A physician shortage coupled with a lack of funding continue to slow the progress of rural areas of Uganda. The country's minister for primary healthcare says that while Uganda has begun to tackle issues like malaria and HIV, it still only reaches about 68% of patients.
I can hear the skeptics howling already: "We can barely keep the lights on! How can we justify some New Age, touchy-feely mysticism?" Hold on! Hold on! Kick off your Birkenstocks, step into my chant circle, center your Qi, light a relaxation candle, groove on my Yanni CD, and let me speak these truths.
The Health Forum found that 37% of the 748 hospitals that responded to its survey offered one or more CAM therapies, up from 26.5% in 2005. CAM includes acupuncture, music therapy, pet therapy, massage therapy, herbal medicines and other treatments that don't fall under the realm of traditional medical practice in the United States.
True, more than 70% of the hospitals offering CAM are in urban areas. Obviously, that's because the larger populations can better support alternative medicine practitioners, and because many CAM schools are located in cities. Health Forum archly notes that rural America is already underserved by traditional medicine, so it is "not surprising" that it is also underserved by CAM.
But rural hospitals that offer CAM swear by it. "We've been very successful for been going on for almost a decade," says Todd Linden, CEO of the 49-bed Grinnell Regional Medical Center in Grinnell, IA, pop. 9,205. "We started out rather modestly with massage, music therapy, and pet therapy with our hospice patients but started to expand as our medical staff became more comfortable with the opportunities to add some integrated healthcare to traditional medicine."
Grinnell now has four massage therapists, two acupuncturists, a chiropractor, and a hypnotherapist on its integrated health staff. The hospital also offers music and pet therapy among its CAM programs, which are expanding to include more inpatient therapies.
Linden recommends that hospitals opening a CAM program start with massage therapy, and expand from there. "Setting up a massage program is just finding a licensed massage therapist who has an interest and putting a couple rooms together and a massage table. It can be done easily," he says.
Volunteers also play a big role. Find people in the community who are interested in training for pet or music therapy, for example. "It's a matter of connecting two dots - people's talents with our needs. You start with doing an inventory of who is interested," he says. "Maybe you've got clinicians who have healing touch credentials or have an interest in aroma therapy or pet therapy or the more spiritual sides of integrated health."
Getting the medical staff on your side is also critical. GRMC gave its doctors certificates for free massages to demonstrate the effectiveness of massage therapy. "Many gave them to their spouses but it opened a lot of eyes to the fact that a good therapeutic massage has a lot of stress management and relaxation benefit to it," he says.
Linden says any rural system can set up a modest, outpatient CAM program with a minimal financial investment and grow the program from there. The Health Forum survey found that 86% of hospitals offering CAM reported start-up costs of $200,000 or less! Keep in mind, the Health Forum says alternative therapies, services and medicines constitute a $36 billion to $47 billion annual industry, with the vast majority of that money coming directly from consumers and patients, because most health plans don't cover CAM.
Linden says GRMC's integrated medicine program makes money and covers its costs, but that's almost a secondary consideration. "What it really does is largely impact our ability to expand our optimal healing environment," he says. "That helps with length of stay and patient and staff satisfaction, which improves retention and recruiting. It's part of a bigger picture."
John Commins is the human resources and community and rural hospitals editor withHealthLeadersMedia. He can be reached at jcommins@healthleadersmedia.com
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President Bush expressed concern that the U.S. healthcare system is "drifting toward nationalization" in opening remarks at a forum on health savings accounts. Bush heard from seven Oklahoma women who are small business owners during the one-hour forum, each of which described her experiences with the innovative health savings accounts. The accounts allow employees to build tax-free accounts that are used to pay for medical costs and follow them when they change jobs.
A vast majority of emergency room patients are discharged without understanding the treatment they received or how to care for themselves once they get home, according to researchers. The trend could lead to medication errors and serious complications that can send them right back to the hospital, they added. In the study, researchers followed 140 English-speaking patients discharged from emergency departments in two Michigan hospitals and measured their understanding in four areas. The study found that 78% of patients did not understand at least one area and about half did not understand two or more areas.
As the annual Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development conference gets under way this week, organizers are looking to the future, asking what their customers will want in 2012 and beyond. Can you say the same?
SHSMD has formed a committee to look at the 2012 conference. Among the topics of discussion: how to adjust to accommodate for budget and travel restrictions.
"We're looking at new models for learning and technology," says Geri Evans, president of Evans PR Group in Longwood, FL, and co-chair of this year's conference. "We're already trying to plan for a conference that might look totally different in five years," she says.
Although SHSMD is a professional membership association, it is also a business. And smart businesses, including hospitals, don't just focus on what their customers—or patients—want at this moment. They take a long-term look to determine how their business and the needs of their customers will change.
How will you communicate with patients and referring physicians in the future? How will the demographics of your market change? What economic, social, and other factors will come to bear? What new kinds of competitors are lurking around the bend? What service lines are poised for growth, and which ones might you abandon? What new technologies, procedures, and treatments are in the pipeline?
And is your organization prepared to meet future challenges, whatever they might be?
Answering all these questions is not an easy task. It involves a mix of market research, prognostication, gut instinct, and risk. And it involves a lot of time—a premium for today's busy marketers, who all too often are expected to do so much with so little.
But you have to try. You know the expression: Innovate or die.
Meanwhile, one good way to find the answers to some of these questions is through professional development—attending conferences and other live events, reading books and online articles, listening to Webcasts, and networking with your peers. These are the ways that you identify and prepare for what the future of healthcare marketing might bring.
Despite the fact that belts are tightening at many organizations, professional development is still a wise investment. Again, it's a long-term strategy, whereas cutting back on educational opportunities is short-sighted.
Evans feels that face-to-face networking is particularly helpful to healthcare marketers at all levels of experience and expertise.
"We need to be connected to our patients, we need to be connected to our colleagues—we must stay connected. I do believe that's how we grow and how we're nurtured," she says. "We lose too much if we're isolated."
So, is there a chance that someday, down the road, we'll be communicating with our peers by satellite and video feed? It surely would cut down on travel expenses.
"Personally, I hope that doesn't happen, because we would miss the relationship-building and that, in the end, is what all of this is about," Evans says.
I feel exactly the same way, which is why can't wait to see you in San Francisco. Stop by the HealthLeaders booth in the exhibit hall and say hello. We'll be posting live from the event on the HealthLeaders Marketing Web site, as well.
Gienna Shaw is an editor with HealthLeaders magazine. She can be reached at gshaw@healthleadersmedia.com.
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A consumer advocate group is criticizing Indiana hospital system Parkview Health's decision to buy the naming rights of a local minor league baseball field. The health system agreed to pay $300,000 a year for the rights to call the ballpark Parkview Field.