Promoting Your Hospital's HIT Capabilities, Creatively

Helping patients relate to technology

Texas Health marketers and Velasco created the Dr. V character as a way to avoid creating the dreaded dry-and-technical HIT video.

"The videos introduced an element of whimsy," says Charlie Dierker, Texas Health's consumer portal manager. "They made the concept approachable, fun, and educational. They helped drive home the value proposition of why the EHR is important to the community and how it would help Texas Health accomplish our mission of taking care of people."

Texas Health has received an extremely positive response from the microsite and believes it has helped to establish the organization as a technology pioneer in its marketplace.

"The public is consciously and subconsciously internalizing the message that Texas Health is embracing technology, leading to improved patient safety and quality," Dierker says.

As an added bonus, the microsite and videos have helped to support Texas Health's physician communications.

"If patients are aware that EHRs are important and improve clinical outcomes, they will ask their physicians about them," Velasco says. "This helps us with the messaging we do for our physicians."

Texas Health's approach to promoting its EHR proves that you don't need to use an expensive ad agency to create a captivating 30-second spot in order to educate patients about the benefits of HIT. Even if your organization doesn't have a "Dr. V," with a little creative thinking you can craft an engaging strategy to promote even your most complicated HIT.