Mount Sinai, Visiting Nurse Service of New York Create Niche Program to Better Serve Transgender Population

// By Althea Fung // Care of transgender patients is complex, cutting across multiple medical specialties and requiring an integrated, coordinated approach — including care at home. Mount Sinai’s Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery (CTMS) offers gender-affirming care to trans men and women. Approximately 0.6 percent (about 1.4 million) of American adults identify as Read More

Looking for a Memorable Symbol for Your Health Care Services? Here’s What Happened When a Chain of Urgent Care Clinics Got a Spokes-Puppet

// By Peter Hochstein // Meet Bebo. He’s preposterous. He’s orange. He’s always sick or injured. And he’s helping Patient Plus clinics in Baton Rouge, Louisiana carve out a strong identity in a highly competitive market. You can do terrible things to a puppet for popular amusement that aren’t funny when they happen to real Read More

Ascension’s Nick Ragone Supports the Community at All Levels

Health care organizations play an important role in their communities that goes beyond providing health care services within the four walls of a hospital, clinic, or urgent care center. Outreach and community-based programs target specific populations to improve health and quality of life with a goal of keeping people out of the hospital. At Ascension, Read More

Alexa Is Now HIPAA-Compliant. It’s a Game-Changer.

“Alexa, what is rotator cuff tendinitis?” “Alexa, where’s the nearest urgent care center?” “Alexa, what’s my glucose level?” Amazon’s voice assistant can now answer all these questions through the new HIPAA-compliant Alexa Skills Kit for developers. The new kit enables developers at medical organizations to build Alexa skills capable of transferring and receiving protected health Read More

Social Media & Online Reviews: How Do They Affect Your Health Care Brand and PowerScore?

A new Strategic Health Care Marketing webinar for health care marketers and digital strategists

Your Presenters:

• Amanda Herriman, Marketing Manager, Wax Custom Communications
• Craig Fairfield, Managing Director, Wax Custom Communications

Sponsored by Wax Custom Communications
This event is free to attend thanks to our event sponsor.

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A Physician Communication System Doctors Actually Like — and Use

Your communications team works hard to produce content that engages physicians. The problem is that your clinicians may completely ignore it. How do you get them to pay attention? Recruiting, retaining, and communicating effectively with your attending physicians affects everything from patient satisfaction and operating costs to hospital reputation and safety. As health care networks Read More

Reframing Healthcare: Author Zeev Neuwirth, MD Shares Perspectives on Humanizing Health Care

// By Jane Weber Brubaker // The experience of health care often falls short for the most important stakeholders in health care — patients and the clinicians who serve them. Are health care leaders stuck trying to reengineer a fundamentally flawed system? Is reframing a way to unlock the potential? Dr. Zeev Neuwirth, author of Read More

Want to Engage Physicians? Listen to Them

// By Marcia Simon, APR // Your communications team works hard to produce content that engages physicians. The problem is that your clinicians may completely ignore it. How do you get them to pay attention? Recruiting, retaining, and communicating effectively with your attending physicians affects everything from patient satisfaction and operating costs to hospital reputation Read More

Virtual Voice Assistants Deliver in Ways That Websites Can’t

// By Marcia Simon, APR // Boston Children’s Hospital and Atrium Health are among the pioneers of Alexa “skills,” similar to apps on a mobile device. Alexa’s HIPAA compliance has been a game changer, making it easier for users to quickly gain access to information they need. “Alexa, what is rotator cuff tendinitis?” “Alexa, where’s Read More

The One Vital Element Your Messaging Must Include

“Many of the people practicing health care public relations or marketing communications owe their educational roots to journalism school where they were taught, in no uncertain terms, that the elements of a good story are found in the five W’s,” says Ross K. Goldberg, president of Kevin/Ross Public Relations and a member of the SHCM Read More

Nick Ragone, Esq., Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Ascension

View from the C-Suite // By Sheryl S. Jackson // Health care leadership extends beyond the walls of the hospital into the halls of government for Nick Ragone. “Creating an open dialogue among legislators, state agencies, and health care organizations gives all of us a different perspective,” he says. Ragone was recently appointed to the Read More

Eek! You Just Know Off-Camera Disaster Lurks in a Pair of Hilarious TV Spots for a Children’s Emergency Center, but the Hilarity and Danger Create a Marketing Triumph

// By Peter Hochstein // How brave do marketers have to be to use humor in a spot for pediatric emergency care that shows kids flirting with danger? Uh oh! Trouble in the backyard. On a steeply sloping patch of lawn, three girls who appear to be the right age for middle school have erected Read More

A Case for the Why

// By Ross K. Goldberg // Many of the people practicing health care public relations or marketing communications owe their educational roots to journalism school where they were taught, in no uncertain terms, that the elements of a good story are found in the five W’s. Who, what, where, when, and why became the Bible Read More

A New Advertising Twist: What the Patients Do for Us

“[A]s part of an ongoing rebranding effort, Adventist Health in Roseville, California has found a powerful technique for getting across a message of caring,” writes SHCM contributor and veteran copywriter Peter Hochstein. “Notably, the subject of the advertising is neither the hospital, nor the technology, nor what the doctors and staff do for the patients. Instead, Read More

How Can You Get Potential Patients to Pay More Attention to Your Hospital’s Advertising? Try Telling Them What They Do for You

Here’s a new approach to hospital advertising that turns an old technique on its head. // By Peter Hochstein // It’s difficult to sift through hospital advertising month after month without regularly coming across some variation of the phrase “We care about you.” Little wonder. As hospital systems grow larger and busier, they also can Read More

View from the C-Suite with Dr. Tony Slonim, CEO of Renown Health

A vision for population health through community partnerships and innovation // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Under Dr. Tony Slonim’s leadership, Renown Health has forged strong connections with the community, acting as a catalyst for change. “If you want to improve the health of your community, engage the people who are most likely to be Read More

The “Retailization” of Health Care: Patients Take Charge

“With today’s constant stream of digital health tools, it’s never been easier or faster for customers to take charge,” says Lindsay Resnick, executive vice president of Wunderman Thompson Health. “They’re following a path to care where they feel important and are treated well — and they’ll avoid hospitals that fall short.” Here’s an excerpt from Read More

Patients as Customers: Hospitals Play Catchup

Winners are betting on data-driven insights, personalized experiences, and relationships built on trust. // By Lindsay R. Resnick // With today’s constant stream of digital health tools, it’s never been easier or faster for customers to take charge. They’re following a path to care where they feel important and are treated well — and they’ll Read More

Population Health: Fighting Misinformation About Vaccines

Measles cases are on the rise. All six regions of the World Health Organization (WHO) are experiencing large outbreaks of measles. In the U.S., health officials recorded 1,109 new cases of measles in 30 states in the first six months of 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s the greatest number Read More

Facts About Vaccines: How Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Combats Misinformation

// By Althea Fung // The recent outbreak of measles puts the issue of vaccination front and center, especially for children’s hospitals. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has taken a leadership role in providing accurate, evidence-based information through its Vaccine Education Center. Measles cases are on the rise. All six regions of the World Health Organization Read More

Pulse Nightclub Shooting: Orlando Health’s Lessons Learned

In the wake of three shootings in Texas and Ohio in August and September, Strategic Health Care Marketing reached out to Kena Lewis, APR, director, public affairs and media relations at Orlando Health in Orlando, Florida. Lewis managed communications after the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting that killed 49 and wounded more than 50. We asked Read More

Preparing for the Worst: Orlando Health Shares Lessons Learned from a Mass Shooting

// By Wendy Stark Healy // How well prepared are you to help your organization manage the aftermath of a mass shooting? Comprehensive preplanning and practice are critical to navigating a chaotic, evolving situation. Sadly, it’s not a question of if but when. In the wake of three shootings in Texas and Ohio in August Read More

Think Like a Hacker To Outsmart Your Competition

“Faced with competitors who may have bigger marketing budgets and more resources, many health care marketers feel powerless in the battle for market growth,” says Jessica Walker, founder and CEO of Care Sherpa. “Thinking like a hacker may help you outsmart the competition. Five proven hacks for market share growth require little to no money Read More

Everything Is Changing but Change Management

Why Doesn’t It Work? // By Andrea Simon, PhD // Change is hard, and leadership style can either make it easier — or more difficult. When traditional change management processes try to fix the symptoms, not the disease, the result is friction, resistance, and company fatigue. In today’s highly competitive, technologically disrupted health care environment, Read More

Who’s the Hero of the NYU Langone Orthopedics Campaign? You Are! (If You’re a New Yorker, That Is)

Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // “Hyperlocalization” may not be a real word. But NYU Langone has made it a real advertising thing. And it turns out to be an amusing, identifiable, and highly effective technique. There’s nothing new about hospitals giving their advertising a distinctly local flavor. We described one successful Read More