COVID-19

Physicians Give High Marks to CHI Memorial’s Provider-Oriented Email Newsletter as Trusted Source of Vital Information

jane weber brubaker

// By Jane Weber Brubaker // During the pandemic, we have seen many examples of health care organizations that had technology in place that could be quickly adapted, enabling communicators to disseminate relevant and timely information. CHI Memorial Health System had a robust physician communications platform in place before COVID-19 came along. But the pandemic Read More

Don’t Let Coronavirus Steal Your Perspective

Using Amara’s Law to Analyze Pandemic’s Effect on Marketing // By Jeff Stewart // VITAS Healthcare AVP of digital communications Jeff Stewart urges marketers to stick with fundamental marketing principles and keep focused on consumer needs — especially during a time of unpredictability such as the coronavirus pandemic has caused. The annual health care marketing Read More

How Partnerships Help ChristianaCare Keep Delaware Healthy

When Bettina Tweardy Riveros joined ChristianaCare as chief health equity officer in 2016, she assumed responsibility for engaging community stakeholders in partnerships that advance ChristianaCare’s vision for a healthy Delaware. According to Riveros, the guiding principles of building strong community partnerships can be summed up in the phrase “nothing about us, without us.” This method Read More

ChristianaCare Connects with Community Partners to Address Social Determinants of Health in Delaware

Ndome Yvonne Essoka

View from the C-Suite: Bettina Tweardy Riveros, Chief Health Equity Officer at ChristianaCare // By Ndome Yvonne Essoka // When Bettina Tweardy Riveros joined ChristianaCare as chief health equity officer in 2016, she assumed responsibility for engaging community stakeholders in partnerships that advance ChristianaCare’s vision for a healthy Delaware. According to Riveros, the guiding principles Read More

While the National Mood Is Grim, Internet Campaign at Johns Hopkins Medicine Goes Just a Tad Upbeat, Building Staff Morale While Standing Out from the Crowd

Peter Hochstein

// By Peter Hochstein // Hey, there’s a pandemic going on! Hospital workers are supposed to look harassed, grave, and ready to collapse from exhaustion, right? That’s not quite the way the communicators and staff at Johns Hopkins Medicine saw it. Result? Internet views by the — no, not by the thousands, by multiples of Read More

Why Consistency at Your Call Center Is so Important

Rachel Donovan, managing director, enterprise marketing strategy, Nemours Children’s Health System

Google is often the place people look first when seeking health information online. Assuming your health care system has done all the right things to optimize discoverability, the patient’s next step is to access care, most often by making a phone call. That first impression determines the course for a potentially long-term relationship. For a Read More

Who’s Looking Out for Consumers’ Health Care Interests These Days?

Lindsay Resnick

“We’ve been exposed!” exclaims Lindsay Resnick, executive vice president at Wunderman Thompson Health. “COVID shined a bright light on American health care — the best and the worst: gaps in its value chain, disparities in communities, advances in technology, changes in consumer behavior, and a culture of collaboration in crisis.” Resnick says health care consumers Read More

Is Your Call Center Creating Loyal Customers?

Marcia Simon

// By Marcia Simon, APR // Google is often the place people look first when seeking health information online. Assuming your health care system has done all the right things to optimize discoverability, the patient’s next step is to access care, most often by making a phone call. That first impression determines the course for Read More

COVID Has Lingering Effects For Providers and Consumers

Daniel Fell, Optum

“The repercussions of consumers putting off both routine and essential care (most likely a result of both the voluntary shutdown of elective procedures around the country by many health systems as well as growing concerns over being exposed to the virus) are significant,” says Daniel Fell of Optum. “From both a public health and a Read More

Four Challenges Facing Health Care Marketers in COVID Recovery

Lindsay Resnick

// By Lindsay R. Resnick // Consumers want to know, “Who’s going to do the right thing when it comes to my health?” We’ve been exposed! COVID shined a bright light on American health care — the best and the worst: gaps in its value chain, disparities in communities, advances in technology, changes in consumer Read More

Los Angeles Archrivals Team Up for the Greater Good

Rhoda Weiss, Ph.D., president of Rhoda Weiss Consulting Group, and co-chair, Becker’s Healthcare 11th Annual Meeting Virtual Experience

Los Angeles is home to many world-class health care organizations, and they compete vigorously for the same patients. But even in a competitive market, joining together for the greater good may be the best way to get an important message across to the community. “It became apparent early on that people were not accessing health Read More

Consumer Sentiment Evolving with COVID Spread

Daniel Fell, Optum

// By Daniel Fell // In early May, our company launched a biweekly tracking study to better understand and monitor consumer sentiment toward seeking health care services during the COVID pandemic. The Optum Consumer Pulse Survey asks a representative sample of 700 adult consumers nationwide how likely they are to visit different types of health Read More

“Care Bravely”: Rallying Cry for LifeBridge Health

Richard Cohen

// By Richard Cohen // One of the central issues when a health care organization acquires other hospitals or entities on the care continuum is how to get all the employees from its disparate parts on message. This was something that the folks at the Baltimore-based LifeBridge Health took to heart several years ago after Read More

Creating a Brand That Can Withstand a Global Pandemic

Don Stanziano, chief marketing and communications officer at Geisinger

Health care marketers know that building a successful brand is not just about new logos, taglines, and ads. The brand must accurately reflect the vision and beliefs that make up the culture of the organization, drive all strategic decisions, and form the foundation for communications with all audiences. “If your brand is authentic, you can Read More

Mitigating the Effects of Social Determinants of Health

Jill Feldstein, chief operating officer of IMPaCT

The pandemic is hitting hardest among certain racial, ethnic, and minority groups. Through mid-June, non-Hispanic Black people had a COVID-19 hospitalization rate about five times that of non-Hispanic White people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hispanic or Latino people had a hospitalization rate four times that of non-Hispanic White people. In Read More

Community Health Workers Bring Health Systems New Benefits, Value During COVID-19

// By Kyle Hardner // As COVID-19 has spread throughout the United States, it has shed new light on a decades-old question: the role of social determinants of health in defining overall health outcomes. The pandemic is hitting hardest among certain racial, ethnic, and minority groups. Through mid-June, non-Hispanic Black people had a COVID-19 hospitalization Read More

Iceland Comes Together To Sell (and Sing) The Power of Staying Home

Peter Hochstein

“A group of musicians in Iceland demonstrated that promoting social distancing doesn’t have to sound like somber, top-down marching orders from an authoritarian central command,” says SHCM contributor and copywriter Peter Hochstein. “Instead, they tapped into something uplifting, communal, and perhaps instinctively primeval.” Here’s an excerpt from Hochstein’s new story: I feel sorry for the Read More

Communication Strategies Evolve as Pandemic Restrictions Loosen

Suzanne Hendery, chief marketing and communications officer at Renown Health

During the initial stages of the pandemic, health care marketing leaders found their mission changing from brand and service-line promotion to crisis communication management, with staffs focusing efforts on sharing up-to-date information for patients and communities. Now that businesses are beginning to reopen, employees are returning to work, and restrictions on daily activities are loosening, Read More