by Brian O’Neill Healthcare providers and payers have intrinsically known for years the importance of effective communication to high-quality care. But, truth be told, the system hasn’t always worked as well as it should. Primary care physicians have their challenges in communicating with specialists (including hospitalists). Physicians and nurses don’t always talk to each other Read More
by Lin Grensing-Pophal While there are still those who believe Pinterest is just a site to save pretty pictures, some users are getting creative in practical ways and finding that Pinterest is more than just a “pretty page.” Medical practices are on the list. They’re using Pinterest for everything from patient and provider education to Read More
by Lisa D. Ellis In today’s fastpaced healthcare environment, two innovative hospitals are finding new and exciting ways to leverage web-based technologies—both to strengthen their own internal strategies and also as vehicles to share research, training, and lessons learned within the broader medical community. Nicholson Center’s commitment to education The Florida Hospital Nicholson Center in Read More
by Peter Hochstein A surgical team in blue scrubs stands silently in a circle under the intense lights of an operating room. They reach out to hold hands. Then one of them speaks: “Lord, we invite you to be the center of everything we do this morning. We ask you to be our hands and Read More
by Jane Weber Brubaker When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in March 2010, it simultaneously ignited a firestorm of disruptions to established but unsustainable care delivery and reimbursement models and opened abundant opportunities for healthcare innovators. A new generation of digital health entrepreneurs has emerged to meet the challenges of healthcare Read More
by Tomy Ames While all good online marketing specialists employ some type of analytics reporting, oftentimes these one- or two-page automated reports contain only the typical key performance indicators (KPIs) for the entire site or section. KPIs such as visits/sessions, visitors, page views, pages/session, average session duration (time on site), and bounce rate can be 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
by Brian O’Neill With healthcare reform bringing millions of newly insured patients into a system that already sees shortages in primary care physicians and select specialties, the industry is being pressured to become ever smarter about how providers, insurers, and patients themselves communicate and interact. Fortunately, affordable electronic communication tools are available today that support Read More
by Jennifer Busick Here’s the problem: You need a way to get critical healthcare information about a patient to a healthcare professional—or a group of healthcare professionals. Maybe a nurse needs to know that vital test results are ready. Perhaps an emergency room physician needs a neurosurgery consult. Or, perhaps the need is as simple Read More
Ask the Expert with Ben Dillon Health systems are complicated organizations, in large part due to constant mergers, acquisitions, and expansions. The challenge for marketers is to simplify this inherent complexity on the Web and provide consumers with a clear message. It’s been a natural choice for many health systems to create an array of Read More
by Richard ‘RJ’ Kedziora How do you define project failure? Is it when the project costs more than the original budget? Is it when the delivery date is long past and the project is still incomplete? Or is failure defined by a completed project that does not fulfill the agreed-on requirements? Maybe it’s all three. Read More
by Kris Rusch The near-universal access to at least some forms of information and communications technology in the United States makes it possible for hospitals to reach new patients with telemedicine while helping to address long-standing disparities in access to care, particularly for residents in rural areas. Telemedicine, also called telehealth or E-therapy, refers to Read More
// By Dan Dunlop // It has been said that the patient is the most underutilized resource in health- care. With the rise of the “connected patient,” clinicians, administrators, and marketers have started to place greater emphasis on patient insights and desires. Hospitals and health systems, how- ever, have been slow to address the changing Read More
by Mike Maloney and Katrina VanTyne In 2012, Google published a landmark study about the hospital selection process, “The Digital Journey to Wellness.” According to the study, 75 percent of searches by prospective patients revolve around four specific areas: conditions, diseases, symptoms, and departments. Our web team at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, VT, Read More
St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center www.sjhsyr.org You could argue site visitors aren’t all that interested in home page banners that promote key services and special offers or events; they just want to find specific information. If that is the case, why not make the banners a direct reflection of the global links? This approach is Read More
by Sheryl S. Jackson Proactive Planning and Simulating a Situation Prepare Social Media Managers Healthcare organizations may not have moved as quickly to adopt social media as other industries, but of the 1,562 hospitals self-reporting social media use, 1,300 hospitals have Facebook pages, 1,005 have Twitter accounts, and 1,084 use Foursquare, according to the Social Read More
Ask the Expert with Meredith Rose Many times, marketers stay so busy enhancing specific pieces of Web real estate or completing campaign-specific tasks requested by leadership, physicians, or the many other voices within organizations. These tasks can fill the days. Yet marketers have a much more focused and strategic task – building revenue for the Read More
by Kris Rusch With four hospitals and 120 off-campus care settings located throughout South Carolina, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) relies heavily on integrated marketing, according to Jane E. Kelley, MUSC’s interactive marketing manager. Integrated marketing is defined in numerous ways, but the term generally refers to deploying a strategic blend of traditional Read More
by Sheryl S. Jackson Automating Process Reduces Need for Staff and Saves Advertising Dollars When the University of Utah Health Care added physician ratings to its website (as detailed in the May 2013 issue of eHST) to combat the less reliable results found on rating sites such as Yelp, Healthgrades, or RateMDs, Matt Gove was Read More
by Cheryl Haas If you’re a business person and considering an outside contract for any kind of service, it’s accepted procedure that you will obtain at least three bids to compare price and quality before deciding which contractor to use. Likewise, if you’re buying a car, purchasing an airline ticket, or looking at hotels, it’s Read More
by Theresa Jacobellis Jacobellis It’s a hospital media person’s dream: a major news stor with a healthcare angle breaks, and your hospital happens to employ the nation’s foremost expert on the subject. Unfortunately, unless you are located in New York, Atlanta, or another major market, your chances of landing an interview with a national news Read More
Willamette Valley Medical Center www.wvmcweb.com Not too far from Portland, OR, is the city of McMinnville, home of Willamette Valley Medical Center, an 88-bed facility. Maybe the personal, straightforward attitude communicated on the organization’s website wouldn’t work in a big city, but it certainly caught my attention. The positioning statement next to its logo says, Read More
Google Maps Street View Offers Imagery of the Past You can now see street views that go back to 2007, which include scenes at different seasons and at night. If you see an hourglass in the upper left corner of a street view, it means that past imagery is available. About 12 million miles of Read More
WEBSITES Help for People Affected by Accidental Bowel Leakage (ABL) is focus of a new site at www.ablinfo.org. Millions of men and women older than 40 are affected by ABL. Quiz to Gauge Understanding of Severe, Life-Threatening Allergic Reactions launched at www.Auvi-Q.com/WhatsYourAQ. The feature is sponsored by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America and Read More
by Thomas Ames “I have a mobile site.” It’s the quote heard around the world. But what does it mean to have a mobile site? Some organizations have an app, others have a dedicated mobile site that differs almost completely from their main consumer site, and still others simply make their site’s design responsive to Read More