A study from the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development shows that senior marketing professionals believe that evaluating the performance of an organization's communications strategy will be more important five years from now than it is today.
Diane Weber, SHSMD's executive director, released the results of its 2013 report that looked at the job tasks of its members at the group's annual conference in Chicago Sep. 29 – Oct. 2.
"This year we conducted a core competencies study, otherwise known as a job analysis, for strategic planners, marketers and communications/PR professionals," said Weber.
Over two months, SHSMD, which is known as the premiere organization for healthcare marketers, collected 721 survey responses from strategic planners, marketing, communications, and PR professionals who were mostly in senior and mid-level positions.
The report's findings showed that strategic planning professionals spent 41% of their time on planning and analyzing data and research. They spent about 13% of their time on implementing strategies.
More than 50% of strategic planners said they expect evaluating performance will be more important in the next five years, than it is now. The finding falls in line with a new focus on marketing metrics, particularly from efforts on social media.
But Weber called out specific measures that planners indicated would also be important, and they go beyond typical financial ROI, particularly in relation to an organization's performance relative to its competition.
Strategic planning professionals said that in addition to ROI, it would become important to evaluate performance for quality, patient outcomes, and patient satisfaction.
"Interestingly, of all the research that will be important in the future, quality and outcomes research had the highest rating for being more important in five years," said Weber.
Leadership has had a renewed focus on quality and patient outcomes with the ongoing transition from volume to value. The fact that the emphasis on it is extending into other departments could signal that value-based reimbursement transitioning from buzz word to process.
The effect this will have on marketing professionals is significant. According to SHSMD's report, marketing professionals now spend about 43% of their time on planning, strategic development and management and leadership. The strategic planning part of their job is expected to grow in importance over the next five years, especially in the areas of improving patient experience.
There is a correlation and conclusions to be drawn from these shifts, but it's also important to point out that patient satisfaction and patient experience are not the same thing. [Incidentally, hospitals with high patient satisfaction scores, don't necessarily correlate with hospitals that offer high quality care, according to a study released this week.]
It is difficult to parse out the difference between them, and it is not just semantics. I've had some leading healthcare organizations tell me that patient satisfaction is a leading indicator of patient experience, but they are careful about not blurring the lines between the terms.
This is an important distinction for marketers and strategic planners to be aware of as the industry continues to move toward a more consumer conscious market place. In the 2013 HealthLeaders Media Industry Survey, patient experience and satisfaction topped the list of hospital executives' priorities. It is a strategic goal that is a natural fit for marketers, though with hospital leadership identifying it as a top priority, marketers will need to be ready to measure.
SHSMD's report indicates marketing professionals have honed in on the importance of metrics, placing more importance on them in the next five years. Currently, that task takes up about 11.3% of marketers' time. That's expected to increase, says Weber.
"We learned that research and evaluation tasks took up less of a marketer's time, and was not found to be as important as some of the other task categories," she said. "Well, that's about to change."
The findings show that marketing professionals placed increasing importance on managing physician relationship and customer relationship databases. Those two tools are scarce among hospital systems now, but can be powerful allies in helping manage an organization's message; however, it's unclear how a PRM or CRM can track a strategy aimed at improving patient experience or satisfaction.
Marketing, communications and strategic planning professionals have always been under pressure to perform. Until a full transition from volume to value occurs, they'll continue to straddle a divide between the past and the future, often without a lot of quantitative results to show the value of their contributions.
SHSMD's report on the future these professionals envision shows healthcare marketing pros are aware of the increasing need for metrics, and the tools to help them mine for that data.
"With changes in financial business models, and a push for efficiency and cost reduction, it will be even more important to understand what marketing efforts are working."
Jacqueline Fellows is a contributing writer at HealthLeaders Media.