Organising a free medical camp is no easy
task as it requires ofcourse fund and lots of planning. However, if done
correctly, it will be very helpful and an effective tool in increasing
brand awareness and business for any hospital.
There has been a lot of debate on role of
free camps and continuing medical education programmes (CMEs) as
effective marketing tools for hospitals/ Nursing Homes. Its proven that a
camp or a CME is a useful marketing tool only if its potential is
tapped properly which again needs a statageically planned followup .
Though most hospitals organise free camps,
in which sizeable number of patients turn up, but the tragic part is,
that these patients do not make it to the hospital in the end. In other
words they fail to get translated into business.
This leaves the hospital promoters
wondering whether the whole exercise was worth it or not. Similarly,
there may be a good number of people who attend a CME and then forget
about the hospital which organised it within a week. The flight of fancy
of the organising hospital ends up in despair as hardly any referrals
get generated in spite of spending so much time and money.
Over the last few years while I have had
the opportunity to organise a few camps and CMEs for my hospital , I
have learned few facts which may help a hospital to gain maximum
advantage from a camp or a CME.
I would, however, assert that these two are
not the only ways of generating patient flow. Also, the hospitals in my
opinion should use these as a long term brand building tool rather than
a formula for instant patient generation. It would be useful to add
that the guidelines being mentioned here are useful in many ways but
they do not guarantee anything.
First of all, the hospital must always organise the CME and the camp together for a long lasting effect.
Few tips to make your camp a hit :
1. Organise the camp on a holiday or a weekend. This will allow more patient flow .
2. If you are organising a speciality camp
for a particular disease, consider keeping a token fee because it will
help to filter ?genuine patients? from the free camp buffs who grace all
the camps in town with their presence
3. Take help of a local authority, or the
local Club or some other NGO to impart some credibility to the camp. Use
their facility for the camp. It is also a good idea to use the facility
of a smaller nursing home or a clinic for the event
Just make sure that the clinic you are
using enjoys a good reputation among the locals. In such a case, the
clinic or the nursing home which is co-organising with you may also
share the publicity expenditure with you. They would do so because you
are boosting their image in the local market and they will also earn
from the investigations or the medicines you might prescribe to the
patients
4. Make sure you carry a lot of medicine samples to be distributed free to the patients
5. Always market a camp as a screening camp
for the procedures which would be carried out at the hospital at a
later date. Announce a discount for the ?selected? patients. The ideal
thing would be to rope in the NGO or some local government body or
politicians or businessmen or all of these to bear some percentage of
expenses for the procedures you would carry out on ?selected? patients
if they are poor.
This will help in making your camp a great
hit. People will not get offended if you call them over to your place
for the procedure since you have already admitted that the purpose of
the camp is to screen eligible candidates for surgery or other
procedures. Plus pitching in credible sponsors will instill confidence
in people apart from reducing their monetary burden
6. Build a hype for the camp at least four days before the event.
Make your camp unique. Don?t make it sound
as just another camp by some hospital. This can be done using myriad
marketing tools. The most effective in my opinion are :
a. Pamphlets [if designed professionally],
give it a catchy headline, use short sentences, mention free medicines,
include a picture in the pamphlet to catch attention. These pamphlets
can be used as inserts in the paper
b. A loud speaker mounted on the top of a
vehicle and a person announcing the event date and other particulars.
You could be innovative to have these announcements be made in an
interesting way, like in form of a poem or a song. This helps to gain
attention of people
c. Banners put at a decent height so as to be visible. Put these at places like bus stand or a busy crossing
d. Run an ad on the local cable TV channel.
Highlight whatever is free and also tell them that the procedures will
be performed at a discount rate on patients selected from the camp.
e. Give a pre-camp press note to all the
leading newspapers of the area. Tell them you are arriving with
something very relevant and unique
f. Always have a small opening ceremony for
the camp. If a prominent figure from your locality / NGO/ CORPORATOR
comes it will give you free press reviews/ publicity .Do not forget to
have a cameraman be present there for clicking the photographs
7. During the camp manage the crowd in a
systematic way. Make sure that people do not have to wait long hours and
are taken care of. Always have a ?marketing guy? seated alongside you
when examining people. This person will do the job of telling eligible
patients how much discount they would get if they reach within 10 days
for surgery. Who all are paying a part of their hospital bill, what is
the best way to reach the hospital and what advantages they would get if
they come to you in the next ten days.
Take care that all this is done in a subtle
way. People are likely to get upset if they experience any hardshell.
This guy must take the addresses and phone numbers of all the potential
patients so that they are informed whenever you have another camp in the
area.
8. Ensure that you are running audio visual
clips in the OPD area while the camp is on. These clips may highlight
your hospital services and may also contain testimonials from your
previous patients. Also give brochures and other reading material to the
patients generously.
9. Invariably follow a camp with a press
conference. Have the local press and cable TV people be present at a
nearby caf?. Give them photographs of the camp to be printed. Tell them
something which is sensational enough to make headlines the next day.
For instance tell them why Indians are more prone to heart disease or
how women get gall stones so frequently these days or how the new
technique available at your hospital has revolutionised the medical
field, etc.
10. At the end of the day if you get the
names and addresses of a few legitimate patients and if the press people
send in a detailed report on your camp, you have done your job. Not to
forget the ?sponsors? who chip in to help poor patients requiring
surgery. As it turns out, organising a camp is not a joke. It requires a
team of three-four people out of which at least one is a marketing
professional with some exposure in this area.Iif done correctly, a camp
will give you a good reason to have cheers at your face it always helps
in increasing footfalls and business.