// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Your brand is the sum of the experiences a customer has with you, says Matt Gove, chief consumer officer at Piedmont Healthcare in Georgia. This definition goes beyond the conventional scope of patient experience, or as Gove consistently refers to it: customer experience. Patient experience historically has been a Read More
// By Shawn Gross // The robotic yet charming voice of Alexa can help you find a good movie, make a payment on your credit card, get airline fares for a trip to Dublin, or see how many calories are in the banana you’re eating. With an estimated 11 million devices sold, the Amazon Echo Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Imagine that you’re lounging on the beach of a tropical island, listening to the waves lapping at the shore, feeling the breeze wafting over your skin, and hearing the seagulls squawk. With the latest virtual-reality tools that exist today, you—and your patients—can have this type of relaxing experience even Read More
eHealthcare Pulse // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Printing patient education pamphlets, brochures, and information kits isn’t cheap. It’s one thing if patients actually use them. But do they? Two hospitals thought mobile apps might be a better solution. Luke Poppish is executive director of the OB/GYN service line at South Shore Hospital near Boston, Read More
// By Samantha Drake // The internal communications team at Excela Health, a community health system outside of Pittsburgh, had numerous ways to connect with employees, from the HR newsletter to a variety of social media platforms. Yet employees continuously complained they didn’t know what was going on. “People would text ‘Nobody ever tells us Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Imagine if all of your older and chronically ill patients had personal assistants to help them monitor their vital signs, answer pressing health questions, and remind them to take their medicines. While this scenario may sound ideal, it’s also quite an unrealistic goal to expect to accomplish for an Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Lean business practices have been around ever since Toyota devised the “Toyota Production System” to transform its manufacturing processes. The idea was further refined in the book Lean Thinking, and distilled down to five core ideas¹: Value—specify the value desired by the customer Value Stream—identify the value stream for Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Advances in technology in recent years have made it possible for health systems to streamline their efforts on many levels, from evaluating and monitoring patients remotely to sharing medical information among multiple sites in real time. Some medical centers are also creating audio podcasts to educate patients, the general Read More
eHealthcare Pulse // By Susan Solomon // Programmatic advertising. Demand-side platforms. Private marketplace auctions.* It seems that there’s a “new next thing” in marketing every day. How does a savvy healthcare marketer keep up with it all? While it may appear that staying informed could be a full-time job, here are a few shortcuts and Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // The old adage “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” is aspirational for innovators. Thomas Edison’s approach to innovation boiled down to two ideas: rapid iteration and a focus on customer needs. He defended his process against detractors who asked how it felt to fail 10,000 times Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic are ranked #1 and #2 in the country respectively by U.S. News & World Report. But that doesn’t automatically mean that their websites will live up to their stellar clinical reputations. But they did, according to the 2016 eHealthcare Leadership Awards judges. These institutions Read More
Insights from New Study of Healthcare Consumers’ Digital Experience // By Becky Barney-Villano // Retail has done it for years. Restaurants have, too. Even the banking industry is now meeting consumer expectations for on-demand services with such capabilities as mobile deposits, and complicated mortgages are being closed with a few clicks from a smartphone. Healthcare Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // At Mount Sinai’s Institute for Next Generation Healthcare in New York City, artificial intelligence or AI (also referred to as machine learning) is helping researchers to gain new insight into genetic predispositions for cancer and other diseases. Close to 2,000 miles across the country, Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake Read More
// By Becky Barney-Villano // Reputation management has never been more important for healthcare providers and organizations that are actively seeking new patients. Why? The increase in high-deductible health plans has created a new breed of healthcare shopper. The rise of insurance exchanges where consumers pick their plans has resulted in more robust and careful Read More
// By Dagmara Scalise // As the virtual front door to your organization, your website is perhaps the most important marketing platform outside of your onsite patient experience and actual physical environment. And yet, if you’re like most, there’s a good chance it’s outdated, unwieldly, or worst of all, underperforming on your marketing goals. (Assuming, Read More
// By Kyra Hagan // Outside of healthcare, customer experience drives business. Retailers and hospitality providers have realized explosive revenue growth and brand loyalty by deploying best practices in customer engagement. What are those best practices? World-class customer experience requires tightly integrating cross-channel data to bridge digital and in-person encounters. Unfortunately, the healthcare industry has Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Managing change is hard, even for innovative organizations like Boston Children’s Hospital. “That’s something I hear in all the businesses I’ve worked with, from GE to Cigna to here,” says William Gagnon, senior director of global digital strategy and customer engagement at Boston Children’s. Change is risky, and healthcare Read More
This leading awards program, which drew over 900 entries last year, recognizes the very best websites and digital communications efforts of healthcare organizations, online health companies, pharmaceutical/medical equipment firms, suppliers, and business improvement initiatives. Now in its 18th year, the awards program is presented by Plain-English Health Care, publisher of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends and Read More
// By Amber Welch // Need to book a hotel? Customer ratings and reviews are just a click away. Shopping for a car? You can easily compare features and overall quality on Consumer Reports. Looking for a new yoga class? Read the reviews. But what about choosing a hospital, perhaps the most important purchase in Read More
I’m pleased to announce that Plain-English Media, the parent company of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends, has acquired the eHealthcare Leadership Awards from Health Care Communications of Rye, NY. The annual competition gives healthcare organizations of all sizes the opportunity to shine the spotlight on their digital success stories. The acquisition reunites the eHealthcare Leadership Awards Read More
Ask the Expert, with Nick Ragone // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Nick Ragone is senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer at Ascension, the largest nonprofit health system in the U.S., with 2,500 sites of care in 24 states and the District of Columbia. He leads the “One Ascension” effort from the Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // About one-fourth of the U.S. population listens to Pandora. That’s 82 million active listeners every month. Pandora’s free, ad-supported personalized music streaming service generated more than $1 billion in advertising revenue in 2016. Healthcare advertisers like OhioHealth, featured in a recent eHST article, are getting impressive results on Pandora. Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // The nature of our health system in the U.S. is that it is massively complicated, with many variables that impact price. It’s extremely challenging for health systems to give an answer to a patient who asks a seemingly simple question: How much will this cost me? First a provider Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Lack of access to reliable non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) is more than an annoyance for patients who need care. It can prevent them from getting proper treatment and result in poor outcomes. The current system is rife with inefficiencies that negatively impact providers and patients. “If you have an Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Millennials are officially the largest generation, edging out baby boomers in 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By 2018, millennials will have more spending power than any other generation, and marketers are lining up to find ways to connect with them. So what do hospitals have to offer Read More