instantly health

Image by Pattie O'Loughlin from Pixabay. My primary care physician ordered a couple of tests and left me the option to choose the location. Near me was a free-standing hospital system-based ambulatory care center.   When I called the central scheduling department of the health system in question, I asked if the center near me did those tests. I scheduled one of the tests because of some pretest requirements and the other test nearly immediately as diagnostic radiology was available on a walk-in basis. Now, understand that I drive by this ambulatory medical center regularly and never had a clue that all this and more was available. In all honesty, I didn’t pay that much attention to the marketing either, as it focused on providing senior physician services that I did not need or have any interest in. Why did the system place ‘senior” in the name? When you put “senior” in the name, which is biased age-based segmentation and marketing, you automatically define the center’s per...

Image by Andrezj Rembowski from Pixabay. The hospital quality award season is underway as various organizations and magazines, with their black-box analytics, tag community hospitals and health systems as the best or tops in specific care categories. I am not making light of the accomplishment as quality awards are essential for the patient information in the decision-making process. I have to admit that a newly proclaimed award category of the “Triple Crown of Healthcare” for a Fortune/IBM Watson Health Top 100 Hospital Ranking , CMS 5-Star Ranking , and Leapfrog for Safety is a hard-earned series of awards. My question for your consideration is, how is the hospital and health system positioning the quality award contextually? This is an important question and goes beyond the traditional look at our claims and how good we are.   The question is asked since there is little if any, context or content on the value and meaning of the award. Why, in that case, should the patient a...

Health systems, and hospitals, for that matter, have an experience problem. The problem, while complicated, can be summed up as the inability to present an experience to the patient that is consistent across the entire health system. Connection image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Hence one patient to the health system, one health system to the patient. Here is an example from an actual patient. A patient is seen at one hospital of a multihospital system for several years - inpatient, outpatient, and rehab.  That person is medically complex with multiple comorbidities.  With numerous chronic conditions, no matter how well it’s managed, an acute episode will require a short-term hospitalization. An ambulance is called, and due to the disease, the patient needs to be transported to the closest system hospital, not the one where they regularly receive care. Hospital image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay This is where the fun begins for the family. Immediately new specialists unfamil...

  Image by Peter Linforth from Pixabay. Marketing changes a lot. Sometimes driven by leadership in providers and vendors. It could be an old idea they used in their early leadership days, “with it worked, then it could work now.” It could be from reading an article, attending a conference, a recommendation from the Board of Directors, or private equity ownership.   But in any case, leadership always chases the shiny new marketing nickel. Fads and trends come and go in marketing all the time. What is old is new and what’s new is old. But some things do remain the same. While tactics, messages, and channels change all the time, it can be a case of the tail wagging the dog. Don’ take me wrong. Marketers need to innovate, create engaging content, and drive an exceptional experience while finding the mediums that patients, providers, and vendors inhabit with an attention span of a newt . It can explain why so many providers and vendors focus on features, not benefits, which in ...

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...

The last 20 or so months have seen an unprecedented wave of change in healthcare. The way patients search for information, access care, and its delivery due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Direction image by Kalhh from Pixabay The patient is more in charge with the adaption of telehealth, new entrants stepping into areas that were previously the domain of the hospital, and other care delivered in more convenient, affordable, and accessible locations. Add on top of all of this access to pricing information, and you can see why I call it Healthcare 3.0 Healthcare 3.0 Healthcare 3.0 is an entirely different market animal from anything hospital leadership has ever had to contend with.  The competitive animal has teeth with little regard for whether a hospital or health system survives. Highly competitive, innovative, and retail, the sole focus is on understanding and meeting patients' needs.  Most hospital marketing by focusing on features of the hospital- facilities, technology, s...

  Image by PixxlTeufel from Pixabay As the provider market for the patient and physician continues to consolidate through merger, acquisition, liquidation, or disintermediation, there is one clear outcome due to the lasting effects of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Fewer providers mean heightened competition within hospitals or health systems in a bid to stay atop the food chain. But with the patient's realization that they need a hospital for only three things, emergency care, intensive care, and care for complex acute medical conditions, patients are more in control with their physician of the selection process. To become the patient's choice for healthcare, successful providers will recognize that understanding the patient’s selection decision matrix is the new way of marketing and how it impacts growth. Patient Decision Matrix In this environment, providers are already losing meaningful differentiation. Marketing campaigns with fluff messaging about caring, facilities, or q...

  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 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 ...