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Healthcare marketing is a new concept for Armenia. Not all medical institutions of our country have corresponding specialists and not all of them realize the need to build their activities on the basis of marketing. To some extent, this is understandable because health care and medicine are not classic business sectors; the social component is very significant here. But in the modern world, effective management without marketing approaches is also impossible in the medicine and public health.
What are the characteristics of healthcare marketing?
Unlike classical marketing, in the field of health care, we are not dealing with the sale of ordinary products. Here, the clients are the medical patients, and the product sold is their health, says Lusine Petrosyan, Head of the Public Relations and Marketing Department at "Astghik" Medical Center (MC).
Therefore, according to her, one of the main tasks of healthcare marketing is to raise the level of education, awareness, and self-awareness of the population.
Here it is very important to bring to people's awareness the importance of preventive examinations, to be more attentive to their own health problems, to inform about all medical innovations, as well as to ensure the mutual connection between the medical institution and the patients.
"Here, it is not so much sales, as in normal marketing, but development, which will naturally lead to an increase in sales," she says, adding that the goal of healthcare marketing in each medical institution is also to contribute to the development of the healthcare sector in the country.
What path did "Astghik" MC and Lusine Petrosyan take on the path of introducing healthcare marketing?
Since 2008, Lusine Petrosyan, a journalist by profession, has worked as an editor of the Pharm Armenia magazine of the Natali Pharm company, and even then she realized how interesting the field of healthcare management is, and how important a role healthcare journalism plays in informing the population.
"You face many problems, you see that the population of Armenia treats their health differently, they go to the doctor as a last resort. And when you see how many things can be prevented, how many people's lives can be saved by timely research, you begin to understand that there is a lot of work to be done in this field to raise public awareness," she says.
Since 2013 when "Malatia" Medical Center became the property of Natali Pharm company, the hospital began to take its first marketing steps. It became the first hospital to open a Facebook page and website, and on Facebook they worked to respond to all people's posts, creating feedback, and gathering a large patient base.
According to Lusine Petrosyan, when she said that she was engaged in the marketing of a medical center, many were surprised and asked why a medical center needed marketing. Then, little by little, everyone began to realize its importance.
In 2015, when "Astghik" Medical Center was opened, Lusine Petrosyan was the first to organize live broadcasts with doctors, during which they answered the questions of the patients on live broadcast. Then this innovation was copied by many other medical centers. According to the head of the marketing department, those live broadcasts were made on the example of the Mayo Clinic in the US, their experience and equipment condition of the studio was studied, and a similar studio was created in "Astghik" Medical Center.
"I am very proud of it, and I am very happy that later other medical centers started doing their live broadcasts; that is, something became a precedent. In parallel to that, I tried to develop my medical education, I took online courses in healthcare marketing at the University of California, Berkeley," says Lusine Petrosyan.
Then she underwent a 15-day training at the marketing department of Glendale Adventist Medical Center, visited and got acquainted with the work of some other American hospitals. In 2019, Lusine graduated from Yerevan State Medical University’s Management of Medical Institutions education program, got an MBA in Healthcare Management, and now, as an invited specialist, she teaches healthcare marketing in some universities of Yerevan and within the framework of Continuing Professional Development accredited courses. "All this became possible thanks to the trust and support of the director of Astghik Medical Center, Asatur Asatryan," says Lusine Petrosyan.
"Teaching is very important for me because when you have a lot of experience but if it remains closed, it does not serve anything. It was important for me that people, especially doctors, value marketing, their own PR, know how to present their work, how to work with patients, how to provide real information about themselves, how to manage digital platforms, etc.,” he says.
What measures does "Astghik" MC implement to inform and educate the population?
"Astghik" Medical Center has been organizing "open door days" for years; doctors regularly visited the provinces and conducted research, and often in the provinces this was seen as an act of "taking patients away." Since 2022, the medical center has changed its tactics, and educational seminars for local doctors are organized during provincial visits.
"Our goal is not only to examine patients on the spot, but to examine them together with local doctors, and make a diagnosis together; that is, we raised the level of cooperation with provincial doctors and residents. And it is very gratifying that today the provincial doctor perceives us as a partner. We achieved this thanks to years of work," emphasizes Lusine Petrosyan.
"Astghik" Medical Center is the first medical center in Armenia to start holding accredited professional seminars for provincial and primary healthcare doctors since 2013, the initiator and implementer of which was Lusine Petrosyan. The first accredited certificates were issued by "Astghik" MC under the signature of then Minister of Health Armen Muradyan.
Also, this hospital regularly invites famous foreign doctors to Armenia. There is a special maternity school in "Astghik" Medical Center, so that pregnant women can properly and competently prepare for childbirth.
What new marketing plans does “Astghik” MC have?
According to Lusine Petrosyan, the live broadcasts will continue, but in a different format which she has not revealed yet. The new website of the hospital will be launched soon, an it will have a number of innovations, including: patients will be able to have personal pages on their smartphones, through which they will be able to register an online visit, receive online doctor's advice and results to their examinations, and also be able to pay for services online.
"When organizing any event, when developing new projects, our goal is to inform people more and maintain mutual connection. We also learn from our residents. Many problems are raised by them, and we are starting to look at them from that point of view as well. This is a chain that works constantly, and we mutually help each other to develop and grow," says Lusine Petrosyan.
P.S.
From May 5 to 7 in Tsaghkadzor, Lusine Petrosyan, together with business management expert Satenik Mkrtchyan, will conduct a course entitled "Healthcare Business: Effective Management and Development."
