by Colleen Sweeney In 2007, I developed the Medical Apprentice Program (MAP) for high school students in my community who were interested in medical careers but wanted on-site guidance and exposure—to caregivers, to patients, and to like-minded peers—before choosing a college major. Back in my day, unless you had volunteered or worked as a paramedic, Read More
by Maureen Scullin, CCWS When St. Joseph Healthcare of Nashua, NH, launched the third year of Lighten Up Nashua in January 2014, the hospital decided to throw a party. The event celebrated the launch of the program’s latest weight-loss challenge. And despite the fact that it was January in New England, a time when many Read More
by Ritch K. Eich, PhD Special events have been an integral part of health care organizations for centuries. For example, back when Catherine McAuley founded the Sisters of Mercy religious order in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831, charity functions—sermons, bazaars, and other appeals—were an integral part of social life. In his 1955 book about that period, Read More
by Ansuya Bijur In a memorable scene in the best-selling novel Cutting for Stone, a doctor asks his medical students, “What treatment is offered by ear in an emergency?” One of the students replies, “Words of comfort, sir.” Most often, patients meet clinicians under extremely difficult circumstances. Typically clinicians treat a disease—what ails the body. Read More
by Cheryl L. Serra Sure, you want the world to know about the snazzy new piece of equipment your hospital has purchased. And of course you want to sound the bugle about the big-name doc who’s joined your staff. There are ads to buy and PSAs to write, for sure. But what about what some Read More
// By Cheryl L. Serra // If you market health care, you know a cookie-cutter approach just doesn’t cut it. You need to determine a number of factors: Who makes health care decisions in the family? What does your audience believe about health care and health care providers? Increasingly, you also need to consider how Read More
by Jared Kebbell Mobile health clinics are becoming an increasingly important part of the American health care system. They represent a move toward a more proactive public health strategy, seeking to bring care to those in need and the uninsured rather than waiting for them to seek it themselves in expensive emergency rooms. To many Read More
by Nancy Vessell When a Midwest supermarket chain began offering chemotherapy and other infusion services, a few heads were turned. “When I first learned about it, it did catch me by surprise. To my knowledge, I haven’t heard about other grocery chains getting into this [medical area],” says Michael Abrams, managing partner of Numerof & Read More
by Cheryl Haas In American culture, we joke about superstition but we hedge our bets: We don’t walk under a ladder, don’t let a black cat cross our collective path, and don’t include a 13th floor on high-rise buildings. But in a hospital setting, we often unwittingly expose people from other cultures to elements that Read More
by Sheryl S. Jackson Everyone agrees that in today’s health care environment physician engagement is critical to the success of collaborative care models as well as the successful retention of physicians. But how does a health care leader define, identify, and quantify physician engagement? What is physician engagement? “There is a lot of talk about Read More
// By Peter Hochstein // Despite specializing in kids exclusively, Boston Children’s Hospital confronts a wall of competition that hospitals elsewhere might find daunting. Liz Vanzura, chief marketing officer for Boston Children’s advertising agency, MMB, can list 10 other local hospitals that treat children—among them such formidable names as Mass General, Tufts Medical Center, and Read More
by Jane Weber Brubaker In April, more than 260 professionals gathered for the 25th annual Global Alliance for Arts & Health convention, hosted this year by Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Arts and health is “a diverse, multidisciplinary field dedicated to transforming health and healing though the arts,” according to the organization’s website (www.thesah.org). The Read More
by Michael Reinhardt Developing a unified health care brand sounds promising, but how do you actually begin such a tremendous undertaking? In April, eHealthcare Strategy & Trends sponsored a special webinar on emerging branding trends in a rapidly changing industry. The program examined the journey taken by St. Joseph Health, based in Irvine, CA, and Read More
by Matt Destache Intuitively, we know that there must be some connection between provider engagement and the patient experience. Health care organizations have come to the realization that to be successful in the long term, their improvements in quality, outcomes, and the patient experience need to be accompanied by the engagement of their employees and Read More
by Sheryl S. Jackson Keep Focus on Patient-Centric Care and Take Time to Engage Everyone in the Process Increasing financial and competitive pressures within the health care industry have spurred hospital acquisition of other health care providers – physician practices, urgent care centers, and imaging centers. While the reasons for acquiring other entities varies from Read More
by Peter Hochstein A few years ago, it became clear to the marketing people at St. Vincent’s HealthCare, a 903-bed, three-campus hospital system in Jacksonville, FL, that their institution’s brand image could do with some strengthening. Little wonder. The organization’s awareness and reputation was in fourth place compared with the competition. That competition, in a Read More
by Nancy Vessell The key to spotting and stemming leakage of physician referrals at Texas Health Resources (THR) doesn’t hinge on expensive data collection. Certainly, data showing where patients are going in the large north Texas market is helpful to this health system of 25 hospitals and 5,500 affiliated physicians. But the data only serves Read More
by Sheryl S. Jackson U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals, Healthgrades, Leapfrog, Hospital Compare, Top Doctors – the list of third-party sources that rank hospitals seems to grow each year. While it is exciting to be named “best” in the city, region, or specialty, what does this information mean to consumers and to health Read More
by Cheryl Haas Thirty years ago, sports medicine was the hot trend that completely changed the way athletes and physicians approach sports injuries. Now, the latest iteration in sports medicine is sports performance. With its emphasis on improving athletes’ performance abilities, the discipline is not only here to stay, it’s a significant outpatient growth area. Read More
by Joyce Miller An article in the Huffington Post last August, before the January 1 legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado (known as Amendment 64), reported that the media remained largely hostile to promoting the business of selling marijuana. Online search engines, newspaper publishers, and billboard operators shied away from any association with marijuana retailers. Read More
by Joan Trezek Imagine a vending machine without soda. Or an electronic board displaying calories and the nutritional value of meals to help diners choose their food. At hospitals participating in the Hospital Healthy Food Initiative launched in 2012 and part of the Partnership for a Healthier America, a program founded in 2010 under the Read More
by Cheryl Haas There’s a nasty fight going on in Pittsburgh. Two of the biggest health care names in the service area are spending millions of advertising dollars in hopes of landing a knockout punch. UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) and Highmark, traditionally an insurer, have been locked in a long-running feud that has Read More
by Derek Mabie The online realm is heavily integrated with everyone’s daily life. Society now relies on search engines and website functionality to add convenience, control, and precision to completing tasks – whether paying a bill or researching a brand. Today, consumers are searching online before making health-related decisions. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // In July 2010, Strategic Health Care Marketing covered a story about Intermountain Healthcare’s innovative and successful childhood obesity campaign, “LiVe.” Since then, the Salt Lake City-based system of 22 hospitals, more than 185 clinics, and a health plan has relaunched the campaign, renaming it “LiVe Well” and expanding it Read More
// By Ross K. Goldberg // As sure as Disney, Apple, and Coca-Cola have brand identities, so too does every physician in practice today. The difference is that many physicians don’t know it. Individually or in a group, all physicians have brands. Some have been deliberately developed with an eye on marketplace differentiation, attracting specific Read More