// By Jane Weber Brubaker // 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 Read More
// By Peter Hochstein // You might think that co-opting language associated with COVID-19 could scare people away. Instead, it called attention to advertising that helped to reassure worried parents. Let’s clearly state a few factual negatives first. Tilt, the advertising agency behind the campaign you’re about to read about, is not the same Tilt Read More
// By Jim Samuel // Three health care marketing executives share how they use data and agility to justify budgets, achieve their marketing objectives, and measure the results. Marketing budgets were already starting to tighten for some health systems at the start of 2020. But when the coronavirus pandemic hit, some of those budget cuts Read More
// By Althea Fung // Switching from renting to owning digital billboards gave Willis-Knighton Health System ultimate control over messaging. Do you read billboards when you’re driving? If you do, you’re not alone. According to the 2019 Nielsen out-of-home advertising study, eight out of 10 Americans consciously look at billboard messages. As technology evolves, more Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // If marketing is about influencing people to change behaviors, then a new public service campaign launched just before the Thanksgiving holiday — #MaskUp — is marketing at its best. The coronavirus continues its rampage throughout the country as of this writing in early December, sickening people, taking lives, devastating Read More
// By Peter Hochstein // At the Deborah Heart and Lung Center in southern New Jersey, the task of letting patients know it was safe and even wise to return evolved into a multimedia effort. The campaign has been paying off with a substantial increase in patient visits. Don’t let the bed count — there Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Vanderbilt University Medical Center led the formation of a successful high-performance provider network that has met 100 percent of its quality goals in recent years and returned millions in incentives to network members. Marketing has played a key role in the growth and success of one of the nation’s Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // During the pandemic, we have seen many examples of health care organizations that had technology in place that could be quickly adapted, enabling communicators to disseminate relevant and timely information. CHI Memorial Health System had a robust physician communications platform in place before COVID-19 came along. But the pandemic Read More
Using Amara’s Law to Analyze Pandemic’s Effect on Marketing // By Jeff Stewart // VITAS Healthcare AVP of digital communications Jeff Stewart urges marketers to stick with fundamental marketing principles and keep focused on consumer needs — especially during a time of unpredictability such as the coronavirus pandemic has caused. The annual health care marketing Read More
// By Ndome Yvonne Essoka // Black people account for 21 percent of deaths from COVID-19, yet they make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population. As researchers move forward with vaccine clinical trials, low participation among Black people — just 3 percent, according to the New England Journal of Medicine — is cause Read More
// By Blake Marggraff // If there’s one thing the pandemic has shown us, it’s that not everyone has access to the internet or Wi-Fi. But most people these days do have cell phones, and remote patient monitoring via text messaging and IVR phone calls is one way to keep the lines of communication open Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // SHSMD hosted Part I of its annual conference virtually this year, convening cross-functional thought leaders spanning the industry to reflect on the many twists and turns of 2020. A second conference, SHSMD Connections Bytes, also will be held virtually October 27-28. In mid-September, the AHA Center for Health Innovation Read More
// By Sheryl S. Jackson // As the marketing communications function has grown in health care over the years, many hospital systems find their MarCom organizations continually growing in responsibility and staff size, with no master plan for how everyone will work together. David Feinberg, senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer of Read More
View from the C-Suite: Bettina Tweardy Riveros, Chief Health Equity Officer at ChristianaCare // By Ndome Yvonne Essoka // When Bettina Tweardy Riveros joined ChristianaCare as chief health equity officer in 2016, she assumed responsibility for engaging community stakeholders in partnerships that advance ChristianaCare’s vision for a healthy Delaware. According to Riveros, the guiding principles Read More
// By Peter Hochstein // Hey, there’s a pandemic going on! Hospital workers are supposed to look harassed, grave, and ready to collapse from exhaustion, right? That’s not quite the way the communicators and staff at Johns Hopkins Medicine saw it. Result? Internet views by the — no, not by the thousands, by multiples of Read More
// By Althea Fung // Jason Reminick, MD, MBA, MS was stranded. In the fall of 2012, the then fourth-year medical student was gearing up for a series of residency interviews when Hurricane Sandy, a Category 3 hurricane, came barreling through the Northeast, making it impossible for him to attend his in-person interviews in New Read More
// By Althea Fung // Suicide rates in the United States have increased substantially over the past two decades, according to the American Psychological Association. Since 1999, the rate has jumped 35 percent. For teens, the suicide rate is also on the rise. The rate of suicide rose 50 percent between 2000 and 2016 for Read More
// By Peter Hochstein // Whether it’s a national news network on the phone, or a triple-header of a tornado, some of the biggest PR opportunities are unplanned. Even Lindsey Meyers, vice president of public relations and communications for Avera Health, sounds just a tad surprised that there’s such sophisticated medical research going on in Read More
View From the C-Suite: Greg Feirn, CEO; and Christine Albert, SVP; Marketing & Communications, LCMC Health Anthony D. Slonim, MD, DrPH, CEO; and Suzanne Hendery, Chief Marketing & Customer Officer; Renown Health // By Sheryl S. Jackson // Strong relationships between CEOs and CMOs help organizations align on a shared vision, invest in the right Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // See those retailers in your rearview mirror? They are the health care disruptors you’ve been hearing about — Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Amazon, Google — and they are coming for you. They are closer than they appear, and they will steal your customers — if you don’t disrupt back. “The Read More
// 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
// 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
// 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
// By Paula Serios // In Part 1 of this two-part series, we looked at surprising results from a proprietary national study. Two cohorts — Innovators and Early Adopters — have the potential to consume more health services and generate higher revenues than any other. The key is to understand what makes them tick, and Read More
// 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