Selling to Hospitals & Healthcare Organizations: A Glossary of Business Acumen & Personnel

As hospitals migrate from a fee-for-service reimbursement methodology to payment for value, based upon patient outcomes; they are creating new business models and new relationships with insurers, physician practices, single and multi-specialty community clinics, ambulatory surgery centers, diagnostic imaging centers, specialized treatment service centers, specialty hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and other healthcare entities.

The hospital is now part of a healthcare continuum and this adds both an opportunity and a challenge for sales professionals that wish to sell their products, services and solutions. It’s an opportunity because many sellers will be able to expand their portfolio within the growing organizational footprint. It’s a challenge because new and different buying influences are evolving that speak a different language; often are in different geographic locations, with varying needs and requirements and who wish to buy collaboratively by soliciting input from others often within a committee structure.

To sell effectively in this new ecosystem today’s sellers must understand the role and function of hospital and alternate site personnel and their language. We call this Business Acumen. Sellers that understand the language and business of hospitals receive immediate credibility, which is a foundation for building communication and trust.

This Glossary is designed as an easy-to-use reference. In Part 1 users will find Business and Clinical words that are commonly used within medicine, insurance, finance, supply chain and clinical research defined within the context of the hospital and their related entities. Also included is a detailed listing of medical specialties.

Part 2 contains a Healthcare Personnel Glossary that describes the most common titles of hospital personnel along with a brief overview of their job. It is not an all-inclusive healthcare personnel dictionary because titles, roles and responsibilities often differ between hospitals of various sizes and within healthcare systems. In addition, there are differences in titles between community hospitals and teaching hospitals. The latter includes teaching titles and research titles which we deliberately did not add to this missive. Instead, we have provided the most common listing of job titles of personnel working within hospitals and associated healthcare entities. Because physician practices are being purchased by hospitals we did include those.

There are Four Appendices to assist the reader. Appendix 1 describes the most frequently used Acronyms and Medical Industry Abbreviations. Appendix 2 provides a short list of Anatomical Terms. Appendix 3 lists several Healthcare Agencies and Organizations that sellers may encounter in their discussions with healthcare personnel. Appendix 4 is a brief list of Prescription Terms.

We hope this glossary helps sales professionals improve their Hospital Business Acumen so that they can conduct better and more meaningful conversations with hospital and healthcare personnel and build great long-lasting business relationships.