HealthLeaders Media Marketing Weekly - May 19, 2010 | In Defense of Grady: Why Marketing May Revive the Struggling Hospital


In Defense of Grady: Why Marketing May Revive the Struggling Hospital Marianne Aiello, for HealthLeaders Media Atlanta's struggling Grady Memorial Hospital has come under fire recently for increasing its marketing and public relations budget at a time when some say it should put that money toward improving care. But guess what, opponents?the two aren't mutually exclusive. Grady is clawing its way back into its fiercely competitive market and an aggressive marketing strategy is essential to its success. [Read More]
	May 19, 2010

Editor's Picks
Content Employees, Content Patients In the May issue of HealthLeaders magazine, I profiled Trover Health System, a 410-licensed-bed health system in Madisonville, KY, that improved employee morale and ultimately improved patient satisfaction. After a leadership change in 2006, Trover retooled its poor employee relations approach and is continuing to reap the benefits of the new strategy. The health system embarked on a strategic plan called "the pathway to success," which established four core values of safety, quality, compassion, and accountability. To guide the organization on this journey, new president and CEO Berton Whitaker assembled a team of 18 employees—from executives to housekeeping—to serve as Pathway champions, a new cultural transformation group. The group surveyed staff, set immediate and long-term goals, and crafted an improvement strategy. [Read More] Parents want e-communication with doctors but few have it About half of parents think it would be very helpful to be able to request records or prescription refills for their child's doctor through e-mail or online. The C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health asked 1,612 parents of children about how they communicate with their children's healthcare providers. Although half of parents want electronic communication options, less than 15% report they are currently able to use e-mail or the Internet to schedule appointments, to receive immunization or lab records, complete screening forms, request prescription refills, or get medical advice. If your organization hasn't at least looked into e-communication, you need to start now. [Read More] Google ranks second to doctors for health info influence When it comes to sources for health information, Google ranks second only to doctors in influence, according to a survey by Capstrat and Public Policy Polling. It found that 22% of respondents consider Google searches influential in seeking health information, with the search engine ranking behind doctors (44%) in reported influence. It was named more than twice as often as nurses, pharmacists, advocacy groups, and friends or family members. Yet when it comes to trust, health advocacy groups were top of mind, with 71% judging the Web content of such groups as somewhat or extremely reliable, compared to the 59% who felt that way about organic Google searches. The survey also found that only 12% of respondents used online forums in their last search for health information, and only 37% considered forums somewhat or extremely reliable. Yet another reason to amp-up your search engine optimization. [Read More]

Campaign Spotlight
Mammography Campaign Fends Off the Competition OSF Holy Family Medical Center is constantly fighting for market share in the Monmouth, IL area. The 23-bed hospital has three much larger competitors within a 30-mile radius and its technology often lags behind. But the hospital held its ground this fall with a highly successful mammography direct mail campaign. [Read More]

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Calendar of Events
Webcasts May 19: Five Proven Steps to Improve Patient Satisfaction Scores On Demand: Beyond ROI: Prove the Success of Your Marketing Efforts On Demand: Cancer Service Line Success: Better Coordination, Better Outcomes On Demand: Marketing Oncology: Service Line Strategies for Marketers On Demand: Strategic Marketing Lessons from Other Industries: 5 Innovative Ideas That Work On Demand: Marketing Cardiology: Service Line Strategies for Marketers
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From HealthLeaders Magazine

Time to Put Patients First

How America's hospitals have lost touch with their top priority?and what healthcare leaders are doing to fix it. [Read More]

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Service Line Management

Patient-Centered Surgery

Making surgery more patient-centered requires careful coordination and better feedback from patients and their families. [Read More]

Marketing Forum

Three E-mail Marketing Success Stories: Email marketing is often seen as another method of advertising, but to truly gauge the value of email for an organization we must look to its ultimate goal: communication. Organizations need to share information both internally and externally. Proper internal communication allows more efficient operations, higher morale, and promotion of internal initiatives. Externally, ideal communication can be used to establish a strong brand image, ultimately creating meaningful relationships with all stakeholders.[Read More]

Audio Feature
Why Patient Experience Should Drive CEO Decision-Making: If a hospital is to become patient-centric, the CEO has to have patient experience at the top of his or her list of concerns, says Gary Adamson, chief executive officer of Starizon Studio. The CEO is the only person in the organization who can span across all the department silos and drive a well-thought out orchestrated patient experience, he says. [Listen Now]