Should outcomes transparency drive healthcare marketing?

In a very enlightening article "How to Stop Hospitals From Killing Us", by Dr. Marty Makary, Wall Street Journal, Saturday, September 22. 2012, writes about the importance of outcomes transparency for hospitals. It's about releasing your outcomes data to patients and others so that they can make informed decisions.

It's time for hospital executives to stand up, be counted and stop the equivalent of four, fully loaded jumbo jets crashing each day and killing all aboard like we do in healthcare.

This is a topics that is near and dear to me. Well maybe even a soapbox issue, having written about using outcomes dates and being transparent in healthcare marketing for the past couple of years.

And I am glad to see a physician stand up and say, it's time for a change. Writing specifically on the types of data and in a dashboard format.

I think and have maintain for a while now, that it is time to give the healthcare consumer be it physicians, payers, government, employer, individual or family, or any other stakeholder you can identify, quality and outcomes data to make decisions.

That's really the only avenue left for healthcare providers, to start talking about quality and outcomes. Engaging in a meaningful dialogue, that goes beyond accreditation logos and quality awards from third parties, to an actual honest-to-goodness quality and outcomes disclosure and discussion.

Few healthcare providers are willing. Most are afraid of this direction. But, it's a strategy and tactic that can break the current cycle of avoidance and loss. Recognizing that your customers are best served by the healthcare organization that places them first in a meaningful way, is open and transparent.

You have some choices here. Stay the course and do what you have been doing. Get lost in an endless paralysis by analysis loop. Mimic your competitors. Talk about quality and outcomes in vague terms. Or, be the first in your market, to establish a clear strategic marketing plan focused on your healthcare consumers about your brand, quality and outcomes.

Sooner or later, you are going to have to do this.

If you are not willing to change, then don't expect a different outcome from doing the same old healthcare marketing that you have been.

I suggest that you read the article. The future of healthcare outcomes disclosure is here.

Michael Krivich is an internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger with over 4,000 monthly pages views in over 52 countries worldwide. He is founder of the michael J group, a healthcare marketing consultancy dedicated to creating value through strategic marketing for hospitals and health system regardless of payment mechanism, either fee-for-service or value-based to increase market-share, revenue , brand and demonstrate actual return on marketing investment. Michael is a Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association.