// By Jane Weber Brubaker // We interviewed Paul Griffiths, MedTouch CEO and Founding Partner, to get the 50,000-foot view of CMS re-platforming projects, what it takes to succeed, and what healthcare organizations hope to achieve. MedTouch is a Platinum Sitecore Implementation Partner and works exclusively with healthcare organizations. Sitecore is a Web content management Read More
Either due to industry consolidation, or because your digital know-how is very much in demand, you may find yourself in a new healthcare organization more than once in your career. Andy Gradel became System Director of Digital Marketing for Main Line Health in Philadelphia about a year ago. We asked him how he approached his Read More
// By Andy Gradel // My father spent practically his entire career working for the same company. With the change of our workforce from a production-driven economy to a service and information-driven model, staying with the same company more than a decade has become more and more rare. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Read More
One way to accelerate consumer-facing digital technologies in established health care organizations is to carve out a dedicated team focused on innovation. “When Massachusetts General Hospital formed the Healthcare Transformation Lab, a startup group within the 200-year-old institution, the organization made technology in healthcare delivery a priority,” says Shawn Gross, Chief Digital Strategist and Health Read More
Mass General’s Healthcare Innovation Lab and White Rhino’s Addictive Health Lab explore consumer-centric apps and technologies with the goal of delivering a higher level of personalized service, satisfaction and a better overall patient experience. // By Shawn Gross // “As patients behave more like consumers, healthcare organizations need to deliver a higher level of personalized Read More
Like many hospital websites, the Genesis Health site saw a significant increase in traffic from mobile devices last year and the digital team knew it was time to move to a responsive design. The new mobile-friendly website went live earlier this year. “You can view it on a smart phone, tablet and PC and it Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Google dropped a bomb on website owners in February, announcing that mobile-friendly websites would get favorable treatment in search results starting on April 21. “Users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices,” said Google. Good news for users, but Read More
More and more people are using mobile devices to access and consume digital content. In response to this growing trend, Google is now giving preferential treatment to mobile-friendly websites in search results from mobile devices. So if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, how big a problem is it? Has organic search fallen off a cliff? To Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // On April 21, Google’s new algorithm was released. Mobile-friendly websites will now be preferred for mobile searches. Was this the beginning of Mobilegeddon? Are non-mobile-friendly sites getting punished? We asked Chris Boyer, Senior Vice President, Digital at ReviveHealth (former AVP, Digital Strategy at North Shore LIJ) to weigh in Read More
Getting lost is no fun. Getting lost when you’re already under a lot of stress is even worse. “Usually people are here because of a life-changing event and more often than not it is not a positive life-changing event, so it is a very stressful situation,” says Peter Haigney, Director of Public Relations at Robert Read More
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and the National Institutes of Health adopt Connexient’s wayfinding solution for patient and employee apps. // By Jane Weber Brubaker // “Would you tell me which way I ought to go from here?” asked Alice of the Cheshire Cat. “That depends a good deal on where you want to get Read More
The results of an Economist Intelligence Unit survey, commissioned by Marketo, indicate that 99% of marketers plan to invest in marketing technologies in the next year. Here are other key findings: Impact on Revenue Of the B2C marketers surveyed, more than half (55%) feel that their marketing departments are regarded as little more than a Read More
Have you ever read Google’s 10 philosophies or, in the company’s words, “Ten things we know to be true”? Today’s ezine is devoted to number 1, “Focus on the user and all else will follow,” and number 5, “You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.” These two explain the latest Read More
Ask the Expert, with Mark Shipley The use of mobile devices to surf the Web has been steadily increasing, and Google recently made an algorithm change that proves mobile devices are here to stay. As of April 21, Google has begun favoring websites in mobile searches that are mobile-device friendly. And on May 5 Google Read More
Columbia Memorial Health (CMH) in Hudson, New York is about two and a half hours from New York City and Boston, and a 45-minute drive from Albany. How does a small community hospital in upstate New York compete, when patients have easy access to their pick of world-class hospitals like Mt. Sinai and Mass General, Read More
#HCMKTG SHORT TAKES In Part One of our two-part series, Kathy Divis, President of Greystone.Net shared her perspectives on the forces shaping healthcare marketing. Here in Part Two, Kathy shares “The 5 Digital Trends Marketers Can No Longer Ignore” from her presentation at the Healthcare Marketing and Physician Strategies Summit in Las Vegas in April Read More
By Mark S. Gothberg The demands of healthcare reform and an increasingly competitive environment have led to accelerated digital innovation. During last year’s eHealthcare Leadership Awards program, I clearly observed that organizations have made major improvements in their websites and expanded social media. They are also using mobile applications to engage current and prospective customers Read More
Getting patients engaged in their health is a priority of healthcare transformation, and the patient portal is a big part of the strategy. But the portal experience can leave you cold. Shawn Gross, Chief Digital Strategist at White Rhino shares, “I appreciate the communications I receive from my provider’s patient portal, but the interface experience Read More
Ask the Expert with Shawn Gross PwC’s healthcare group recently commented, “As patients behave more like consumers, healthcare organizations need to deliver a higher level of personalized service, satisfaction and overall experience—or risk losing business to the competition.” If you’re a healthcare marketer driven to deliver the best possible patient experience, wouldn’t you love to Read More
If your service area covers three states, and your health system’s name only includes one state, it’s time for a change. That’s what Iowa Health System concluded in 2013 when it changed its name to UnityPoint Health. The change was more than just a solution to a geographic misnomer. It represented an overhaul of the Read More
If you Google “deadly cancers” you’ll probably find a link to the Top Five Most Dangerous Cancers in Men and Women on page one of the search results page. The article and infographic was posted by Iowa-based UnityPoint Health, the fourth largest nondenominational health system in the U.S. UnityPoint has been busy optimizing its website Read More
When the program manager for the Executive Health program at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) came to Andrew Quinn, Interactive Marketing Director, and asked him to put the program’s printable exercise guide up on the website, Quinn suggested a different approach, a mobile solution. “Everyone has smart phones these days, especially this particular Read More
By Lisa D. Ellis How can one health system communicate most effectively with thousands of employees who work in different locations and on different schedules? This was the challenge recently facing Scripps Health, an integrated nonprofit health network in the San Diego area that has more than 14,000 employees working at five hospitals, 28 clinics, Read More
By Sheryl S. Jackson Online appointment request forms are not a new idea. In fact, physician offices and hospitals have incorporated them into their website design as one way to increase convenience to patients. At Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH), however, a strategic approach to information or appointment request forms has proven to be an effective marketing Read More
by Lindsey Sharp A hospital website, in and of itself, generally won’t bring patients in the door and create long-standing doctor-patient relationships. However, when you combine a strong content marketing strategy with strategically placed calls-to-action (CTAs), you not only educate and engage visitors but also connect them with the people and services at your facility Read More