instantly health

  Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay I see a trend among various healthcare vendors reviving the outdated and misused Center of Excellence moniker that became popular with hospitals in the 1990s. What is old is new, I guess. Remember those hospitals' "Centers of Excellence"? Some hospitals still use that term today to differentiate themselves from competing hospitals. The idea is good, but like in the 90s, the claim of having a Center of Excellence or program within a "center" is meaningless without benchmarks and proof points that provide validity and substance to the claim. To coin a past popular phrase, "Where's the beef?" Are you trying to find a differentiating answer in a highly competitive market, or just throwing stuff up against the wall to see what sticks to feed your ego? In a day and age when data is readily available and undocumented claims are easily refuted in the market, are your prospects doing an eye roll and chuckling at the m...

  Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay If the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic taught us in 2020, hospital marketers need to be agile and pivot on a dime. How have you allocated the hospital marketing spend for 2021? Can the hospital quickly change tactical direction by moving dollars to where they are needed?   Can one change messaging quickly to leverage a new opportunity brought about by the unknown? Now, I am not making light of a bad situation with the pandemic, as there is an opportunity to be leveraged. The leverage is not driving revenue, but as your community's source leader with credible, reliable information and care in combating the viral community spread. The influence is also being able to engage your patients on a meaningful level so that when the pandemic eventually comes under some measure of control, the patient would return to you because the hospital established trust. Enter 2021 Much of the allocations assigned to the strategies and tactics in the marketing plan ...

  Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay It is an understatement to say that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has fundamentally changed the way patients search for and receive medical care. With many more care options for convenient and accessible medical care, driven by the digitization of healthcare delivery, patients will never go back to the way it was.  Patients realize their need for hospital services revolves around specific services such as emergency care, intensive care, complex acute medical conditions, PICU, or NICU. With the awareness and experience of alternatives for care, patients are more in control of the medical care buying journey with their physician. While a patient buying journey map pre-pandemic was a useful tool in understanding key decision points in patient choice, now is the time to start anew and create a new journey map. Though we are still in the darkest and deepest winter of the pandemic, it will come to an end.   The updated patient buyer's journey will...

Beginning on January 1, 2021, patients should be able to search a hospital or health system website for the prices on 200 standard procedures. Mandated by CMS in 2020, the purpose was to provide a measure of price transparency for patients and consumers when seeking medical care. Image by Niek Verlaan from Pixabay  What happened? In randomly searching the internet on hospitals and health systems websites for pricing information, I found a confusing maze of information.   In all cases, the ability to find and search the information was difficult at best. I know my way around a website, search terms, and the internet as a healthcare provider and vendor marketing professional.   If I have difficulty finding, searching, and using the information to decide, how is a consumer or patient? Kudos to any hospital or health system that provided an experience that made the information easily accessible, searchable, and user-friendly. I am sure that over time with prodding from CMS...

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay What a year 2020 has been, from the Coronavirus pandemic to the election and everything in between. The response by hospitals and health systems across the country to the pandemic has been excellent. In an industry not known for rapid innovation and adoption of new ways to deliver care, the pandemic showed just how resourceful the leaders, doctors, and nurses changed their organizations to meet the need of patients, the community, and face the threat head-on. Kudos to everyone for the countless lives saved. Remember those doctors, nurses, first responders, and other healthcare workers who lost their lives serving others. As some of you may know, I write another blog, Perceptions, Observations, and Musings of an Old Man, since 2019. Writing two blogs takes its toll and is not easy. I am wimping out for the last two weeks of 2020 and giving you the best of Healthcare Marketing Matters blog posts from 2020. The best blog posts' criteria are the number o...

  Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay Patients as buyers are no longer an "it will happen someday," but a market reality come January 1, 2021. Signs are apparent that market power is shifting from the hospitals as the dominant seller controlling the relationship to the patient as the chief buyer. The CMS January 1, 2021 mandate of the 200 searchable standard procedures with prices on the hospital website will allow the patient more control. In this kind of environment, the patient is king and queen. The hospitals' position in patients' minds will be an amalgamation of expectations and experience along the dimensions of brand, price, quality, experience, and engagement. Why? Because hospitals and health systems have little differentiation. Image by djedj from Pixabay A hospital is a hospital, is a hospital. What value does the hospital or health system bring to physicians and patients? That is the question at hand. And in a buyers' market, it's the only quest...

Over the past several months, I have been an attendee on several hospital video presentations with from one - four presenters on various topics, mostly related to hospital responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Some have been a combo with providers, and vendors presented like a case study.  Image by Tina Koehler from Pixabay It is remarkable the breadth and depth of expertise in the innovation and change that has taken place in the hospital industry. The response by leadership and staff in hospitals and health systems to the public health crisis has been outstanding for the most part. The willingness to share their story of success and failure of the rapid change journey shows much creative thought and innovations that were rapidly implemented in institutions that are generally resistant to change. These webinars have added to the collective knowledge, but I have seen some trends with the presenters, detracting from the presentations. In a video conference attended by a large ...

  Image by expresswriters from Pixabay All health care is local, but is shaped by events nationally, regionally, and locally. Changes in healthcare caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with the rise of telemedicine, digital health, and new entrants in the healthcare market changes the competitive hospital landscape regularly. It still comes down to medical care delivered in the physician’s office, the local hospital, and other care settings where patients form opinions and then share in a variety of ways on social media channels. Despite all the market uncertainty, new price transparency regulations effective January 1, 2021, growing healthcare consumerism, data transparency driven by third parties, retail, medical innovation, and non-traditional competition, health care is still a game of influence.     Many hospitals and health systems are turning to influencers to promote the brand in creative campaigns. Then you see the same influencers in the same market promoting oth...