This past year, HealthLeaders spoke with healthcare marketing executives from organizations across the country, including those from Mass General Brigham, Advocate Aurora Health, LifePoint Health, the National Rural Health Association, and City of Hope Orange County.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, health organizations have had to get more innovative when it comes to marketing to their patients and communities. This includes inviting consumers back to the hospitals and health systems, community vaccination strategies, messages of thanks to clinical staff, and keeping up with brand awareness.
This past year, HealthLeaders spoke with healthcare marketing executives from organizations across the country, including those from Mass General Brigham, Advocate Aurora Health, LifePoint Health, the National Rural Health Association, and City of Hope Orange County.
In the articles below, HealthLeaders talks with executives who share their organization's marketing strategies and how they implemented those initiatives during the pandemic.
Rebranding During a Pandemic: Q&A with Mass General Brigham CMO
In November 2019, Partners HealthCare CEO Anne Klibanski, MD, announced a five-year strategic plan and rebranding for the Boston-based health system, renaming it Mass General Brigham to highlight the system's two prestigious academic medical centers: Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Mark Bohen, MBA, joined the health system in September 2020 as chief marketing officer. Since then, he's led the patient-focused marketing and rebranding efforts through the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic to unify the Mass General Brigham brand.
Bohen shares the health system's marketing strategies, how the pandemic has affected them, and what initiatives are still to come.
Consumer-First Focus at Advocate Aurora Health
The pandemic has shifted the way consumers expect healthcare to be delivered. Technology is being further utilized to ensure a more convenient patient experience. In-person care is now among multiple options for patients, with the accelerated use of telemedicine and digital apps being introduced and adapted.
Advocate Aurora Health, a nonprofit health system with dual headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Downers Grove, Illinois, is among the health systems adapting to these consumer expectations.
Kelly Jo Golson, the health system's chief brand and consumer experience officer, shares with HealthLeaders the organization's strategies behind its consumer-first focus.
How LifePoint Uses Marketing to Drive Its Mission
LifePoint Health is a national health system that operates a network of hospitals, post-acute service providers, and outpatient centers across 30 states. Although the Brentwood, Tennessee-based organization has a large footprint, it unites all of its services under one singular mission: Making Communities Healthier®.
During an interview earlier this year, the organization's CEO, David Dill, spoke about how LifePoint continued to operate with its mission at the forefront, even during the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kathy Winn, MBA, FACHE, vice president of strategic marketing at LifePoint, shares how the health system's marketing strategy also operates with the organization's mission at the forefront and helps to continue to drive the mission during the pandemic.
NRHA's Grassroots Initiative To Target Rural Vaccine Hesitancy
Rural America has faced continued disparity in infection and death rates during the coronavirus pandemic. According to a study by the Rural Policy Research Institute, the COVID-19 death rate in rural communities is double the level of urban communities. In mid-October, rural counties, which make up 14% of the U.S. population, accounted for 25% of COVID-19 related deaths in the country.
A new initiative from the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) is looking to change that through vaccination efforts in rural communities.
The Rural Vaccine Confidence Initiative, which launched in September in conjunction with the Rural Health Clinic Conference, is a grassroots effort to increase vaccination rates across rural communities. Its focus is spreading awareness and education on a local level and utilizing community leaders to help spread the messaging.
Alan Morgan, MPA, who serves as CEO of the NRHA, shares details about the initiative, how COVID is continuing to affect rural communities, and how rural health stakeholders can successfully target vaccine hesitancy in their communities.
4 Strategies on Consumer Engagement in a New Community
When a healthcare organization has grown roots in its community and already engages its consumers, marketing can still be a difficult task. But what about for those organizations that must enter a new community?
City of Hope (COH) Orange County, a cancer research and treatment center in California, has the answers.
COH opened its first Orange County location in Newport Beach, California, in January 2020. And while Orange County has a "seemingly healthy lifestyle," it doesn't mean that the people in the community are immune to cancer statistics. Currently, the national cancer statistic is that one in three people will get cancer, Nisha Morris, the vice president of marketing and communications for COH Orange County, said in a recent interview.
Prior to opening that first location, the cancer treatment organization needed to utilize marketing strategies to connect with the community and learn their needs and have brand awareness. Morris shares the organization's successful strategies on making a name in its new community.
Melanie Blackman is a contributing editor for strategy, marketing, and human resources at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.