If, like me, you're curious about what's next for healthcare marketing, you're probably keeping an eye on Florida Hospital's plans to open the Disney Children's Hospital in 2010. In addition to the usual promises—great doctors, advanced technology, and high quality—the Orlando hospital has big plans for branding itself on patient experience. (You can read more about the planned hospital in my September 10 column, You Need a Different Differentiator.)
For the November HealthLeaders magazine cover story on new brand strategies to attract patients, my colleague, contributing writer Marianne Aiello, interviewed Sy Saliba, senior vice president of marketing and planning at the 17-hospital health system. He had so many interesting things to say, but we just couldn't fit them all in the article. Thank goodness for the Internet . . . now I can share them with you here.
Saliba talks about an issue that hospital and health system marketers have long struggled with: the fact that, with only a few exceptions, they're selling a product that nobody wants.
"Even the vocabulary of hospitals resembles that of a prison. We talk about inmates and inpatients. There's a whole vocabulary of hospital language that is very custodial in its approach, versus the hospitality industry, the hotel industry—which talks about guests," he says.
"Basically, when you come in as a patient you have to surrender your clothes, you have to put on a gown, your things are kept for you. There's a very custodial environment still associated with the hospital culture, even today, if you stop and reflect on it."
In fact, the healthcare industry seems unusually attached to the model, a habit developed over many, many years. But if you want to compete in today's patient-centric environment, it's time to let go and try something new.
As Walt Disney once said, "It's kinda fun to do the impossible."
"In terms of the patient experience [we ask], ‘How can we re-craft the experience so it reflects more one of the hospitality industry rather than one of a prison?'" Saliba says. "But the hospitality industry isn't quite where [hospitals] should be—that's fun and entertainment. People are dealing with fairly serious issues when they come to the hospital, so the experience probably should partake of dimensions and facets of the hospitality industry and merge those with some of the home and of the family. And that's really the kind of experience we're trying to craft."
You might not have the resources to match Disney Children's Hospital's magical plans. But it doesn't hurt to dream about and plan for the future.
As the Fairy Godmother once said, "Even miracles take a little time."
Gienna Shaw is an editor with HealthLeaders magazine. She can be reached at gshaw@healthleadersmedia.com.
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Chronically ill Americans suffer far worse care than their counterparts in seven other industrial nations, according to a new study by the Commonwealth Fund. The findings are the latest telling evidence that the dysfunctional American healthcare system badly needs reform, says this editorial in the New York Times.
A pilot program that will allow Medicare patients to make their medical records available online will cut down on paperwork headaches and help prevent unnecessary procedures, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said. Leavitt helped announce the four companies that will take part in the Medicare PHR Choice Pilot, which launches in January in Arizona and Utah. The program will allow Medicare patients to have a personal health records company maintain their records and provide them to doctors, as directed by the patient.
Some healthcare groups are pushing Congress to include funding for threatened health programs in a second economic stimulus package, and AARP is asking lawmakers to provide a temporary boost to Medicaid funding to help states stave off cuts in the program. States are facing a total budget deficit of about $50 billion, and AARP worries that cuts to Medicaid would threaten their health while eroding their economic security.
Will President-elect Barack Obama be a plus or a minus for rural healthcare?
Medical economist and healthcare "futurist" Jeff Bauer says it's hard to say because the president-elect and product of Chicago doesn't have a history on the issue in his few years in the U.S. Senate.
"I'm not aware that Barack Obama brings any particular expertise or personal ties to rural health with him to the White House. Nothing about Obama tells me anything about what his policies towards rural health will be. He has simply not been seen as a leader in that area like (Sen.) Max Baucus (D-MT)," says Bauer, a consultant and futures practice leader for ACS Healthcare Solutions. "There are a number of members of Congress, you tell me their names and I know where they're going. I know their policies on rural health clinics or money for critical-access hospitals. Obama doesn't bring that level of identification with any rural healthcare policy."
That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just an unknown. It's not like the president-elect will be "anti-rural health." But the emphasis on funding public health policy in tight budget years might be shifted to other areas, like increasing physician reimbursements or expanding medical schools, rather than specifically toward rural health.
Rather than guessing the future actions of a president-elect with no discernable track record in the area of rural health, Bauer says Obama's possible actions in the rural health arena can be more accurately predicted by examining the people he appoints to key public health positions. "I'm a firm believer that people make as much of a difference as budgets and policies. I'm hearing names of people with strong commitments to HHS and CMS, where the future of rural healthcare will be very much decided," Bauer says.
There have been widespread media reports that former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota has been leading the Obama transition team's healthcare policy component and will likely be offered a key appointment. There is even talk in some circles of making the former Senate majority leader a "healthcare czar," although it's not really clear what that means. At deadline for this column, high ranking Democrats were saying Daschle had been tapped to lead HHS.
"Barack Obama is going to turn to Tom Daschle for something very significant, whether it's HHS or secretary of education," Bauer says. "If it's Daschle, he authored many of the bills that gave money to rural hospitals and clinics, and he is a pro-rural as they come."
Rural healthcare can also expect continued backing from the powerful Senate Finance Committee chaired by Baucus with ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-IA.
Rural health will need all the friends it can get, Bauer says, because the biggest factor will not be who's in the White House, but the state of the economy. Federal tax dollars will be scarce at least for the next year or two, and the fight for funding is expected to be fierce. "This issue will always come back to the economy and whether there is money to maintain critical-access programs or money to get serious about supporting information infrastructure technology development," Bauer says. "That is going to be really tough in the current budget environment."
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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Leading companies know there are business opportunities in times of economic downturns and that marketing can help lead the way to increased profitability. The chief marketing officers at consumer electronics retailer Best Buy and global technology services giant Wipro know this practice is the key to success.