Sep. 22, 2008 at 8:46am

Are we overlooking families?

Posted by Guest Blogger in Care Line Marketing, Practice Management
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Until recently, I didn’t know that what I’ve been doing had a name: patient advocate. In the last few years, I have spent lots of time accompanying my family to hospitals, doctors’ offices and testing facilities. The providers are patient-focused, as they should be.

But are hospitals and clinics overlooking the importance of family and friends who accompany the patients? We are emotionally engaged with the patient. We watch intently as care is administered. We listen as employees talk to each other and our loved ones. We get lost in the hallways and sometimes don’t understand a test, procedure or treatment process.

Sep. 16, 2008 at 9:17am

Differentiation as a math problem

Posted by Kathleen Deakins in Planning and Strategy, Practice Management
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Trying to differentiate your physician practice? Chances are someone else is doing the same thing you are. But do more different things, and it’s much harder to copy you. I was reminded of this lesson from Richard Horwath last week when I visited my gynecologist.

Add an activity, improve your odds

Rich, a strategy professor and consultant, teaches that if you try to differentiate on just one activity, there is a 90 percent probability that a competitor will match it.

Sep. 5, 2008 at 8:50am

Make your claim matter

Posted by Shari Campbell in Advertising, Care Line Marketing, Planning and Strategy
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So what?

That was my initial response to a health care ad I glanced at this morning that claimed, “ … we have some of the fastest ER times in the state.”

Aug. 25, 2008 at 12:54pm

Newsletters that reward as we read

Posted by Kathleen Deakins in Internal Communications, Planning and Strategy, Publications
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“People will read if the reward is large enough,” according to Ann Wylie, insightful writer and consultant. Defining the reward has been at the heart of our recent work as a member of a team planning a health care client’s new employee newsletter.

Here are some of our early ideas to make this publication a must-read:

Aug. 21, 2008 at 3:35pm

Three principles for crisis communications

Posted by Shari Campbell in Internal Communications, Media Relations, Planning and Strategy
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Intel. Odwalla. Jack in the Box. Alaska Air Lines.

These are just a few of the companies that came to mind earlier this week when I discussed with a client the impact of a potential crisis.

Of course, no crisis is the best scenario. And as hospital public relations and marketing professionals, there’s much we can do to prepare our organizations to handle a crisis before it ever happens.

Aug. 8, 2008 at 11:06am

Safety, experience lure boomers

Posted by Kathleen Deakins in Advertising, Care Line Marketing, Planning and Strategy
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Consumers become more risk averse as they age, observes Peter Francese in Ad Age July 7, 2008. Francese is founder of American Demographics magazine and demographic trend analyst at Ogilvy Mather. So, we should appeal to aging boomers with messages of safety, experience and service guarantees.

And we should do it carefully, especially among the boomers I know – and you probably do, too – who seem to get more pig-headed with age. “Resolutely opinionated consumers don’t want to admit their minds are closed, and they resent it when anyone suggests they are not willing to consider a new idea,” Francese writes.

Aug. 5, 2008 at 11:23am

Branding begins at home

Posted by Shari Campbell in Branding, Internal Communications, Measurement
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A health care company undergoing profound change asks its employees in an internal newsletter to support yet another reorganization. A nonprofit that helps people find affordable housing is considering expanding its role to include community development.

What do employees think about these changes? Will they embrace them or undermine them?

Jul. 17, 2008 at 9:15am

How to manage the thrill ride that is change

Posted by Kathleen Deakins in Internal Communications
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Profound change is part of our territory: layoffs, a new CEO, the opening of a competing ambulatory surgery center. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed. In talking with hospital marketers at a conference sponsored by the Missouri Association for Healthcare Marketing & Public Relations, I saw how helpful it can be to take a time out to talk about our experiences and consider our role in making change successful for our organizations.

Jul. 2, 2008 at 9:13am

Manage health care like your croquet set

Posted by Shari Campbell in Planning and Strategy
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“Our croquet set is now west of the Mississippi,” my husband Tim shouted from our computer this morning.

Last week he ordered a new croquet set online. Like a kid waiting for his new toy, Tim tracks its progress daily, providing us updates about its whereabouts.

Imagine his surprise when he had to call three times to correct our insurance information.

Jun. 25, 2008 at 2:14pm

Ration, tier or clone? Part two: evaluate

Posted by Kathleen Deakins in Internal Communications, Planning and Strategy
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Here’s more on the theme of what to do when you have too much to do, a follow-up to my earlier post Part One: Anticipate. Let’s continue with the anticipate-evaluate-negotiate framework.

It’s no surprise that “follow the money” is the No. 1 criterion health care marketers cite for deciding what new project to take on or what to give up. It’s about ROI – generating margin, driving volume or increasing share. But when we probed a little deeper, we found that in practice the criteria are far more complex – and not always logical.

Plenty more in the Archives