Latest Articles

Is Your Call Center Creating Loyal Customers?

Marcia Simon

// By Marcia Simon, APR // Google is often the place people look first when seeking health information online. Assuming your health care system has done all the right things to optimize discoverability, the patient’s next step is to access care, most often by making a phone call. That first impression determines the course for Read More

How to Incorporate Inclusive Language in Your Marketing Materials

Althea Fung

// By Althea Fung // Language can build relationships and forge bonds, but it can also create barriers. Content writers and marketers carry implicit biases that can rear their ugly heads when crafting copy. “Bias in and of itself isn’t a bad thing. Evolution developed it for survival,” says Kristen Syrett, PhD, an associate professor Read More

Four Challenges Facing Health Care Marketers in COVID Recovery

Lindsay Resnick

// By Lindsay R. Resnick // Consumers want to know, “Who’s going to do the right thing when it comes to my health?” We’ve been exposed! COVID shined a bright light on American health care — the best and the worst: gaps in its value chain, disparities in communities, advances in technology, changes in consumer Read More

Consumer Sentiment Evolving with COVID Spread

Daniel Fell, Optum

// By Daniel Fell // In early May, our company launched a biweekly tracking study to better understand and monitor consumer sentiment toward seeking health care services during the COVID pandemic. The Optum Consumer Pulse Survey asks a representative sample of 700 adult consumers nationwide how likely they are to visit different types of health Read More

Telemedicine a Saving Grace — Unless You’re Poor or Don’t Speak English

Marcia Simon

// By Marcia Simon, APR // Telemedicine came to the rescue when COVID-19 first rattled the capacity and safety of health care delivery. It didn’t take long for hospitals, providers, and patients to embrace the conveniences, especially when federal waivers allowed for expanded access to virtual care services, and payers relaxed their reimbursement guidelines. Hospitals Read More

“Care Bravely”: Rallying Cry for LifeBridge Health

Richard Cohen

// By Richard Cohen // One of the central issues when a health care organization acquires other hospitals or entities on the care continuum is how to get all the employees from its disparate parts on message. This was something that the folks at the Baltimore-based LifeBridge Health took to heart several years ago after Read More

SHSMD Annual Conference Goes Virtual, Adding New Bells and Whistles

// By Jane Weber Brubaker // In this topsy-turvy world we’re living in, everything familiar has had to change to accommodate the new normal, and conferences are no exception. The Society for Health Care Strategy & Market Development annual conference, SHSMD Connections, will now be held virtually as two conferences, “Navigating a New Reality” on Read More