Did you know ninety percent of physicians are affiliated with at least one hospital?
For marketing, sales and research professionals who need to understand the complex relationship of physician-to-hospital affiliations, there are resources which reveal which doctors have admitting rights to nearby hospitals and perform surgeries and procedures. SK&A, a hospital list company, has identified 1,143,420 hospital affiliations for approximately 700,000 U.S. physicians. Ninety percent of doctors are affiliated with at least one hospital. The average physician is affiliated with 1.7 hospitals.
SK&A built its database of affiliations by surveying more than 235,000 U.S. medical offices over a six-month period to determine the unique connection between physicians and the hospitals within their sphere of practice or specialty. The survey was conducted by SK&As Research Center in Irvine, Calif., as part of its daily telephone verification of medical site information.
The list of hospitals where physicians are practicing or affiliating is extensive. There are approximately 6,680 hospitals in the U.S. with 238,500 purchasing decision makers such as directors, department managers, business managers and executives. Texas leads the nation in hospitals with 560 locations. However, California has the highest bed count - 108,878 - an indication that this states hospitals are larger. New York, Florida and Pennsylvania round out the state list of hospitals where locations and bed counts are numerous.
Hospital lists may be further segmented by 14 popular hospital types. General acute care hospitals are the most popular with about 3,548 locations. The other hospital types include: critical care access, mental health, long term acute care, rehabilitation, veterans, childrens, university/teaching hospitals, nursing homes, substance abuse locations, prison hospitals, military hospitals, osteopathic specialties and geriatric specialties.
Hospitals may also be targeted by the treatment programs they provide. A
hospital database or hospital list for marketing can be segmented by up to 30 treatment programs. Physical therapy is the most common treatment program and is performed in 5,968 hospitals. Other common treatment programs include respiratory therapy, blood banks, radiology/CT/ultrasound and alcohol/chemical dependency.
No hospital list would be complete without a ranking of the top hospitals. If you want to know, sitting at number one is Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, with 1,550 beds.
Understanding the distinct and multifaceted relationship between physicians and hospitals is absolutely essential to succeed in todays competitive marketplace, said Dave Escalante, SK&As Vice President and General Manager, SK&A and OneKey. Healthcare marketers need this important affiliation information to better plan and execute their sales, marketing and market-research programs.
High-quality affiliation data enables more effective selling to physicians, supports enhanced targeting and segmentation, and provides more insight into the complex relationships that influence and drive market behaviors, continued Escalante.
Through this latest research, SK&A has expanded its telephone-verified database of affiliation information in healthcare. For example, the research has identified 320,197 physicians who are affiliated with medical group practices. Affiliation coverage includes the ability to accurately identify the sites and personnel within:
- Integrated health systems and networks
- Hospital list systems and networks, defined by ownership or affiliation
- Group practice networks
- Affiliated nursing homes
- Affiliated healthcare providers, professionals, administrators, executives and office personnel to health systems, hospital databases, group practices, and nursing homes.
All of the affiliation information managed by SK&A, including the newly enhanced physician-to-hospital affiliations and the baseline reference database, is available to provide improved targeting and segmentation for healthcare marketers.
Healthcare marketers utilize hospital affiliation and hospital list information to:
- Deliver more accurate online directories of physicians for patient searches
- Understand the influence health systems and hospitals have on their network (e.g. EHR adoption and pharmaceutical sales rep access to physicians in medical offices)
- Enhance coordinated marketing and sales-resource planning and execution
- And accurately define markets and their overall potential.
