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Is Your Website Optimized for Voice Search? Image Steve Bussinne from Pixabay How does this grab you? Thirty-eight percent of all internet searches are now by voice using a digital assistant like Siri, Alexa, Echo, and others on a smartphone or home voice internet-connected device. Additionally, most voice-activated searches are using the term "near me" sometimes combined with the term "near me today."  Putting it another way, with the pandemic, the potential patient may very well be voice searching for a physician, or hospital or COVID-19 information via voice search. Have you optimized your website for voice search so that you're included in the Siri or Alexa results? I ask the question about finding healthcare resources during a pandemic because it now moves beyond just getting directions using voice search to travel to the healthcare providers. Voice search is mostly a local phenomenon, and the hospitals in non-surge SARs-CoV-2 areas need to find creative ...

The purpose of the headline is to have hospitals think through more fully how they are engaging patients to return to the hospital. The driver was that I have been on several webinars recently and when the question of re-engagement was posed the standard answer was: Emails. Marketing. Phone calls. Okay, it is a start, but not enough. I was hopeful that due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, hospitals would have taken a more significant step forward in understanding the role of marketing and the patient engagement process. Now in fairness, there may be a more detailed strategy and tactical execution plan with measurable outcomes, but the presenters were unaware. It would appear that there continues to be a significant misunderstanding of the role of marketing and the use of the resource. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Let us take a step back because the patient is never going back to the old ways and responses. If marketing is not at the forefront of the hospital leading the re-engageme...

A significant change has taken place in hospitals and health systems as an unintended consequence of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.   Hospitals and health systems were forced on an unprecedented scale to rapidly engage with government, first responders, employees, patients, and the community. The engagement also required a new level of cooperation, communication, and information sharing between competing hospitals and health systems in any given location. Image by ar130405 form Piaxabay A new level of organizational transparency was required, as the communication flows and the information needed to be transmitted significantly varied depending on the audience and communication channel being used. In doing so, hospitals and health systems learned that meaningful engagement and transparency made a difference with patients and the community.   A hard-won first lesson as most engagement activities until the pandemic, we minimalistic and more along with the ones of marketing messages o...

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the high rate of infection in the U.S. has driven individuals who would typically seek care from doing so. Even with the economy gradually reporting, hospitals and physicians never stopped seeing patients' during the pandemic. But patients it seems stayed away in droves from seeking care for conditions that they usually would have and continue to do so. Image by Altero Felines from Pixabay There is any number of reasons from regular visits being replaced to an extent by telemedicine to better self-management. Still, people are probably staying way out of fear of contracting COVID-19 in the provider setting. Remember that the patent experience changed and remains changed to a great extent because of COVID-19 precautions to prevent community spread. With a long memory, patients won't all of a sudden believe because you told them so to come back just like before. While there is an understanding that COVID-19 is not a normal situation, the impacts are ...

Image from Pixabay As a quick disclaimer, this post of not for health systems. There was a time when marketing was considered important enough in many hospitals to be a Vice President position reporting the CEO. With a seat at the leadership table, marketing provided valuable input and was integrated into the operational, financial, and strategic plans of the hospital. Then, in a blink of an eye, all the consulting firms working in hospitals to streamline organizations and reporting relationships in the interest of Lean Management began recommending moving hospital marketing leadership to director status. Reporting relationships changed with marketing now under the COO, CFO, or even the VP of Human Resources. Where are we now? Image courtesy of WHO Considering the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, digital innovations and patient expectations, telemedicine, social media, patient and community engagement, a highly complicated and frustrating patient hospital experience, and the impact of innovat...

The New Normal is a 10-part series podcast that explores the future of hospitals and health systems because of COVID-19 by Touchpoint Media .  With host Chris Boyer , we discussed the financial stability of the healthcare industry and the challenges we face pivoting to a post COVID19 world. Just click on the link below. Financial Stability of the Healthcare Industry Michael is a healthcare business, marketing, communications strategist, and thought leader. As an internationally followed healthcare strategy blogger, his blog, Healthcare Marketing Matters, is read in 52 countries and is listed on the  100 Top Healthcare Marketing Blogs & Websites  ranked at No. 3 on the list by Feedspot.com. Michael is a Life Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives. An expert in healthcare marketing strategy, digital marketing, and social media, Michael is in the top 10 percent of social media experts nationwide and is considered an established influencer. For ...

Stumped?   Me too because the term "new normal" is an oxymoron. It is what is typical today.   First off, there is no "new normal." Even though the government, media, and brands have pegged what is occurring in society today as the "new normal," it is not. What we have today as a result of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is action being mandated by federal, state, and local governments, such as self-isolation, wearing masks, and social distancing to stem the community spread of a highly dangerous and deadly virus. The media and government named it the "new normal." As an aside, the "new normal" is textbook social conditioning. So how does this apply to hospital marketing? The engagement game for hospitals has changed with the pandemic. SARS-CoV2 has gotten the patient's and community's attention and forced the hospitals and health systems to drop the feel-good messaging of bygone days. Patients and communities now expect continuous and ...