instantly health

The other day when obtaining some physician-ordered tests; I was at a brand-new free-standing hospital-based ambulatory care center.  When I called the central scheduling department of the health system in question, I asked if the new center near me did those tests. Well, low and behold they did. I scheduled one of the tests because of some pretest requirements, and the other test I did nearly immediately as X-rays are available on a walk-in basis. Now, understand that I drive by this ambulatory medical center on a very regular basis 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 geriatric physician services that I did not need nor have any interest in. The other thing to note is that the parking lot is empty a fair majority of the time, indicating a lack of consumer utilization. And it very well may be because of the name. When you put Senior in the name which smacks of ...

Dateline Anywhere USA. Hospital anywhere closed today after serving the community for 80 years. Beset by changes in reimbursement, competition from retail medicine, telehealth, innovation, and an empowered healthcare consumer, hospital leadership, and the Board of Directors could not adapt to the new healthcare market.  Hundreds of employees lost jobs as hospital leadership blamed declining reimbursement and utilization.…, as reported in the local paper. Is that the headline of a story written each day in papers around the country fueled by provider leadership? It’s a scary thought, and unfortunately, a story that written all too often. From a marketing perspective, it’s not entirely avoidable but could be.  In the end, the inability to adapt quickly enough and meet the needs of the healthcare consumer and patient utilizing less costly treatment alternatives and innovative services that meet their needs along the dimensions of price, outcomes, engagement, and experience will w...

Hospitals have a marketing problem. Their marketing is neither consistent nor sustainable and appears random to the healthcare consumer. There are of course many reasons for this, most notable are resources – capital and human, as well as organizational barriers from lack of leadership marketing knowledge and an unwillingness to change the marketing practices of the past. The economy has shifted from a product and service economy to an experience economy.  Think Amazon. Hospitals and health systems, any healthcare provider, are operating in that same experience and engagement economy. To be successful then, in spite of the inconsistent and randomness of hospital marketing to the healthcare consumer or patient, requires marketing becomes a sticker. It also means the use of nudge techniques to influence healthcare consumer choice and behavior. Now what? To grow and thrive in the experience economy while all else is in flames around the hospital or health system, it means moving from ...

No eye rolls, please. It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and the thought occurred what can I learn strategically for provider marketing from the teams preparing to play on the world’s biggest stage. But I guess once all the hoopla is said and done, it all comes down to playing the game that the participants have played for a great majority of their life.  It’s the same for provider marketers in an upside-down market where the healthcare consumer gains power each day. Trust us just doesn’t work anymore. As a marketing professional and mentor, one must learn how to handle success and failure. Endure leadership changes, people who don’t know what they are talking about but think they do, or the long-tenured leadership that looks at you and your recommendations with the “I have seen women and men like you to come and go, and I am still here,” attitude. In the end, if there are any really important lessons it’s all about the strategy, teamwork and adapting whether you like or not. The successful ...

The eye rolls commence from across the industry at the sight of the headline with everyone thinking; I have a marketing plan. We are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media channels. We even have the annual wellness calendar telling us when it’s time to be doing things.  And on and on. I don’t know about you, but I consider myself an insured healthcare consumer. So, what has this got to do with anything in the headline? A lot. Because of the insured healthcare consumer, it’s all random noise that is not connected. And it is random in part because there is no sustainable or continuous market presence. For example, the other day I received a direct mail newsletter from a hospital. Well, saying “I received” is probably misleading. Whomever the person that lives here named Resident is the one who received the mail. It was the first time I had heard from that provider in years. Random.  Out of the blue comes a direct mail piece. Which by the way, though nicely produ...

Don’t you forget about me Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t Don’t you forget about me Will you recognize me? Call my name or walk on by….. Simple Minds, Don’t You (Forget About Me) written by Keith Forsey, Steve W. Schiff, Copyright ©Universal Music Publishing Group And the hospital risks fading to black for many reasons, but a major contributor is due to the lack of a consumer-oriented value proposition, successful engagement strategy, and an unwillingness to be transparent in delivering meaningful value to healthcare insured consumers on the buyer's terms. Don’t you forget about me? Is this the future of hospitals? An individual only needs a hospital for three things- emergency care, care for acute complex medical conditions, and intensive care. Not for diagnostic x-rays. Not for rehabilitation. Not for most surgeries. Not for lab testing. Not for outpatient testing. All of this and more can be done in a far more consumer-friendly, convenient, accessible, affordable, and higher quality...

Agile Marketing is a corporate buzzword being thrown around a lot lately.  But unless you’re familiar with the Agile Software Development process which Agile Marketing is adapted from, is much more than what some may think means doing something fast and shifting tactical marketing on a dime. At its heart, Agile Marketing is a tactical marketing approach in which teams identify and focus their collective efforts on high-value projects, complete those projects cooperatively, measure the impact, and then continuously and incrementally improve the results over time. Hardly a short tactical strike as some may think. So what are the hallmarks of an Agile Marketing organization?  1.        Responding to change instead of following a plan.  2.        Rapid tactical iterations over big loud campaigns.  3.        Testing and data over opinions and conventions.  4.    ...