Promise Regional Medical Center leaders recently realized the hospital is aging and decided that something must be done to reach the high level of care they strive for. They decided to invest in several of the latest medical technology and begin some basic patient satisfaction tactics.
It's OK, I know you're scared. We all are. But we'll get through this together, I promise. No, I'm not talking about the current financial crisis or the dwindling balance on your 401K fund. I'm talking about what so many healthcare marketers seem to fear most: Measuring the return on investment of their marketing efforts.
I hear this all the time from others and I've witnessed it first-hand, too: Somebody says they're interested in learning more about ROI, but as soon as they dip their toe in the water, they complain that it's too cold and run shivering back to the familiar warmth of the campfire.
Yes, it involves math. Yes, it involves research and data and strategy. You have to decide what revenue you'll count, what expenses to deduct, and how much of the difference the campaign gets to take credit for—and everybody has to agree on it. Do you count a portion of the marketing department's salaries against the profit? Do you count downstream revenue for one year or for five?
The thing is that I know you can do this. After all, you haven't left to go watch funny kitten videos on YouTube, have you?
By the way, I'm also be leading a roundtable discussion at the 2008 HealthLeaders Media Marketing Awards today in Chicago. I hope you'll be there to hear how some of your peers in the healthcare industry are doing on the measurement front. If not, I'll have more to report on that next week.
Meanwhile, do you feel like this week's column doesn't apply to you because you already measure the ROI of everything? Well, stop it. The author of this article warns against "return on whatever," saying that businesses can be handcuffed by "green-tinted glasses." There are some efforts that can't be measured financially, such as improved employee satisfaction. But that shouldn't stop you from doing it.
Gienna Shaw is an editor with HealthLeaders magazine. She can be reached at gshaw@healthleadersmedia.com.
Note: You can sign up to receive HealthLeaders Media Marketing, a free weekly e-newsletter that will guide you through the complex and constantly-changing field of healthcare marketing.
A Cincinnati City Council committee has endorsed CincyCare, a program to provide health coverage for up to 2,000 people who are working but lack health benefits. The program would use Cincinnati health clinics to provide primary care, health screening, and a limited prescription benefit to employees of Cincinnati-based companies. Cincinnati Councilman John Cranley has been working on the program for more than a year with a group of local health insurers, hospital and foundation executives.
More than half of England-based GP practices are now offering extended hours to patients, meeting a government target three months early. Health minister Ben Bradshaw announced that 4,250 practices across England (51.4% of the total) were now opening on evenings and weekends. Earlier this year, the British Medical Association said medics were being "bullied" by ministers. But the BMA backed down and accepted a new style of contract which it said was "less damaging" than the alternative the government had threatened to impose.
More Americans are changing their behavior when it comes to taking care of their health, according to a new EBRI Health Confidence Survey underwritten by Des Moines, IA-based Principal Financial Group. The survey of 1,000 people indicates that Americans are showing some level of personal responsibility through heightened awareness and action: Two out of five Americans report they are often or always aware of the cost of a doctor's visit. "The economic crisis is serving as 'the tipping point' in terms of how Americans are changing behavior concerning their healthcare," said Jerry Ripperger, practice leader of consumer health at Principal.
The California-based foundation X-Prize, which helped launch the first private manned space flight in 2004, is teaming with the insurer WellPoint Inc. to try to fix the U.S. healthcare system. The companies have announced an open competition to devise solutions that improve healthcare cost and quality, with a $10 million prize for the winner. Essentially, the competition will look for ways to "dramatically improve" cost and quality, said Brad Fluegel, a WellPoint executive vice president.
Measuring and improving patient satisfaction has become a bigger priority at many hospitals, especially since Medicare started posting the responses of discharged patients online after hospitals survey their customers on whether they would recommend the facility. Among Nashville-area hospitals, surveys through year-end 2007 showed that 84% and 82%, respectively, of the patients discharged from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Saint Thomas Hospital would definitely recommend those hospitals. The reputation of a hospital could affect its market share, its ability to recruit doctors, and how much money it gets in reimbursements from the government.
Healthcare spending has grown by about 2% annually over the past 50 years, and experts only see more growth into the future. If this continues, they predict that countries will eventually be spending more than a fifth of their funding on healthcare alone.
Companion Global Healthcare Inc., a South Carolina-based medical travel company, has announced that Min-Sheng General Hospital in Taiwan, Japan, is now part of its network of international hospitals, offering affordable surgery and other care to American patients. This is the 11th hospital to join Companion's network, following hospitals in India, Costa Rica, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, and Ireland.
The Tourism Department of the Philippines will soon begin tracking the number of medical tourists who visit the country, in looking at the government's effectiveness in promoting it as a healthcare destination. Low medical costs and competitive skills and technology are increasingly attracting foreign patients, including those from the U.S.
