Desert Orthopaedic Center Gets Over 3,000% Return On Investment

Patient Experience & Growth Case Study

Desert Orthopaedic Center

Overview

Desert Orthopaedic Center, founded in 1970 by Dr. John H. Payne and Dr. Chester W. Eskey, provides care for problems in the musculoskeletal system, including bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and nerves.

Since 1970, the center has evolved into its current group of orthopaedic surgeons. DOC provides general orthopaedic care, and each doctor has special expertise in a subspecialty area: sports medicine, total joint replacement or revision, arthroscopic reconstruction of the knee and shoulder, microscopic hand surgery, pediatric orthopaedics, scoliosis and spinal deformities, spinal surgery, and foot and ankle reconstruction. To stay current with the latest orthopaedic care techniques, DOC doctors participate in seminars, conferences, and research studies.

The primary goal of DOC’s 26 physicians and staff is excellence in the care of patients. They are committed to providing streamlined, efficient, subspecialty, state-of-the-art orthopaedic care of the highest quality found anywhere in the nation. DOC has been a RLDatix Patient Experience & Growth (PX&G) customer since 2016

Problem

In the spring of 2023, Desert Orthopaedic Center (DOC) faced a challenge common to many healthcare providers: optimizing its patient mix and procedure flow to maximize revenue. In other words, DOC wanted to increase revenue through an increase in high value procedures.

The practice, known for its commitment to excellence in musculoskeletal care, has always excelled in delivering high-quality treatment but realized that an imbalanced patient mix was impeding its full revenue potential. This realization sparked interest in using marketing to increase attraction of patients in need of high-value procedures.

Challenges

DOC wanted to increase high-revenue procedures, in particular, total knee replacements. Despite DOC’s desire to attract patients who were in need of knee care and surgeries, the organization was 1) hesitant to send marketing messages that referenced the procedure specifically for fear of HIPAA violations and 2) unable to ensure their marketing messages would reach the people who actually needed a knee replacement.

The hesitation to use procedure-specific marketing is all too common in healthcare. In fact, typical healthcare marketing messages are often cautious, generalized, and less effective due to these same hesitations, and in May of 2023, DOC’s marketing messages were no different. Its previous marketing campaigns—while still valuable—were constrained to broad, orthopedic-focused messages, limiting DOC’s ability to effectively target and convert potential patients.

Additionally, aside from broad demographic and geographic trends, DOC had little insight in determining which households should receive knee care-specific marketing messages. Essentially, DOC could only employ a spray-and-pray marketing method, where a majority of valuable marketing dollars are likely wasted sending ads to people with no need for knee care in the hopes of reaching the few people that do.

Solution

Desert Orthopaedic Center created and sent customized postcards to households with residents in need of knee care. In fact, the people who received and responded to a postcard advertising knee care services by DOC had a whopping 72.5% likelihood of requiring a knee replacement or other significant knee surgery.

To identify and reach these prime patients, DOC took 3 simple steps all inside the platform:

• Selected a desired procedure (in this case, knee replacements)
• Identified where this procedure should be performed (a particular DOC office)
• Designed and deployed procedure-specific postcards (in this case, postcards advertising knee care services)

In June of 2023, DOC dispatched thousands of postcards to the individuals identified with an elevated risk for needing knee care.

Measurable Outcomes

This campaign yielded a 3,191% return on investment, with a total of 190 surgical interventions, more than $2 million in charges, and expected collectible revenue of $1.2 million, while only costing $37,500.

• 272 Unique Patient Appointments
• 144 New Patients
• $1.2M Collectible Revenue
• 3,191% Return on Ad Spend
• $37,500 Campaign Cost

The Bottom Line

DOC’s knee care campaign is a testament to the power of the platform and its patient targeting capabilities. The strategic use of customized postcards combined with the platform’s targeting capabilities resulted in an astronomical 3,191% Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), characterized by low acquisition costs and substantial revenue.

RLDatix PX&G’s HIPAA-Compliant Patient Targeting leverages advanced data modeling techniques using 2,000+ data points on every adult in the US to build procedure-specific audiences. RLDatix PX&G’s sophisticated use of machine learning enables healthcare providers to target patients by procedure and insurance type.

This level of precision not only enhances the efficiency of healthcare marketing efforts but also aligns perfectly with HIPAA regulations. This approach allows healthcare providers to reach the right patients at the right time with the right message all while adhering to the strict privacy standards set by HIPAA.