instantly health

  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 Everybody talks about Artificial Intelligence (AI), but what does that mean for the healthcare provider and vendor marketing? AI is already with us as a part of our everyday lives; look at Alexi, Siri, Google Home, and Cortana. These devices already know what we want and assist us in navigating a complex world at home, at work, and in our play. They help us search for medical services and vendors who provide medical products and services. If you think about it, AI will have a profound effect on how hospitals anticipate the needs of and engage with patients and how vendors create a new prospect journey independent of sales. At some point, direct contact with an individual, be it a physician, clinician, or salesperson, will come into play, as human touch will always be needed. But for sales, prospecting for new customers will become less about cold calling and existing client referrals, to responding to well-developed leads uncovered by the buye...

  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 ...

  Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Email I can see your eyes glaze over.   Done correctly, the hospital has an underutilized, efficient, and effective tool at its disposal to engage and manage patient expectations. Email also offers a cost-effective way to implement an ongoing engagement strategy when combined with social media. Email can provide relevant medical information, health and wellness tips, and practices to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain continuous engagement. Email is one of the few mechanisms that hospitals can control. It's a marketing tool to build brand loyalty, enhance the experience, and engage. Better than outbound interruptive marketing, where your general messaging reaches the broadest possible audience hoping that someone will respond, email is direct messaging to the patient, and should be a part of your inbound marketing program. But it just not a mail merge program to put a name at the top . And it's not buying an email list.  ...

  Image by Tumisu from Pixabay  One of the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic are that patient experience, how it's managed and communicated, how expectations are set and experienced by patients are the new normal.     Hospitals have been required to communicate efficiently and effectively what the patient experience is in light of COVID-19 restrictions, revised procedures, and general interactions.  I have to say, the answer to the headline is yes and no. I have seen major health systems change their marketing to reflect the new normal in the patient's experience, mask-wearing, telemedicine, alternative site care, etc. From the website to messaging and communications, the "new normal," positive experience and expectations are being established.  I'd also have to say no, as many community-independent and unaffiliated hospitals are still heavily invested in the features approach to marketing and communicating to patients. Telling the "all about us" story ...

Over the last couple of weeks in the Lessons from the Field series, we looked at the ten deadly sins that midsized healthcare vendors make daily that stall growth. ( In case you missed parts one and two, here are the links "Lessons from the Field - 10 Deadly Sins Stopping Midsized Healthcare Vendor Growth Part 1" http://bit.ly/300vgUS and "Lessons from the Field - 10 Deadly Sins Stopping  Midsized Healthcare Vendor Growth- Part 2" http://bit.ly/2N3aP7a .) Image by Peter Linforth from Pixabay This week we're going to take a look at essential leadership characteristics needed to drive growth. There is no way around the fact that leadership and company growth are highly intertwined.   It makes not a bit of difference if you're a start-up, small or midsized healthcare vendor, or a large multinational company whose revenue counts in the billions of U.S. Dollars or Euros. Leadership determines whether you're growing or stalling growth. Leadership? I'm a...