Who cares about your members’ health? They do.

July 2, 2010

Movin’ on up…

Motionsoft has been providing club management software and billing solutions to commercial gyms, hospital wellness centers, corporate run facilities and college and university rec centers for nearly 30 years. And in the last 5 years we have seen the most growth in our hospital market. We are proud to call the Mayo Clinic, The Cleveland Clinic and Duke Medical Center some of our clients…and let me tell you everybody should be paying attention!

Somewhere between hanging chads, (aka The Recount), and Hurricane Katrina, hospital wellness centers began to move on up in the eyes of members. They were no longer relegated to dingy basements next to the morgue to be used only by the occasional therapist or overnight hospital staff. Hospital administrators began to see that they should invest in their gyms, not just because they could be profit centers but because it would give them a higher profile in the communities that they drew patients from. Sure enough, patients started to go to these hospitals for their fitness needs.

And commercial clubs have begun to take notice. Hospital wellness centers are a new, scary source of competition. Not just because they have large sums of cash available to them to build, but rather because they very quickly have become a trusted source.

So what is a trusted source?

• It’s the difference between a physical therapist and a personal trainer
• It’s the difference between a patient and members
• Its the difference between wellness program and a workout
• It’s listening to your doctor telling you to lose weight versus your wife telling you. (Ok this isn’t a great example but I think you understand what I’m saying! These are valued people.)

Hospitals have found an edge by being the place you go to get your body healthy and fit, not just aesthetically but medically. And as more and more hospitals begin to expand their wellness programs, commercial clubs will need to adjust. In my mind (and we all know how much I loooooooove getting up on my pedestal) commercial clubs opened the door for hospitals to enter the market by not delivering enough on the medical side of getting fit. It just doesn’t make sense how you can have an increase in the number of gyms, an increase in the number of members AND an increase in the rate of obesity and diabetes. But, perhaps there is an opportunity for commercial clubs to be trusted sources of medical health too.

For the time being hospitals have done an excellent job in gaining the trust of their patients. And the results…well let’s just say the East Side is getting crowded!

Tell us who your trusted source is…