Do Hospital Awards Drive Consumer Decisions?

2018 National Consumer Survey: Value of Hospital Awards Results

A Strategic Health Care Marketing webinar on demand for health care marketers, communicators, and strategists.

Your Presenters:

• Craig Fairfield, Managing Director, Wax Custom Communications
• Amanda Herriman, Marketing Manager, Wax Custom Communications

Duration: 60 Minutes

Sponsored by Wax Custom Communications
This event is free for Strategic Health Care Marketing members to view thanks to our event sponsor.

Watch now »

Putting Your Customers at the Center of Your Brand Proposition Leads to a Happy Union

// By Lisa D. Ellis // With a large and growing percentage of people turning to the internet to research their health care options, what your customers say about you publicly can be the deciding factor in whom new patients ultimately choose. This makes it essential to put customers at the center of your efforts Read More

Be Our Guest: The Importance of a Stellar Patient Experience

The last time you went on vacation, you probably enjoyed five-star treatment from the staff at the hotels and restaurants you visited. But while customer service is paramount when it comes to dining and accommodations, most health care systems don’t think to treat their patients like valued guests. The danger is that if you’re not Read More

Five-Star Service: Treat Your Patients Like Valued Guests, or Else

// By Lisa D. Ellis // The last time you went on vacation, you probably enjoyed five-star treatment from the staff at the hotels and restaurants you visited. But while customer service is paramount when it comes to dining and accommodations, most health care systems don’t think to treat their patients like valued guests. The Read More

Crisis Communication Planning Is Essential for Health Care Marketers

What if your hospital is suddenly the center of national media attention for all the wrong reasons? What if a catastrophic event occurs and you must respond immediately? Do you know what to do? Do you have a crisis communications plan in place? In our new article, Paul Wood, vice president and chief communications officer Read More

Expect the Unexpected: Firsthand Lessons from Health Care Public Relations Professionals Who Lived (and Worked) Through a Crisis

// By Paul Wood // What if your hospital is suddenly the center of national media attention for all the wrong reasons? What if a catastrophic event occurs and you must respond immediately? Do you know what to do? Do you have a crisis communications plan in place? In this article, Paul Wood, vice president Read More

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

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

Consolidated Call Center Dials Up Benefits for LifeBridge Health

// By Lisa D. Ellis // When a patient experiences a life-threatening emergency at LifeBridge Health in Baltimore, help is summoned through automated notifications from the centralized call center, which sends a message right to members of the response team’s phones. This is one of the many benefits that care teams experience, thanks to LifeBridge’s Read More

NPS and Patient Experience: Focus on What Patients Really Value

“What if you and your hospital were measuring patient satisfaction incorrectly?” posits James A. Gardner. “Worse, what if you were focused on improving things that didn’t really matter — and overlooking things that did?” Gardner leads national market and business development efforts for MedTouch, a digital marketing agency serving hospitals and health systems nationally. “In 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

Let’s Go Blue: University of Michigan Health System Ad Campaign Hits Powerful Notes

“Last month, this column dealt with two advertising campaigns that you’d never guess were for hospitals — at least not until the last few seconds when a hospital logo appeared,” says copywriter and Strategic Health Care Marketing contributor Peter Hochstein. “In recent years, marketing people I’ve interviewed at hospitals and their advertising agencies have more or Read More

“Expectable” Images Create an Unexpected (and Emotionally Powerful) Hospital Advertising Campaign

Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // Last month, this column dealt with two advertising campaigns that you’d never guess were for hospitals — at least not until the last few seconds when a hospital logo appeared. In the interest of population health, one campaign demonstrated how to make a healthy and eye-appealing Read More

Cross-Cultural Messaging Can Improve Patient Satisfaction

“With patient experience increasingly recognized as connected to a host of measures, including patient outcomes and your bottom line, it’s essential to reach all of your target populations with education and messaging that resonate with people’s cultural backgrounds and native languages,” says Jill Mead, in-house compliance counsel for full-service language solutions company Vocalink, Inc. “More Read More

Awards Programs Can Heighten Your Profile and Reputation

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 a stellar workplace, helping to attract Read More

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

// 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

Cross-Cultural Communication Strategy: Improve Your Health System’s Patient Satisfaction Scores with Training and More Inclusion

// By Jill Mead // With patient experience increasingly recognized as connected to a host of measures, including patient outcomes and your bottom line, it’s essential to reach all of your target populations with education and messaging that resonate with people’s cultural backgrounds and native languages. More than ever before in our history, U.S. hospital Read More

Social Listening Strategies: Improve Patient Satisfaction and Your Online Reputation

Love you, hate you, want something from you. When any of your patients have these or other strong feelings about you, chances are they’ll turn to social media and share their sentiments in a very public way to a very wide audience. This makes it essential to stay on top of the latest comments posted Read More

JAMA Network Deploys Social Media Listening Strategy to Tune Communication Efforts: Tactics You Can Deploy Today

// By Lisa D. Ellis // Love you, hate you, want something from you. When any of your patients have these or other strong feelings about you, chances are they’ll turn to social media and share their sentiments in a very public way to a very wide audience. This makes it essential to stay on Read More

Secret Shoppers: How to Design a Program That Will Help Your Health Care Organization Shine

It’s no coincidence that people who like the Apple brand tend to be loyal customers, keeping all of their technology purchases within the Apple family. This is because Apple goes to great lengths to ensure its customers always have a very positive, consistent experience in stores, online, and by phone, according to Steven Maskell, chief client Read More

Using “Real” Staff to Deliver Your Video Messages? Here’s How to Make the Messages More Engaging

Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // Any number of hospitals post videos on the internet featuring their doctors and other staff discussing their institutions and specialties. Too often, these standup “talking head” presentations feel unspontaneous and uncomfortable. Eyes shift nervously as speakers obviously read from cue cards. Language that looked good on Read More

4 Keys to Designing a Successful Secret-Shopper Strategy

// By Lisa D. Ellis // It’s no coincidence that people who like the Apple brand tend to be loyal customers, keeping all of their technology purchases within the Apple family. This is because Apple goes to great lengths to ensure its customers always have a very positive, consistent experience in stores, online, and by Read More

Strong Audio Strategy Can Boost Your Health Care Brand in New Ways

// By Lisa D. Ellis // Have you incorporated audio content in your health care communications strategy? If not, you could be missing an opportunity to engage prospective patients who live in your service communities, and to position your organization as a leader to referring physicians across the country. Learn how one health system leads Read More

Omaha Hospital Celebrates Its Storied Past in New Marketing Campaign

What’s old is new again at Methodist Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. Methodist recently celebrated its 125th anniversary, and this milestone provided a valuable opportunity for the health system to build on its past to position itself for the future. While most health care systems pride themselves on being ahead of the curve when it comes Read More

Silicon Valley: Where You Can Call Potential Patients “Nerds”

Veteran copywriter and regular SHCM contributor Peter Hochstein suggests an interesting proposition: “Run some hospital advertising that flat out calls your potential patients nerds. Nah, come to think of it, that probably wouldn’t work, and might prompt some irate letters to your CEO. Well then, how about offering advice that sounds financial, and encourages people to ‘go Read More

The Vocabulary Is the Message — At Least in a Unique Hospital Ad Campaign for Silicon Valley

Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // Here’s a bright idea: Run some hospital advertising that flat out calls your potential patients nerds. Nah, come to think of it, that probably wouldn’t work, and might prompt some irate letters to your CEO. Well then, how about offering advice that sounds financial, and encourages Read More