“It’s a marriage made in heaven,” notes Melissa Fors, Executive Director of Marketing Strategy for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation: “In February 2014, two of the nation’s best-known substance abuse treatment organizations—Hazelden and the Betty Ford Center—said ‘I do’ to a merger. This agreement marked the culmination of more than 30 years of connectedness between Read More
// By Andrea Simon, Ph.D. // A hospital “call center” often has been considered an irritating expense health care organizations have to endure, because people use phones and want to reach a doctor or patient in the hospital. But maybe it’s time to ask, “What if we’ve always been wrong?” Maybe a call center actually Read More
// By Lori Moore and Jimmy Warren // Videos can be a powerful marketing tool for hospitals and health systems. When used to their full potential, they accomplish multiple goals, including sharing your organization’s story to attract more patients, helping your target audience understand your services, and encouraging them to take a more proactive role Read More
When patients come to your hospital for services, do you take the time to spotlight your organization’s strengths and let them know how much you value their health and well-being? You should be marketing not only to prospective patients, but also to current patients when they come to your facility; you want them to know Read More
The internationally known Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is among the world’s few destination medical facilities. Popular perceptions were, and probably still are, that it’s where you go for the gravest cases, the ones that can’t be handled wherever else in the world you live. But now, in addition to its destination facility in Rochester, Read More
The trend of using online relationship sites continues to be a popular way for singles to meet potential mates. Now, some savvy hospital marketers are using similar types of matching tools to connect them with reporters and bloggers as a way to build strategic relationships to help promote their services to a larger audience. The Read More
By Melissa Fors It’s a marriage made in heaven. In February 2014, two of the nation’s best-known substance abuse treatment organizations—Hazelden and the Betty Ford Center—said, “I do” to a merger. This agreement marked the culmination of more than 30 years of connectedness between the two organizations. A Snapshot of the Two Organizations Hazelden, founded Read More
By Lisa D. Ellis When patients come to your hospital for services, do you take the time to spotlight your organization’s strengths and let them know how much you value their health and well-being? If not, you could be missing an important opportunity to improve your patient satisfaction ratings and also get them to recommend Read More
Advertising Worth Noting By Peter Hochstein The internationally known Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is among the world’s few destination medical facilities. Popular perceptions were, and probably still are, that it’s where you go for the gravest cases, the ones that can’t be handled wherever else in the world you live. Recently, changing conditions in Read More
By Mike Milligan Eighty percent of CEOs don’t really trust marketers, according to a recent Fournaise Marketing Group survey of high-level decisions-makers. Eighty percent! This is painful for me to say because I’ve been on both sides of the health care marketing table. But I’ve also learned that before you can overcome a challenge, you Read More
By Lisa D. Ellis The trend of using online relationship sites continues to be a popular way for singles to meet potential mates. Now, some savvy hospital marketers are using similar types of matching tools to connect them with reporters and bloggers as a way to build strategic relationships to help promote their services to Read More
“Can you picture Brian Williams in one of those Southwest Airlines ‘Want to Get Away?’ commercials?” posits David M. Mastovich, MBA, President and CEO of MASSolutions, an integrated marketing firm based in Pittsburgh. Mastovich, of course, is referring to the disgraced NBC Nightly News Anchor, suspended for six months after misrepresenting events that occurred while Read More
Does the rise of the Internet, and its attendant ever-growing roster of social media channels, signal the end of mass media as a channel for health care marketing? Not necessarily, says Ross K. Goldberg, president of Kevin/Ross Public Relations and former chairman of the board of trustees of Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Read More
// By Ross K. Goldberg // It was just a blink of an eye ago when corporate America understood, some albeit begrudgingly, the need for a solid media relations program as a way to get their organization’s story told. Product advertising was fine, and promotional gimmicks were exciting; but the inherent credibility found in the Read More
By David M. Mastovich Can you picture Brian Williams in one of those Southwest Airlines “Want to Get Away?” commercials? The NBC Nightly News Anchor was suspended for six months after misrepresenting events that occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003. Bloggers, comedians, and traditional news media outlets continue to feast on Read More
A frenzy of media attention has been centered on Nebraska Medicine in Omaha recently. As one of only three hospitals in the United States to run a biocontainment unit equipped to treat highly infectious diseases, it has had an almost unprecedented opportunity to play host to a few of the nation’s first Ebola patients over Read More
Spectrum Health Medical Group (SHMG) has grown in leaps and bounds in recent years, and so have its onboarding and communication efforts, which are essential to helping new providers acclimate to the large, multidisciplinary system. Headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Spectrum Health is the second largest health care provider in the state, offering inpatient and Read More
By Lisa D. Ellis If an Ebola patient walked into your organization’s emergency department today, would you be ready to handle the communication needs of the situation appropriately? If not, you could be missing out on some valuable opportunities to educate the community and at the same time, to help to promote the good work Read More
By Lisa D. Ellis A frenzy of media attention has been centered on Nebraska Medicine in Omaha recently. As one of only three hospitals in the United States to run a biocontainment unit equipped to treat highly infectious diseases, it has had an almost unprecedented opportunity to play host to a few of the nation’s Read More
Spectrum Health Medical Group (SHMG) has grown in leaps and bounds in recent years, and so has its onboarding and communication efforts, which are essential to helping new providers acclimate to the large, multi-disciplinary system. Headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Spectrum Health is the second largest health care provider in the state, offering inpatient and Read More
by Jennifer Busick At a health care center in Florida, patients who were undergoing radiology procedures believed they were receiving injections of a narcotic painkiller, fentanyl. What they didn’t know was that a radiology technician at the clinic was injecting himself with the fentanyl and then refilling the syringes with saline solution. Although fentanyl is Read More
by Jennifer Redmond Implementation of the Affordable Care Act has created an equal share of opportunity and difficulty for health care providers. In an evergrowing market, providers are vying for the attention of consumers in creative ways, but some, in an effort to edge out the competition, are met with vehement criticism. This pressure to Read More
by Maureen Scullin, CCWS When St. Joseph Healthcare of Nashua, NH, launched the third year of Lighten Up Nashua in January 2014, the hospital decided to throw a party. The event celebrated the launch of the program’s latest weight-loss challenge. And despite the fact that it was January in New England, a time when many Read More
by Ritch K. Eich, PhD Special events have been an integral part of health care organizations for centuries. For example, back when Catherine McAuley founded the Sisters of Mercy religious order in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831, charity functions—sermons, bazaars, and other appeals—were an integral part of social life. In his 1955 book about that period, Read More
by Sheryl S. Jackson Keep Focus on Patient-Centric Care and Take Time to Engage Everyone in the Process Increasing financial and competitive pressures within the health care industry have spurred hospital acquisition of other health care providers – physician practices, urgent care centers, and imaging centers. While the reasons for acquiring other entities varies from Read More