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
Brands still struggle with Twitter as a marketing tool According to a survey conducted in March by Social Media Marketing University, 45 percent of brands report that measuring results and ascertaining an ROI is the biggest challenge when using Twitter for marketing. Other significant challenges are building an audience (42 percent), engagement (37 percent), learning Read More
by Nancy Vessell With 40 to 60 new physicians arriving every year to serve an eight-hospital system and its medical group, where 40 people are involved in physician recruitment, onboarding, orientation, and retention, the opportunity for “dropped balls” measures in the tons. That’s according to Jim Zache, vice president of physician recruiting and physician relations Read More
by Peter Hochstein Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, more hospitals may begin offering health insurance, while insurance companies may increasingly supply some limited health care services. True, a few organizations, perhaps most notably Kaiser Permanente, have explicitly and extensively offered both health care and health insurance for years. And some health plans offer their Read More
by Cheryl L. Serra A pre-flight check may soon include measuring your blood pressure and heart rate. As evidenced by the CareHere Walk-In Clinic and Wellness Store at the Nashville (TN) International Airport, discussed in last month’s issue, health care marketing is starting to show up at airports, which have a desirable captive audience. According Read More
by Kris Rusch “When it comes to health,” asserts an article in Harvard Men’s Health Watch, “males are the weaker sex throughout life.” Compared with women, men on average have more chronic illnesses, die at higher rates from diseases, and have a lower life expectancy. Men also take more risks with their health. They use Read More
by Nancy Vessell If the marketing director of the 445-bed Winchester (VA) Medical Center needs to track down the hospital’s busy medical directors, he knows where he can find them between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. each day. It’s a sure bet they will be in the Daily Safety Call. So ingrained is this daily Read More
by Sheryl S. Jackson The United States will be home to 27 proton therapy centers by 2017, almost double the number in operation at the end of 2013, according to U.S. Proton Therapy Outlook 2017, a report produced by RNCOS, a business research and consultancy firm. The growth of the specialized cancer treatment is attributed Read More
by Cheryl L. Serra Imagine bringing health care to patients instead of requiring patients to travel to health care. Ernie Clevenger, co-founder and president of CareHere, LLC, did just that. The result? His company has a health care clinic with a retail component, the CareHere Walk-In Clinic and Wellness Store, located in the Nashville International Read More
by Nancy Vessell Marketing functions within hospital systems have run the spectrum from fully centralized at the corporate level to mostly autonomous at the local level. But as more hospitals fold themselves into systems, marketing is increasingly shifting toward centralization. “A lot of it is being driven by this crazy world of mergers and acquisitions,” Read More
Workplace programs cut chronic disease costs, but savings from lifestyle change efforts elusive According to a new Rand Corporation study, workplace wellness programs can lower costs for employees with chronic diseases, but components of the programs that encourage adoption of healthier lifestyles may not reduce health care costs or lead to lower net savings. Examining Read More
by Peter Hochstein Next time some doubting Thomas clears his throat and asks how you can be sure hospital advertising pays, cite this case concerning Nash Health Care in Rocky Mount, NC. Nash Health Care, anchored by a 403-bed general hospital, is located in a mostly rural area, flanked roughly 80 miles in one direction Read More
by Diane Atwood A man walks out of his doctor’s office with prescriptions to lower his blood pressure and cholesterol. He has been told that if he doesn’t lose at least 25 pounds, stop smoking, and start exercising, he’ll be at great risk for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. The odds of the man accomplishing Read More
by Sheryl S. Jackson Population health management is not a new concept, but it is taking center stage in the health care industry’s transformation. Driven by the economics of a transition from a fee-based payment system to a value-based payment system, population health management is an important strategy to reduce the cost of care while Read More
Next CEOs may come from outside the industry According to a survey conducted for executive search firm Ferguson Partners, health care executives who were asked to name the top three outside industries likely to produce tomorrow’s health system leaders chose finance, (92 percent), hospitality (55 percent), investment (40 percent), and pharmaceutical (33 percent). Manufacturing, information Read More
by Mark S. Gothberg Why would the City of Hope, a Los Angeles area research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes, and other life-threatening diseases, participate in the 125th Rose Parade on New Year’s Day? For pretty much the same reasons it has been involved in this world-famous parade, held in Pasadena, CA, for the Read More
by Dan Dunlop The best marketers have always been accomplished storytellers, and that is still the case today. The stories they craft are meaningful and connect with the audience in a manner that meets some fundamental need – educational, informational, emotional, or entertaining. The most effective stories allow the audience members to become part of Read More
// By Joyce Miller and Beverly Schulman // The road to the rise of the patient experience A number of studies show links between desirable clinical outcomes and high patient satisfaction scores. Medicare and other payers are beginning to tie reimbursement to high patient satisfaction scores. In short, patient satisfaction has emerged as a key Read More