If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a thousand times: Health care is complex, dysfunctional, and slow to change. But one person can still make a difference. For Angelica Thieriot, it took a horrific experience as patient in a U.S. hospital in 1978 for her to imagine how different things could be if patients Read More
Enloe Medical Center’s transformation to person-centered care has made it the first choice for patients in its Northern California region after a series of crises damaged its reputation. // By Jane Weber Brubaker // If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a thousand times: Health care is complex, dysfunctional, and slow to change. But Read More
Health care brand positioning requires more than a clever tagline or slogan. It requires a strategy and rallying cry that inspires an organization and connects a community. It’s rare in marketing that you get to start from scratch on anything. Wherever you jump on the moving train, that’s your starting point, complete with legacy systems Read More
Brand positioning is more than a clever tagline or slogan. It’s a strategy and rallying cry that inspires an organization and connects a community. // By Jane Weber Brubaker // It’s rare in marketing that you get to start from scratch on anything. Wherever you jump on the moving train, that’s your starting point, complete Read More
In most industries, digital transformation is more than a simple buzzword. It’s a connected experience for customers looking for access, convenience, on-demand service, and an expected good outcome. In health care, a two-plus-year pandemic accelerated the forces underlying these challenges, continuing to raise consumer expectations in an industry that historically struggles with real change for Read More
University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Health Creates a Coordinated Patient Experience with Persistent Cross-Functional Teamwork // By John Marzano // Incredible advances in health care over the past 20 years have dramatically improved patients’ outcomes and lives. Yet care remains difficult to access, expensive, inequitable, and falls short of consumer expectations despite advancements Read More
“On March 16, 2020, I met with a group of fellow Donate Life America volunteers in my office,” writes Susan Dubuque of NDP. “That would be my last face-to-face meeting for the next 18 months.” Here’s an excerpt from Dubuque’s new article: My story is not unique. Throughout the pandemic, many nonessential employees have made Read More
During the past two years of a pandemic that continues to rage, health care brands have absorbed the additional burden of managing their reputations in the throes of unprecedented consumer demand for needed services to counter COVID-19 within their communities. Hospitals and health systems across the U.S., including Johns Hopkins Medicine, have overwhelmingly answered the Read More
// By Susan Dubuque // On March 16, 2020, I met with a group of fellow Donate Life America volunteers in my office. That would be my last face-to-face meeting for the next 18 months. My story is not unique. Throughout the pandemic, many nonessential employees have made the adjustment to working remotely. Somehow, we Read More
Let’s face it. Health care is a maze, and patients often feel like the rat, trying to get through and hitting one dead end after another. More often than not, health systems don’t prioritize what matters to patients. And even calling patients “patients” instead of “consumers” may serve to maintain the status quo. In the Read More
// By John Marzano // In the middle of a pandemic, with the world tuning in daily to view the latest alarming statistics on infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, Johns Hopkins Medicine launched a new brand campaign centered on hope, connection, and progress. During the past two years of a pandemic that continues to rage throughout Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // The 2021 book Patient No Longer asks the question, “What makes the top organizations in the country unique?” Let’s face it. Health care is a maze, and patients often feel like the rat, trying to get through and hitting one dead end after another. More often than not, health Read More
How do you connect the dots between a health system, hospital, and its other programs and services throughout the community, and ensure consumers know they will continue receiving the same high-quality, personalized care throughout the network? Recently, Providence successfully navigated this situation and launched a new brand. Unifying the brand was among the initiatives Jigar Read More
“Truly exceptional patient experience programs thrive at the intersection of culture, engagement, and experience,” says Sally Mildren of Boss Lady Consulting. “This has played out in study after study by Monigle, PwC, McKinsey, Medallia, and many others. Good experience equals growth — in revenue, reputation, loyalty, satisfaction, and employee engagement. “Yet inconsistent consumer experiences, misaligned Read More
// By Sally Mildren // For patient experience to be successful, it must be woven into the culture, expressed through your brand and marketing, and demonstrated first and foremost to your employees. Truly exceptional patient experience programs thrive at the intersection of culture, engagement, and experience. This has played out in study after study by Read More
The pandemic forced massive change on the world in a very short space of time. The health care industry shouldered its share of the disruption — and benefited from it, as provider organizations found new ways to safely connect with patients and deliver care. “Change and disruption can be an incredibly positive force in our Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Providence’s family of organizations embarked on a multi-year brand journey — right before the pandemic. Despite the many challenges brought on by the pandemic, the system launched a strong new brand that is energizing its 125,000 caregivers and the communities they serve. We’ve heard the familiar adage: All health Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Health care has largely focused on disruption as a threat coming from outside the industry. The author of The Disruption Mindset turns that notion around, challenging companies to lead disruption from within. The pandemic forced massive change on the world in a very short space of time. The health Read More
If necessity is the mother of invention, COVID helped us invent news ways of staying connected virtually. Is it possible to maintain a strong culture if remote work becomes part of the normal landscape? Read an excerpt from our new article by Jean Hitchcock, president of Hitchcock Marketing & Communications, which explores this question. 2020 Read More
// By Jean Hitchcock // If necessity is the mother of invention, COVID helped us invent news ways of staying connected virtually. Is it possible to maintain a strong culture if remote work becomes part of the normal landscape? 2020 is a year none of us will soon forget. We will remember what we were Read More
“Hey, there’s a pandemic going on!” writes Peter Hochstein, crackerjack copywriter and regular SHCM contributor. “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 Read More
As the marketing communications function has grown in health care over the years, many hospital systems find their MarCom organizations continually growing in responsibility and staff size, with no master plan for how everyone will work together. David Feinberg, senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer of Mount Sinai Health System, and Karen Read More
// By Sheryl S. Jackson // As the marketing communications function has grown in health care over the years, many hospital systems find their MarCom organizations continually growing in responsibility and staff size, with no master plan for how everyone will work together. David Feinberg, senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer of Read More
// 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
// By Diane S. Hopkins // Health care leaders spend time designing spaces and assembling experts, but not as much time designing a comprehensive patient experience strategy that prepares the entire workforce for a common level of behavior. Reliable high patient satisfaction is the desire of every health care leader, yet achieving this aspiration is Read More