Hospital Websites

The Intersection of AI and Healthcare

chat bot with billing agent for piedmont healthcare from Loyal healthcare

The media, including social media, are buzzing about AI, or artificial intelligence. As of this writing in late November, the top trending article on Facebook is “Facebook Is Using Artificial Intelligence to Spot Suicidal Tendencies in Its Users.” On LinkedIn, it is “Where Will AI Increase and Decrease Costs in Healthcare?” Is AI just the Read More

How to Optimize Your Hospital Website’s Find-a-Doctor Tool — and Put Users First

Noel Coleman, president of Doctor.com Enterprise

The strategic core of most hospital or health system websites is a strong and user-friendly physician directory, or “Find a Doctor” tool. Optimizing your strategy and your tool’s functionality is a digital healthcare marketing imperative. In last month’s article, Noel Coleman mapped five strategic goals for your “Find a Doctor” tool. In our new article, he offers Read More

Are You Maximizing Your “Find a Doctor” Strategy? (Part 2)

Noel Coleman, president of Doctor.com Enterprise

8 Steps to Strengthen Your Physician Directory Tools and Build Your Patient Base // By Noel Coleman // No hospital or health system website today is complete without including a strong and user-friendly physician directory, or “Find a Doctor” tool. This means that if your organization has not yet ventured fully into this area, there’s Read More

Common SEO Myths That Can Hurt Healthcare Websites

Kyle Mills, manager of online marketing at Practis

“In the big picture of digital marketing, SEO is truly the most misunderstood portion,” says Kyle Mills, manager of online marketing at Practis, a North Carolina-based healthcare digital marketing agency. One of the biggest myths around SEO is that websites can be optimized once and have long-term success. The fact is that SEO is not Read More

Debunking Myths About Healthcare and Pharma SEO

Kyle Mills, manager of online marketing at Practis

Why Healthcare Marketers Should Think Beyond Title Tags and URLs // By Melanie Graham // For some healthcare marketers, search engine optimization (SEO) is a big, scary unknown. There seems to be a lot of mystery around how it works, what changes are being made, and what you should do to get your web content Read More

Is Your Physician Directory Achieving These 5 Strategic Goals?

Noel Coleman

“How do your customers identify providers in your network? Your answer could be very important to your organization’s success,” posits Noel Coleman, president of Doctor.com Enterprise (formerly Connect Healthcare). Here’s why: “Today, Find-a-Doctor tools (such as a physician directory on your website that is optimized to meet your patients’ needs and search habits) are an important part Read More

Are You Maximizing Your “Find a Doctor” Strategy?

Noel Coleman

Part 1: Make Sure You Achieve These 5 Strategic Goals // By Noel Coleman // How do your customers identify providers in your network? Your answer could be very important to your organization’s success. Here’s why: Today, Find-a-Doctor tools (such as a physician directory on your website that is optimized to meet your patients’ needs Read More

2017 eHealthcare Leadership Award Winners Announced

eHealthcare Leadership Awards

Winners of the 2017 eHealthcare Leadership Awards were announced today at a special keynote presentation at the Healthcare Internet Conference in Austin, Texas. Over 200 organizations, representing a broad industry spectrum, received recognition for their outstanding websites and digital communications. A total of 116 individuals familiar with healthcare and the internet judged the entries. See Read More

Keys To Creating an Effective Chatbot for Your Health System

C Source Chatbot Image

For Jonno Boyer-Dry, creating a chatbot for cancer patients wasn’t a project based on financial goals or institutional efficiency. It was something that emerged out of personal experience. “Part of what is maddening about being a cancer patient is that resources and information are incredibly disaggregated,” says Boyer-Dry, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma three Read More

What Chatbots Need to Succeed in Healthcare

Melanie Graham

From small operations to large-scale providers, human-first is the key to a successful chatbot platform // By Melanie Graham // For Jonno Boyer-Dry, creating a chatbot for cancer patients wasn’t a project based on financial goals or institutional efficiency. It was something that emerged out of personal experience. “Part of what is maddening about being Read More

Keep Your Community Benefit Reports Relevant

CentraCare Health Community Benefit Report Home Page Screen Capture

Community benefit reports have been an important component of hospital communication strategies for many years. For nonprofit healthcare systems, this reporting mechanism is required to demonstrate the positive impact they have had on community health to retain tax exemptions and other benefits. But as consumers’ information consumption habits have changed, the format and role of Read More

Digital-First Approach with Emphasis on Video Strengthens Community Benefit Reports and Annual Reports

Anthony Gardner, vice president of marketing & communications at CentraCare Health

// By Lisa D. Ellis // Community benefit reports have been an important component of hospital communication strategies for many years. For nonprofit healthcare systems, this reporting mechanism is required to demonstrate the positive impact they have had on community health to retain tax exemptions and other benefits. But as consumers’ information consumption habits have Read More

The Front Door Is NOT Your Hospital’s Website: Why Reputation Management Matters

// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Hospitals and health systems think of their websites as the digital “front door” to their organizations, but before consumers get there, search engine results could steer them away to competitors with higher star ratings and more positive reviews. Reputation is everything. The sheer number of places consumers post information Read More

What Are the Top 3 Challenges Healthcare Chief Marketing Officers Face?

Kathy Divis, president and co-founder of Greystone.Net

Ask the Expert, with Kathy Divis // By Jane Weber Brubaker // What keeps chief marketing officers up at night? We asked Kathy Divis, president and co-founder of Greystone.Net, to weigh in on the top concerns of marketing executives in healthcare organizations. While acknowledging that there are many and diverse challenges in today’s complex environment, Read More

Customer Experience the Piedmont Way

Matt Gove, chief consumer officer at Piedmont Healthcare

// 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

Technology That Engages Patients Emotionally

Shawn Gross, White Rhino

“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,” notes Shawn Gross, Chief Digital Strategist at White Rhino. “With an estimated 11 million devices Read More

Alexa, Find Me a Doctor

Shawn Gross, White Rhino

// 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

Podcasts: A “New” Way for Physicians to Earn CMEs

UAB Med Cast logo

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 public, and even clinical staff, according Read More

Putting Podcasts to Work for Continuing Medical Education Credits

// 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

Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic: Two Award-Winning Websites

Jane Weber Brubaker, Editor of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends

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 were the only two to garner Read More

eHealthcare Leadership Awards: A Closeup Look at Two Platinum Winners

Jane Weber Brubaker, Editor of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends

// 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

Are You Meeting Healthcare Consumer Expectations?

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

Online Reputation Management: A Systematic Approach Pays Off

MultiCare Logo

“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,” says Becky Barney-Villano, healthcare writer and marketing specialist. “The rise of insurance exchanges where consumers pick their plans has resulted in more Read More