instantly health

Image by Kristin Riemer from Pixabay Where did 2021 go? It was a challenging year for providers with changes in reimbursement, a pandemic that continues unabated, innovations in care delivery away from the hospital, innovative new competitors, and significant declines in revenues. I am glad that it’s ending. I will not go into the litany of good and adverse events for 2021. The news organizations and others will all do their year-in-review pieces. It should be interesting to see what they choose to publish or broadcast. It was a good year from a blog writer’s perspective. I had what seemed to be a never-ending flow of topics. I di start a new feature in some of the posts called “Lessons from the Field,” which were well received. Topics ranged from characteristics of success for mid-sized healthcare vendors, leadership, and operations to new ways to look at markets.  Image by Alexas Fotos from Pixabay I am thankful and appreciative of you for taking the time to spend it with me fro...

People Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Do you know who your patient hospital brand evangelists are, and are they posting User Generated Content (UGC)? I ask this question for a fundamental reason.  In an age where it’s challenging to define differentiation clearly and me too messaging amongst hospitals, in a pandemic that shows no signs of ending soon, how is a healthcare patient to make a choice? I realize that many healthcare leaders will dispute the above statement.  However, hospital marketing -traditional, digital and social, fall into one of four general buckets, ‘it’s all about you”, “look at at our technology,”  “our facilities and locations,” and “look at our awards.” In an age of pandemic uncertainty, the marketing and communication efforts focus on features, not patient benefits. Consider for a moment.  1.        Patients are now engaged in shopping behavior .  2.        Patients are pay...

  Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay First, let me ask you a few questions. Have you ever used an alias and tried to access the hospital services like find a physician, schedule an appointment, or used the hospital or health system website to find information? Have you ever gone to your website and reviewed the informational content that a new patient searching for a physician would find to verify that the content is correct? How about calling central scheduling for a test or getting a call back from your call center after completing an online request to schedule an appointment with a physician service? Was the website easy to use? Was the information on the physician correct? When you completed the form, how long was it before you heard back? When you heard back, could you schedule the appointment easily, or were you told information opposite of what your website contained like you have to call the doctor because they schedule their appointments?   Was the call center repre...

  Image by Anastasia Gepp from Pixabay Word-of-mouth marketing. We all talk about it. We all understand the importance of patients and clients spreading the good work of our hospital or business. So, while we all talk a good game, little attention is paid to the "how" of how you leverage word-of-mouth marketing. Taking an "if it happens, that's a great approach," providers and vendors then turn their attention to the traditional and digital marketing channels to get the brand message out. Interruptive marketing is easier the implementing a word-of-mouth marketing plan. Word-of-mouth means you will take a risk to identify strategies, tactics, and metrics to execute.   It also means that in highly undifferentiated markets such as those that exist for hospitals and revenue cycle management companies, word-of-mouth marketing can be a powerful way to break away from the competition. Word-of-mouth marketing is far more targeted and persuasive than traditional forms...

  Image by photosforyou from Piaxabay I was thinking the other day about the lessons of patient and physician engagement in specialty pharmacy and how that could transfer to providers. That is  meaningful engagement for managing population health, changing health behaviors, keeping physicians, referrals, and patients in the network, while improving engagement and experience. It occurred to me that specialty pharmacy has been engaging physicians and patients for a long time, long before "engagement" and "experience" became the corporate buzzword in hospitals. Specialty pharmacy is more than just a transactional drug fill. Due to the expense and side effects of many of the specialty pharmaceuticals, a high level of patient engagement by clinicians, customer service, and feedback on patient compliance and side effects is essential. Specialty pharmacy also requires a seamless and well-designed experience for physicians and patients. Image by Tina Koehler from Pixabay ...

  Image by David Mark from Pixabay Does the headline question have you thinking? There is a more profound meaningful patient experience, engagement, and marketing activity for hospitals than meets the eye in the headline. When was the last time one said thank you to the patient for trusting you with their care, treatment, and recovery? Hospitals have doctor, volunteer, and employee events to thank them for all their hard work. But those activities, for the most part, are annual and expected. When was the last time your hospital thanked a patient, not through a community event or a patient satisfaction survey asking for a high score or a patient-focused event, but thanked them while they were still in the hospital? And that is the difference . We all read, hear and talk about the mission of the organization and it is essential. The mission is what drives the hospital. It's the true north compass point for interactions with employees, physicians, vendors, and patients.   ...

  Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay For several years now, hospitals and other providers have marketed to patients that they are patient-focused using any number of brand tag lines. Cleaver and memorable in most cases, the brand taglines, in a few short marketing communications messages, hit various marketing channels. You can replace healthcare providers with vendors and patient-focused with customer-focused for the same result. I am not writing today about how you become patient or customer-focused. Previous blog posts have addressed the characteristics and mechanics of what it takes to be patient or customer-focused. If you are interested, you can read “Patient & Customer Centricity is Culture- Driven, Not Program Driven” http://bit.ly/2PVtRLW , and “ Your Definitive Guide for Making a Hospital Patient-focused in a Pandemic World https://bit.ly/2Go5Ri5 .” Today is more concerning what does it mean to say you are patient or customer-focused. And in saying “we’re patient o...

  Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Let me repeat the headline a little differently. Is the patient's hospital marketing experience, given its importance as a first-touch experience and engagement opportunity, been forgotten? Given all that has been and continues to be written about experience and engagement, how the patient experiences the hospitals' marketing efforts, as they align with the patient's experience and engagement expectations, could cause a disconnect for the patient and in the market. Case in point. I just had my annual physical with my PCP. Even though there was no indication of vascular disease, she thought it was fruitful to have a vascular scan. Since there was no indication, my PPO would not pay. My PCP referred me to a screening service that regularly provides vascular scans at a discounted cash price to drive utilization not affiliated with the hospital. The service understands that in retail health, the most effective source of referrals will be ...