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.
“In health care, it isn’t just the care that’s changing,” notes Claire Hovis, Vice President and Account Director of Capstrat, an agency that helps health care clients and others tell their stories with power and persuasion. “Power is changing.” She says “expert-driven” communications—which in the past have given providers and large corporations a strong position Read More
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston has always been on the cutting edge when it comes to providing high quality care. For the past 25 years, this multi-disciplinary facility has been ranked in the top two cancer centers in the United States, according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual “Best 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
Word of mouth may help to build your brand over time—but sometimes advertising really helps get the ball rolling quickly. Such was the case in and around Phoenix, Arizona, where Arizona OBGYN Affiliates (AOA), now the largest OB/GYN practice in Arizona, consolidated from several smaller practices in 2007. AOA soon found its future growth and Read More
Serving the central and northeast regions of Pennsylvania, Geisinger Health System is one of the largest rural health systems in the nation, operating nine hospitals, along with a 1,200 member multi-specialty group practice, two research centers, and a 467,000-member health plan. While some hospitals communicate with providers themselves, Geisinger decided to try a different approach, Read More
While health care marketers are often urged to embrace the social media revolution, “another kind of social network has an even bigger impact on health care: the referral network that connects physicians,” says Moses Hohman, CEO of Human Practice, a Chicago-based digital health startup that helps physicians and health systems meet their referral goals. “Though Read More
Fresh Care. Delivered Daily. The concept is simple, yet this hand-picked brand message represents Columbia Memorial Health (CMH) perfectly. It also hits home on many levels for the hospital’s target area, which consists of Greene and Columbia counties of upstate New York. The CMH network has a total of 120 individual multi-specialty practitioners, a hospital, Read More
“If you’re designing a prevention or health improvement program, you want to increase your chances for success,” says health care marketing expert Susan Dubuque. “And that’s possible if you build your program on a solid foundation of ‘theory,’” she says. While talk of behavioral change theory may prompt yawning or eye rolls, Dubuque notes, it’s Read More
As more and more people turn to the Internet to get their health information, the digital world becomes an increasingly important space for hospitals to market their services and engage with their communities and consumers. We all know this. What’s critical—with so much opportunity for online promotion—is to make strategic decisions with your digital efforts 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
Service lines may be the mainstay of your organization, but are you using them strategically for the realities of today’s marketplace? If not, you could be missing some important potential for getting, and keeping, your patients. Health care reform has changed the way most hospitals do business—and the impact includes an increased emphasis on value Read More
How can you tell if your marketing efforts are truly successful? The best way is to let the data speak for itself, according to representatives from Laughlin Constable (LC). This integrated advertising agency recently partnered with Cadence Health in Illinois to identify and track key measures to help capture and strengthen the health system’s marketing Read More
In a new SHCM article, health care marketing expert Susan Dubuque writes, As you look around your organization and your community and evaluate all the health needs, you might get the feeling that there is much work to be done—so many health issues to be addressed—and not enough staff time or money to make a Read More
UC Irvine Health is a California hospital system with 411 licensed beds that handles 19,243 patient admissions and 561,000 medical center visits a year—while defending against plenty of competition. There are more than 20 other hospitals in Orange and neighboring Los Angeles County, including Cedars Sinai, UCLA, USC, and City of Hope. The goal? To Read More
Consumers want ease, convenience, and price transparency when purchasing health care—all the things they have when purchasing everything else. This means they are now assuming a more active role managing their health care decisions through participation in consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs), which have been around for about 10 years, and more recently through public and Read More
While many hospitals grapple with how best to use their social media efforts, Advocate Health Care in Illinois leads by example. This faith-based health delivery system has developed a comprehensive social media strategy that supports its broader communications goals on multiple levels. As the largest health system in Illinois, and one of the top five Read More
Hill Country Memorial (HCM) in Fredericksburg, TX—a nonprofit organization serving a rural area with a population of just 10,000—might seem like a long-shot for a prestigious national award. Nonetheless, HCM was one of just four organizations nationwide to receive a 2014 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for achieving excellence in its efforts. Back in 2007, Read More
In a new SHCM article, Stewart Gandolf, CEO of Healthcare Success Strategies, writes that: Clinical service department profitability is a constant challenge for hospitals. That’s nothing new. What’s changed, however, is just about everything else. He explains how patients, newly empowered, now regard medical services through the critical eyes of retail shoppers. Health care reform, Read More
While it may seem like any time of year is a good time to spread the word about your health care system, the open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act presents a particularly prime opportunity. This is a time of year when even people in good health have reason to pay extra attention to Read More
Many hospitals are acquiring physician groups at a rapid pace. But in the operational process of incorporating new practices into the larger organization, it’s crucial that hospitals don’t lose sight of their end goal: getting a good return on their investment. Daniel Weinbach of the Weinbach Group, Inc., in Miami, FL, points out that all Read More
Satisfied patients are a powerful marketing tool for health care organizations, as one hospital learned when it overhauled the scheduling and management of its operating rooms (ORs). The efforts led to increased efficiency and patient satisfaction and helped boost profitability. Dr. Adam Blomberg, Vice Chief of Anesthesiology and Co-Medical Director of the Surgical Services Executive Read More
Welcome to the fifth and final installment in our welcome series. (You can read the previous installments here.) Over the past several days, we’ve tried to give you a small sampling of all the great information we provide, from exclusive stories on brand management to in-depth case studies of successful health care marketing campaigns around Read More
Hello! Thanks for continuing to follow along in our ezine welcome series. If you missed any of the previous installments, you can check them out here. Brand management is a huge concern for many health care organizations these days, particularly given the trend toward consolidation of facilities and service lines. So we’re giving you a Read More
We’re back—and today we’ve got something special for you. (If you missed the first or second installments in our series, you can read them here.) Peter Hochstein is a veteran New York copywriter, and he’s written for some of the biggest and best in the industry. Over the years, his employers have included Ogilvy, Benton Read More