Branding
As we close on the first quarter of 2017, it’s rewarding to see the momentum across all of our care centers for complete brand conversion. When we launched to the public just three years ago, we were a large company only on paper, with our locations still holding steadfast to their individual brand identities. This only served to diminish the power of our shared potential. Today, we are almost at the point where we’re truly The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics – from our branding to the actual patient experience. It’s a pivotal and promising moment in our organization’s growth.
Although we are part of the largest orthopaedic group in the country, the Virginia care centers face unique pressure as we have a competitor that significantly outnumbers our physician headcount within the state. Therefore, starting at the beginning of last year, we collectively made the strategic decision to join together in expediting the brand conversion process. We recognized there’s strength in numbers, and that providing a unified front would help spur greater patient awareness and increase our visibility among medical peers that are good targets for recruitment and expansion.
Similar to many care centers, we embarked on this process by first focusing on the key foundational steps such as website reskinning, signage, lab coats and making sure all marketing collateral reflected The Centers’ branding. From there we began looking holistically at every patient touchpoint, from the patient experience, where SullivanLuallin training was very helpful, to our written and digital communications and referral outreach. Although the execution took time to fully implement, the goal was actually quite simple – make sure no patient could interact with our care centers without leaving knowing not only our name, but what The Centers’ patient-focused brand meant to them.
This is a point I can’t emphasize enough. With our organization collectively seeing volumes of patients each year, there’s an incredible opportunity to organically raise awareness with each visit to the office. That’s an easy benefit that any care center forfeits when they don’t fully embrace The Centers in all they do.
Once our communities readily recognize our company for its merits – the most prominent group of orthopaedic specialists in the country with an unmatched footprint – we can begin to take advantage of an abundance of new revenue generating initiatives. For example, as we continue to make strides in our conversations regarding a partnership with Privia Health, we can set ourselves far apart from the competition by showing we are not only the most convenient provider of orthopaedic care, but also the most cost-effective. That’s a very powerful value proposition.
However, this is only scratching at the surface of what we can accomplish together. With unified branding, we can begin to move forward with a similar process for our PT locations, helping to build increased market share and entering into new, underserved markets. Equally important, the velocity of our recruitment efforts will increase significantly, as private practitioners within our communities learn about what we have to offer. Just think about it, in today’s healthcare landscape where data is king, small private practice groups can’t possibly keep pace with innovations in payment models and new technologies. We provide a lifeline to the future of private practice medicine, which is a very compelling offer.
Thanks to the efforts of all the Virginia care centers, we are starting to see the fruits of our shared labor. In January, we added Dr. Robert Dombrowksi, formerly with OrthoVirginia, to our care center, and he is already being well-received by patients in the McLean area. At the same time, we are fielding several requests from likeminded orthopaedic groups interested in learning more about The Centers. Excitement is building and we are only just beginning.
We all know we are the largest orthopaedic group in the country, but it’s now time that we start acting like it. We can no longer afford to latch on to the antiquated, short-term thinking of holding on to our individual identities, as it serves at the detriment to the greater good we can achieve together.
At our last Board of Mangers meeting, it was rewarding to hear the groundswell of support for complete brand conversion by the end of the second quarter, which will be integral to our plans to rapidly gain market share in each region we touch. As we move forward over the coming months with developing a new Five Year Strategic Plan, unified branding will be key to the success of our plans to influence how orthopaedic care can – and should – be delivered in the future. I hope you will continue to embrace The Centers, so we can make this organization into a shining example to all our peers across the country.