by Jane Weber Brubaker The key challenges facing healthcare systems today revolve around the quality and efficiency of care delivery. How can technology optimize the time and talents of the care team in a rapidly evolving environment that focuses on care coordination? Will fee-for-service be replaced by value-based models? When? How can providers qualify for Read More
by Mark S. Gothberg “We have to keep in mind … that we must bring value to the organization. To do that, we have to identify our goals and keep track of our results. The use of social networks is no different from our other marketing tools – they must deliver a concrete, measurable contribution,” Read More
Grady Health System www.gradyhealth.org If you have seen the movie “Nebraska,” you know about the power of black-and-white visuals. A similar and effective approach is taken with this site for an Atlanta-based system. The home page banner rotates photos of five individuals and a family, shown in black and white, each with a simple message Read More
by Mark S. Gothberg When you combine six organizations, you are going to have some internal communications issues in the best of circumstances. But the problems at The University of Arizona Health Network, formed in 2009, were enormous. Six interim CEOs headed the Tucson-based organization during a three-year period before a permanent CEO was hired Read More
Yes, You Can Repair a Cellphone I wish I had known about repair services before I replaced my daughter’s cellphone twice – once when the screen had severe cracks from the phone being dropped and stepped on, and once when the battery just quit. There are indeed companies that will repair cellphones that have screen Read More
// By Sandra Fancher // Mark Twain once said, “Supposing is good, but finding out is better.” As a Web and marketing professional, you know it’s easy to immerse yourself in a Web project and assume every choice or assumption you make will be clear to everyone. You know what’s worked in the past. You Read More
by Theresa Jacobellis Personal computers, tablets, and smartphones bring a world of information, commerce, and communication to millions of users wherever they may be. Now, this technology is helping healthcare providers overcome the barriers of cost, distance, and inconvenience to deliver checkups and urgent care to people in their homes, places of business, and retail Read More
Ask The Expert with Ted Balowski With the healthcare Web environment rapidly changing, new technologies are constantly emerging and are being adopted in varying degrees by demographic target groups. Now, four generations have unprecedented access to healthcare information and the providers that deliver it. According to a 2013 survey by Econsultancy, four in 10 global Read More
Ask The Expert with Mark S. Gothberg Winners of the 2013 eHealthcare Leadership Awards, the competition’s 14th year, were recognized in November in New Orleans during a presentation at a healthcare Internet conference sponsored by Atlanta-based Greystone.Net. The November issue of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends listed the winners. Last month’s “Ask the Expert” column discussed Read More
by Julie Pelaez and Dagmara Scalise As a hospital marketer, you might have had this scenario play out in your head: Droves of new patients show up at your hospital simply because they know it offers them exactly what they need. And you didn’t even have to tell them about it! Instead, someone they trust, Read More
Help Finding Things If you lose or misplace your belongings, apps can help you find them. Place an electronic tag on your wallet, car keys, or anything else that tends to disappear regularly and you can locate it with a smartphone app. The tag sends a signal up to 150 feet. If you believe a Read More
Gundersen Health System Provider websites have come a long way since I started reviewing them 14 years ago. But with some exceptions, interactive functions remain underutilized. This site for a Wisconsin system is one of those exceptions. A click on the Health & Wellness link brings visitors to a page where they can access numerous Read More
WEBSITES/MOBILE APPLICATIONS Free Messaging Platform Introduced to Improve Medication Adherence. Care4Today Mobile Health Manager 2.0, which also works on a website, sends out reminders on scheduled medications to be taken and prompts a response from users that is recorded in an adherence report. Caregivers can link family members to their account. Go to www.care4today.com. Hospital Read More
Ask The Expert with Mark S. Gothberg Key provisions of the Affordable Care Act will be in full force on January 1 – less than two months away. Millions of newly insured consumers will be seeking health services, with many of them having limited knowledge of how the healthcare system works or the providers serving Read More
by Lannie Byrd Throughout the past decade, hospitals have put a lot of effort into improving the overall patient experience. Private rooms. Flat-screen TVs. Wireless Internet. Chef-prepared meals. High thread-count sheets. An overall emphasis on customer service. However, a healthcare institution’s digital platform touches patients throughout their healthcare experience, from searching for a physician to Read More
by Theresa Jacobellis As the American healthcare system is reformed, greater emphasis is being placed on wellness and prevention. Savvy providers are harnessing mobile technology to empower patients to be more engaged in their own healthcare, with the potential to improve treatment compliance, enhance outcomes, and even maximize reimbursements by reducing readmissions. Earlier this year, Read More
by Mark S. Gothberg Conventional Thinking Often Wrong With its total national awareness far below that of Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins Medicine, Cleveland Clinic decided to take a novel approach to building the brand. In March 2012, Cleveland Clinic launched Health Hub, a site very different from the organization’s primary website at www.clevelandclinic.org, and Read More
Facebook introduced hashtags on its news feed in June with the expectation that they would increase reach. But a study by EdgeRank Checker finds that hashtags didn’t increase exposure at all. Posts with hashtags actually had less viral reach. Also, posts with hashtags had a lower level of engagement, and organic reach exhibited a slight Read More
WEBSITES/MOBILE APPLICATIONS Concussion Recognition App Now Available for Free. The popular Concussion Recognition & Response app from PAR is available at the Apple App Store and at Google Play for Android devices. New Symptom Checker Identifies Conditions Caused by Drugs. The free personalized symptom checker from eHealthMe compares symptoms with more than 40 million drug Read More
Reference Source with a Click How often do you use Google to learn more about something in an online article, such as the location of a town, a person’s background, or the definition of a word? Rather than leave the Web page, get the browser add-on from Curiyo. Once installed on your computer, Curiyo identifies Read More
by Mark S. Gothberg “I began actively helping my elderly parents a number of years ago. Every time I took them to a doctor’s appointment, we would be asked for the same information over and over again, especially about what medications were being taken,” says Jim Rattray, until recently vice president of marketing and public Read More
In this issue we review three hospital sites: DMC Surgery Hospital Coping Club at Kosair Children’s Hospital Onlife Health DMC Surgery Hospital It’s been two years since I visited this site for a suburban Detroit facility. Some changes have been made – some good and some not so good, depending on your perspective. Nevertheless, the Read More
Ask The Expert with Susan Solomon Eleven years ago, Kay Franks, marketing manager for St. Louis Children’s Hospital, got wind that budget reductions were on the horizon and it looked like her website budget was on the chopping block. That was all she needed to get cracking on building a comprehensive dashboard to demonstrate the Read More
// By Lyle Green and Dan Dunlop // In May 2013, a group of physician relations professionals and thought leaders gathered in Houston to develop a vision for the future of physician relations. Recognizing the growing adoption of digital media by medical professionals, the assembled experts sought to define the future role of the physician Read More
Ask The Expert with Scott McRae Calculating return on investment for a service-line marketing campaign can be elusive and is not for the faint of heart. However, demonstrating that your marketing efforts contribute to your organization’s bottom line communicates the value of your function and benefits your career. Where to begin To demonstrate the calculation Read More