// By Melanie Graham // In early 2018, the team at Hardtner Medical Center was searching for an innovative way to engage patients and increase usage of its patient portal. It had tried emails, advertisements, flyers — even billboards. But one tactic it hadn’t tried yet was a mobile app. “We needed to figure out Read More
“[W]e must acknowledge the unmatched role of hospitals and health systems as caretakers of our communities,” says Keir Bradshaw, executive vice president of MERGE. “Digital accessibility goes beyond mere compliance measures. It’s a way to extend care to the community just as compassionately online as we do on-site.” Read on for an excerpt of Bradshaw’s Read More
“Healthcare organizations are finding out that winning in today’s highly competitive and increasingly digital market requires a new approach — one that aligns marketing and brand management with patient experience (PX),” says Patric Wiesmann of Reputation.com. “And that alignment is happening more often on Google and not your healthcare organization’s website.” Here’s an excerpt from Read More
Over the past 25 years, healthcare marketers have experienced several waves of digital disruption, from the adoption of the web to SEO, social media, and mobile devices. The latest wave? Voice. But voice assistants are not just a trendy marketing tool — they can provide many benefits for patients, health systems, and clinicians: Patients are Read More
// By Jared Johnson // It’s time to make more room for innovation in our marketing and strategy, according to participants at SHSMD Connections 2019. SHSMD Connections, the annual conference of the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development, was held September 8-11 in Nashville, Tennessee. The conference included inspirational keynotes, 140+ solution providers, informative Read More
Ask the Expert, with Steve Koch, Managing Director, Cast & Hue // By Jared Johnson // Marketers need to focus on the holistic experience of the consumers and patients they serve. It’s not just acquisition but creating long-term relationships with people as they go through the continuum of care. I spoke with Steve Koch, managing Read More
// By Keir Bradshaw // Statistics paint a realistic picture of why healthcare organizations need to make their websites and other digital assets accessible to those with disabilities. For starters, there’s the fact that disability affects just over one in every four people1 living in U.S. communities. From a pure business perspective, hospitals and health systems simply can’t afford to shut the digital front door on 26 percent of their potential patient populations. Then Read More
// By Patric Wiesmann // Healthcare organizations are finding out that winning in today’s highly competitive and increasingly digital market requires a new approach — one that aligns marketing and brand management with patient experience (PX). And that alignment is happening more often on Google and not your healthcare organization’s website. That’s because in this Read More
Electronic health records (EHR) have changed the way the healthcare industry works. In the 10 years since then-president Barack Obama signed a law to accelerate digitization of health records, hospital EHR adoption has increased from 9 percent to 96 percent, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). Despite high Read More
// By Melanie Graham // Over the past 25 years, healthcare marketers have experienced several waves of digital disruption, from the adoption of the web to SEO, social media, and mobile devices. The latest wave? Voice. But voice assistants are not just a trendy marketing tool — they can provide many benefits for patients, health Read More
// By Althea Fung // Electronic health records (EHR) have changed the way the healthcare industry works. In the 10 years since then-president Barack Obama signed a law to accelerate digitization of health records, hospital EHR adoption has increased from 9 percent to 96 percent, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Read More
“Technology is ubiquitous. And it seems to me that in many cases, personal interactions have suffered with its growth. As I ponder the effects of a digitized world, I wonder about its consequences for healthcare consumers,” says Christy Pretzinger of WriterGirl, a nationally recognized healthcare content consultancy. Here’s an excerpt from Pretzinger’s new article: When we Read More
// By Christy Pretzinger // When I began freelancing in the early ’90s, a fax machine was the only so-called “digital” equipment I had. When I had conference calls, I put my dog in the other room so my clients wouldn’t know I was working from home. Obviously, times have changed. Technology is ubiquitous. And Read More
// By Jared Johnson // As healthcare’s digital transformation continues, many providers and patients are beginning to dig into what 5G can bring. Industry leaders seem to be in general agreement that 5G will bring new opportunities to deliver on some of digital health’s revolutionary promises, but that we are still years away from devices Read More
A Look Back on a Hall-of-Fame Career // By Jared Johnson // Neal Linkon, retiring director of marketing operations at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, recently took a few moments to reflect for us on his career. As we honor his contributions to the healthcare marketing field, Neal shares what he has learned and where he Read More
If you think it’s expensive and time-consuming to protect your healthcare organization’s data, you’re right. But just look at the cost of not having a solid security program and experiencing a healthcare breach. You needn’t look far. A breach can be financially devastating. It will ruin your reputation. It will call into question your organization’s Read More
// By Cheryl L. Serra // If you think it’s expensive and time-consuming to protect your healthcare organization’s data, you’re right. But just look at the cost of not having a solid security program and experiencing a healthcare breach. You needn’t look far. A breach can be financially devastating. It will ruin your reputation. It Read More
Consumers want faster access to healthcare, providers want to improve the patient relationship, and reimbursement rates for telemedicine are getting better. Combine these factors and it becomes clear — telemedicine is going mainstream. Telemedicine claims have increased 624 percent from 2014 to 2018, according to FAIR Health, a nonprofit healthcare data collection company. Most of Read More
// By Marcia Simon, APR // Consumers want faster access to healthcare, providers want to improve the patient relationship, and reimbursement rates for telemedicine are getting better. Combine these factors and it becomes clear — telemedicine is going mainstream. Telemedicine claims have increased 624 percent from 2014 to 2018, according to FAIR Health, a nonprofit Read More
In a TED Talk earlier this year, Jeanne Pinder, founder and CEO of ClearHealthCosts.com, describes a situation that is all too familiar. Three members of her family had minor surgery, comparable in scope, each requiring about half an hour. The bills, just looking at anesthesia, ranged from $2,000 to $6,000. “It got me thinking,” she Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // In a TED Talk earlier this year, Jeanne Pinder, founder and CEO of ClearHealthCosts.com, describes a situation that is all too familiar. Three members of her family had minor surgery, comparable in scope, each requiring about a half an hour. The bills, just looking at anesthesia, ranged from $2,000 Read More
“Soon, if your household doesn’t have a voice assistant, you’ll be in the minority,” says Ahava Leibtag, president and owner of Aha Media Group. “NPR reports that 14 million people in the U.S. got their first smart speaker device in 2018.” Leibtag says healthcare websites need voice-optimized health content now more than ever. Here’s an Read More
// By Daniel Fell // Should consumers choose doctors and hospitals based on how many stars they have? If not, then what information should consumers and patients use in determining where to go for healthcare services? Rating healthcare providers by the number of stars they have may be overly simplistic, but the majority of consumers Read More
Sneak Peek at 23rd Annual Greystone.Net Healthcare Internet Conference // By Jane Weber Brubaker // HCIC is a little like the gathering of the clans. “I’ve had people tell me that they feel like this is their tribe,” says Kathy Divis, president and co-founder of Greystone.Net, producers of HCIC, the annual Healthcare Internet Conference. “They Read More
Anyone who has worked in healthcare communications and digital marketing understands that a website relaunch project can be a daunting task. But one that involves merging 24 existing websites across two separate health systems sounds downright intimidating. In early 2017, that’s exactly what the RWJBarnabas Health web team was facing. They were on the hook Read More