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How Stories of Human Kindness Help One Hospital Reinforce Its Brand

Susan Griffin, director of public relations and communications, South Shore Health

// By Susan Dubuque // South Shore Hospital, part of South Shore Health, serves hundreds of thousands in the Greater Boston area. To differentiate itself, the marketing team crafted the brand positioning “Your Health, Our Passion, One Community,” reflecting the hospital’s commitment to offering exceptional services and fostering a community-centric healthcare approach.

25 Years of Celebrating Excellence: eHealthcare Leadership Awards are Open

ehla logo 25th

// By Susan Dubuque // This year marks the silver anniversary of the eHealthcare Leadership Awards. Join us as we celebrate 25 years of industry innovation and honor your accomplishments from the past year. The eHealthcare Leadership Awards recognize outstanding health websites and digital initiatives. The Call for Entries is officially open!

How to Navigate Today’s Fragmented Health Care Media Landscape

Kara Rozek, VP, media, SPM Marketing & Communications

Today’s health care media landscape is drastically different from the era of print magazine ads and TV spots. It is now characterized by a fragmented array of channels and diverse media formats, which has made media planning more complex than ever. Do you recall what media buys looked like five, 10, or even 20 years Read More

Meeting the Right People at the Right Time in a Fragmented Media Universe

Melanie Graham

Today’s media landscape is a far cry from the days of print magazine ads and TV spots. It’s fragmented across countless channels and media formats, making media planning more complex than ever. We sat down with Kara Rozek, VP, media at SPM Marketing & Communications, to learn how health care marketers can adapt to today’s Read More

The Best Strategies Start with Unsexy Assessments

Mildren-Sally-Boss-Lady

// By Sally Mildren // Our newest contributor, the CEO of Boss Lady Consulting, shares six insights about why a clear, well-developed strategy is the key to driving the results your organization is looking for. Strategy comes first — then tactics. How many times have leaders in marketing and patient success been asked to drive Read More

Can You Leverage the Anxious Language of a Pandemic to Build a Stronger Hospital Brand? Here’s What Nemours Children’s Health System Did

Sarah Sanders, vice president and chief marketing officer of Nemours Children’s Health System

// By Peter Hochstein // You might think that co-opting language associated with COVID-19 could scare people away. Instead, it called attention to advertising that helped to reassure worried parents. Let’s clearly state a few factual negatives first. Tilt, the advertising agency behind the campaign you’re about to read about, is not the same Tilt Read More

Could a Celebrity Spokesperson Be an Advantage for Your Organization?

Sheri Scott, associate vice president of marketing and communications at Edward-Elmhurst Health

In 2014, Edward-Elmhurst Health, a newly merged two-hospital system in the Chicago suburbs, wanted to find a way to differentiate itself from the dozens of other hospitals in the area. “We are in a very crowded health care market. We knew it would be a challenge to break through all that clutter,” says Sheri Scott, Read More

Arkansas Children’s Leverages Strategic Marketing to Support Growth

Jeff House, vice president of strategic marketing at Arkansas Children’s

// By Jane Weber Brubaker // What should a high-performing marketing function in a health system look like? And how do you leverage marketing to support growth? As the only children’s hospital in the state of Arkansas, with greater than 90 percent awareness, Arkansas Children’s had historically not prioritized marketing, says Carla Bryant, executive vice Read More

Patients as Customers: Hospitals Play Catchup

Lindsay R. Resnick, executive vice president, Wunderman Thompson Health

Winners are betting on data-driven insights, personalized experiences, and relationships built on trust. // By Lindsay R. Resnick // With today’s constant stream of digital health tools, it’s never been easier or faster for customers to take charge. They’re following a path to care where they feel important and are treated well — and they’ll Read More

Everything Is Changing but Change Management

Why Doesn’t It Work? // By Andrea Simon, PhD // Change is hard, and leadership style can either make it easier — or more difficult. When traditional change management processes try to fix the symptoms, not the disease, the result is friction, resistance, and company fatigue. In today’s highly competitive, technologically disrupted health care environment, 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

Marketing Hospitals to Women with Chronic Conditions

Kathy Selker

// By Kathy Selker // Telemedicine is more than a nascent trend — it’s here to stay. This article explores how new technology, such as wearables, can help patients with chronic conditions better monitor their health — and how marketers can connect with and drive preference among these chronic care patients before a crisis happens. Read More

10 Ways Hospital Marketers Can Connect with Women

Kathy Selker

// By Kathy Selker // While hospitals cater to everyone, their most influential consumers are women, who make 80 percent of health care decisions in America. It’s important to segment and target by gender, but remember that women prefer gender-neutral marketing messages. With recent social media movements toward greater equality for women (in all realms, Read More

How to Set a Public Health World Record for Flu Inoculations

Keqin (Catherine) Qian, manager & nurse practitioner, Vanderbilt Occupational Health Clinic, instructor, Vanderbilt School of Nursing

An inspired name — and a bit of student high jinks — transmogrifies a mass vaccination program into an annual form of entertainment. Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // Quick, which would you rather do? Interrupt your daily routine, stand in a long line, and then get poked in the arm by Read More

Jane Weber Brubaker named Executive Editor of Plain-English Health Care

Jane Weber Brubaker

I’m very pleased to announce that Jane Weber Brubaker has been promoted to the role of Executive Editor of Plain-English Health Care. Jane has been the editor of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends since 2015 and is chair of the eHealthcare Leadership Awards. She contributed several of our most popular articles to Strategic Health Care Marketing between 2013 and 2015, and Read More

Are You Measuring Patient Experience All Wrong?

What if you and your hospital were measuring patient satisfaction incorrectly? Worse, what if you were focused on improving things that didn’t really matter — and overlooking things that did? // By James A. Gardner // In a health care setting, satisfaction focuses on the gap between patients’ expectations and their experiences. Importantly, patient experience Read More

Prize-Winning Strategy: Using Award Programs to Spotlight Your Accomplishments

Dana Levin-Robinson, chief of staff at VirtualHealth

// By Lisa D. Ellis // Competing for — and winning — awards can be an important part of your health care organization’s marketing strategy. Awards can help you raise awareness about your service lines, driving new business; recognize individual employees as leaders, improving staff morale and elevating performance standards; and promote your organization as Read More