mommyjenlin

Recent figures indicated that owned medical practices by hospitals and health systems are losing $170K a year. It's causing a lot of angst in the leadership suite and with the Board of Directors in hospitals and health systems. And everyone knows these losses are unsustainable. There are of course many reasons for this, some are structural, some are organizational, some are cultural, some are management decisions made and all playing a part in why the practice is losing so much money. But one reason should never be because you don't market that medical practice effectively. And sadly, there is a lot of ineffective medical practice marketing going on by hospitals and health systems. Medical practices are one of the few remain opportunities to drive volume and revenue. Its sure not the hospital, that's the last place you will be wanting to drive volume, especially to the inpatient side. The drive to create ACOs in a value-based payment environment demands a different t...

There is a subtle but important market shift developing healthcare. And it's really a result of the growing healthcare consumerism movement I wrote about last week. That is the "patient" who is evolving into the healthcare consumer is making healthcare choices based on cost. Look, I get that we don't sell widgets. And as much as we decry and bemoan anybody that dares to bring up the subject of price, consumerism and patient dominated decision-making and choice in healthcare spawns from the devil himself, the fact remains that the "patient" is becoming a healthcare consumer and making choices based on cost. You can't ignore it, or hide your head in the sand anymore because it's not going away. Here's some of the evidence: (I receive no payment, nor have any contractual of relationships with the following aforementioned companies.) Aetna's easy-to-use, out-of-pocket payment estimator. Simple really, know the cost of a test, visit or procedure; ...

With healthcare changing so rapidly, is it time to move healthcare marketing beyond " it's all about us" to "it's all about you" through focused brand architecture containing a clear and compelling brand promise that proves every day the value of your healthcare brand to the healthcare consumer? Unless you are a brand new provider in the market, you have been beating the healthcare consumer for years now all about your features and benefits. They get it. In today's brave new world, it's about brand value to the healthcare consumer, perceived and real along several dimensions that most healthcare organizations haven't paid too much attention too, but the healthcare consumer is. Your brand will be viewed and will be challenged by multiple audiences along these dimensions: price; outcomes; experience; access; convenience; and choice. And if you don't have answers to these brand attributes that healthcare consumers are starting to look for, then ...

With a dynamically changing healthcare industry, employment of physicians is making a big comeback to the hospital industry. Born of necessity, hospitals and physicians are being driven by reimbursement declines, effectiveness and efficiency pressures, retail clinic competition and new opportunities. The drive to create ACOs in a value-based payment environment demands a different type of physician relationship.  With this new opportunity to reinvent, revitalize and recapture what previously before had been an adventure on the part of hospitals with mixed results, it's time to discuss how one goes about marketing the employed physician. First break from the past...... It's easy to look at this and say we'll just do what we did in the past in promoting employed physicians and be done with it. That is a dangerous mistake. Healthcare consumers/patients are making physician choices based price, location and convenience due to increasing co-pays and rising deductibles. If you...

With healthcare changing so rapidly, is it time to move healthcare marketing beyond "all about us" to the value and benefit we bring to the healthcare consumer? Unless you are a brand new provider in the market, you have been telling your audiences all about your features and benefits for years now. They get it. In today's world, it's about value and benefit to the healthcare consumer. In today's world, it's about the answering the healthcare consumers question of what is my ROI for using you? In today's world, you need to have a compelling value proposition with messaging that provides clear and understandable benefits to the healthcare consumer. Value Marketing Value marketing really, is making the case to your healthcare consumer how you are solving a problem, offering a solution, giving results and even making them happy. Value marketing is a creative exchange between people and organizations in the marketplace. It is a dynamic transaction that constan...

With dynamic changes occurring in the healthcare industry as a result of the Patient Protections and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), leading to ACOs, medical homes and such, employment of physicians is making a big comeback to the hospital industry. Born of necessity, hospitals and physicians are being driven by reimbursement changes from production of care payment, to value-based care payment and opportunity. With this new opportunity to reinvent, revitalize and recapture what previously before had been an adventure on the part of hospitals with mixed results, its time to discuss how one goes about marketing the employed physician. What is needed is a new look at what you are doing and changing to meet the needs of your healthcare consumer, not you. With great change comes great opportunity. That is if one is willing to embrace that change and find new ways of moving forward and creating value. Your Brand. Your Value. The Healthcare Consumers Choice. You need to communicate very strongly...

Healthgrades, Malcolm Baldrige, Thompson Top 100, U S World & News Report and others are making their healthcare quality rankings for various diseases known. And if the hospital or health system is willing to pony up some cash, they too can use those rankings in their marketing and PR efforts. But beyond the obvious campaigning, what I fail to see is how health systems or hospital awardees are communicating in any meaningful way what those quality awards means to the healthcare consumer. As I have written in the past, what is the value of that information to the healthcare consumer? A nice representation of the actual award and saying are in the top 5 percent nationally in (insert disease here) leaves it kind of lacking. Especially when other hospitals you compete against are making the same claim. Wasted Opportunity A shame really. The campaigning I am seeing in its current form treats the healthcare consumer like they are some kind of idiot. It also reinforces what the healthcare...

Previously, I authored a couple of blogs on the Re-emergence of Centers of Excellence (CoE) due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), as well as starting a most interesting discussion on LinkedIn in the American College of Healthcare Executives Group . Those blogs and discussion really focused more on the operational and quality of care characteristics of a CoE than marketing. The point being that with the rise of healthcare consumerism driven by many factors outside the control of healthcare providers, that you could no longer look around and just say that you have a CoE in a particular service-line or disease -state. So, if as a leader in your healthcare organization you have come to realize that the healthcare consumer deserves more than just the old ways of doing things, you have really looked at your self-described CoEs and beefed them up to true reflections of organizational and quality of care excellence, then just maybe you are ready to begin marketing ...

What really was the impetuous for today's blog was a two-page, full-page spread from a major healthcare system. It caught my attention for the fact that there was a lot of copy and it was all about us. I looked for the value proposition and the compelling reason why this is important to me, but could not find any. A very expensive way to talk at someone. With healthcare changing so rapidly, is it time to move healthcare advertising beyond "all about us" to the value and benefit we bring to you , the healthcare consumer. I mean, unless you are a brand new provider in the market, you have been telling your audiences all about your features and benefits for years now. They get it. In today's world, it's about value and benefit to the healthcare consumer. In today's world, it's about the answering the healthcare consumers question of what is my ROI for using you? In today's world, you need to have a compelling value proposition with messaging that provides...