Digital Debut
ASCA Survey Shows Use of Varied Marketing Strategies
Responses also indicate staffing shortage might be ending
BY ALEX TAIRA | MARCH 2022
In February, ASCA conducted its sixth 60-Second Survey and asked questions regarding ASC facility marketing and resources that ASCA might be able to provide. The survey received 141 responses.
ASCA introduced the 60-Second Survey, a bimonthly survey series, in March 2021. As the name suggests, each survey takes 60 seconds or less to complete and asks fewer than 10 questions on a current topic. The topic changes survey to survey and each aims to take the pulse of the ASC community to help ASCA better serve its members and the industry at large.
Survey Results
To get a sense of baseline staffing levels, ASCA asked respondents about their current staffing and operational capacity to determine whether facilities had adequate staff to develop patient referrals. Almost 58 percent of respondents (81/140) said that they are maintaining adequate staffing and are currently operating at or near their capacity for patient procedures. This is good news. ASCA’s December 2021 60-Second Survey found that 77 percent of respondents were experiencing nursing or other staff shortages. This might signal those issues related to staffing are slightly abating, which could be related to the subsiding of the Omicron COVID-19 variant wave that significantly affected healthcare sector operations around the turn of the year.
With regards to marketing activities, 40.6 percent of survey respondents (56/138) said that they do not actively market their ASC and also are uninterested in doing additional marketing. This signals strong underlying business operations for many facilities, as they do not feel the need to perform marketing to garner new patients or payer contracts. A little more than 22 percent of respondents (31/138) said that they actively market their facility but are only somewhat satisfied with the referrals that marketing generates. Just 20.3 percent of respondents (28/138) said that they do not actively market their facility but would be interested in doing more marketing.
Responses related to a question regarding facility resources devoted to marketing aligns with the answers described above. A little more than 39 percent of respondents (54/138) said that their facility does not have a staff member or external consultant dedicated to marketing, 15.9 percent of respondents (22/138) use a third-party consultant to market their facility while roughly a quarter of respondents (34/138) have in-house staff dedicated to marketing activities.
Despite mixed feedback on current marketing strategy and staff dedication, respondents expressed a clear interest in expanded ASCA marketing resources. More than 56 percent of respondents (78/138) said that they would be interested in tools or best practices related to internet/social media marketing of their facility. About 47 percent of respondents (65/138) said they would be interested in sample advertising templates that could be tailored to their facility. Another 38.4 percent (53/138) said they would be interested in communications strategies for conducting outreach to large employers of benefit managers in their area, and 36.2 percent of respondents (50/138) said that they would be interested in additional marketing education such as webinars from ASCA. These responses will be invaluable as ASCA continues to strive to provide the most relevant, helpful resources to assist members in their operations.
Write Alex Taira with questions about this survey or to propose topics for future surveys.