In the small city of Peoria, Illinois (population 116,513), OSF Saint Francis Medical Center (609 beds) used a very small media budget ($45,000) for one of its services and got some big results. The service was mammogram screening. And, yes, there were other costs for production and Internet usage and design, too. Richole Ogburn, account Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // Old and familiar hospital names sometimes die hard. A case in point: In 2007, the former Saint Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center in New York’s borough of Staten Island changed its name to Richmond University Medical Center. Three years later, the hospital hired Wax Custom Communications of Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // This is a story about hospital advertising that’s also very substantially about numbers, all of them very nice numbers for a hospital to have. In the small city of Peoria, Illinois (population 116,513), OSF Saint Francis Medical Center (609 beds) used a very small media budget Read More
What if your flagship hospital were directly across the street from your biggest—and most worthy—competitor? Would that threaten your market share? It could for some community hospitals, but this doesn’t seem to be the case for Mon General Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia.
A picture is worth a thousand words—and that’s especially true when you’re talking about adorable babies. Premier Health, a multi-hospital southern Ohio health care system with 1,892 licensed beds and more than 868,000 annual outpatient visits, was looking for a fresh way to to reassure future moms that its health care system offers lots of birthing Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // So let’s say you want to reassure future moms and about-to-be moms in your region that your health care system offers lots of birthing options and has lots of medical expertise—whether the moms turn out to have normal deliveries or deliveries with complications. Backing up that Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // So let’s say you’re out to build a hospital system’s brand. And let’s also say you’re in one of the biggest markets in one of the biggest states, competing against some of the biggest regional names in health care. Although, exclusive of direct marketing, you’ve got Read More
When patients come to your hospital for services, do you take the time to spotlight your organization’s strengths and let them know how much you value their health and well-being? You should be marketing not only to prospective patients, but also to current patients when they come to your facility; you want them to know Read More
“Eighty percent of CEOs don’t really trust marketers,” says Mike Milligan, President of Legato Healthcare Marketing, Inc., citing a recent Fournaise Marketing Group survey of high-level decisions-makers. “This is painful for me to say because I’ve been on both sides of the health care marketing table. But I’ve also learned that before you can overcome a Read More
By Lisa D. Ellis When patients come to your hospital for services, do you take the time to spotlight your organization’s strengths and let them know how much you value their health and well-being? If not, you could be missing an important opportunity to improve your patient satisfaction ratings and also get them to recommend Read More
By Mike Milligan Eighty percent of CEOs don’t really trust marketers, according to a recent Fournaise Marketing Group survey of high-level decisions-makers. Eighty percent! This is painful for me to say because I’ve been on both sides of the health care marketing table. But I’ve also learned that before you can overcome a challenge, you Read More
“In health care, it isn’t just the care that’s changing,” notes Claire Hovis, Vice President and Account Director of Capstrat, an agency that helps health care clients and others tell their stories with power and persuasion. “Power is changing.” She says “expert-driven” communications—which in the past have given providers and large corporations a strong position Read More
Advertising Worth Noting By Peter Hochstein This tale begins in 2008, when the people running things at Covenant HealthCare, today a 643-bed multiple facility institution with campuses in and around Saginaw, Michigan, began hearing rumors about robots. Well, not just any robots. These were da Vinci Surgical System robots, those high-tech devices increasingly used in Read More
By Claire Hovis In health care, it isn’t just the care that’s changing. Power is changing. “Expert-driven” communications that placed providers and large corporations atop the information market are giving way to a generation of empowered consumers who are more engaged and have higher expectations. Access is changing. The Affordable Care Act has brought health Read More
By Lisa D. Ellis Relationships are the focus of attention at Geisinger Health System—and not just with patients, but also with its practitioners and specialists. In fact, aligning with providers, as well as with all of the internal service lines, is a key part of the organization’s strategy, enabling everyone to work collaboratively within the Read More
Service lines may be the mainstay of your organization, but are you using them strategically for the realities of today’s marketplace? If not, you could be missing some important potential for getting, and keeping, your patients. Health care reform has changed the way most hospitals do business—and the impact includes an increased emphasis on value Read More
In a new SHCM article, health care marketing expert Susan Dubuque writes, As you look around your organization and your community and evaluate all the health needs, you might get the feeling that there is much work to be done—so many health issues to be addressed—and not enough staff time or money to make a Read More
// By Susan Dubuque // Last year Strategic Health Care Marketing published a series of three articles on Racing to Wellness. This year we will delve further into the evolution of our profession in a rapidly changing environment. As we move away from conventional promotions intended to drive volumes, we will explore the reinvention of Read More
Service lines may be the mainstay of your organization, but are you using them strategically for the realities of today’s marketplace? If not, you could be missing some important potential for getting, and keeping, your patients. Responding to the Current Climate Health care reform has changed the way most hospitals do business—and the impact includes Read More
By Peter Hochstein I once knew an advertising creative director who said his constant prayer was, “Grant me the luxury of a tightly written creative strategy.” The following strategy would most certainly have answered his prayer: Position UC Irvine Health as Orange County’s top destination for cancer care. Leverage our status as Orange County’s only Read More
by Jane Weber Brubaker A seven-minute home video titled If Air Travel Worked Like Health Care made its debut on YouTube in 2010 and subsequently went viral. The video features a hapless customer struggling to book a round-trip flight through a fictitious airline, Air Health Care, and nail down the cost. The man’s frustration level Read More
In a new SHCM article, Stewart Gandolf, CEO of Healthcare Success Strategies, writes that: Clinical service department profitability is a constant challenge for hospitals. That’s nothing new. What’s changed, however, is just about everything else. He explains how patients, newly empowered, now regard medical services through the critical eyes of retail shoppers. Health care reform, Read More
by Stewart Gandolf Clinical service department profitability is a constant challenge for hospitals. That’s nothing new. What’s changed, however, is just about everything else. The newly empowered patient now regards medical services with the critical eye of a retail shopper. The dynamics of health care reform, facility mergers and acquisitions and increasingly intense competition have Read More
by Cecily Lohmar The last decade has seen considerable growth in health care service lines, most often with the objective of expanding the more profitable services. At the same time, there have been numerous market changes – with more to come. Service lines have been an effective model for improving quality and cost in the Read More