Thomas Weida, M.D., is eight years removed from the practice in Rothsville, Pa., that he joined right out of residency in 1983. But he still speaks with great enthusiasm about the health fairs he initiated there that proved valuable for the community and helped grow the practice.
Health Fair Benefits Community, Grows Practice
By Sheri Porter
• Denver
12/5/2006
"Ours was the fastest-growing practice in Lancaster County," said Weida during the opening day of the 2006 Conference on Practice Improvement: Health Information and Education, sponsored by the AAFP in partnership with the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and held here Nov. 9-12.
"The practice was seeing 250 to 300 new patients a month for several years, a rapid growth rate for a community I thought had plenty of docs." During that time, physician staffing at the practice increased from two physicians to four, and a total of four full-time nurse practitioners and physician assistants came on board, said Weida.
Newsletter Offers Patient Education, Other Perks
In addition to a series of annual health fairs held in his first medical practice, Thomas Weida, M.D., reached out to his community through the distribution of a patient newsletter. Feedback from patients obtained through use of waiting room surveys indicated that the venture was worthwhile.
Weida found that
Weida found that
- 87 percent of patients read at least a portion of the newsletter,
- 84 percent read five or more articles,
- 52 percent made lifestyle changes because of something they'd read in the newsletter and
- 13 percent shared the newsletter with someone else.
According to Weida, key questions to ask when considering whether to produce a newsletter include
- How often will it publish?
- What topics will the publication cover?
- Who will write the articles?
- How will the newsletter be funded and distributed?
Weida's quarterly newsletter was a compilation of articles submitted by contributing writers -- most of whom were physician specialists -- who paid $600 per quarter for their space in the newsletter. Weida reserved the right to edit all copy, although he said the quality of articles was good. Even better, the physician contributors voluntarily included the admonition, "See your family physician," in their articles.
The newsletter ran a net quarterly profit of $360, and that's not even considering the patient education, community goodwill and visibility for the practice it provided, said Weida.
The newsletter ran a net quarterly profit of $360, and that's not even considering the patient education, community goodwill and visibility for the practice it provided, said Weida.
Opening up the newly expanded office for a community health fair snowballed into a networking extravaganza that seemed, from Weida's retelling, to make every business in the community a potential partner. The events continued on a yearly basis, and after a second remodeling project in 1995, the one-day health fair expanded into a weeklong health event.
Although the business of medicine has undergone changes since Weida's days at the Rothsville medical practice, he's still a believer in health fairs.
Although the business of medicine has undergone changes since Weida's days at the Rothsville medical practice, he's still a believer in health fairs.
"Health fairs can be fun. They generated a lot of excitement for the community and for our own staff," said Weida, now speaker of the AAFP Congress of Delegates, a professor at the Penn State College of Medicine's Department of Family and Community Medicine in Hershey, Pa., and medical director of the University Physician Group.
According to Weida, physicians planning health fairs should ponder these variables:
According to Weida, physicians planning health fairs should ponder these variables:
- Timing. Weida ran his first health fair on a Sunday afternoon in the fall. The event was timed perfectly to offer seasonal influenza vaccinations -- in an era before distribution miscues became relatively commonplace. Weida's advice: Consider your territory when considering the date. If your medical practice sits in the middle of ski country, your best turnout might be in the middle of winter.
- Activities and networking. In addition to influenza shots, Weida's practice offered a variety of health screenings, including blood sugar and cholesterol screenings. Think outside the box; build alliances and brainstorm with local businesses to see what services they might have to offer, said Weida. Consider your local pharmacies, nursing homes, insurance companies, and other health care professionals, such as physical therapists, psychologists, dentists and ophthalmologists, as potential health-fair partners.
- Promotion. Newspaper ads cost money. It's cheaper to take the newspaper's health editor out to lunch, said Weida. Center the lunch conversation on the upcoming health fair to pique the editor's interest, and maybe you'll see an article promoting the fair in the paper's community service section. Insert health fair fliers in all of your patient mailings. Ask your local hospital and insurance plans to participate in the fair, and then hit them up for a mention in their consumer newsletters.
- Financing. Decide how much you are willing to spend, and develop a budget. For Weida's first health fair, he budgeted $2,000. "I tried to get other people to finance everything else," said Weida. But before approaching a potential donor, he cautioned, be ready to offer that donor an answer to the "What's in it for me?" question.
- Other details. Don't forget odds and ends such as parking space (Weida partnered with a nearby church to expand parking capacity), refreshments (a local HMO plan donated ice cream for Weida's event) and staffing needs (community partners provided their own personnel, and Weida paid his office staff to come in on a Sunday).
Allow adequate planning time to pull all the details together and maximize community networking efforts. First-timers should expect to put in six months' preparation time, said Weida.
Lastly, keep in mind that rapid growth is a double-edged sword. "It was hard to keep up with the growth, and we came close to outstripping our capital supply," said Weida. "We needed to add people and building space and were reinvesting heavily into the practice."
Lastly, keep in mind that rapid growth is a double-edged sword. "It was hard to keep up with the growth, and we came close to outstripping our capital supply," said Weida. "We needed to add people and building space and were reinvesting heavily into the practice."
Health of the Public