Each week we email a tip or news that we are covering in Strategic Health Care Marketing. You can view the archives of this weekly ezine below.
A new educational campaign led by Lenox Hill Hospital has rallied together an impressive array of big and small public and private groups in New York City to fight against a common problem: the incidence of diabetes in the Latino community. “Hispanics are almost twice as likely as non-Hispanics to be diagnosed with diabetes and Read More
Augusta University Health System is no stranger to change. Over the past five years, it has undergone several rebranding campaigns and two consolidations. Yet through all of these fluctuations, one thing has remained the same: the need to find new and more efficient ways to improve its reputation and continue to grow market share. The Read More
If you or a family member broke an ankle or dislocated a shoulder, what if you could just use an app on your smartphone to schedule a visit at a nearby orthopedic urgent care center and, at the same time, also arrange for an Uber driver to transport you? That’s the premise of a new Read More
When its market share began dwindling recently, Tanner Health System turned to micro-targeted data to step up its marketing efforts. Until recently, the system’s main sources of information were limited to the basics such as electronic medical records, census bureau results, and general facts about the service area. “We also had data from the Georgia Read More
“Call centers in health care used to be treated like the ugly stepchild of the health system, banished to the basement of some administrative building and populated with low-performing employees,” says Robin Snow, founder and principal of Aefinity Interactive, LLC. “Because it was seen as a necessary evil, most executives treated the call center as Read More
Are your marketing messages living up to their full potential? If not, you may need to think more about the concept of health literacy and how to reach your target audience on a deeper and more personal level, by talking about things they care about in a simple, direct language that they can understand. Health Read More
Who says print is dead? That’s far from the case in the health care field, where “publishing magazines is starting to seem as commonplace in many hospitals as taking patients’ temperatures. Well, almost,” says veteran copywriter and SHCM contributor Peter Hochstein. “The data collected over the last ten years shows that approximately 60 to 70 Read More
They say breaking up is hard to do—but merging isn’t always so easy, either. When two health care organizations in New Jersey joined to create one larger, more comprehensive system called Hackensack Meridian Health last summer, there were numerous challenges in addition to opportunities. For instance, the CEOs of both legacy organizations decided to share Read More
What if you were in a foreign country and needed emergency medical care but couldn’t communicate effectively with the health care providers there? This could put your life at risk, if you and your provider couldn’t understand each other fully. While this might sound like a nightmare, it’s a scenario that’s also all too common Read More
“On July 18, 2016, the long-awaited final rule implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities went into effect. The new rule provides a comprehensive framework of what it means to provide effective communication and meaningful access to health care for Limited English Proficient (“LEP”) and disabled patients, Read More
You go to great lengths to develop strong messages that will resonate with your target audience and reinforce your brand. But what your spokespeople don’t say may come across louder than their actual words. This is because body language is essential when it comes to establishing trust and connecting with viewers on television and video. Read More
“Sickness, pain, and mortality, the matters that hospitals deal with, are pretty grim stuff. Yet every so often, hospitals find an opportunity to do humorous ads. And while this can raise eyebrows, it also can raise awareness and patient traffic,” notes SHCM writer and master copywriter Peter Hochstein. “[One] success story worth exploring is a TV Read More
“If what we’ve seen over the past year is any indication, 2017 won’t be for the faint of heart,” says Lindsay R. Resnick, Executive Vice President at ReviveHealth, a Weber Shandwick company. “Combine the dynamics of socioeconomic-political tensions with the massive transformation happening across health care’s ecosystem—regulatory, technology, competition, innovation, finance, clinical—and you get an Read More
How satisfied are your patients with the care they receive in your facility? Your answer may be based on the latest HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) data, which provides an important way to track key measures from the patient perspective. This can provide valuable insight into your strengths and weaknesses. But Read More
“It has been said that all motion is relative,” notes Ross K. Goldberg. “If that is indeed true, then it’s entirely possible to go backward by simply standing still if the world around you is changing.” Goldberg, President of Kevin/Ross Public Relations in Southern California, says that “[o]ver the past half-dozen years, those entrusted with Read More
“As physicians are evaluating whether to participate in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), they are facing a new reality, one that demands they change their practice processes, reduce health care utilization, and improve wellness for the patients they care for,” says Andrea J. Simon, Ph.D., President of Simon Associates Management Consultants. “They must now refer to Read More
If you had a suspicious mole or rash on your leg, what if you could have it evaluated by a dermatologist tomorrow without having to miss any work or activities and could find out quickly whether the area is cause for concern? You’d probably find this approach invaluable. And so might many of your health Read More
“As the health sciences have advanced, pressure to see more patients in less time has also grown. Little wonder that doctor-patient relationships often seem less personal—and consequently less satisfying—than they once were,” notes veteran copywriter and regular SHCM columnist Peter Hochstein. “It was just this kind of society-wide malaise that provided a branding opportunity for Read More
“The concept of measuring the metrics associated with health care marketing and communications efforts is far from new,” notes David Marlowe, Principal of Strategic Marketing Concepts in Ellicott City, Maryland (and member of the Strategic Health Care Marketing Editorial Advisory Board). “When I entered the field in 1980, one of the first questions asked by Read More
Flip through the channels of your television set any evening and chances are you’ll stumble across an episode of a reality TV series that was filmed in a hospital emergency department. Over the past few years, such “real” medical TV that presents traumas as they unfold has grown in popularity among viewers, and some organizations Read More
“As a health care marketer or leader, you know your health care system doesn’t specialize in everything,” Keith Schneider notes. “By pairing the needs of your market with your unique differentiators, your team has chosen its investments wisely. “This intelligent approach allows you to focus on excellence. Yet you might be surprised that, despite service Read More
“As the Affordable Care Act continues to alter the profile of health care in America, hospitals are challenged to meet the objectives of the Triple Aim and offer access, quality, and affordability in their care delivery even while reimbursement continues to be ratcheted back,” says Dennis Knox, Chief Executive Officer of Aethena Healthcare Holding Company. Read More
It’s common today for people to buy their food and clothing online, and to arrange their travel reservations through web-based services. Now many health systems also allow patients to view and pay their health care bills online. In addition to increasing patient satisfaction with this offering, health care systems can also save valuable staff time Read More
Placing your service lines, retail clinics, and outpatient facilities in optimal locations may mean the difference between success and failure in today’s competitive marketplace. These days, it’s no longer enough to make decisions about where to locate new offerings based on available sites or what an organization “thinks” might work. Rather, the savviest organizations are Read More
“Until recently, health care businesses often did little or no marketing as a general rule,” says Ken Robbins, CEO of award-winning digital agency Response Mine Interactive (RMI). “Now, we are experiencing a seismic shift to the point where online marketing such as paid and organic search have helped it become a clear and distinctive focus in health care. Read More