instantly health

COVID-19 vaccine image by Torstensimon from Pixabay Having made it through three waves of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, hospitals in many parts of the country are now facing a rapidly growing fourth wave of COVID-19 patients, the unvaccinated. While there is always discussion about the hospital’s role in a public health crisis, in leading the mitigation efforts, or follow the advice of public health officials at the Federal, State, and local, the size as a percentage of the population of the anti-vaxxers have added new complexity to the pandemic. There are many reasons, with the most often repeated by anti-vaxxers is distrust of the government, fueled by the disinformation 12, anti-vaxxers, and conspiracy theorists.   If the hospital sits back as a background player, then the risk of the hospital being overrun with COVID cases is very real and impacts inpatient admissions for non-COVID illnesses, surgery, ambulatory services, again threatening survival. But the hospital with the pri...

Woman physician image by Daniel Damn outsideclick from Pixabay Let’s face it, the current efforts by local, state, and federal governments are falling way short of the target number of vaccinations needed to reach community herd immunity. While availability and access of the COVID-19 vaccines are widely available, convenient, and free,  the efforts by anti-vaxxers, science deniers, conspiracy theorists and disinformation 12 continue to gain followers and support. While many efforts are underway to reverse the trend, from state lotteries, free giveaways, public relations, etc., it’s just not working. Now comes the finger-pointing and blame game focusing on the social media tech giants as the source of the problem by allowing COVID-19 misinformation to be shared. What hospitals and health systems are now facing as the COVID Delta variant spreads like wildfire, as society opens up, is the fourth wave of the pandemic, that of the unvaccinated. It’s time to stop blaming third parties...

Image by ganderboy from Pixabay Marketing to physicians is hard. It is tough to reach physicians trying your mightiest to get that elusive appointment for face-to-face selling. Then came the pandemic, and it became nearly impossible. One segment of the vendor healthcare market hit particularly hard was revenue cycle management (RCM) vendors. These companies battle among the thousands of local mom-and-pop billing and coding shops and the national behemoths. Competition in the healthcare vendor segment is primarily price-driven and can be considered in many ways that billing and coding are commodities. So how can an RCM break through this loggerhead? You need to get the physician's attention in the right marketing channel, with the right message, the first time. Image by Sammie Mendes from Pixabay Getting the attention of physicians and practice leaders can seem like a nearly impossible task for business development executives. At the same time, cold calling sometimes works and re...

  Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay It seems like the year just started. Now you're at the mid-point of executing the hospital marketing plan, so it's time to look at how it has gone. I know you do the monthly reporting, but this isn't about individual months' performance but a more analytic and subjective holistic evaluation of how well the plan performed to expectations, what unexpected changes you had to make, where the next six months are headed. It's a tall order but a necessary evil. We all like to think about our prowess as marketing planners and the ability to execute. However, we can all be lulled into the "it's the plan, so we have to do it mentality" or are on autopilot with social media tweets and other posts driven by prescheduling with marketing automation. Besides, we are coming out of the pandemic with vaccination challenges and the Delta variant of COVID-19. The last 19 months saw a transformation of how care was delivered, from pat...

  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 Gerd Altmann ffrom Pixabay I could have written a rant about how healthcare vendor sales executives are using LinkedIn to prospect. It doesn't matter if it's revenue cycle management, medical device, pharma, information technology, analytics, or any other vendor segment. But I didn't as that would have been too easy.  Unfortunately, there are some common characteristics in prospecting using LinkedIn, causing wasted time, effort, and rejection. But in thinking it over, I decided to provide some helpful tips for using LinkedIn for becoming more sales productive .   And maybe in the process, stop getting useless, poorly targeted, as well as disjointed sales emails and calls. Oh, and this goes for their employing companies too. Now that being said, I get that currency for being on LinkedIn is relationships, connections, networking, and the ability to prospect. I am good with that.   What I am not okay with is the seemingly increased amount of inappropriate ...

  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...