Internal Communications

How To Attract and Retain Top Nursing Talent

Kathy Selker, President, Northlich

Facing a nursing shortage projected to increase in coming years, hospitals need to know how to hire and retain top talent — and marketing has a key role in this critical objective. Here’s an excerpt from Kathy Selker‘s new article for us on this topic; Selker is the president and CEO of Northlich. Health care needs Read More

Marketing Hospitals to Nurses

Kathy Selker, President, Northlich

How Marketing Can Support Your Employer Brand // By Kathy Selker // Facing a nursing shortage projected to increase in coming years, hospitals need to know how to hire and retain top talent — and marketing has a key role in this critical objective. Health care needs in the U.S. are growing rapidly. Baby boomers Read More

How (and Why) To Encourage Your Employees To Eat Well

Kansas Hospital Association Logo

Your hospital may get high marks for caring for patients, but how well does it measure up in caring for your employees’ health? The Kansas Hospital Association (KHA) is taking a leadership role in encouraging a growing number of health systems to serve up more nutritious options in their cafeterias and vending machines, with the Read More

Creating a Unified Brand for Permanente Medical Group

Stephen M. Parodi, MD, associate executive director of The Permanente Medical and executive vice president of external affairs for The Permanente Federation

Permanente Medical Group leaders set out to create a unified brand for its eight medical groups around the country, the health system’s physician leaders went on the road to engage with physicians and patients at every single location. The findings have enabled the medical groups to be developed as an “ingredient brand” to bring value Read More

Is Your Culture Undermining Your Engagement Efforts?

Donald Wee, CEO, Tri-State Memorial Hospital and Medical Campus

What message is your organization’s culture sending to your employees? If it doesn’t tell the people you employ that you value their input, you’re missing an important chance to get them more engaged in your day-to-day operations. You may also be losing out on a valuable differentiator in a competitive marketplace. At Tri-State Memorial Hospital Read More

Turning Hospital Employees Into Ambassadors for Your Health Care Brand

Newton-Wellesley Hospital - Finding a Better Way Campaign

The latest marketing efforts at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Massachusetts have a very important goal: to engage employees to do whatever it takes to provide the very best experience for patients. While most health systems recognize the importance of internal engagement, Newton-Wellesley’s approach — which includes seeing the employees as “brand ambassadors” to extend the system’s Read More

The Three R’s of Using Internal Advertising to Create a Cultural Change in a Health Care Organization: Repetition, Refreshment, and Recognition

Peter Hochstein

Notable Health Care Advertising In a hospital setting, changing employee routines and behaviors can save lives — but the change may call for altering the entire institutional culture. A memo to staff likely won’t work. What will? Signature Healthcare discovered some of the answers, involving an internal advertising campaign that began in 2015 and is Read More

Health Care Branding: How One Suburban Medical Center Developed Its Brand Promise from the Inside Out

// By Lisa D. Ellis // The latest marketing efforts at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Massachusetts have a very important goal: to engage employees to do whatever it takes to provide the very best experience for patients. Tackling a Challenging Market While most health systems recognize the importance of internal engagement, Newton-Wellesley’s approach — which includes Read More

Christine Woolsey: Bringing Two Health Systems Together as SCL Health

Christine Woolsey, senior vice president and chief communications and marketing officer, SCL Health

Christine Woolsey began working with SCL Health — then known as Sisters of Charity Leavenworth Health System — as a public relations consultant helping the organization manage issues and communications related to a merger with another health system. In 2010, she joined SCL as senior vice president and chief communications and marketing officer. “At the Read More

How Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Handled Unthinkable Human and PR Crisis

This may not be what hospital communicators signed on to deal with, but it can — and did — happen. How would you handle the ensuing human and PR crisis? On September 12, 2017, a Rhode Island man drove up to Lebanon, New Hampshire, and entered the intensive care unit at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where his mother was recovering from an aneurysm. According to news reports and indictments filed against him, the man asked for some time alone with his mother. Once they were alone, he allegedly pulled out a handgun and shot her four times, killing her.

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Internal Branding Strengthens Hartford HealthCare from the Inside Out

Shawn Mawhiney, director of service line communications at Hartford HealthCaree

Are some of the biggest heroes in your organization going unnoticed? At Hartford HealthCare, leadership uncovered amazing examples of frontline staff members who were going to great lengths to show patients they cared. Recognizing these actions provided the health system with a valuable opportunity to strengthen its brand from the inside out. “At Hartford HealthCare, Read More

Internal Branding Initiative Puts the Heart in Hartford HealthCare

// By Lisa D. Ellis // Are some of the biggest heroes in your organization going unnoticed? At Hartford HealthCare during a recent push to strengthen internal branding, leadership uncovered amazing examples of frontline staff members who were going to great lengths to show patients they cared. Recognizing these actions provided the health system with Read More

Murder in the ICU: How To Manage a Crisis from a Human and PR Perspective

This may not be what hospital communicators signed on to deal with, but it can — and did — happen. How would you handle the ensuing human and PR crisis? On September 12, 2017, a Rhode Island man drove up to Lebanon, New Hampshire, and entered the intensive care unit at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where his mother was recovering from an aneurysm. According to news reports and indictments filed against him, the man asked for some time alone with his mother. Once they were alone, he allegedly pulled out a handgun and shot her four times, killing her.

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Tackle Physician Burnout with Proactive Solutions

Stamford Health Logo

Physician burnout is a hot topic, but effective solutions have been more elusive. In March 2017, 10 CEOs of the nation’s most prominent health systems examined physician burnout, proposing an 11-item call to action (Health Affairs). In a new article, Susan Emerson, senior vice president of strategic planning and business development at Private Health News/MedNews Read More

Physician Well-Being — Moving from Whispers in the Hallway to Support

Sharon C. Kiely, MD, senior vice president, medical affairs, and chief medical officer at Stamford Health

// By Susan Emerson // Physician burnout is a hot topic, but effective solutions have been more elusive. In March 2017, 10 CEOs of the nation’s most prominent health systems examined physician burnout, proposing an 11-item call to action (Health Affairs). The Collaborative for Healing and Renewal in Medicine published an eight-step framework this year Read More

Strategies for Managing and Engaging Your Remote Team

Allyson Collins, senior director of digital communications at NYU Langone Health

Five years ago, Allyson Collins was the first person hired in the digital communications team at NYU Langone Health in New York City. She was challenged with relaunching two extensive websites — one for consumers and one for an academic audience — with thousands of pages each. A year into the massive project, she had Read More

Ramp Up Your Internal Marketing: 8 Tips for Success

Terri McNorton, chief marketing communications officer at Bon Secours Health System

When is the last time you received from your employer an email or text so enticing you wanted to open it right away? Most likely, the answer is “never.” That’s because most employee communications are talking at you or providing you with information they want you to have, but they somehow miss the boat entirely Read More

Blogging Can Spread Knowledge Within—as Well as Beyond—Your Organization

Blogging is becoming an increasingly important way to communicate with your target audience. And it can also provide a valuable forum for your staff to share their experiences and ideas within the larger organization and beyond. This lesson comes from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, where some forward-thinking staff members created Read More