Featured Article from Strategic Health Care Marketing

by Candace A. Quinn

Marketers have spent the past 10 to 15 years focusing on emerging brand development initiatives for their organizations. Marketers want the brand equity of a Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, or Johns Hopkins Medicine, yet most of them represent the typical community-based hospital or health system that is slugging it out with the other hospitals or health systems in the area.

I had the opportunity to speak with seven C-suite occupants who had either recently undergone efforts to redevelop their brands or were in the midst of doing so. From my own experience as a brand consultant, I knew that C-suite members typically have wide-ranging views on the value of brand development. The editor of Strategic Health Care Marketing and I thought it would be interesting to see if I could capture those thoughts.

The interviewees had the caveat that they could remain anonymous, recognizing that their brand strategies (and philosophies about the same) are among some of their most strategic assets. When relevant, I have provided a brief description of the organization, its marketplace, or other pertinent parameters within which to couch the subject’s comments.

Q. Your organization is in a very competitive market. How would you describe your brand position today? What prompted you to undertake brand development work? Has your brand changed since you began that work? In what ways?

A. Specialty hospital in a major metropolitan market with big-brand competition. Before our brand work, we were really misunderstood. The brand was sleepy and essentially unrecognized. Today—three years later—we are better understood by both consumers and providers. And it is leading to a better contracting position for us.

A. Large academic medical center. Our brand journey began over 15 years ago. It started with a focus on brand architecture and resulted in the creation of very new brand experiences. Today, we are a single brand across multiple entities and are applying our brand experience work across multiple centers of excellence.

A. Large Midwest system. We also started with a brand architecture project and recognized that our current brand had no solidarity of meaning and no real differentiation from any other organization. In fact, our system meant nothing; we were simply a collection of area hospitals.

A. Large community hospital in a two-hospital town. As competition heated up, and advertising wars were a way of life, we realized that differentiation was going to be even more critical. We knew what set us apart, but we suspected that our communities did not. A hospital is a hospital to the average consumer. We embrace some very special values as an organization, and we need to find a way to position this difference to resonate with our communities.

Q. Did your organization go beyond naming, logos, and external elements of the brand identity in your project? What role did the brand experience play in your brand development work?

A. While we did logo, look and feel, and external messaging, we also knew we had to go beyond great patient satisfaction scores. We had to set service standards based upon a process to identify a host of consumer expectations—we needed to match promises to practices and vice versa.

A. We found the voice of the patient to be a compelling and motivating agent of real change. In every instance where we have engaged patients in the experience design, we have found sustainable results.

A. We are always developing the experience. Our brand is built on the experiences of the people we serve. We tell our brand stories through the eyes of the patients and their caregivers. We have extraordinary stories to tell. We serve an enormously large population from across the country, and people come back to us because of the brand experience.

A. Our brand is based on a brand experience that no one else can offer in our market, so we empower every team in our organization to put that difference to work in its area. We are continuously overlaying the principles of “how” we do our work to show how we are different.

A. We had the great fortune to be able to build a new facility and took that opportunity to go beyond building a physical building. We wanted to build an experience. So we engaged Starizon, an experience design firm, to assist us in a formal design process that forced us to rethink every encounter, every touch point, and every aspect of the patient experience to determine if and how we could differentiate ourselves from the competition.

Q. Would you describe your brand position today as meaningfully differentiated from your competition? In what way?

A. We learned that spending more money did not equal better advertising. Telling better stories—tying back to our brand through warm and fuzzy stories—is touching, but our brand is also about serious medicine. Finding that balance and staying on brand have allowed us to put great distance between our brand and our competition. Fortunately for us, competitors are still trying to figure out what their brands stand for.

A. We’re getting feedback already from our community that our brand is really resonating. Our marketing initiatives have adapted to the new look and feel at the core of our brand, and we are seeing results. We recognized that all the advertising in the world won’t make a difference if our patients don’t have a meaningful brand experience. Case in point: Since we’ve focused on improving our brand experience in our ED, we went from below the 20th percentile in overall satisfaction to the 89th percentile—in just three reporting periods.

A. While we continue to differentiate ourselves around our triple aim of improving the health of the populations we serve, keeping health care affordable in our community, and improving the individual’s experience, it is really the latter that will truly differentiate us. Quality standards are so high today that patients are assured of reasonably sound levels of quality, and in a competitive market, cost or price is driven by the contracting parties. So in the end, it will boil down to the experience.

A. Meaningful differentiation—we are on the road to it. We want to be a national brand one day. To do that, we have to become a stronger regional brand. As we compete with full-service providers and other specialty hospitals in our specialty, we will need not only the best talent, the easiest access, the lowest pricing, we will need to deliver the best, most unexpected experience to capture a national audience.

Q. How are you measuring the value of your brand today?

A. We use HCAHPS scores, recommendation scores, consumer studies, and we trend market share across all service lines. We are intrigued by the concept of a Net Promoter Score, developed by Fred Reichheld, a business strategist at Bain & Company. In essence, it is derived by subtracting the percent of detractors from the percent of promoters. Determining whether one is a detractor or promoter depends on how one answers “the likelihood of recommending your hospital” question. An ideal score would be 100 percent. We have a way to go, but have seen improvement throughout the journey.

A. We are three years into our brand journey. We’ve seen 10 percent growth in volumes, two-point growth in market share in just the past year—but there is more to it than the numbers. I see value in the new confidence our physicians have in our future. They are prepared to invest themselves when they have other options for their practice. We have numerous business opportunities coming our way; it seems everyone wants to be our partner today. We are recruiting the best doctors in our specialty across the country, taking them away from some very prestigious organizations. I’m not sure how you “measure” that, but it’s very real.

Q. Looking ahead to health care reform, ACOs, and all of the market consolidation, what will be the impact of having a strong, well-defined brand? Do you anticipate any brand strategy changes?

A. We are already seeing the benefits. National employers are looking for national centers of excellence for specific services. Regionally, we are already at the top of the list for our specialty and are moving up in national rankings by every measure. We have to have a strong brand, meaningfully differentiated among our competition, because national contractors are seeking that out. We want to be on everyone’s short list for our specialty.

A. We have come to realize that it will all come back to relationships. Do we have the relationships with the providers that we need across the continuum, and what will be the basis for the relationship? We believe it will be shared values, shared philosophies, and at the core of that will be our brand experience. We can control how we treat one another, how we treat our partners, and how we treat our patients and their families. We are already a strong partner across our region and have had an overwhelming response to our brand experience, as evidenced by the number of new partners coming our way. I don’t see any major brand strategy changes on the horizon, but the dilution of the brand across new partnerships is a concern to me. We can’t leave that to chance and are working hard to put brand standards in place that transcend look and feel. Our brand standards will be about the experience.

A. I firmly believe that strong brands can demand more from ACO relationships. Regardless of the insurer, strong brands will be included in contracts because without the strong brand, the insurer can’t sell plans. I also caution my CEO colleagues to gain a better understanding of the cost/value equation. So often I hear about or see my colleagues slashing the marketing budgets in their organizations to reduce costs. In reality, their focus should be on growth—gaining share and improving overall financial performance with the kind of business that generates revenues, to support the business that doesn’t.

A. As a result of the Affordable Care Act, we anticipate the industry consolidating significantly. The advantage—if all else is equal, including financial and market share, and you have a strong brand and are living that brand—is that you will attract a strong, loyal patient base and that will attract strong partners. Aligning those strong brands across common shared value systems will result in strong affiliations. For so many of us, it’s not if – it’s when. We want to be in the driver’s seat when that day comes.

A. We’ve been watching and experiencing that consolidation already in our market. We have been in the control position for nearly two decades. But as a top brand, we can’t rest on those laurels. We continue to focus on our vision, but at the same time, we focus on how we treat our partners—our physicians, our employees, our payers, our customers. We stay on top of their needs, we develop new services only when partners that share our values can’t be found, and we continuously reach out to our customers and stakeholders as a strategy for continued growth and guidance. In return, these customers and stakeholders are our advocates and our catalysts for continued improvement. We believe that brands do evolve, and with growth comes a renewed focus on maintaining the core values of the brand. However, as consolidation continues to occur, we believe if we keep our customers and stakeholders at the center of our decision making, we will deliver on our brand promise every time.

Candace A. Quinn is CEO and senior consultant for
Brand=Experience in Loves Park, IL. You can reach Quinn at candace [at] brandequalsexperience [dot] com.

Featured Article from Strategic Health Care Marketing

by Michele von Dambrowski

“The growth of employed physicians has occurred so fast in some systems that … it has outstripped the ability of the marketing department to keep up,” says David Marlowe, principal of consulting firm Strategic Marketing Concepts in Ellicott City, MD. Marlowe’s observation comes in part from a qualitative “convenience” survey that he and Kriss Barlow, a principal with consulting firm Barlow/McCarthy, conducted recently.

Marlowe and Barlow interviewed representatives of 21 client and colleague organizations of varying size and number of physicians they employed – anywhere from less than 25 doctors to more than 1,000. “There [was] no consistent pattern” in their approach to marketing, Marlowe told attendees of the annual conference of the Society for Healthcare Strategy & Market Development held in Philadelphia in September.

In total, the organizations employed more than 6,800 doctors, including care extenders such as nurse practitioners. The majority of participants reported, somewhat unexpectedly, having a higher percentage of specialists than primary care physicians. Half of the organizations reported having a single employed group brand identity. In the case of the other half, “the marketer was desperately trying to get” a single system name, says Barlow, who commented during Marlowe’s presentation.

Less than one-third of the organizations stated they had marketing staff dedicated to employed doctors. Almost half had a dedicated marketing budget, with the remainder stating that dollars for marketing employed physicians was part of the overall marketing budget. The budget range per physician was huge, says Marlowe, from a paltry $55 to a princely $8,333.

Drawing on a 32-year career as a practitioner and consultant in health care marketing and planning, Marlowe also provided advice on how marketers can have a significant, positive impact in supporting employed physician groups and protecting their organization’s investment.

Understand practices

Given that hospitals are frequently criticized for not knowing how to run physician practices, Marlowe says, how can they be expected to know how to market them? Since there aren’t many role models for medical practice marketing, hospital and health system marketers need to spend time with doctors and practice administrators, attend Medical Group Management Association programs, and do other research and reading. “There’s a culture, and nuance, to practices that you must understand before you can effectively market them,” Marlowe states. Most practices are small businesses, he adds, and they run accordingly.

Getting inside the heads of physicians is also critical, such as realizing the emotional implications for doctors who cede control of their practices. Marketers also must grasp that their own job can involve more tactical thinking.

Critically, marketers must understand any given physician’s financial and legal arrangement with the organization. “Don’t assume that because you have 200 doctors in your employed group, they all have the same deal. Are they really employed? There are a whole bunch of contractual structures … and only at a certain end of the spectrum do they cross the Stark lines and allow you to [legally] market the practice,” says Marlowe.

Knowing the financial model is also important in understanding a physician’s goals. Marlowe notes that a doctor who is on a pure salary arrangement isn’t likely to resist having a new physician join the practice, unlike a doctor who is solely compensated on the basis of patient volume.

Balance employed and independent

“Strategically, it’s untenable for a hospital or health system to remain half independent and half employed [in makeup of the medical staff] for too long,” Marlowe says. “It will just tear your organization apart” in being confronted by marketing, political, and structural challenges. It’s his view that once employed physicians exceed 50 percent of the organization’s volume and revenues and the trend upward is clear, there is a need to commit to marketing the employed group.

Marlowe notes that more than five years ago, a real but unnamed two-hospital system fully committed to marketing its employed physicians – currently about 90 percent of the area’s primary care physicians. The system’s independent orthopedic groups responded by banding together to open a surgery center and eventually a hospital. The system countered by hiring its own orthopedic group, to which primary care physicians direct referrals. “This is a marketing issue,” Marlowe observes.

Deal with leadership promises

Hospital and system leaders frequently make marketing promises in their efforts to recruit physicians or negotiate practice purchases. As one New Jersey hospital marketing department found, the result was the acquisition of eight groups that each maintained its own name. “One group went out and bought radio ads,” says Marlowe. “Another wanted its own logo.”

The best practice calls for having a clear onboarding process that gives specific levels of support and has leadership’s blessing and backing. To head off potential chaos, the marketing department of one Midwest system designed a three-tier method of support. The third tier, representing physicians without any capacity for additional patient volume, receives only maintenance support. The first tier, representing high-opportunity growth services, receives two or three times the money of the second tier, including mass media advertising and customer relationship management support.

Handle physician expectations of marketing

“Your job is to show the doctors what they really need as opposed [to a billboard],” Marlowe points out. Among the areas to address are customer service, relationships with referring physicians, and access.

“Capacity is a huge issue,” he says. Mystery shopping of physician practices, he adds, “should be as routine as doing your consumer survey every year or two. If patients can’t get in to your channel of access … then you have a significant marketing problem.”

Efforts to open up more practice slots through changes in office hours and operations or recruitment of additional providers should come before promotional support. Addressing access issues “is part of the marketer’s job,” Marlowe observes.

Move to dedicated resources

As employed physician groups become larger, they will demand dedicated marketing support from the system, and failing to get that support, they will hire people on their own. Some organizations, says Marlowe, are viewing these groups as a service line and assigning marketing resources accordingly.

Boost familiarity and referrals within the group

Marlowe notes that it’s not unusual for physicians within newly formed employed groups not to know one another. Marketers need to delve into their basic toolbox to create social event opportunities, take physicians to meet other doctors in their offices, deploy print and electronic communications vehicles, and develop other avenues to promote intragroup cohesiveness and referrals. “One communication methodology between doctors doesn’t cut it,” he warns.

Barlow recommends that at the time physicians sign on, marketers assess the new physician’s familiarity with the other doctors in the group. “Inventory some of those referral patterns and begin right away to assign a liaison to start introductions,” she says. “The bad thing is that we sit tight for six months and let them continue with their old patterns.”

Limit leakage

Marketers need to keep close tabs on referral patterns for each provider, including nurse practitioners and physician assistants, and determine the reasons – and solutions – for referrals leaving the group. Is the driver of leakage a case of old habits that die hard? Lack of access on the part of in-group doctors? Absence of service capability in-house? Insurance requirements? Quality concerns? My-patient-requested-the-referral reasoning should be “taken with a grain of salt,” says Marlowe. “It’s true to a degree, but it’s rarely true to the percentage that you will hear it.”

In one case, Marlowe relates, a hospital found that many of its 125 employed physicians tended not to refer to the organization’s three employed urologists. After discovering that one urologist had a six-week wait for an appointment and the other two were of marginal quality, the hospital encouraged one of the marginal physicians to retire and recruited two new, high-quality doctors in the course of one year.

In the absence of quality or access concerns, dealing with a physician who continues to send only half of his referrals in-house begins with discussion and persuasion. An intermediate step might be to structure group financials, whereby the group is penalized by a member’s out-of-group referrals. Ultimately, the system can choose not to renew a physician’s employment contract, Marlowe notes.

Build a group brand identity—and value

“I don’t believe it’s a fatal strategic flaw to not have a branded über group,” Marlowe says. “But if you ever want to have the dominant physician brand in the market, it won’t happen if you have 28 different names.”

Marlowe reminds marketers that the brand also has to provide value to its market – a tough job given that most groups have been in existence for less than five years. He relates that a large group of 200 providers established its value by adding a number of desirable services and marketing them to consumers. The value-added services included full access to an electronic medical record, centralized scheduling, after-hours primary and urgent care coverage, and specialized screenings. A measure of the group’s success is the fact that it added 30,000 new active patient charts in a year. “You start differentiating your group from the other options in town,” says Marlowe.

Inside the June 2014 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Is Your Appointment Booking System Ready for the 21st Century?
• Healthcare System Develops Hub to Congregate Its Mobile Apps
• Ask The Expert: What Are Best Practices for Physician Directories?
• A New York Hospital Reaps Innovative Ideas from Hackathon
• EHR Best Practices Offered by Cleveland Clinic
• Mobile Analytics: How They Differ, How They Enable
• Web Takes … June Picks: Willamette Valley Medical Center, Reading Health System, Chester Regional Medical Center
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the May 2014 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Aurora Health Care Creates a Best-of Class Patient Portal
• New Online Portal Designed to Help Employees Manage Cancer Diagnosis in the Workplace
• Healthcare Turns to Open Source Software
• After a Three-Year Hiatus from Healthcare, Observations from a Digital Marketing Pro
• Ask The Expert: What Are the Best Ways to Enhance Patient Engagement Across the Healthcare System?
• Web Takes … May Picks: Athens Regional Health System—Wellness, The University of Kansas Hospital, Murray-Calloway County Hospital
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the April 2014 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Focus on Social Business, Not Social Media
• Marshfield Clinic Spins Off Information Services Group
• Ask the Expert: What Are the Top Web Design Trends Today? Not Just Responsive Design
• PinnacleHealth Creates Three Paths to Consumer Engagement
• Web Takes … April Picks: Centegra HealthSystem, Renown Health
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the March 2014 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Virtual Assistants Become the Newest Members of the Healthcare Team
• Protect Your Investment With Usability Testing and Eye Tracking
• Bradford Regional Medical Center Opens First US Inpatient Internet Addiction Program
• Ask the Expert: Are Family Caregivers an Overlooked Audience?
• Building an Intranet Squarely Focused on Employee Engagement
• Web Takes … March Picks: Grady Health System, UConn Health
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the February 2014 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Video Visits Between Patients and Doctors Gain Traction
• Midwest Health System Reduces Online Marketing Competition Among Its Hospitals
• Online Portal Enhances Population Health Management Program — User-Friendly, Customizable Program Helps Employers Reduce Healthcare Costs
• Ask the Experts: What Key Areas Should Healthcare Marketers and Communicators Address?
• Patient-Centric Approach Key to Successfully Reducing Self-Pay Balances
• Web Takes … February Picks: Nash Health Care, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Stamford Hospital
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the January 2014 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• West Coast System Provides Guidance on Effective Online Advertising
• Healthcare and Hummingbird: How Will Google’s Latest Algorithm Affect Your SEO Efforts?
• Data Analytics Drive Marketing Success—Usage Is Not Just for the Big Boys
• Ask the Expert: How Should We Align Our Hospital Strategy With Generational Shifts and Values?
• Web Takes … January Picks: Texas Health Resources—Well-Being, UnitedHealth Group—Careers
• 12 Month Index … January 2013—December 2013
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the December 2013 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Virtual Reality Program Helps Treat Mental Health Problems
• Telemedicine Pilot Aims to Reduce Costs and Improve Access to Care for Rural Children
• Protect Your Game: Hospital for Special Surgery’s Portal for Golf
• Ask the Expert: What Should Digital Healthcare Directors Focus on in 2014? Part Two
• Web Takes … December Picks: Virtual Tours—Roper St. Francis, Holy Redeemer Healthcare at Bensalem, and UCLA Health, MD Anderson Cancer Center—Physician Referral
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the November 2013 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Patient Engagement? There’s an App for That
• Improving the Online Patient Experience: Usability Tests and Task Completion
• Ask the Expert: What Should Digital Healthcare Directors Focus on in 2014? Part One
• 2013 eHealthcare Leadership Award Winners
• Web Takes … November Picks: Gundersen Health System, Mayfield Clinic, Lehigh Valley Health Network
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the October 2013 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Lessons Learned in Building the Brand Through Health Content and Social Media — Conventional Thinking Often Wrong
• Deploying Mobile App to Address a Valuable Need and Transition the Community to Using Technology
• Using Google Analytics to Drive Marketing Decisions — Going Beyond Website Visits and Page Views
• Hashtags on Facebook Don’t Boost Viral Impact
• Ask The Expert: How Do You Build an Effective Dashboard for Digital Marketing?
• Web Takes … October Picks: DMC Surgery Hospital, Coping Club at Kosair Children’s Hospital, Onlife Health
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the September 2013 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Using the Power of a Health Risk Assessment To Build the Brand and Drive Business
• Specialty Medical Practice Uses Appointment Request Feature for Website and Business Success
• Salem Health Uses Video to Get Big Media to Pay Attention; Vehicle Leads New Marketing Push
• Ask The Expert: How is Content Integration the Secret Ingredient for Elevating Online ROI?
• Web Takes … September Picks: Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, Dean Health, University of Michigan Health System—Quality & Safety
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the August 2013 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• The Digital Future of Physician Relations
• Embrace Blogging to Generate Real Patient Connections
• Ask The Expert: How Can Digital Technology Support Brand Building?
• A Different Approach to Patient Billing
• Web Takes … August Picks: Hartford Hospital, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—Infographics, North Valley Hospital, Drugs.com
• The Power of Storytelling
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the July 2013 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Michigan Challenges an Obesity Epidemic with Integrated Marketing, Interactivity, and Corporate Co-Sponsors
• UAB Medicine Develops a Mobile Application with Clear Business Benefits
• Ask The Expert: How Do I ‘Easily’ Calculate ROI in Service-Line Marketing?
• Meridian Health Uses Multiple Marketing Channels to Grow Pediatric Services
• Animations Available Wherever You Go on the Web
• Web Takes … July Picks: Alamance Regional Medical Center, Center for Human Reproduction
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the June 2013 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Second Life Enables Engagement Across Geographic Boundaries
• Oakwood Healthcare Goes Responsive in Website Redesign: Enhancing the User Experience
• Isn’t It Time to Adopt Online Appointment Scheduling?
• Ask The Expert: Should My Website and Print Publications Be Connected?
• Skype Proves to Be Powerful Tool for Family Therapy
• Web Takes … June Picks: Holy Family Memorial, 21st Century Oncology, Winona Health
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the May 2013 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Hospital-Sponsored Physician Review Site a Success—Rich Snippets, Robust Information Boost SEO and Visits to Hospital Website
• Move Your Marketing Research Efforts into the 21st Century
• Marketers Take Note—Major Design Changes Coming to Your YouTube Channel
• Ask The Expert: Can Lifetime Value of a Patient Be Calculated? Is It Worth the Effort?
• Web Takes … May Picks: Indiana University Health, Saint Agnes Hospital—360 Your Health from Every Angle, Valley Health System
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the April 2013 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Getting the Most out of LinkedIn and Facebook for Recruitment
• MD Anderson Cancer Center Taps Technology to Empower Patients
• SEO Lessons Learned by Integris Health
• Ask The Expert: How Do I Best Create Valuable Website Content?
• Web Takes … April Picks: Methodist Healthcare, Legacy Health, Baylor Health Care System
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the March 2013 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• SharePoint—The Real Opportunities for Healthcare
• Ten Best Practices for Creating Great Landing Pages
• Ask The Expert: How Can I Best Use Digital Communications to Market to Referring Physicians?
• The Definition of Healthcare is Changing: New Standards for Population Health Management
• Web Takes … March Picks: Lakeland HealthCare, Scripps Health, Hebrew SeniorLife—ReAge
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the February 2013 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Cleveland Clinic Takes New Tack to Build the Brand—Health and Wellness Content in Special Hub and Across Multiple Digital Channels
• Good Advice for Those Tempted to Try Facebook Ads
• Cleveland Clinic ‘Cracks’ the Facebook Code
• Six Inducted into Healthcare Internet Hall of Fame
• Ask The Expert: How Can Predictive Analytics Help Marketers Address the Changing Healthcare Landscape?
• Consumer Engagement Via Online Physician Videos—Going Way Beyond the Mundane
• Web Takes … February Picks: The Corner Health Center, Winchester Hospital, Willis-Knighton Health System—Homework Help Center
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the January 2013 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Best Practices in Web Content Development—An Effective, Unexpected Approach from an Academic Medical Center
• Mercy Health System’s Rebranding Efforts Come to Life on the Web
• Ask The Expert: What Should Digital Healthcare Directors Focus on in 2013? Part Two
• Web Takes … January Picks: UnitedHealthcare: Health Care Lane—Community Center, American Foundation for the Blind, Rex UNC Health Care
• 12 Month Index … January 2012—December 2012
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the December 2012 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Responsive Web Design Enhances Mobile Browsing
• Like It or Not, You Need an Intranet. The Question Is, How Do You Make It Better?
• Ask The Expert: What Should Digital Healthcare Directors Focus on in 2013? Part One
• 2012 eHealthcare Leadership Award Winners
• How to Promote Your Organization ‘Everywhere’ and Spend Less Doing It
• Web Takes … December Picks: Moffitt Cancer Center, Memorial Healthcare System—Newsroom, Healthcare Toolbox
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the November 2012 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Regional Hospital Uses Website and Search to Take on the Competition
• Penn Medicine Supplies Roadmap to Digital Marketing Success
• Today’s Mobile Opportunity: Business and Marketing Applications
• Ask The Expert: Are e-Newsletters Still a Valuable Marketing Tool for Hospitals?
• Web Takes … November Picks: Edward Medical Group Physicians, Sher Fertility Clinics—Centers for Reproductive Medicine, Alice Hyde Medical Center
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the October 2012 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• A Midwest Health System Redesigns Its Website to Focus on Driving Business
• To Improve Paid Search, Develop a Good Negative Keyword List
• How a Cancer Center Leveraged Physician Ratings and Reviews for Patient Acquisition
• Ask The Expert: How Can the Web Assist in Building and Managing a New Brand?
• Gauging the Search Engine Optimization of a Healthcare Website
• Web Takes … October Picks: UCB, Inc.- Cimzia Online Ads, Hackensack University Medical Center
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the September 2012 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• The $1 Million Connection—A Midwest Health System Uses Targeted Marketing Programs and Call Center Communications Hub to Sharply Increase Patient Appointments
• Geek Chic in a Changing Healthcare World—Effectively Communicating and Promoting Technology Changes
• Ask The Expert: The Doctor Will Tweet You Now—Is There a Compelling Case for a Physician-Directed Social Media Strategy?
• A Regional Hospital Systematically Builds a Powerful Website and Other Digital Communications
• Web Takes … September Picks: Pardee Hospital—PardeeSelect, QuEST2StopStroke, Altru Health System
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the August 2012 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Website Accessibility—Addressing the Needs of Millions of Potential Patients
• Instagram: A Snapshot of Early Hospital Adoption
• Georgia Organization Introduces New Website in Challenging Media Market
• Modern Speech Technology Understands, Talks Back, and Takes Action in Electronic Medical Record Systems
• Ask The Expert: How Can We Enhance the Value of Our Website with Stand-Alone Modules?
• Web Takes … August Picks: Mountain View Hospital, The Elizabeth Hospice, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Lafayette General Medical Center
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the July 2012 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Florida System Makes Major Commitment to Social Media
• Social Media Boosts Drug Literacy Program
• Ask The Experts: What Are Some Strategies for Improving Conversion Rates?
• Medical College of Wisconsin Almost Solves the Problem of Precisely Matching Consumers with the Right Physicians.
• Key Takeaways from Audio Conference on How to Succeed with Paid Search Marketing
• Web Takes … July Picks: Kettering Health Network—Community Benefit, Susquehanna Health, Shasta Regional Medical Center, ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma City
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the June 2012 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Affiliate Sales, Online Gift Shops Bring in Revenue, Add to Website User’s Experience
• Community Health Needs Assessment: Participate or Face Penalties
• Ask The Expert: What Are the Top Mobile Considerations Today?
• Consumers Embrace Social Media for Health Information, But Involvement by Healthcare Organizations Lags, Finds Study
• Five Essentials to Consider About the Facebook Timeline for Brands
• Web Takes … June Picks: Rush University Medical Center—Transforming, Burke Rehabilitation Center, University of Michigan Health System—Quality
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the May 2012 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Virtual Spokespersons Need to Do More Than Pop Up and Say ‘Hi’
• Twitter Pulls Back the Curtain on Hospital Procedures
• Ask The Expert: Should My Hospital Accept Advertising on Its Website?
• Digital Marketing in Healthcare: Where’s the Rub?
• Web Takes … May Picks: HealthyPlace.com, Phillips Respironics—Areyousnoring.com, UW Health—American Family Children’s Hospital, Health Net—Provider Search
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the April 2012 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Hospitals and Pinterest: A Match Made in Heaven?
• Targeted Facebook Ad Campaign Turns an OB/GYN into a Local Celebrity
• Midwest Health System Launches e-Chaplain Ministry
• Study Finds Hospital Websites Often Fail in Providing Strong User Experience
• Ask The Expert: How Can Hospitals Keep Their Physician Directories Current and Relevant?
• Children’s Hospital Pursues Niche Marketing
• Web Takes … April Picks: Fox Chase Cancer Center—Clinical Outcomes, Highland District Hospital, Saint Agnes Hospital
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the March 2012 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Can Healthcare Organizations Find Wisdom in the Crowd?
• Mobile, Social Games Poised to Impact Healthcare
• Ask The Expert: Is Google+ a Social Media Tool for Healthcare Marketers?
• HIMMS 2012 Reflects Growing Importance of Consumer Engagement
• Top Five Reports for SEO in Google Webmaster Tools
• Web Takes … March Picks: Saint Thomas Health, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Regional Health, Prominence Treatment Center
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the February 2012 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Health System Partners with IT Firm to Launch Mobile Sleep Monitoring Application
• Creative Ideas to Combine Wayfinding and Mobile Marketing
• Ask The Expert: Can You Provide Guidance on Redesigning a Home Page?
• Survey: More Consumers Scan QR Codes, Mostly Positive About Benefits
• How Your e-Healthcare Colleagues Respond to Some Key Issues
• Ways to Perfect Your Intranet to Engage Staff
• Web Takes … February Picks: Rush University Medical Center—Rushstories, Tanner Health System—Quality & Safety and Tanner Finder, Christiana Care Health System—Service Sections and Construction Update
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

Inside the January 2012 print edition of
eHealthcare Strategy & Trends:

• Video Chat: Why Physicians Are Saying ‘Skype Me!’
• Houston Health System Takes Initiative in Launching Health Information Exchange
• Ask The Expert: What Do I Need to Consider in Monitoring Social Media and What Kinds of Tools Are Best to Use?
• Real-Time Monitoring of Imaging Center Operations Lifts Patient Satisfaction Scores
• Web Takes … January Picks: Alexian Brothers Health System, St. Vincent’s Healthcare, Edward Hospital & Health Services
• My Internet … Personal Solutions, eNews Pulse

eHealthcare Strategy & Trends, January—December 2013

Awards

• 2013 eHealthcare Leadership Award Winners, 11/13

Content

• Best Practices in Web Content Development—An Effective, Unexpected Approach from an Academic Medical Center, 1/13
• Ask the Expert: How Do I Best Create Valuable Website Content? 4/13
• The Power of Storytelling, 8/13

Customer Service

• Isn’t It Time to Adopt Online Appointment Scheduling? 6/13

E-Business

• Hospital-Sponsored Physician Review Site a Success—Rich Snippets, Robust Information Boost SEO and Visits to Hospital Website, 5/13
• Isn’t It Time to Adopt Online Appointment Scheduling? 6/13
• UAB Medicine Develops a Mobile Application with Clear Business Benefits, 7/13
• A Different Approach to Patient Billing, 8/13
• Using the Power of a Health Risk Assessment to Build the Brand and Drive Business, 9/13
• Specialty Medical Practice Uses Appointment Request Feature for Website and Business Success, 9/13

Innovation

• Six Inducted into Healthcare Internet Hall of Fame, 2/13

Marketing/Communications

• Ask the Expert: How Can Predictive Analytics Help Marketers Address the Changing Healthcare Landscape? 2/13
• Ten Best Practices for Creating Great Landing Pages, 3/13
• Ask the Expert: How Can I Best Use Digital Communications to Market to Referring Physicians? 3/13
• Second Life Enables Engagement Across Geographic Boundaries, 6/13
• Ask the Expert: Should My Website and Print Publications Be Connected? 6/13
• Michigan Challenges an Obesity Epidemic with Integrated Marketing, Interactivity, and Corporate Co-Sponsors, 7/13
• Ask the Expert: How Do I ‘Easily’ Calculate ROI in Service-Line Marketing? 7/13
• Meridian Health Uses Multiple Marketing Channels to Grow Pediatric Services, 7/13
• Embrace Blogging to Generate Real Patient Connections, 8/13
• Salem Health Uses Video to Get Big Media to Pay Attention; Vehicle Leads New Marketing Push, 9/13
• Using Google Analytics to Drive Marketing Decisions—Going Beyond Website Visits and Page Views, 10/13
• Ask the Expert: How Do You Build an Effective Dashboard for Digital Marketing? 10/13
• Deploying a Mobile App to Address a Valuable Need and Transition the Community to Using Technology, 10/13
• Patient Engagement? There’s an App for That, 11/13
• Protect Your Game: Hospital for Special Surgery’s Portal for Golf, 12/13

Physicians Online

• Ask the Expert: How Can I Best Use Digital Communications to Market to Referring Physicians? 3/13
• Hospital-Sponsored Physician Review Site a Success—Rich Snippets, Robust Information Boost SEO and Visits to Hospital Website, 5/13
• The Digital Future of Physician Relations, 8/13

Relationship Building

• The Definition of Healthcare Is Changing: New Standards for Population Health Management, 3/13
• Ask the Expert: Can Lifetime Value of a Patient Be Calculated? Is it Worth the Effort? 5/13

Search Engine Strategies

• SEO Lessons Learned by Integris Health, 4/13

Social Networking

• Good Advice for Those Tempted to Try Facebook Ads, 2/13
• Cleveland Clinic ‘Cracks’ the Facebook Code, 2/13
• Getting the Most out of LinkedIn and Facebook for Recruitment, 4/13
• Marketers Take Note—Major Design Changes Coming to Your YouTube Channel, 5/13
• Lessons Learned in Building the Brand Through Health Content and Social Media—Conventional Thinking Often Wrong, 10/13
• Hashtags on Facebook Don’t Boost Viral Impact, 10/13

Strategic Web Initiatives

• Cleveland Clinic Takes New Tack to Build the Brand—Health and Wellness Content in Special Hub and Across Multiple Digital Channels, 2/13
• MD Anderson Cancer Center Taps Technology to Empower Patients, 4/13
• Animations Available Wherever You Go on the Web, 7/13

Strategy/Planning/Site Development

• Mercy Health System’s Rebranding Efforts Come to Life on the Web, 1/13
• Consumer Engagement Via Online Physician Videos—Going Way Beyond the Mundane, 2/13
• Move Your Marketing Research Efforts into the 21st Century, 5/13
• Oakwood Healthcare Goes Responsive in Website Redesign: Enhancing the User Experience, 6/13
• Ask the Expert: How Is Content Integration the Secret Ingredient for Elevating Online ROI? 9/13

Technology

• SharePoint—The Real Opportunities for Healthcare, 3/13
• Ask the Expert: How Can Digital Technology Support Brand Building? 8/13
• Telemedicine Pilot Aims to Reduce Costs and Improve Access to Care for Rural Children, 12/13
• Virtual Reality Program Helps Treat Mental Health Problems, 12/13

Trends, Developments, Online Demographics

• Ask the Expert: What Should Digital Healthcare Directors Focus on in 2013? Part Two, 1/13
• The Definition of Healthcare Is Changing: New Standards for Population Health Management, 3/13
• Ask the Expert: What Should Digital Healthcare Directors Focus on in 2014? Part One, 11/13
• Ask the Expert: What Should Digital Healthcare Directors Focus on in 2014? Part Two, 12/13

Usability of Websites

• Improving the Online Patient Experience: Usability Tests and Task Completion, 11/13

Web Site Reviews

• UnitedHealthcare: Health Care Lane—Community Center, American Foundation for the Blind, Rex UNC Health Care, 1/13
• The Corner Health Center, Winchester Hospital, Willis-Knighton Health System—Homework Help Center, 2/13
• Lakeland HealthCare, Scripps Health, Hebrew SeniorLife—ReAge, 3/13
• Methodist Healthcare, Legacy Health, Baylor Health Care System, 4/13
• Indiana University Health, Saint Agnes Hospital—360° Your Health from Every Angle, Valley Health System, 5/13
• Holy Family Memorial, 21st Century Oncology, Winona Health, 6/13
• Alamance Regional Medical Center, Center for Human Reproduction, 7/13
• Hartford Hospital, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—Infographics, North Valley Hospital, Drugs.com, 8/13
• Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, Dean Health, University of Michigan Health System—Quality & Safety, 9/13
• DMC Surgery Hospital, Coping Club at Kosair Children’s Hospital, Online Health, 10/13
• Gundersen Health System, Mayfield Clinic, Lehigh Valley Health Network, 11/13
• Virtual Tours—Roper St. Francis, Holy Redeemer HealthCare at Bensalem, and UCLA Health, MD Anderson Cancer Center—Physician Referral, 12/13

Web Tools

• Skype Proves to Be Powerful Tool for Family Therapy, 6/13