mommyjenlin

The last couple of weeks have been interesting in the world of hospital marketing. It was one of those what were they thinking moments. Let me set the stage. A new hospital opens in Bolingbrook, Illinois. It has been under construction for two years and is the first new greenfield hospital in 25 years. Looks like a major PR opportunity but no. The marketing consisted of some billboards without any mention of location, one full page advertisement, and one direct mail piece. Most of which happened during that two years before the hospital opens. Now that's useful. So what do they do, open the hospital, a couple of newspaper stories and a billboard way off the expressway and a radio commercial. Build it and they will come mentality. Guess what? People are not coming. So for the last couple of weeks high on top of the hospital, the Adventist's and yes its Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital puts a giant black sign with white letters saying "NOW OPEN". Oh, I bet that will draw ...

Its been a short while since I have posted. The main reason being the wealth of new knowledge and lessons learned at the American College of Healthcare Executives, 75th Annual Congress on Healthcare Leadership. The theme of this years Congress was Redefining Healthcare. Much to ponder from new insights and understandings. An under-current of thought at the Congress was the sense that healthcare is undergoing some fundamental restructuring. No, not the kind that really addresses the underlying systemic process and care issues, not the "medicalized" social issues like the estimated 47 million men, women and children without health insurance, nor the crisis in Medicare solvency. The kind of change that over a generation will have a basic and fundamental shift based on the transparency of quality and data reporting. Where we were Healthcare in general for far too long, has been mired in secrecy and arrogance. No data releases, no voluntary reporting of adverse events, little effo...

Well, we've just completed our 6th annual technology marketing barometer study, and I have some good news and bad news to share with you. Let's get the bad news over with first. As marketers, we have our challenges cut out for us in 2008: Challenging economic environment in 2008: An unsteady marketplace is introducing significant aversion to risk by tech executives. Drive for overall marketing efficiency and effectiveness will continue with mounting budget pressure and market competitiveness. Market and marketing channels will continue to proliferate, creating challenges and opportunities. Tech marketing budgets will increase by 4% for the full year 2008. Although this is an increase, it is the lowest that IDC has forecast in the past four years and portends further pressure on the marketing function for cost control and productivity increases. Now a bit of good news. For the companies that have been diligent in improving their marketing operations and effectiveness during th...

$1.5 Trillion and Counting A couple of weeks ago, Health Affairs reported that healthcare spending increased by $750 billion to $1.5 trillion. It was also predicted that by 2017 healthcare spending would increase to $4 trillion. Okay, can anybody without giggling too hard really admit that they can comprehend and understand exactly what $4 trillion means? Monopoly money... it has no meaning except for those that can figure out how to be part of that spending. Hospitals, health systems, medical device manufacturers, pharma, physicians, associations etc., all looking at what piece of the pie is theirs. The economist's know what that means. So what else are we to spend our money on? Well, that kind of spending is unsustainable and will force concrete action to fix a broken healthcare system. Just what that will look like is any ones guess at this time. Don't fix it and we will have rationing, long waits and a national healthcare system where no one is cared for. And a dollar th...

An inconvenient truth for IT vendors: The factors least considered by vendors in go-to-market programs are those most valued by technology buyers: IT vendors focus on the ROI of their marketing programs and their sales programs. They might also talk about the ROI a buyer can expect to achieve with their product (i.e., product ROI). Few sufficiently consider the ROI a buyer expects to achieve by spending time with a vendor’s information and people -- the relationship ROI. Technology marketers build marketing mix plans based on format (e.g., advertisement versus conference versus blog) and communications channel (e.g., TV versus Web versus print). But, in making IT purchase decisions, corporate buyers value content relevance and credibility over format and channel. When it comes to mobilizing a sales force, most tech vendors subscribe to one sales methodology or another and institute a sequence of selling stages. Meanwhile, the buying process is far from standard. According to a recent ...

The Chicago Bears, Brian Urlacher and HIPAA No, this is not a joke. It has been most interesting reading sports columnists and broadcasters lament to a great common chorus that no one knows about the extent of Urlacher’s injury and his neck surgery. The Bears aren’t talking, the doctors aren’t talking and nobody else is talking. It is as if some serious plot has developed to keep the real story from the media. Hogwash….. As a 20 year healthcare executive life changed a few years ago when HIPAA became the law of the land. Simply put, if an individual does not want anything released about their medical condition, treatment, so forth and so on, that was that. No press leaks, no briefings from the Bears, no info from the hospital, doctor’s or anybody else. The federal government has clamped down really hard on the privacy issue and this falls into that. Urlacher is the only person, who can make the decision on who does or does not receive any information about his medical condition or trea...

A most interesting column appeared in the Tuesday, January 29, 2008 Wall Street Journal "The GOPs Prescription for Health Care", by Grace-Marie Turner. A good read and provides valuable information. Ms. Turner is the president of the Galen Institute and editor of "Empowering Health Care Consumers through Tax Reform", University of Michigan Press, 1999. But and this is a big but, the premise of empowering consumers is that competition in the marketplace will fix the healthcare ills of the US faces some serious questions. On the face of it potentially true. In most markets competition drives down cost, improves quality and diversity of choice. Healthcare does not operate as a true free-market competitive environment. It is more complex than the private health insurance, workplace, choice debate. The fundamental problem with the healthcare landscape is that until the very basics of regulatory reform are made to impact and make it a true competitive environment, all the...