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.
An industry leader recently used a phrase we hadn’t heard before: “The NEXT Normal.” What has the pandemic taught us? How did it stretch us as an industry, and how can we use what we’ve learned to shape strategies in the future? We asked our editorial advisory board members to weigh in on one question: Read More
Telehealth usage has skyrocketed across the country. In the past year of the pandemic, the weekly number of behavioral health visits increased 25 percent on average compared with before COVID-19. This is due to expanded use of audio and video technology. But a study of insured patients published in Health Affairs found that in poorer Read More
COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has become the new challenge in conquering the pandemic. Getting vaccines into the arms of vulnerable populations, including underserved communities of color, is a priority despite systemic distrust of the medical field resulting from generations of disparities in health care. “Medical institutions really have to find a way to speak the language Read More
“Disrupt or be disrupted.” That’s the advice Shari Campbell offers to anyone in traditional health care who is concerned about losing market share to retail health care stores as Walmart, Amazon, CVS, and others move into the business. Campbell, marketing director, retail health at MultiCare Health System in Tacoma, Washington, says MultiCare Health began to Read More
COVID forced organizations to adapt quickly. Communicators’ skills were essential in navigating the crisis, and marketing led the way, meeting the extraordinary demand for information. Over the past year-plus, health system marketing departments radically shifted their priorities. The question is: Which COVID-era changes actually moved the industry forward and should remain? Which strategic initiatives have Read More
The status for diversity, inclusion, and health equity initiatives across America? It’s complicated. How do you train your staff about biases toward patients and colleagues when they don’t believe they have any? We all grow up with assumptions and stereotypical views of the world and the people in it. For the health care industry, fair Read More
One organization with too many names leads to an identity crisis and confusion for all involved. It’s a story we’ve heard many times, usually driven by the rapid pace of mergers, acquisitions, and consolidation in the health care industry over the past 10 to 15 years. Brand has become increasingly important as a way to Read More
“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a persistent challenge in health care: sharing public health and general health care initiatives with hard-to-reach and historically underserved communities,” says Matthew O’Connor of AdQuick. Here’s an excerpt from O’Connor’s new article: As health care systems and public health departments at the state, county, and local level look to gain Read More
Health systems activate their hospital incident command systems (HICS) during a crisis, but usually the crisis doesn’t last for more than a year as the coronavirus pandemic has. From the start of the pandemic, hospital incident command centers became the temporary headquarters for crisis management. Leaders had to adapt day-to-day to keep their organizations and Read More
If you have been paying attention for the past couple of years, you know there’s been growing talk in health care about health care consumer experience, consumerism and digital health. Telehealth, wearable devices, online portals and scheduling, and other technological advances have caused significant changes in how consumers receive their medical care. It is a Read More
In Peter Hochstein’s new story, he explains how a radio-focused advertising campaign enabled a regional hospital system to significantly increase its telehealth and urgent-care traffic, with relatively low media and production costs. Here’s an excerpt: Radio tends to be a medium that reaches people while their minds are on something else. There are exceptions, of Read More
Like every other health care operation, fundraising has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Foundations, trusts, and development departments have had to squeeze all the creative juices they could muster to tackle an unpredictable, unprecedented situation. Boston Children’s Hospital sets the bar high. Named the country’s #1 Pediatric Hospital by U.S. News & World Report for Read More
A few seminal moments led to the genesis of the Bluford Healthcare Leadership Institute (BHLI). Marketed as an intense professional development program, BHLI has a self-proclaimed mission to “eliminate health care disparities among minority and vulnerable populations by cultivating a pipeline of culturally competent under-represented scholars for leadership roles in health care.” John W. Bluford Read More
“On December 14, 2020, the first COVID-19 vaccination outside the clinical trials was administered in the U.S. But UNC Health began preparing for the vaccine rollout months earlier,” writes Susan Dubuque, principal and co-founder of NDP. Here’s an excerpt from Susan’s new article. “Our consumer insights team conducts monthly Brand Trackers, and in the summer Read More
“Coming off an incredibly challenging 2020, health care marketers face a potentially rocky start to the new year,” says Danny Fell, a senior strategist with Optum’s innovation team. “Positive factors, like revolutionary new COVID-19 vaccines, are coming up against the ongoing reality of a pandemic that is still very much with us across many parts Read More
The current pandemic is pushing the boundaries for parity when it comes to telemedicine reimbursement. How long will it be before the entire health care system repositions itself to provide hospital-level care for patients at home through ongoing remote monitoring? That’s what Tony Slonim has been working toward since he took the helm seven years Read More
While many health care marketers seek to limit their media outlets, the reality is that successful marketing plans need to incorporate a blend of many efforts to produce a desired reach, frequency, and outcome. Here’s an excerpt from John Gonda’s new article on this topic: For many years, hospitals have used traditional media outlets such Read More
“On May 8, 1980, the World Health Assembly issued an official declaration,” says Susan Dubuque of NDP: “‘The world and all its peoples have won freedom from smallpox.’ Global eradication of this disease through vaccination is considered international public health’s biggest achievement. “Fast forward to 2021. We’re once again in the clutches of a worldwide Read More
More than ever, it’s important for health care executives to understand that broad brand strategy alone doesn’t drive business. Successful service-line growth campaigns are based on insights from marketing and consumer data. Without direction from digital marketing data, health care organizations will struggle even more in the post-pandemic world. Brand/MarCom strategist John Marzano recently spoke Read More
“In some cases, letting your ads ignore the news about [your hospital’s] name change can be a smarter move than headlining it,” notes SHCM contributor and veteran copywriter Peter Hochstein. While this may seem hard to believe, he makes his case with the real-life story of the hospital formerly known as the Floating Hospital for Read More
“Virtual health care has been building momentum slowly since video visits were offered in rural areas in the early 1990s,” says Diane Hopkins. “This new channel for medical care was slow to expand due to limits on payment, adoption of technology by providers, and regulations primarily around provider licensing.” Hopkins is a certified experience economy Read More
The traditional view at many hospitals and health systems is that marketing departments are an operating expense called in after strategy has been established and budgets allocated. But that view has been changing at Providence, the Seattle-based nonprofit healthcare system that operates 51 hospitals in seven states. When Providence separated its marketing and communication functions Read More
As marketers, we spend time and resources to take full advantage of the internet. We want our content to show up at the top of the search results page. We want our brand to be trusted. We want our physicians to be the ones patients find and choose. But as we’ve seen over the past Read More
The Lloyd F. Moss Free Clinic in Fredericksburg, Virginia is in a state-of-the-art building opened in 2007 on the campus of Mary Washington Healthcare. “I can see the hospital out my window,” says Karen Dulaney, executive director of the clinic. The strong connection between the hospital and the clinic is based on more than geography. Read More
Marketing budgets were already starting to tighten for some health systems at the beginning of last year. But when the coronavirus pandemic hit, some of those budget cuts became even more severe. Other systems saw budgets remain the same, but marketing departments had to be ready to quickly shift their strategy, messaging, tactics, and media Read More