Clifton Park, NY-based Healthcare Information Exchange of New York is slated to begin recruiting non-healthcare businesses as members. The non-profit group will establish a regional health information organization that will link local healthcare providers to insurers.
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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Health insurers are regularly pummeled for customer service lapses, and they often deserve the criticism. But they are not the only ones who merit a rap on the knuckles. The Medicare program is not doing a good job engaging its beneficiaries either. In fact, a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing last week showed Medicare's helpline has not been helpful. Committee member Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) spoke of disappointing results from a three-and-a-half-year investigation that was sparked after concerns about the influx of calls related to Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage.
In 500 test calls, the senator's staff alleged wait times ranged from zero to 45 minutes, and six calls were disconnected while on hold. Another shocking statistic is that the call centers, staffed by a company called Vangent, were wrong or unable to answer at least one question 90% of the time, he said.
Vangent disagreed with that statement and alleged that surveys show 85% of callers are satisfied with the call centers' work.
One person who definitely is not is Naomi Sullivan, a dual-eligible 57-year-old woman from Chico, CA, who testified about her call center experiences. After being mistakenly enrolled in Medicare Part D rather than Medicare Advantage, Sullivan called 1-800-Medicare and told a representative that she could not afford the plan premiums on her less than $700 per month disability check. She wound up in collections because she couldn't pay for her health insurance, other bills, and food.
What was one call center representative's response to Sullivan? Get a part-time job. Sullivan wasn't told she was eligible to switch plans, which would have resolved some of her payment issues.
"I just needed a little help and some direction in how to get things sorted out. I didn't get that help from Medicare," Sullivan told the committee last week. Medicare reportedly isn't doing a good job with 1-800-Medicare, but what about its Web site, which is supposed to help beneficiaries?
Last month, a University of Miami study reported that beneficiaries found the Medicare Web site difficult to navigate and they were unable to gain the information they wanted. They also told researchers that some of the language was too complex.
These two communication problems will hopefully prod Congress to action. The feds are fond of investigations, and Medicare's communication problems are an area to explore. Communication problems will only become a larger problem over the next 10 years. Medicare's call centers are expecting 34.5 million calls in 2009 and the Web site will see more eyeballs as the Internet continues as a popular source of healthcare information. CMS must get its act together fast. The baby boomers are coming-and you won't like them when they're angry.
Les Masterson is senior editor of Health Plan Insider. He can be reached at lmasterson@healthleadersmedia.com. Note: You can sign up to receiveHealth Plan Insider, a free weekly e-newsletter designed to bring breaking news and analysis of important developments at health plans and other managed care organizations to your inbox.
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.
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 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.
Baby boomers are beginning to use social networking sites, according to a new "Entertainment Trends in America" study by The NPD Group in Port Washington, NY. The study found that 41% of boomers have visited a social networking site, and 61% have visited a streaming video site.
No matter the industry, annual reports have been seen primarily as a tool for reporting financials to investors. One hospital, though, is holding the annual report to a completely different standard: as a vehicle for fundraising, involvement, and community awareness.
Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville started doing annual reports after a move to a new facility. "We started doing this to make ourselves more known," says Jessica Ennis, publications editor for Vanderbilt Children's Hospital
. "We had never done one before I got here but we knew we wanted to use the report as a multipurpose piece."
From the start, Ennis and others worked to find a way to create something different to fulfill the facility's needs. "We sat down to think about a way to tell what we're doing in a different way," says Ennis, "I certainly don't like to read the typical report so I didn't want to make one."
Straying from the 'typical' proved to be easy once a creative focus was established. Vanderbilt Children's Hospital decided that the best way to convey the information for a Children's Hospital would be through the story of a child. The annual report and the child's real-life story were then transformed into a physical children's book that Ennis wrote.
The child that was chosen had been featured briefly in another Vanderbilt Children's Hospital publication after having undergone a heart procedure at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. "I thought he would be best for the illustration, a cute little red-headed boy," says Ennis. She spent hours with the boy and his family trying to get a feel for what they went through at the hospital, and the things he liked to play with and do.
The story describes the boy's condition and procedure in an adult- and child-friendly way. The story takes the reader through the boy's experiences, to the people he met, the things he saw at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, and the things he did. In other words, Vanderbilt Children's Hospital managed to inconspicuously deliver the information within a typical annual report in a subtle yet interesting way. And the typical financials? Nestled within every book on a bookmark.
"What's really unique about the book was the extra mileage it's gotten," says Ennis. "People who saw it were so interested in it that they insisted that we put them in our gift shop for fundraising, a congenial heart organization contacted me about ordering some to put on its Web site as a resource. There have been newspaper articles about it and it has been read in kindergarten classrooms. I even saw it for resale on Amazon."
"Obviously, we got mileage that we never expected from taking a different approach," says Ennis. "It's been neat to see that it has gotten as far as it has and that's something you would never see with a typical annual report."
Kandace McLaughlin is an editor with HealthLeaders magazine. Send her Campaign Spotlight ideas at kmclaughlin@healthleadersmedia.com If you are a marketer submitting a campaign on behalf of your facility or client, please ensure you have permission before doing so.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and House Democrats say they will renew the Mcare abatement program if the Republican-run Senate agrees to extend healthcare coverage to more state citizens. This is prompting physicians statewide to worry about the future of the rebate program.
