// By Lindsay R. Resnick, MHA // The consumerization of health care means your customer is now in control: budgeting health benefits, choosing providers, and navigating care delivery options. They are comparing prices, quality, convenience, and outcomes as they post reviews; and, refer friends and family—one way or the other. And a constant stream of Read More
// By Susan Dubuque // Last year Strategic Health Care Marketing published a series of three articles on Racing to Wellness. This year we will delve further into the evolution of our profession in a rapidly changing environment. As we move away from conventional promotions intended to drive volumes, we will explore the reinvention of marketing and communications 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
Advertising Worth Noting By Peter Hochstein This tale begins in 2008, when the people running things at Covenant HealthCare, today a 643-bed multiple facility institution with campuses in and around Saginaw, Michigan, began hearing rumors about robots. Well, not just any robots. These were da Vinci Surgical System robots, those high-tech devices increasingly used in Read More
By Lisa D. Ellis Most people know the University of Connecticut because of its success in running one of the top college basketball programs in the nation. But this small state school has also been gaining a big reputation off the court, too, through its cutting-edge health care organization, which has been accomplishing big things Read More
By Claire Hovis In health care, it isn’t just the care that’s changing. Power is changing. “Expert-driven” communications that placed providers and large corporations atop the information market are giving way to a generation of empowered consumers who are more engaged and have higher expectations. Access is changing. The Affordable Care Act has brought health 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
Does the rise of the Internet, and its attendant ever-growing roster of social media channels, signal the end of mass media as a channel for health care marketing? Not necessarily, says Ross K. Goldberg, president of Kevin/Ross Public Relations and former chairman of the board of trustees of Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in 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
By Lisa Ellis 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. Hospital Tries To Overcome Past Reputation The CMH network has Read More
By Lisa D. Ellis 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 & Read More
Advertising Worth Noting By Peter Hochstein You could argue that there’s nothing new about doctors running ads. In New York, one maverick dermatologist has been the star of his own earthy subway car posters for decades. They are busy horizontal spaces that simultaneously display his photograph and such things as rhyming headlines, before-and-after acne treatment Read More
// By Ross K. Goldberg // It was just a blink of an eye ago when corporate America understood, some albeit begrudgingly, the need for a solid media relations program as a way to get their organization’s story told. Product advertising was fine, and promotional gimmicks were exciting; but the inherent credibility found in the Read More
By David M. Mastovich Can you picture Brian Williams in one of those Southwest Airlines “Want to Get Away?” commercials? The NBC Nightly News Anchor was suspended for six months after misrepresenting events that occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003. Bloggers, comedians, and traditional news media outlets continue to feast on Read More
By Moses Hohman Much has been made in health care marketing circles of the need to embrace the social media revolution. “Go where the patients are,” conventional wisdom tells us, and where they are is on online social networks. Just last month the Pew Research Center came out with the latest user statistics on Facebook: 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
By Lisa D. Ellis Relationships are the focus of attention at Geisinger Health System—and not just with patients, but also with its practitioners and specialists. In fact, aligning with providers, as well as with all of the internal service lines, is a key part of the organization’s strategy, enabling everyone to work collaboratively within the 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
By Lisa D. Ellis If an Ebola patient walked into your organization’s emergency department today, would you be ready to handle the communication needs of the situation appropriately? If not, you could be missing out on some valuable opportunities to educate the community and at the same time, to help to promote the good work Read More