Innovation

How to Commit Health Care Marketing Heresies for Fun and Profit

Peter Hochstein

Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // “Health care heresies?” No doubt about it. Since April of this year, a New York advertising agency called Brandfire has been committing the advertising equivalent of heresy on behalf of North Memorial Health, a respected Minneapolis-St. Paul area hospital system with two hospitals, some 650 beds, Read More

Customize the Patient Experience To Increase Satisfaction

Stacy Palmer, CPXP, senior vice president of The Beryl Institute

At a children’s hospital in Massachusetts, families of patients trying to park their cars in the very crowded multilevel garage will find a valet waiting at the top level to take the vehicle for them if the lot is full. This helps to relieve parents’ stress and makes a difficult day a little easier. In Read More

Touchdown! Health System Teams with Sports Franchise for the Win

Jeff Sofka, founder and principal at Bendigo

Some of the latest headlines from top academic medical centers today seem more fitting for ESPN than for a health care brand. This is thanks to the fact that a growing number of organizations are signing increasingly complex and integrated agreements with NFL, MLB, and NBA teams. Just these past few months, landmark partnerships have Read More

How To Thrive Amidst ACA Uncertainty

Lisa Ellis

The fate of the American health care system is currently unknown as a new health care plan is making its way through Congress, raising many questions for people working in health care organizations, as well as for the patients they serve. How can you be sure your organization is well positioned for whatever comes next? Read More

Beyond Testimonials: A Fresh Way To Advertise Your Expertise

Peter Hochstein

“If you’ve been involved with hospital advertising for a while, you’ve probably seen it all,” observes Peter Hochstein, veteran copywriter and SHCM contributor. “Touching testimonials from patients telling what a hospital’s doctors did for them. Doctors explaining how they collaborated on a medical breakthrough. Pictures galore of high-tech tools, people in surgical masks, MRI images Read More

Is There a Fresh Way Left to Advertise That Your Hospital Is in the Front Lines of Medical Science? Here’s a Surprisingly Engaging One from Galveston, Texas

Peter Hochstein

Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // If you’ve been involved with hospital advertising for a while, you’ve probably seen it all. Touching testimonials from patients telling what a hospital’s doctors did for them. Doctors explaining how they collaborated on a medical breakthrough. Pictures galore of high-tech tools, people in surgical masks, MRI Read More

8 Current and Future Health Care Trends: Experts Weigh In

Diane R. Weber, RN, BSN, MHA, SHSMD’s Executive Director

// By Lisa D. Ellis // What trends should be on your radar screen as you navigate the ever-changing health care field? Find out what a group of experts say is coming down the road so you can help your organization be prepared for whatever comes next. SHSMD’s Futurescan 2017-2022: Health Care Trends and Implications Read More

Urgent Care + Uber Transport = Win for Orthopedic Franchise

Lisa D. Ellis

If you or a family member broke an ankle or dislocated a shoulder, what if you could just use an app on your smartphone to schedule a visit at a nearby orthopedic urgent care center and, at the same time, also arrange for an Uber driver to transport you? That’s the premise of a new Read More

10 Health Care Marketing Trends To Watch in 2017

“If what we’ve seen over the past year is any indication, 2017 won’t be for the faint of heart,” says Lindsay R. Resnick, Executive Vice President at ReviveHealth, a Weber Shandwick company. “Combine the dynamics of socioeconomic-political tensions with the massive transformation happening across health care’s ecosystem—regulatory, technology, competition, innovation, finance, clinical—and you get an Read More

Five Difficult Topics Health Care Marketers Need To Tackle

Ross Goldberg

“It has been said that all motion is relative,” notes Ross K. Goldberg. “If that is indeed true, then it’s entirely possible to go backward by simply standing still if the world around you is changing.” Goldberg, President of Kevin/Ross Public Relations in Southern California, says that “[o]ver the past half-dozen years, those entrusted with Read More

Telemedicine Enables Remote Dermatology Services

Jennifer Sikora, VP of Marketing, Iagnosis

If you had a suspicious mole or rash on your leg, what if you could have it evaluated by a dermatologist tomorrow without having to miss any work or activities and could find out quickly whether the area is cause for concern? You’d probably find this approach invaluable. And so might many of your health Read More

Five Issues Health Care PR Folks Aren’t Talking About (But Should Be)

Ross Goldberg

// By Ross K. Goldberg // It has been said that all motion is relative. If that is indeed true, then it’s entirely possible to go backward by simply standing still if the world around you is changing. Over the past half-dozen years, those entrusted with health care communications have pushed forward by focusing a Read More

Predictive Analytics Facilitate a Successful Health System Growth Strategy

Pamela Ladu, MBA, Assistant Vice President, Ambulatory Planning and Logistics, Cooper University Health Care

Placing your service lines, retail clinics, and outpatient facilities in optimal locations may mean the difference between success and failure in today’s competitive marketplace. These days, it’s no longer enough to make decisions about where to locate new offerings based on available sites or what an organization “thinks” might work. Rather, the savviest organizations are Read More

A Money-Back Guarantee In Health Care? Yes.

Peter Hochstein

When new CEO David Feinberg, M.D., arrived at Geisinger Health System in May 2015, he saw a large system with a great reputation for medical innovation and outcomes. “But its reputation among its patients based on their hospital experiences? Not so great,” says copywriter and regular SHCM contributor Peter Hochstein. Hochstein notes that the hospital regularly surveys employees, patients, Read More

How One Health Care Organization Uses Predictive Analytics to Avoid Growing Pains

Pamela Ladu, MBA, Assistant Vice President, Ambulatory Planning and Logistics, Cooper University Health Care

// By Lisa Ellis // Placing your service lines, retail clinics, and outpatient facilities in optimal locations may mean the difference between success and failure in today’s competitive marketplace. These days, it’s no longer enough to make decisions about where to locate new offerings based on available sites or what an organization “thinks” might work. Read More

How to Dispel Stereotypes in Health Care Marketing

Sara Tack, Co-Founder and Creative Director at Smith & Jones

In the wake of the Orlando tragedy, it’s more important than ever for health care organizations to keep their messages all-inclusive. Here’s how. // By Sara Tack // Hospitals and health systems are responsible for taking care of anyone and everyone regardless of race, religion, gender orientation, or age. That’s the nature of health care: Read More

How To Keep Your Messaging Inclusive and Non-Discriminatory

Sara Tack, Co-Founder and Creative Director at Smith & Jones

“Health care advertising often falls short of representing the various populations that hospitals and health systems serve,” says Sara Tack. “We are inclusive to a point, covering our diversity bases by featuring ads with Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. Sometimes, these images come across as pandering or obvious tokenism to the point where the Read More