// By Paul Wood // What if your hospital is suddenly the center of national media attention for all the wrong reasons? What if a catastrophic event occurs and you must respond immediately? Do you know what to do? Do you have a crisis communications plan in place? In this article, Paul Wood, vice president Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising In a hospital setting, changing employee routines and behaviors can save lives — but the change may call for altering the entire institutional culture. A memo to staff likely won’t work. What will? Signature Healthcare discovered some of the answers, involving an internal advertising campaign that began in 2015 and is Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Health care marketers have much to gain by getting up to speed on the concept of design thinking. This approach is becoming increasingly valuable in helping organizations effectively meet patients’ needs and address an array of challenges. With more people living longer and needing to manage chronic conditions, and Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // A growing number of people rely on their computers and smartphones to remotely do their shopping, pay their bills, and manage their bank accounts. Thanks to advances in telehealth offerings, many people also can access medical services they need from the convenience of their own homes. In fact, some Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // The latest marketing efforts at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Massachusetts have a very important goal: to engage employees to do whatever it takes to provide the very best experience for patients. Tackling a Challenging Market While most health systems recognize the importance of internal engagement, Newton-Wellesley’s approach — which includes Read More
// By Althea Fung // At the 2018 SHSMD Connections conference in Seattle, SHSMD convened a series of presentations on value as part of its “Value Initiative.” What does value mean for health care organizations? How can they achieve it? One of the presenters, Jessica Farrar, director of strategic planning and decision support at Anne Read More
Is there a strong reason to create a hospital branding campaign that dispenses with emotional appeals to make a rational sales argument? How can you keep it visually surprising and compelling? And how can you show that you’re talking about a hospital without resorting to the visual clichés? Notable Health Care Advertising // By Read More
View from the C-Suite // By Sheryl S. Jackson // The branding and marketing communications strategies of hospitals and health systems have changed over the years as mergers with other organizations have occurred, and SCL Health is an excellent example of the evolution. Christine Woolsey began working with SCL Health — then known as Sisters Read More
// By Braden Russom // What drives consumers to look for alternatives to traditional medical care? And how can health care marketers respond? Here, Braden Russom, account planner at Smith & Jones, shares some of the factors contributing to changes in consumer behavior, particularly among millennials, and recommends proactive marketing strategies to stay relevant. 2019 Read More
// By Wendy Stark Healy // One less silo would be welcome news for any health care organization. More and more, marketing and PR are coming together with a common goal of advancing organizational objectives. In this article, we hear from three marketing and PR leaders who share their perspectives on how the landscape has Read More
What You Can Learn from “Imagining Perfect Care” in Your Facilities // By Lisa D. Ellis // The parking garage at the University of Utah Health, where families leave with their newborns, used to be dirty and stark. But a team of staff members recently recognized the poor image this created and decided to do Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Marketers’ ability to grow market share and promote patient loyalty is intricately and inextricably linked with what actually happens when patients receive treatment. Patients expect clinical expertise as a baseline. It’s the way they are treated that defines the relationship and either forges a bond or drives patients online Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Senior citizens in North Texas have more opportunities than ever before to stay busy and interact with their peers — from practicing tai chi in the park, to watching cooking demonstrations, to attending informational sessions about using generic drugs, and lots more. All of these and a host of Read More
// By Craig Allan Ahrens and Sarah Hull // Hospital systems will be required to publish their chargemaster “list pricing” online by January 1, 2019, with the finalization of the Fiscal Year 2019 Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long-Term Acute Care Hospital (LTCH) Prospective Payment System Final Rule (CMS-1694-F). Many states have Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Many health care organizations today focus their marketing efforts on bringing new patients through their doors. But they often stop there instead of going a step further to ensure that these patients will stay with them long term. If this sounds familiar, your organization’s own health could be at Read More
An inspired name — and a bit of student high jinks — transmogrifies a mass vaccination program into an annual form of entertainment. Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // Quick, which would you rather do? Interrupt your daily routine, stand in a long line, and then get poked in the arm by Read More
// By Susan Dubuque // As health care marketers, we are keenly aware of the rampant changes taking place in our industry — unforeseen mergers and consolidations, aggressive competitors entering the marketplace, pressures to demonstrate measurable ROI, and reorientation from delivering acute or episodic care to managing the health of a population with the goals Read More
The SHCM Editorial Advisory Board is made up of leaders in the health care marketing field who are committed to shaping the future of the industry. They offer ongoing feedback on our editorial coverage, write occasional articles, and point us to developments and people SHCM members like you should know about. I’m very pleased to Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // When a patient experiences a life-threatening emergency at LifeBridge Health in Baltimore, help is summoned through automated notifications from the centralized call center, which sends a message right to members of the response team’s phones. This is one of the many benefits that care teams experience, thanks to LifeBridge’s Read More
I’m very pleased to announce that Jane Weber Brubaker has been promoted to the role of Executive Editor of Plain-English Health Care. Jane has been the editor of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends since 2015 and is chair of the eHealthcare Leadership Awards. She contributed several of our most popular articles to Strategic Health Care Marketing between 2013 and 2015, and Read More
What if you and your hospital were measuring patient satisfaction incorrectly? Worse, what if you were focused on improving things that didn’t really matter — and overlooking things that did? // By James A. Gardner // In a health care setting, satisfaction focuses on the gap between patients’ expectations and their experiences. Importantly, patient experience Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Are some of the biggest heroes in your organization going unnoticed? At Hartford HealthCare during a recent push to strengthen internal branding, leadership uncovered amazing examples of frontline staff members who were going to great lengths to show patients they cared. Recognizing these actions provided the health system with Read More
This may not be what hospital communicators signed on to deal with, but it can — and did — happen. How would you handle the ensuing human and PR crisis? On September 12, 2017, a Rhode Island man drove up to Lebanon, New Hampshire, and entered the intensive care unit at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where his mother was recovering from an aneurysm. According to news reports and indictments filed against him, the man asked for some time alone with his mother. Once they were alone, he allegedly pulled out a handgun and shot her four times, killing her.
// By Susan Emerson // Physician burnout is a hot topic, but effective solutions have been more elusive. In March 2017, 10 CEOs of the nation’s most prominent health systems examined physician burnout, proposing an 11-item call to action (Health Affairs). The Collaborative for Healing and Renewal in Medicine published an eight-step framework this year Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // In recent months, stories about mental illness have dominated social media channels and the mainstream press. The tragic suicides of fashion designer Kate Spade and television personality Anthony Bourdain have thrust mental health issues into the limelight, catching the attention of people from all walks of life. Further, the Read More