HealthLeaders Media Marketing Weekly - February 20, 2008 | Monkey Business
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Monkey Business
Gienna Shaw, for HealthLeaders News
Hospital and health system marketers are sure to recognize their own service line directors, board members, and various and sundry physician leaders in the article "Beware of Monkeys" in this month's issue of HealthLeaders magazine. The monkeys in question? Those folks who drive to work and see that the competition has put up a billboard. And who, regardless of whether the billboard is any good or whether billboards even work anyway, want a billboard for their pet project, too. Monkey see, monkey do. [Read More] |
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February 20, 2008 | |
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Editor's Picks
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Blame it on marketing
What's responsible for the high cost of healthcare? "Pervasive commercialization," says the author of a recent opinion piece in the The New England Journal of Medicine. Profits, billing, and marketing are among the evils outlined in the article: "The dominance of for-profit insurance and pharmaceutical companies, a new wave of investor-owned specialty hospitals, and profit-maximizing behavior even by nonprofit players raise costs and distort resource allocation." [Read More]
Ortho, cardio on the fly
It's bad enough that self-pay patients are traveling to exotic locales for liposuction and the like. But now the medical travel industry is going after stateside hospitals' bread and butter: aggressively going after older patients by offering joint-replacement surgeries and non-emergency cardiac procedures at 40 percent to 80 percent less than in the United States. How will hospitals compete if employers and insurance companies start offering financial incentives to do so? The answer has to be quality. Safety trumps savings, right? [Read More]
Try a little (extra) tenderness
When I read this New York Times article touting tenderness and respect for patients my first reaction was that all hospitals should be treating patients this way--it's hardly something that should be making headline news in a national paper of record. But then I read the description of the services offered at Northern Westchester (NY) Hospital. Soft music? Lavender scented rooms? Massages? I'd say that goes above and beyond the changes many hospitals have made to improve patient satisfaction. [Read More]
Communications 2.0
When I had back surgery a few years ago, I didn't get any soft music, aromatherapy, or massages. But I did get my surgeon's pager number and permission to get in touch with him at any hour of the day or night. I was impressed by that even though I was way too intimidated and wary of bothering him to actually call, even when my throat was screaming and the nurse wouldn't give me a lozenge because he'd forgotten to include it in his post-op orders. But if he'd given me his e-mail address I would have used it for sure--it's just less intrusive than calling or paging. Now a new study backs up this anecdotal evidence, suggesting that providing patients with e-mail access to their surgeons improves communication. [Read More] |
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Campaign Spotlight
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Illustrating Matters of the Heart
 February, which has been declared American Heart month by the American Cancer Society, is a popular month for heart health campaigns. However, Bon Secours St. Francis Health System in Greenville, SC, has found a way to stand out with a creative online campaign that brings simplicity and ownership to the cause. Though ownership of a campaign is an important factor that is considered by most facilities when developing a campaign, Bon Secours St. Francis Health System took it one step further by incorporating the campaign concept as the major focus on its Website. [Read More] |
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Calendar of Events
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Webcasts
3/19/08: Marketing Cardiology: Strategies for Service Line Campaigns
4/3/08: Beyond the Blog: Communicate and Connect with Today's Healthcare Consumers
Conferences
3/2/08: Physician Strategies Summit, Los Angeles
4/6/08: National Forum on Customer Based Marketing Strategies, Phoenix
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Sponsored Headlines From AT&T
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Enabling Healthcare after a Disaster: AT&T enables healthcare after a disaster.
Implementing a Wireless LAN: Successful WLAN implementation is all about balance.
IP Networks Boost Secure Health Communications: AT&T provides secure communication to keep healthcare moving forward.
Optical Networks: Closing the gap between patient and caregiver.
Q&A: Critical Steps in Ensuring Business Continuity: Consult this guide to learn how your company can ensure continuity.
Transition to Digital: More and more hospitals are going paperless.
Trend Report--Dialing Long Distance for Healthcare: Telemedicine makes care accessible when and where it's needed.
Healthcare 2015: Win-win or lose-lose? The current paths of many healthcare systems around the world will become unsustainable by 2015. Healthcare systems that fail to transform will likely require immediate and major forced restructuring. There is a more positive scenario that will require new levels of accountability, tough decisions and hard work.
Healthcare 2015 and U.S. health plans: New roles, new competencies: The U.S. healthcare system is on an unsustainable path. Health plan providers must help shape and lead the healthcare transformation or risk being marginalized.
In the interest of the patient: This paper explores how by collaborating and sharing data, the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries can realize the full value of the information they collect--and improve patient treatments. | |
| From HealthLeaders Magazine |
Love Thy Vendor?
 Providers and IT suppliers don't get along, right? You can build a partnership of trust with your vendor--and actually get what you pay for. Here's how. [Read More]
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Marketing Forum
Emerging Market Opportunity: Musculoskeletal Services: Combine an aging population with technological advances in orthopedic care and devices, and the stage is set for unprecedented demand and increased opportunities for healthcare providers. In these days of continuous revenue and margin challenges, musculoskeletal medicine can be the next big growth opportunity. [Read More] | |
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Audio Feature
As a healthcare management consultant, Barry Calogero helps healthcare organizations plan for the future. In this interview, Barry discusses his predictions for healthcare in 2008 and beyond. [Listen Now] | |
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Sponsor HealthLeaders Media Marketing Weekly
Contact Lisa Brown, Director of Integrated Sales, at lbrown@healthleadersmedia.com or call 781.639.1872. | |
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