Marketing and General Practice

Colin Gilligan, Robin Lowe

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781315346014
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Medical Theory, Practice & Reference

This book deals with the area of marketing in general practice. It presents a step-by-step guide to the nature of marketing in which each aspect is presented in short, separate chapters accompanied by questions, checklists and practical examples. It is based upon the lessons learned by a number of GPs and practice managers over a variety of situations and concludes with a comprehensive case study of one particular practice with which the authors worked. Readers of this book should gain a clear idea of the nature and purpose of marketing techniques and how the opportunities now becoming available can benefit both practice and patients.

1

The challenges facing general practice

Having read this chapter, you should:

• understand the nature and significance of the challenges facing general practice;
• have a better understanding of the factors that contribute to good management practice;
• have gained an insight into the quality of the management within your practice.

The need for a more conscious, focused and proactive approach to the management of general practice has increased substantially over the last few years. Because of this, we begin not by plunging straight into a detailed discussion of the marketing process, but by taking a broader approach in which we highlight some of the challenges that GPs are now having to face. Having done this, we move on to examine some of the characteristics of good and bad management practice. It is then against this background that in subsequent chapters we turn our attention to the question of marketing and how it might best contribute to the management of general practice in the mid to late 1990s.

THE CHALLENGES FACING GPs

As a first step, refer to Box 1.1 and begin by identifying the six principal challenges which you believe your practice is likely to face and have to come to terms with in the short (that is the next twelve to eighteen months) and then the longer term.

Box 1.1: The short and long term challenges faced by the practice

The principal challenges that the practice is likely to face are:

Short term

1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Long term

1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Although the particular challenges faced will vary – possibly significantly from one practice to another – our work with almost 50 different practices over the past three years has identified a number of areas which practice managers and doctors alike see as being of special concern. These include:

• greater accountability to patients;
• greater accountability to a seemingly ever more demanding FHSA;
• increased patient choice and a greater willingness of patients to move from one practice to another;
• financial pressures;
• issues relating to fundholding;
• a need for far more attention to be paid to the practice’s image;
• a need to decide more clearly upon the focus of the practice and, in particular, which clinics to offer;
• the need for many practices to develop more effective, and possibly more mature relationships with suppliers of hospital services;
• increased intervention from the government;
• a need for more and better staff training and motivation;
• the problem of crumbling and increasingly bureaucratic health authorities;
• computerization and data protection;
• an increase in the volume of paper;
• increased patient expectations and aggression;
• the need for a more competitive philosophy;
• issues surrounding accommodation;
• setting, being set and meeting targets;
• the need for better internal and external communication;
• managing the relationship between the doctors and the other members of the practice.

Although this is not by any means an exhaustive list and the relative importance of each of the points is likely to vary greatly from one practice to another, it highlights the nature and breadth of the sorts of changes and challenges that are currently facing general practice and which the practice’s management team needs to come to terms with. From your viewpoint as a doctor, the question that must, of course, be considered is how each of these challenges can best be managed. However, before trying to answer this, consider the questions at the top of the next page and then ask yourself what picture is beginning to emerge. Is it the case, for example, that the practice not only recognizes the nature and significance of the challenges and has begun to come to terms with them by means of a deliberate approach to management, or is it that there is a general reluctance to change old habits and working practices?

1. To what extent have these challenges been given explicit recognition in the practice?
2. What specific plans exist to deal with them?
3. Has the responsibility for dealing with these challenges been allocated?

The characteristics of good and bad management

Over the past 50 years, a considerable amount has been written about the characteristics of good and bad management. One result of this is that a series of increasingly specific guidelines exist. However, before looking at some of these, consider the question in Box 1.2.

The reality, of course, is that it is difficult (if not impossible) to identify the six or ten characteristics of good and bad management which will apply equally to every type and size of organization. What we can do, however, is to identify the sorts of areas to which every organization, be it a medical practice or a multinational manufacturer of foodstuffs or cars, needs to give serious consideration. Included within these are:

Box 1.2: The characteristics of good and bad management

What do you consider to be the six principal characteristics of good and bad management?

Good management

1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Bad ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• 1 The challenges facing general practice
• 2 So what is marketing?
• 3 Developing the patient-centred practice: the first few steps
• 4 Patient satisfaction and the role of marketing research
• 5 Environmental pressures and the parable of the boiled frog
• 6 Planning for success (part one): assessing your planning skills
• 7 Planning for success (part two): developing the marketing plan
• 8 Using the marketing audit to assess the true level of practice capability: revisiting your strengths and weaknesses
• 9 Developing the practice’s marketing mix
• 10 Setting the standards of customer care: the Blackpool rock phenomenon
• 11 Internal marketing, leadership and teamworking: fighting the Napoleonic complex
• 12 Implementing the plan and making things happen
• 13 The Psalter Lane Surgery
• Index