By Matt Seltzer

As far as you know, you’re doing everything right, but somehow you get the feeling your patients aren’t completely satisfied with your medical practice. But how do you know? You could ask your patients if they’re satisfied, but they might be “polite” and not tell you the truth. They also might not even know – how do you really define satisfaction? If only there was a way to get to the bottom of your patients’ satisfaction…

Enter research.

Your patients have the answers, and they’re willing to give them to you – you just need to know how to ask. Doing market research can save time and resources, and when it’s all done, you’ll have a clear idea of how your patients really feel about your practice.

So how do you do it? A strong option is to implement a survey, probably by giving it to your patients at the end of their visit. Anonymous, written surveys let patients feel that their honest answers are safe, and you’ll get real responses rather than courteous quips. But this still doesn’t address patient satisfaction directly – you can’t just ask patients if they’re satisfied because, as we said, they probably don’t even know.

Let’s talk patient satisfaction.

First, you’ll want to break down what satisfaction truly is. Think through the patient experience. Do they want to be comfortable? Do they want a talkative staff? Do they want to be in and out quickly? Take your ideas into consideration and write them down. Piece together what really constitutes satisfaction, and you’ll be on your way to writing your survey.

Now, bring your ideas together. Patients are daunted by long surveys, so combine your ideas into just a few specific elements that you think embody satisfaction; these are going to turn into your survey questions. Do they address comfort? Do they address timelines, or possibly knowledge? Whatever ideas you have, they’re the aspects in which you want your business to excel, which means you’re really thinking about the patient experience.

Next, tell a story.

Your ideas probably address various parts of patients’ visits, so put them in order. The waiting room category should go first, the diagnoses category should go last, and the rest goes in the middle in the order that it happens at your business. The order of operations here is going to help patients think through their experience as they answer your questions, so follow the logical timeline.

Now you’ll create some questions.

There are many types of surveys, but for this article we’re going to go with quantitative. Don’t worry about that word; just know it means quantity. Can you place a quantity on your patients’ responses? A “fill in the blank” answer can be great for learning, but those surveys make it impossible to say that 25 percent of patients think this and 75 percent of patients think that. Instead, put together multiple choice questions that patients can easily complete. You could ask them to circle which options they think are important in a waiting room, and you could easily calculate how many patients want more comfortable chairs and how many patients want more entertaining shows on the TV. Or maybe even a scale – you could ask patients to rate different parts of your business from 1 (terrible) to 5 (great). This option gives you an average score for each question by combining all of their responses, and it gives your business a goal of increasing that score to the highest option.

Finally, it’s time to write your survey.

Make sure everything is clear, and spell out instructions on top (like explaining that 1 is a bad score and 5 is a good score). Piece it together, print it out and ask staff members or a friend to fill it out. See if they get through it without any help and tweak it until it’s easy and quick. Once you’ve reached that point, you’re ready to go!

Implement your survey.

Give it to patients. Remember that the more patients that fill out your survey, the more accurate your average scores will be. One survey should never make or break your business; you always need to look at the bigger picture. Sample size (the amount of patients who complete your survey) is important, and the smaller the ratio between the amount of patients who have completed the survey and the amount of patients you have, the more accurate your results will be.

Now, at last, it’s time you tabulate your data.

Keep track of all of your responses in a big spreadsheet, and add new data as it becomes available. These scores are going to tell you what your patients want, and after all of your work, you’ll have a blueprint for what will make them feel satisfied. All that’s left is to make some business changes based on your findings and keep implementing your survey to see if these changes had an impact. You could do it on an ongoing basis, or even keep track of scores from month to month to compare your numbers over time.

It’s that simple!

Of course “simple” is a relative term, as there are many different research methods and each has its place. To really dig in, you could benefit from contacting a professional marketing firm to help you with your research, or try to find a stock survey online. To get you started, we’ve put together a handy survey with this issue. Just go to our website at www.massmediacc.com/uploads/mmhc_survey_packet.zip and print out as many copies as you need.

You can also download an excel file to input your responses, and be sure to check the “results” tab to see what you can do to improve your business. Good luck with your newfound research skills! It’s time to address patient satisfaction!

Our media manager, Pam Myers, answers the most frequently asked questions about agency media buying. Pam oversees media planning and buying for MassMedia’s health care accounts, including HealthCare Partners of Nevada, Women’s Cancer Center, United Blood Services and Red Rock Fertility. She brings more than 11 years of strategic marketing and advertising experience to the department.

Q:  What is the most important aspect of putting together an effective media buying strategy?

Earlier this year, United Blood Services-Nevada (UBS) retained MassMedia Healthcare Marketing to raise awareness of its work in the community. MassMedia works continuously to secure coverage for the nonprofit organization’s blood drives and local events, but the organization does so much more. UBS also provides clinical services, called Therapeutic Apheresis, at select blood center locations and at hospitals throughout the Las Vegas Valley.

MassMedia Medical Marketing and Media Review sat down with United Blood Services-Nevada’s Mindi Johnson, R.N., B.S., H.P., to learn more about this potentially life-saving treatment.

What is Therapeutic Apheresis?

Therapeutic Apheresis (TA) is the removal of a component of blood that is contributing to a patient’s disease. The removed component can be red blood cells, white blood cells (including stem cells), platelets or, most commonly, plasma.

What types of illnesses or diseases can be treated with TA?

TA treats many illnesses. For example, we can treat many hematologic and autoimmune diseases such as Myasthenia Gravis and Guillian Barre, Leukemia and even Sickle Cell Anemia.

What is the difference between TA and Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (TPE)?

TA refers to the removal of any one of the components of blood. Plasma Exchange specifically defines that the removed component is plasma. This removed plasma is then replaced (or “exchanged”) with either fresh frozen plasma or 5 percent albumin solution, depending on the disease being treated.

How long does a Therapeutic Apheresis treatment take and how many treatments are needed?

The average TA treatment takes about 1 1/2-2 hours. Stem cell collections are quite a bit longer, taking up to five hours. The length and number of treatments needed varies widely depending on the disease being treated and the patient’s response to treatment. Physicians monitor these patients closely.

One of your services is “Provenge Transfusion.” What does it treat? How successful has it been?

Provenge is a cellular immunotherapy made by using the patient’s own white blood cells. The patient’s white blood cells are removed via Therapeutic Apheresis and are then used to make the Provenge drug, which is transfused back to the patient approximately three days after white blood cell collection. Provenge is used to treat certain instances of prostate cancer. Studies have shown that Provenge does increase overall survival in this patient population, which is why it is at the forefront of what many medical professionals believe to be the future of cancer treatment.

Where can Therapeutic Apheresis be performed?

White blood cell collections specifically for making the Provenge drug are done at a blood donation center, but all other TA in Las Vegas is done at one of the local hospitals. UBS currently treats patients at hospitals including University Medical Center, St. Rose Siena, St. Rose San Martin and St. Rose Delima.

What are the qualifications of the UBS staff that performs Therapeutic Apheresis?

The Clinical Services group at United Blood Services-Nevada is a team of Registered Nurses that has specific training in TA. United Blood Services-Nevada has the only nurses in the valley that are certified by the American Society for Clinical Pathology as “Hemapheresis Practitioners.”

What are United Blood Services-Nevada’s communications goals for the Therapeutic Apheresis program?

Through public relations and outreach to physicians, we hope to gain exposure for the cutting edge medical treatment available here in the Las Vegas Valley. We’ve been a part of the local health care community for almost 50 years and we want to educate the community on the clinical services side of United Blood Services-Nevada, an organization they already know and trust.

How does a doctor or medical professional schedule their patient for Therapeutic Apheresis with United Blood Services-Nevada? When are procedures available?

To schedule your patient for TA, simply call United Blood Services-Nevada Hospital Services at (702) 228-1111. One of the clinical services 24-hour on-call staff will assist you in scheduling your patient for treatment.

BMI. CPR. NICU. PCP. RN.

The health care industry is chock-full of acronyms.

Take any one to 10-letter concoction and it likely carries meaning in the medical world. Amid the countless abbreviations that imply different things to different practitioners, there is one five-letter acronym that is critically important to anyone and everyone coming in contact with the health care industry.

That acronym is HIPAA.

HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) has been around since 1996 and has evolved in scope and complexity over the past 16-plus years. HIPAA started out as an initiative that protected the health insurance coverage of workers as they changed employment, and has morphed into a multifaceted federal guideline designed to safeguard electronic health care records, enhance data security and ensure patient privacy.

HIPAA guidelines emphasize the protection of patients’ personal information and establish limitations to disclosing identifying information. In today’s modern, information-driven world, one wrong data transfer, human error or lost laptop could spell absolute disaster for any health care organization, big or small.

Companies must learn from the mistakes of others, educate their employees, make HIPAA a regular discussion point and start taking privacy policies seriously in order to stay in business.

Paying the Price

In 2009, CVS Caremark paid nearly $2.25 million dollars for a HIPAA violation because some CVS locations were throwing patients’ personal information away in unsecured trash bins. Since, federal authorities have taken a strict stance on enforcing privacy regulations.

Just last year, the UCLA Health System was forced to pay an $865,000 fine due to improperly disclosing the records of Tom Cruise, Britney Spears and Maria Shriver, among others. In this case, employees of the UCLA Health System allegedly snooped into the celebrities’ records and simply viewed information that wasn’t meant for their eyes.

“People are under the general misconception that because someone is an employee of a facility or a provider, that they can look at any type information,” said Patricia Sanchez, an attorney at Fenton Nelson in Los Angeles, specializing in the development of corporate HIPAA compliance plans and policy manuals. “Employees should only be handling the minimum information necessary to complete given tasks, otherwise they are going outside of their permitted disclosure.”

Educating the Workforce

Sanchez has seen her share of HIPAA-related mistakes, having represented a number of California’s most reputable health care organizations. From faxed papers and computer screens being publicly visible to company Facebook posts disclosing patients’ identities, Sanchez has pinpointed that a lack of education and attention are the primary reasons for violations.

“The biggest problem is that companies are not educating the workforce on what true access to health information is,” said Sanchez. “We like to help our clients through the process of being HIPAA compliant. They need help developing policies and procedures, training their staff, conducting walk-through assessments and pinpointing any red flags.”

To prevent a HIPAA violation, Sanchez recommends that companies create their own, custom-tailored HIPAA policy and make sure to keep a detailed paper trail of any HIPAA-related training.

“Companies are going out there and buying products and services from lawyers and consultants that aren’t tailored to their needs and they’re not getting help with implementation,” said Sanchez. “Documentation is so important. In an audit, they ask for all of the acknowledgements, all of the signed personnel sheets… you must have a paper trail of everything you do. Everything needs to be documented.”

Keeping it Fresh

In addition to providing quality care, adhering to HIPAA guidelines has become a top priority for many health care organizations across the United States. One of those organizations is HealthCare Partners Nevada, a leading Las Vegas-based coordinated care network consisting of more than 270 physicians and over 1,000 employees.

“We are constantly educating our employees,” said Denise Warren, Clinical Compliance Specialist for HealthCare Partners Nevada. “Every employee of [HealthCare Partners] is required to take a yearly online course and participate in continual training.”

HealthCare Partners Nevada has six full-time employees devoted to HIPAA, plus a HIPAA privacy officer and a 20-member “privacy committee.” The privacy committee meets quarterly, along with the company’s IT department, to review the company’s compliance with HIPAA regulations and patient privacy guidelines.

“It really is a team effort,” said Warren. “We all work together to assure our patients’ privacy and general wellbeing.”

Taking it Seriously

HIPAA is no laughing matter to the companies who take a proactive approach to their patients’ privacy. With potential fines, government audits and patient lawsuits looming with a simple mistake, it certainly helps to be organized.

“Companies need to start looking at HIPAA very seriously,” said Warren. “The federal government just started doing audits… before they had never done privacy audits and recently hired a firm to come out and make sure everything is okay. They’re not starting with the big companies and hospitals, but with the private practices.”

While HIPAA may seem daunting, scary and downright tedious at times, Sanchez said that it is only enforced to keep patients safe and make health care organizations stronger.

“It really forces people to be organized and to know where everything is,” said Sanchez. “When you really, really become HIPAA compliant, you become paperwork and data compliant and know how information is relayed back and forth.”

Healthcare for the People, Driven by the People

“There has never been a greater need in Nevada since the Great Depression,” stressed President, CEO and founder of Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada (VMSN), Dr. Florence Jameson, when expressing the urgent need to provide health care to the impoverished in our community.

The pioneering non-profit organization, which Jameson founded, has been serving uninsured residents of Southern Nevada for more than two years. The volunteer-run medical clinic provides free health care and wellness services for working families who do not qualify for Medicaid or Medicare. Its volunteer staff of physicians, nurses, clerks and pharmacists has become the medical home to over 2,500 patients and provides them with primary care, pediatrics, women’s services and more.

In Las Vegas, roughly 500,000 people do not have health insurance. Traditionally, these individuals would either go to the county’s emergency departments for medical care or forego necessary health care altogether. The organization’s clinics give these families a place to turn. To be seen at the clinic, patients must demonstrate that they are legal residents of Clark County. Also, they must establish that they are neither insured nor eligible for any government-funded programs to receive medical care.

As of this spring, VMSN is on course to provide 6,000 patient visits with medical care, an average of $155,000 in free medications monthly and $400,000 in diagnostics tests all of which has been made possible through the gifts of volunteerism and monetary donations from the community. Top physicians from around the Valley contribute their medical expertise at no cost and national pharmaceutical firms donate medicine. Numerous community partners, such as Clark County Medical Society Alliance, Dignity Health, Quest Diagnostic, St. Rose Dominican Hospitals, West Valley Imaging, help fund the organization’s daily operations.  

VMSN’s fundamental goal to increase access to health care develops further in 2012, as the organization works to raise funds for an expansion of services at its projected downtown clinic. VMSN continually seeks funding opportunities, new volunteers and physicians to donate their services and time.  

For more information on giving to VMSN at (702) 967-0530, contact Christina Moon or visit the Volunteers in Medicine website at www.vmsn.org.

Need more patients for your practice? When the Affordable Care Act passed, pundits were quick to declare the winners and the losers.  Both columns were equally long.  Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the law, and whatever your political affiliation may be and whether or not you agree with the law, there’s one thing that is certain: it presents an incredible opportunity for Nevada’s providers to differentiate themselves from their peers and capture a great number of patients that simply were not there before.    

Do the Math

Just look at the number of new patients entering the health care market and do the math.  On the campaign trail, President Obama declares that under the Affordable Care Act, 30 million people will be added. However, non-partisan organization FactCheck.org took a look at this figure and found the President was low-balling it.  According to FactCheck.org, “even if we subtract the estimated 10 million uninsured who are not U.S. citizens…with the Census Bureau now reporting 46.3 million people without insurance, one might think that the correct figure should be closer to 36.3 million citizens without insurance.”

According to the U.S. Census’ Community Population Survey, approximately 21.3 percent of Nevada residents are uninsured, compared to 16 percent nationally.  A report by FamiliesUSA, released in 2009, states that figure is much higher.  That report found more than one out of three people (37.2 percent or 841,000 individuals) in Nevada under the age of 65 went without health insurance for all or part of the two-year period between 2007 and 2008.

New rules included in the Affordable Care Act, combined with grants in the stimulus, dramatically reduce administrative burdens placed on physicians. Their roles make it easier for physicians to deal with insurance companies and help physicians implement their own electronic medical record system. 

The Affordable Care Act is also intended to reduce the amount of time physicians spend on emergency service, freeing them up to focus on preventative care. Research shows more patients will be willing to seek treatment before they get very sick or develop life-altering illnesses because they have insurance. 

So, you’ve got a big new pool of patients and you can make room for them in your practice.  What now?

The most important thing to remember is that the Affordable Care Act has raised the national understanding of what quality health care is.  Patients old and new are more educated about their health care and they have become smarter health care shoppers.  They are now more adept at choosing a doctor and making decisions about their health care.  The providers that can stand out from the crowd are going to win big in this new market. 

Market to young adults.  Studies show that a disproportionate number, nearly half, of the uninsured are under 30.  When these individuals enter the health care market, they are going to turn primarily to the Internet to make decisions about which doctor to choose.  Your website, social media outlets and entries on review sites are going to take on a new importance with this audience.  They tell a comprehensive story about you as a provider that is going to inform their provider selection decision. 

Geo-target.  You may not want to go after all 841,000 newly insured patients in Nevada. The sheer size of the uninsured population in Nevada makes it very likely that many of them are your neighbors and live around your office.  Readily available consumer information makes it easier to specifically identify the newly insured so you can whittle the patients you are targeting down to a manageable pool.

Consider an ACO.  Being a part of an Accountable Care Organization (ACO), a federal experiment intended to develop approaches for providing high quality care at low costs, will make you stand out in a crowded field. 

For more information on how to take advantage of these developments, call MassMedia Healthcare Marketing at 702-433-4331

Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing the uninsured with access to preventative and comprehensive medical care, has retained MassMedia Healthcare Marketing as its public relations agency of record.

“MassMedia has experience in creating and implementing campaigns for a variety of health care organizations,” said Paula Yakubik, managing partner of MassMedia Healthcare Marketing. “Our dedicated team has the tools necessary to assist Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada bring public awareness to its compassionate and driven mission.”

Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada was established in 2008 by Florence Jameson and a group of concerned citizens wanting to provide access to health care for Southern Nevada’s working families. Their mission is to identify, understand and serve the health and wellness needs of Southern Nevada residents who do not have access to health care.

To learn more about Volunteers in Medicine, visit www.vmsn.org.

Signs your practice needs an agency

You’re used to doing it all – putting in long hours to build a successful practice. A full-service advertising and public relations firm can help take your business to the next level. But are you ready to hand off such a vital part of your business to an outside company? The following six signs are clues you are ready to take the leap.

Your neighbor’s teenage daughter is your webmaster
Maintaining a professional, dynamic website for your practice is a necessity. Just about everyone “knows a guy who is good with computers,” but do you really want to trust your business to the kid next door who is failing sophomore English class? An agency has the staff and expertise to keep your website up to date – even during finals week.

You think Twitter is a dirty word
Facebook, Google +, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare… one way or another, social media is here to stay. Super Bowl 46 generated 12.2 million social media comments, up almost 600 percent from last year’s game. Staying on top of the latest social media trends and lingo is incredibly time consuming, but a smart businessperson goes where his or her customers are. Working with an agency allows you to focus on your practice while someone else sorts out the “tweets,” “likes” and “check-ins.”

You want to be on TV
You keep seeing doctors interviewed for news stories and think to yourself, “I’m much more accomplished, authoritative and attractive than that person. How come no one is interviewing me?” All kidding aside, when you are featured as an expert source in a news story, you receive an invaluable third-party endorsement from the reporter and the news organization. A good agency has established contacts in the media world – reporters come to them for sources and story ideas.

Your crisis communication plan is incomplete
If your first response is, “What crisis communication plan?” you DEFINITELY need to hire an agency. Just like you carry fire and malpractice insurance even though you hope to never use it, a solid communication plan needs to be in place well before a crisis happens. An agency will help you develop your plan and be by your side when the worst happens. News travels fast, bad news travels even faster. An agency will help you prepare for, and mitigate the damage of, a crisis.

Your business has grown and changed but your logo has not
Your logo and marketing materials have served you well thus far, but it might be time for a change. Fortune 500 companies, well-known brands and professional sports teams all update their brands and you should too. A graphic designer can help take your business to the next level by creating materials that catch the eye of your target market. A strong visual presentation communicates your message to patients. The right design will help you cut through the clutter and get your practice noticed in a crowded marketplace.

You want to advertise
Coca-Cola spends billions of dollars each year on advertising. Why? Because it works! Whether you are looking to place an ad in the local newspaper, start a national advertising campaign, or something in between, a full-service agency will help get the most out of your advertising budget.  Agencies are in the trenches daily, negotiating better rates than you can get on your own. In addition, an experienced media buyer will help you select the appropriate outlets to reach your target audience.

“Save yourself a huge headache and your time and go somewhere else!” “I don’t care that this place is just a mile from my house. I’ll travel 15 miles just for better service if I have to.”“Employees sneer and make rude gestures behind each other’s backs, very unprofessional.”

Sounds harsh, but these are real reviews of Southern Nevada doctors floating around the Internet right now.

In a perfect world, doctors wouldn’t be subjected to negative comments by one-time patients, long-time clients, complete strangers or friends of former patients on a digital quest for revenge.

But, this is America.

Freedom of speech is an American societal pillar and patients are taking that freedom beyond “OMG, this doctor is totally bad” verbal conversations within their circle of friends and having “OMG, this doctor is totally bad” conversations on the web, reaching a much larger audience.

The majority of doctor reviews, even when laced with severe criticism and fiery language, are well within the law and within site regulations. Some patients simply have bad experiences that don’t meet their individual expectations and want to assure that new and existing patients know exactly what to expect.

In reaction to negative reviews, some doctors have tried to file lawsuits for defamation, but quickly realize that defamation is incredibly difficult to prove, especially if the doctor is considered to be a “public figure.” Courts generally side with those voicing an opinion, unless the opinion is significantly fabricated or completely false.

Some doctors respond to reviews with just as much anger and expletives as their reviewers. Angry rebuttals by doctors typically lead to a nasty, drawn-out, publicly-visible conversation and stray from the professionalism associated with the medical industry.

So, what do you do to protect your online reputation on doctor review sites?

According to Lindsay Alford, social media specialist for MassMedia, the worst thing you can do is be absent from the online conversation.

“It is essential for practices to participate in social media and monitor online reviews regularly,” said Alford. “Either you manage your online reputation, or your patients and competitors will do it for you. Monitoring reviews helps you identify customer care concerns and maintain a quality health care experience.”

Most doctors’ names appear on Yelp, Vitals.com, RateMDs, AngiesList and/or HealthGrades already. Most doctors also have a handful of reviews attached to his/her name, some positive and some negative.

A doctor’s first inclination when responding to an adverse review may be to draft a wordy, negative rant. In reality, doctors should do the exact opposite.

“The best way to respond to a negative review is to keep your response simple and positive,” said Alford. “Listen first, engage second and talk last. Your patients want to be heard. They also want to know you care.”

In an effort to personalize patient concerns, doctors should also suggest taking negative feedback out of the public spotlight and into personal conversation.

“Remember, other patients, potential patients, and future partners are observing,” said Alford. “Also, once you have resolved a concern, kindly ask your patient to retract or update their review.”

Social reviews carry immense weight on Google and other heavyweight search engines like Bing and Yahoo. The pure amount of written content on social review sites is enough to carry the sites and the reviews right to the top of search results. Thus, it’s important to collaborate with social review sites to keep your contact information and clinic address updated and accurate.

Dr. Stephen J. Portz, director of cardiology for HealthCare Partners of Nevada and a recently awarded “Top Doc” by Vegas Seven magazine, joined HealthCare Partners earlier this year after serving patients at a Las Vegas clinic for eight and a half years. When he joined HealthCare Partners, Dr. Portz moved his practice to a new, state-of-the-art facility at the medical office building at Southern Hills Hospital.

To notify his patients of his clinic change, Dr. Portz sent out 12,000 letters with his new address, but some patients were still finding his old address in online search results. Portz, who sees 25 to 30 patients daily, learned the importance of keeping information updated online.

“At first, I assumed that everything would automatically be changed with my transition,” said Portz. “In reality, I had to work with sites to update my address and contact information and it did take some time. It is important for patients to have the right phone number and address, or else they will not find you.”

In addition to keeping information updated, doctors must develop a social review strategy. Sites like HealthGrades and Yelp are the new frontier for referrals, recommendations and communal reputation. Doctors must explore this important channel to their advantage by monitoring social reviews daily, responding to negative reviews with professionalism and regularly generating positive reviews from their clients.

LAS VEGAS (May 3, 2012) – Paula Yakubik, managing partner of MassMedia Healthcare Marketing, a full-service public relations, advertising and marketing firm, recently announced that the agency has secured five new clients including Westfield Nevada Eye and Ear, Matt Smith Physical Therapy, Steljes Cardiology, United Blood Services (UBS) and Diagnostic Center of Medicine.

“MassMedia has a proven track record of helping leading health care companies build their unique brands and reach their customer bases,” Yakubik said. “Delivering a coordinated message through advertising and public relations is more important than ever, and our creative team is ready to help our new clients.”

Westfield Eye Center and Nevada Eye & Ear recently merged to create Westfield Nevada Eye and Ear. With 19 physicians at six locations in Las Vegas and Pahrump, Westfield Nevada Eye and Ear provides integrated vision services and ear, nose and throat care.

Matt Smith Physical Therapy has served the Las Vegas community since 1984. With 13 locations across the valley, Matt Smith Physical Therapy has grown to become the premier provider of rehabilitative services in Las Vegas. In April, the company began offering balance/vestibular therapy to treat patients with dizziness, vertigo, motion sensitivity and lightheadedness.

Steljes Cardiology is a full service cardiology practice serving the Henderson/Green Valley area serving patients since 2004. Dr. Steljes is one of a handful of cardiologists nationwide who has integrated a sleep medicine program into his practice. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in the subspecialty of sleep medicine.

United Blood Services is a nonprofit organization that exists to make a difference in people’s lives by inspiring individuals to donate blood. More than 15 million people in 18 states depend on United Blood Services’ generous volunteer blood donors to make sure lifesaving blood is available when and where it is needed. There are five United Blood Services locations across Nevada.

The Diagnostic Center of Medicine, in practice since 1977, is one of the largest internal medicine and family medicine groups in Southern Nevada. With three clinics and 17 doctors in Las Vegas and Henderson, Diagnostic Center of Medicine serves as the primary health care provider for over 50 PPO insurers, as well as Medicare, Medicaid and hundreds of private carriers.

About MassMedia

MassMedia Healthcare Marketing is a division of MassMedia Corporate Communications.  Founded in 1997, MassMedia is a leading public relations, advertising, government affairs and marketing agency whose knowledge, strategic insights and innovative programs help drive strong corporate reputations.

Healthcare division clients include HealthCare Partners of Nevada, Women’s Cancer Center of Nevada, Nevada Spine Clinic, Good Night Pediatrics, Humana, and Nevada Heart and Vascular Center

To learn more about MassMedia Healthcare Marketing, visit www.massmediahealth.com.

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