Lyle Green Senior Advisor
Lyle provides vision, insight and leadership for the design and implementation of customer relationship strategies to include physician marketing and communications,...
Hospital marketers and outreach teams face continual pressure for engaging key stakeholders such as patients, physicians, and donors. While there are a range of audiences important for affecting growth and, one group is often overlooked – engaging physician alumni – graduates, fellows and residents, in both medical and scientific fields.
A disconnect between physician relations, marketing teams, and medical schools often impedes efforts to engage alumni who have previously worked or trained within the hospital. However, particularly for academic medical centers, maintaining strong relationships with alumni is important for growth and reputation-building.
So why is it so important for academic medical centers to effectively engage alumni?
Even with the best of intentions, many healthcare organizations find it challenging to collaborate cross-departmentally to find ways to best advance alumni relationships. One critical first step is compiling a comprehensive list of alumni, including as much data about them as available. Next, clarify what they want and need to understand how to best engage them. This will vary based on segment – such as type of professional or geographic distance. Learn more about segmentation here.
While specific needs and tactics may differ by segment, here are some best practices that can help:
For long-term efficiency and effectiveness, integrate physician alumni databases with the overall Physician Relationship Management (PRM) system activities. Learn more about developing a robust PRM here.
On an on-going basis, the physician outreach team and provide support to donor relations efforts and to support the academic priorities (educational and research) or the organization. Despite being a frequently overlooked segment, and the cross-functional collaboration required, the value of fostering strong alumni relationships is worth the effort.