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Andrea Eliscu wanted her third book to be more than a medical marketing guide. She says it’s a labor of love and a culmination of the wonderful experiences she’s had over the years working with talented and inspiring clients and colleagues throughout healthcare and marketing communities.

A+ Marketing: Proven Tactics for Success, recently published by Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), shows physicians how to market their practice in today’s challenging climate. Many traditional marketing books and educational classes teach the “Four P’s” of marketing strategy: product, price, place and promotion, which are seen as simple keys to any marketing strategy. Eliscu wanted to take it one step further, exclusively for the healthcare industry—to what she hails the cornerstone to achieving your marketing goals: “The Four A’s: Access, Availability, Accountability and Accommodation.”

Eliscu is president of Medical Marketing Inc., a marketing and public relations firm, which she founded in 1984. She serves as a facilitator and consultant to physician groups, managed care companies, hospital systems, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare attorneys and healthcare management companies, and is a resource to local and national electronic and print media.

Eliscu previously had authored two books—Ready-Set-Market! and Position for Success! Strategic Marketing for Group Practices, both published by MGMA. She has received numerous professional awards and recognition, including Outstanding Woman in Orlando Business, Most Innovative Small Business in Florida, Presidential Citation for Exemplary Service to the Health Care Marketing Discipline and the Friend of Medicine Award.

Eliscu says she designed her latest book to serve as a practical and user-friendly guide. She provides action plans and real examples from successful medical organizations. The book covers everything from gaining a fresh understanding of patients’ needs and providing exceptional customer service to maximizing profit potential through retail medicine to building effective community relations and developing “bullet-proof” referral relationships.

For A+ Marketing, Eliscu also called upon several of her colleagues in customer service, community relations, television, strategic planning, retail medicine and the Internet to reveal their top “marketing secrets.”

Eliscu actually had no intention of writing a third book—or the second. She was invited to write the second book in 1998, and initially said no because her husband had been diagnosed with a recurrence of renal cell cancer.

“I had planned to devote my time to his fight for life,” she said. “He, however, challenged me that if I thought he was going to survive, I should write the second book.”

Her husband was treated at Cleveland Clinic, where they spent two weeks a month for 20 months. Eliscu used much of that time to write her second book, Ready-Set-Market!

Her husband passed away in May 2000, and although she continued to work for her existing clients, she backed away from any stressful projects.

In 2005, MGMA asked her to write the third book on healthcare marketing. Like the second book, she deferred.

“I didn’t feel focused enough to commit the time, planning and effort,” she said.

She was continuously invited, and in 2007, when she was ready, she said yes.

Eliscu summed up her beliefs about marketing saying, “I believe that leaders should lead. I believe that leadership medical groups must set their own standards and allow their community to know who they are, what they bring to the market and that they are thoughtful and sensitive about the needs and desires of their patient base. I believe that physician groups are important members of their home community and must no longer stand as silos but be interactive in select ways. I believe that we can no longer practice medicine in silos but rather use our medical leadership in a catalytic manner by building relationships with others in the community to recognize the upcoming power of baby boomers and social networking. I believe that as we do our marketing efforts we need to use story telling to get our messages through the din.”

As a registered nurse with 40 years’ experience in the healthcare field, Eliscu is frequently invited to share this vision, and her problem-solving skills, with clients throughout the country through professional presentations and trade publication articles. She also is actively involved as a volunteer in the business community, providing a unique insight into the needs of the healthcare customer. She is on the Board of Governors of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and past Chairman of their Management Corporation Board.

Eliscu also serves as an advisor to the College of Health and Public Affairs, University of Central Florida and as a courtesy faculty member of the College of Health and Public Affairs. Eliscu was an appointed member of the WorkForce on Certificates of Need for the State of Florida. She also has served on the Lt. Governor’s Task Force for Education, Board of Directors for Women Playing for T.I.M.E., Hospice of Polk and Sumter Counties and has been a Board Director on a Gift for Teaching and the Healthy Florida Foundation.



June 2008

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