Maximizing allocation of resources has always been a challenge, and that challenge often falls to healthcare market planning, growth, and strategy teams to solve. From identifying ideal locations for new facilities to optimizing community outreach programs, these teams play an important role in helping their organizations make data-driven decisions.
However, without the right tools to understand patient profiles, market dynamics, and service gaps, allocating resources effectively is even more difficult.
Consumer analytics tools offer healthcare market planning teams new insights to guide resource allocation decisions. Moffitt Cancer Center’s experience with Buxton demonstrates how consumer analytics can empower healthcare organizations to better serve their communities and achieve their strategic goals.
Here are three ways healthcare market planning teams can apply consumer analytics, illustrated by Moffitt’s approach.
1. Understanding Patient Characteristics
Knowing your patient base is essential for designing effective outreach programs and so much more.
Consumer profiles identify the key lifestyle and demographic characteristics of different patient segments. This deeper understanding enables healthcare market planning teams to zero in on the types of consumers their organization serves. Those insights can then be applied to a variety of planning processes, from real estate to marketing.
Moffitt Example:
Moffitt’s market planning team uses Buxton’s patient profiles to understand their core patient base. They then map the profiles to identify areas with similar households and use that insight to help inform community outreach.
As Jeremy C. Knox, Moffitt’s director of growth and market planning, explains, “When we go to place any type of services or programs like a mobile mammography bus or a mobile lung bus, [the profiles] help us make sure that we're placing those services where our core patient base is for our community outreach.”
2. Informing Strategic Facility Placement
Healthcare market planning teams must carefully evaluate where to establish new facilities, balancing patient access with operational efficiency. This is particularly true in competitive markets where poorly chosen locations can lead to underutilized services.
Consumer analytics-based tools, like Buxton’s healthcare industry site score models and SCOUT application, simplify this process. Mapping concentrations of consumers who match the organization’s target patient profile, identifying areas with high demand for specific healthcare services, studying the competitive landscape, and running site scores to assess real estate potential are all helpful steps to inform facility placement decisions. These insights help market planning teams identify high-potential areas for new facilities.
Moffitt Example:
Moffitt uses Buxton’s analytics to pinpoint locations for ancillary centers, ensuring they reach the right patients while avoiding oversaturation in their Tampa market.
“Being located in the Tampa market is very competitive,” Jeremy explains, “so we want to make sure that if we’re investing in a property and building a building for those services that we are reaching the right type of patient to drive success for that center.”
3. Optimizing Community Outreach
Healthcare organizations often struggle to ensure their programs—such as cancer screenings, vaccination drives, or wellness events—reach the right audiences. Consumer analytics make it easier to align outreach efforts with the target market.
From ZIP code-specific campaigns to targeted messaging for clinical trials, healthcare organizations can improve awareness and accessibility in their communities using consumer analytics.
Moffitt Example:
Moffitt uses Buxton to study where patients are originating and identify ZIP codes for marketing campaigns, reaching the right audiences with messages about Moffitt’s services and clinical trials. This approach can help to both increase engagement and service utilization.
“[The market planning team] is really entrenched with marketing,” Jeremy says. “We tell them, ‘You need to market here,’ and provide the list of ZIP codes. We look at where our patients are originating, making sure that we're able to drive patients to our particular cancer institute, whether it be through TV or pay-per-click marketing channels.”
The Bottom Line
The healthcare landscape demands smarter strategies for growth, patient engagement, and community impact. With consumer analytics platforms like Buxton, healthcare market planning teams can help their organizations rise to the challenge by leveraging data to allocate resources more effectively.
Moffitt Cancer Center’s experience is just one example of how healthcare providers can harness analytics to address common challenges. Whether you’re planning new facilities or refining outreach strategies, Buxton equips market planners with the tools they need to recommend strategies with confidence.
