mommyjenlin

An interesting discussion started on LinkedIn in the American College of Healthcare Executives Group regarding my original blog on the Re-Emergence of Centers of Excellence. The questions as asked by Howard Gershon, Principal, New Heights Group, LLC., was how would I define a Center of Excellence? A fair question since I had not done that in the original post. My thanks also to L. Elizabeth Mullikin, FACHE, Executive Director, Neurosciences Institute at John Muir Health, Leon Harris, Administrative Resident, Providence Hospital and Roy Orr, FACHE, Consultant, Firethorne Interim Hospital Consulting for their contributions to the discussion. I have seen healthcare organizations all over the board on the topic of Centers of Excellence. Here are the attributes that I consider to make up a Center of Excellence for any disease-state. The ones added by Elizabeth, Leon and Roy are an asterisk. These attributes are not necessarily in order of importance. Board certified specialist and subspecia...

The other day, I was attending an American Marketing Association webinar on “ Your Customers Aren’t Hiding the Answers, You Just Need to Know Where to Look ”, sponsored by Autonomy Multichannel Customer Interaction Solutions. The presenters were Andrew Joiner, CEO and Jeff Westover, VP Marketing. (Note, I am not receiving any payment in mentioning this, but you will see why in a short bit. It’s all about full attribution.) In one slide they presented what really summed up for me what most healthcare marketing is like. And I wish I had thought of it; which bring us back to the original question. Are you working in a HiPPO marketing environment? H Highest P Paid P Position O Opinion Yes HiPPO! It was a moment in time where it all fell toget...

Is there hope for hospital marketing leadership? A broad question which is really more than just a simple yes or no. And I for one, really don't know if an answer is possible due to the complexity of the question. Here's why...... A couple of weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation with the CEO of a hospital regarding a Vice President of Marketing position, or was it Director? They hadn't quit made up their minds and advertised it as Vice President while their web site indicated Vice President/Director, the HR person said Director while the CEO never committed. Just a few red flags. Another red flag was that the hospital set-up the interview for a specific time and they would call. The day came and yes they called.... 10 minutes late. No apology, no explanation, no initial courtesy to extend any kind of acknowledgement that my time was as equally as valuable as theirs. The CEO and the Director of HR on one end of the phone and me on the other. The HR person never said ...

With the Senate yesterday introducing a HC reform bill, its clear that the battle lines are being drawn between a government insurance option vs big insurers. Expect the Obama PR team to hammer big insurers and enhance the public already aving a strong dislike of healthcare payors. What does that mean healthcare providers ? Watch the battle closely, you will have to choose. What to do. LEVERAGE, LEVERAGE, LEVERAGE... Marketing departments should be working with senior leadership and in their communities to get a pulse from all constituent groups, not just favorites on the topic of healthcare reform. As issues develop create media statements for local press on why you do or do not support. Consider offering your facility as a town hall meeting place. Find out where your docs are at. Help them understand the issues and develop PR/Media kits for them to use. Consider web site updates and links to various organizations. Become the local expert source for commentary and opinion. Get leaders...

$150 billion dollars for healthcare in the stimulus bill, $19 billion of which is for IT. Think everyone is trying to figure out how they get theirs? And I don't mean the hospitals and IDNs . I figure McKesson and Cerner are well on their way, including a host of other niche players (small and large) healthcare IT providers trying to figure out (as if they haven't already) what's in it for them. With all the different systems and no common standards will this turn into a really more expensive version of the Betamax vs VHS video tape format wars from the mid 1980s with that ancient technology of VCR? Now the budget contains another $600 billion plus for healthcare reform. All told, this totals in excess of $700 billion. Just the first down payment for fixing the system folks. I bet the AHA and AMA are busy figuring out how much they can get without having to change anything. Like I said in previous blogs, its all about politics. Obama being a veteran of Chicago politic...