Patient Safety

Industry Leaders Reflect on the Unique Challenges of 2021

Mark Klein, senior vice president, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs, Dignity Health

“For two years, marketing and communication professionals have faced the excruciating crisis of a pandemic nothing fully prepared us for,” says Rhoda Weiss, president of the Rhoda Weiss Consulting Group. “We’re changing how and from where we work, balancing dichotomies of layoffs and staff shortages, experiencing colleague and personal burnout, dealing with new and conflicting Read More

Remote Monitoring Enables High-Level Care at Home

The current pandemic is pushing the boundaries for parity when it comes to telemedicine reimbursement. How long will it be before the entire health care system repositions itself to provide hospital-level care for patients at home through ongoing remote monitoring? That’s what Tony Slonim has been working toward since he took the helm seven years Read More

The Case for Hospital-Level Home Care

Tony Slonim, MD, DrPH, president and CEO, Renown Health

View from the C-Suite: Anthony Slonim, MD, DrPH, President and CEO at Renown Health // By Marcia Simon, APR // Leading the charge toward home care reimbursement parity and population health involves huge challenges. “You have to have a vision, you have to execute the vision, and you have to tell your story,” says Renown Read More

2021 Will Be Difficult: A Flexible Plan Is Key

// By Alan Shoebridge // Predicting the future is always a dicey proposition, but from a marketing perspective it has generally been sort of, well, predictable. Most experienced professionals know how to prepare for an upcoming year with the general acceptance that a few minor bumps along the road will always come up. I know Read More

How To Convince Patients It’s Safe — and Smart — To Return

Lewis Clark, vice president of marketing/media/public relations, Deborah Heart and Lung Center

At the Deborah Heart and Lung Center in southern New Jersey, the task of letting patients know it was safe and even wise to return evolved into a multimedia effort. The campaign has been paying off with a substantial increase in patient visits. In Peter Hochstein’s new story, he explains how they’re doing it. Here’s 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

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

What Are Patients’ Key Non-COVID Health Care Concerns?

Rob Klein, founder and CEO, Klein & Partners

“People will remember how they’re treated,” says Rob Klein, founder and CEO of Klein & Partners. “And how you treat them will determine whether your brand comes out of this with momentum.” Klein & Partners and The DRG recently released the results of the third wave of an online national survey measuring consumer reactions to 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

Pandemic Recovery: Gearing Up for Business Development Marketing

Sheryl S. Jackson

// By Sheryl S. Jackson // Health systems across the country are cautiously restarting elective surgeries and trying to recover from financial losses incurred during the peak of the pandemic. How are leaders approaching this massive challenge? Here, industry experts walk us through their evolving communication strategies as their organizations pivot from crisis communications to Read More

6 Ways to Market Telehealth As an Essential Service for Your Patients

// By Sue Spaight // Successful technologies have their big adoption moment — the event that pushes them past the “tipping point” and across the chasm to become a part of everyday life. Telehealth surged across U.S. health care systems during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. The crisis reduced barriers to virtual care and Read More

A Community Rallies Around Its Local Health System

Andy Lyons, corporate communications director at Roper St. Francis Healthcare

From Girl Scouts donating cookies they couldn’t sell, to chaplains bringing lollipops to nursing stations, to colleagues making posters and shout-outs to frontline staff, coronavirus isn’t spreading only an illness, but kindness and cheer as well. As hospitals and health care organizations seek much-needed personal protective equipment for staff, communities are responding by donating comfort Read More

Spreading Kindness and Cheer to Caregivers

Wendy Stark Healy

// By Wendy Stark Healy // From Girl Scouts donating cookies they couldn’t sell, to chaplains bringing lollipops to nursing stations, to colleagues making posters and shout-outs to frontline staff, coronavirus isn’t spreading only an illness, but kindness and cheer as well. As hospitals and health care organizations seek much-needed personal protective equipment for staff, Read More

How Data Drives Quality Improvement at Piedmont Fayette

Merry Heath, RN, MSN, chief nursing officer at Piedmont Fayette Hospital

Quality and star ratings matter, according to Healthgrades: Patients treated at hospitals receiving a 5-star rating have a 49 percent lower risk of dying, and a 59 percent lower risk of experiencing one or more complications during a hospital stay than if they were treated at hospitals receiving a 1-star rating in that procedure or Read More

Does “Award-Winning Quality” Matter?

Marcia Simon

// By Marcia Simon, APR // Quality and star ratings matter, according to Healthgrades: Patients treated at hospitals receiving a 5-star rating have a 49 percent lower risk of dying, and a 59 percent lower risk of experiencing one or more complications during a hospital stay than if they were treated at hospitals receiving a 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