MedQuest Radiology Management Services is one of the country’s leading radiology management companies, assisting hospitals, imaging centers and physician practices in optimizing their imaging resources. In addition to sales and marketing, the company’s management and support services include comprehensive radiology assessments; operational enhancements such as scheduling and intake improvements; revenue cycle and denial management; quality, safety and patient experience; and strategic development and network management.

“Too often providers of radiology services fail to devote adequate resources to radiology sales and marketing, leaving them lacking in critical market knowledge and vulnerable to competition,” said Bruce Elder, Chief Development and Strategy Officer of MedQuest. “At both our owned centers and the healthcare systems and centers we support, MedQuest has implemented highly effective sales and marketing programs that drive increased scan volumes and greater responsiveness to customers.”

MedQuest employs a data-driven approach to sales and marketing that includes training and overseeing one or more dedicated onsite sales and marketing specialists that actively build relationships with physicians to increase referral volume and ensure high satisfaction levels. The foundation of these relationships are regular communication, responsive “service recovery” to meet physicians’ needs and a deep understanding of radiology.

“It’s been said many times that you can’t manage what you don’t measure ,” said Elder. “Applying metrics to the sales and marketing function is a transformative process that converts those activities into a data-driven approach with measurable contributions to the bottom line. Clients appreciate the fact that we can accurately forecast volume by modality and measure the ROI on sales and marketing activities.”

Often radiology departments and centers rely on shared marketing or “outreach” resources that represent a wide range of services. MedQuest has found that having dedicated radiology sales and marketing specialists with the right specialized training, CRM system and oversight is far more effective.

About MedQuest Radiology Management Services
MedQuest provides comprehensive radiology management services to hospitals, imaging centers and physician practices that increase revenue, optimize operations and enhance quality, safety and the patient experience. MedQuest’s decades of management and operational experience, together with industry-leading proprietary systems and processes, create an unrivaled value proposition for customers. Visit www.mqradiology.com to learn more.

HFMA Magazine: How to Revitalize Radiology Revenue

Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) has published an article from MedQuest’s Bruce Elder about ways to improve radiology revenue and profitability.

 

Using Assessments to Increase Sales and Marketing Effectiveness

By Bruce Elder

As hospitals, physician practices and imaging centers face rising price competition and shrinking reimbursement for imaging, performing an in-depth assessment of your market, as well as your sales and marketing activities, offers a cost-effective means of achieving a more profitable and better positioned imaging operation. A periodic analysis of your market environment can dovetail with a data-driven assessment of sales and marketing functions to identify gaps and opportunities; it also often serves to reinvigorate outreach efforts.

Performing a Market Assessment

Gathering market data is integral to developing and executing effective sales and marketing strategies. A market assessment identifies opportunities and challenges that are unique to your marketplace. Identifying geographic and demographic demand for imaging services not only reveals current strengths and weaknesses within the marketplace, but it can also indicate the potential viability of new locations and/or acquisition opportunities.

An effective market assessment includes an in-depth examination of the competitive environment. In addition to assessing competitors on a range of key criteria, this may include meeting with a wide range of physicians to determine what influences referral patterns, receptivity to the organization’s offerings, perceptions of the organization’s customer service levels and how competitive facilities are viewed.

Assessments also offer an opportune time to examine pricing structures and identify demand for new clinical applications that offer potential revenue enhancement. Combining information on healthcare consumer trends and new clinical opportunities with your identified market gaps can result in new approaches that spur growth and profitability.

Evaluating Referral Trends

Another essential component of an effective assessment is a detailed review of physician referral patterns and scan volume potential. During this process, it’s important to update and review the total potential physician referral base, including determining the total number of referring physicians, those that are most active, and scan counts measured against forecasts. This process also identifies dwindling referrals from a particular source, allowing immediate resolution of any issues to re-establish a positive relationship.

Using this market intelligence, it is possible to create a results-oriented sales and marketing plan that identifies and targets areas of potential volume growth, establishes core messages based on provider needs and sets expectations based on measurable goals.

The extensive amount of information gathered during an assessment presents an opportune time to institute a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system if there is not one already in place. Not only can the system be used to track and measure sales and marketing against goals, but it can also help in determining ROI from activities. This CRM system should seamlessly integrate with other IT systems and offer capabilities like dynamic call routing and real-time goal tracking and measurement.

Instituting Data-Driven Sales and Marketing

Applying results metrics to sales and marketing activities transforms what is often viewed as a “soft” area into a data-driven science with measurable contributions to the bottom line. Sales and marketing assessments that are data driven are not only more effective, but they also yield valuable insight into trends and forecasts while identifying areas of weakness in your sales and marketing program.

Assessing marketing and sales requires that measurable metrics be identified and/or instituted. Gathering information on current activities and results allows a benchmarking process to be put into place and supports the development of ongoing team and individual goals. As an adjunct to this process, it is also critical to have key performance metrics, such as scan volume by modality and cancellation rate, in place.

One of the most helpful components of a sales and marketing assessment is performing comparisons of your organization against industry standards. Using national standards, you can compare referral volumes, examine modality utilization and determine individual physician potential for revenue. This allows development of a measurement system that establishes accountability and provides forecasting based upon real-time referral trend data by modality and provider.

While an assessment is not intended to be punitive, it can quickly reveal problems, ranging from a lack of tools for accurate forecasting and measurement to the need for resource improvement. Difficulty with marshalling resources to conduct the assessment may be the initial signal that there are problems within the organization.

Employee Review and Training

In order for imaging operations to benefit from a focused sales and marketing initiative, it’s important to have the right people with the appropriate training using the best tools. The assessment process offers an opportunity to evaluate staffing levels and refine the focus of the sales team.

A typical busy hospital physician “liaison” covering multiple services lines will only be able to devote a small portion of his or her time to building relationships for imaging services with referring physicians. The addition of a full-time, imaging-only sales and marketing specialist should dramatically increase business volumes and top-line revenues. Instituting a system with measurable activities and results enhances the effectiveness of sales and marketing personnel and allows the organization to determine the ROI on investments in personnel marketing and sales initiatives.

The ultimate goal is to identify market opportunities and threats and what is needed to improve imaging sales and marketing (as well as what is working). While the process of conducting an assessment is labor-intensive, the information that is gathered, the insights that are revealed and the ability to identify and expand revenue sources makes the effort well worth the investment.

About the Author:

Bruce Elder is the Chief Development and Strategy Officer of MedQuest Radiology Management Associates, www.mqradiology.com.

Strategic Assessments from MedQuest Radiology Management Services Identify Actionable Radiology Improvements for Healthcare Organizations

Hospitals and healthcare systems are facing unprecedented threats to their bottom lines, challenging them to curtail costs, increase revenue and improve the delivery of efficient quality patient care. In this tumultuous environment, MedQuest Radiology Management Services, one of the country’s leading radiology management companies, is seeing greater demand for its assessment services that help healthcare organizations identify areas for improvement within their radiology operations.

MedQuest’s assessments range from comprehensive evaluations of all aspects of radiology operations to in-depth-examinations of a single function, such as sales and marketing, operations, scheduling, billing and denials, IT/system integration, and facility and equipment review. MedQuest is also often called upon to provide a market assessment focusing on referral patterns, referring physician feedback, radiology network strategies and future expansion opportunities.

“Drawing upon decades of our own hands-on imaging operations experience, MedQuest is uniquely qualified to identify and implement strategies proven to significantly increase revenue, optimize operations and enhance quality, safety and the patient experience,” said Todd W. Latz, MedQuest Chief Executive Officer. “MedQuest is more than just a consultant; we deliver a strategic blueprint with actionable recommendations and can provide extensive implementation support and guidance.”
Recent assessments include:

  • Healthcare system transformation – A multi-state integrated healthcare system was seeking to identify potential efficiencies, cost savings and revenue generating activities for radiology, while enhancing operations. MedQuest narrowed the focus to staffing and scheduling, which offered the greatest ROI within a tight timeline. Under MedQuest’s guidance, the healthcare system exceeded their goal of a $4 million impact on operating cash flow.
  • Medical center expansion – MedQuest was asked to help ensure the success of a medical center’s new location and increased scan volume 27% while maximizing the effectiveness of the system’s imaging network. MedQuest identified areas of opportunity to improve operational processes and workflow in scheduling, patient registration and modality patient flow, evaluated the management and staffing model and identified metrics for operational efficiency and management accountability.

The MedQuest assessment process begins with a data review that allows the team to identify potential opportunities and specific areas of focus prior to the onsite visit. While the team is onsite, they conduct interviews with staff, radiologists, and affiliated and independent referring physicians, and observe procedures and workflow. Following the visit, the team analyzes the information and develops specific and actionable recommendations based on industry and proprietary best practices. And finally, MedQuest presents its findings and recommendations to the healthcare organization, including a comprehensive review of the market, current operations and both near term and longer term improvement opportunities. 

About MedQuest Radiology Management Services
MedQuest provides comprehensive radiology management services to hospitals, imaging centers and physician practices that increase revenue, optimize operations and enhance quality, safety and the patient experience. MedQuest’s decades of management and operational experience, together with industry-leading proprietary systems and processes, create an unrivaled value proposition for customers. Visit www.mqradiology.com to learn more.

MedQuest Radiology Management Services Expands Offerings that Increase Revenue, Optimize Operations and Enhance Quality

MedQuest Radiology Management Services, one of the country’s leading radiology management companies, has expanded its suite of services that assists hospitals, imaging centers and physician practices in optimizing their available imaging resources. A newly revamped website, www.mqradiology.com, provides insight into how the company’s management services can benefit imaging providers across the healthcare spectrum.

“Rising costs, authorization hurdles, reimbursement pressure and increased competition create a challenging operating environment for any healthcare organization providing radiology services,” said Todd W. Latz, Chief Executive Officer of MedQuest. “We draw upon decades of experience to create multifaceted, customized solutions that meet each customer’s specific needs and requirements.”

Latz continued, “MedQuest’s tested, radiology-specific best practices, as well as our proven metrics and performance standards, have repeatedly increased volume, optimized operations and maximized profitability. MedQuest clients have seen top-line growth of up to 20 percent from increased revenue and more focused and efficient operations.”

MedQuest can deliver services individually or as comprehensive day-to-day management of all radiology operations. These services include:

  • Data-Driven Sales and Marketing – grows the top line by training and managing a dedicated, onsite marketing staff that actively partners with providers to increase referral volume and satisfaction levels
  • Operational Enhancements – helps facilities leverage their staffing while optimizing scheduling to ensure maximum patient throughput and enhanced staff productivity
  • Revenue Cycle and Denial Management – captures more revenue faster and ensures full compensation for services provided
  • Quality, Safety and Patient Experience – uses leading-edge metrics to track and manage radiology-specific quality and safety measures and ensure a high-quality patient experience
  • Strategic Development and Network Management – leverages deep project management expertise and relationships across multiple disciplines to deliver high-ROI projects, as well as provides transformation consulting to identify network-wide improvement and growth opportunities

MedQuest, Inc. is one of the country’s leading radiology management companies, owning and operating or managing approximately 75 freestanding outpatient imaging centers, seven acute care hospital radiology departments and a fleet of mobile MRI units, mobile mammography units and mobile ultrasound units.

About MedQuest Radiology Management Services
MedQuest Radiology Management Services provides comprehensive radiology management services to hospitals, imaging centers and physician practices that increase revenue, optimize operations and enhance quality, safety and the patient experience. MedQuest’s decades of management and operational experience, together with industry-leading proprietary systems and processes, create an unrivaled value proposition for customers. Visit www.mqradiology.com to learn more.