Viewpoint: Strategies for Success

4 Health Care Workforce Moves to Make Now

By The SHSMD Team posted 6 days ago
Front-line staffing shortages and fallout from the pandemic have caused hospitals and health systems to adjust their workforce strategies. Some are raising pay or offering more attractive benefits, housing or child care assistance and greater flexibility to attract and retain physicians, nurses and other personnel. Others are expanding mental health benefits to help employees cope with stress, fatigue and burnout. Responding to the challenge Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems will expand its benefits by roughly $40 million per year among its 66,000 staff. The new benefits are designed to help employees eliminate student loan debt quicker, ...
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SHSMD Members Discuss How to Build Public Trust and Confidence in Health Care

By The SHSMD Team posted 14 days ago
Trust is the foundation to any relationship, and it is no different for health care providers and the communities they serve. A recent Edelman report gauging global trust in health care systems shows trust is a key determinant of health for both individual and public health care decisions. In the U.S., 48% of survey respondents felt decreased confidence in their health care system in handling a major health crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled conversations regarding trust in health care systems among communities, adding new pressures to health care marketing, communication and strategy teams. At a recent SHSMD Member Meet Up, Building Public Trust ...
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SHSMD’s Top Workforce Roundup: April 27, 2022

By The SHSMD Team posted 20 days ago
SHSMD would like to facilitate conversations, resources and strategies for its members as the field experiences transitions and a need for implementation of workforce solutions. Please visit the AHA workforce homepage for a host of resources that you can use and customize for your community. New Workforce Resources: AHA Action Alert - Urge Congress to Support Hospitals as They Contend with Many Challenges to Ensure Access to Care in Communities AHA Resources CASE STUDY - Preventing Physician Suicide: Center for WorkLife Wellbeing PODCAST - Addressing Workforce Challenges in America's Health Care Systems (featuring Elisa Arespacochaga ...
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Innovation Lessons from the Pandemic

By The SHSMD Team posted 04-13-2022
It is no accident that so many hospitals and health systems performed at their best under the worst pandemic conditions. Lessons learned years earlier enabled organizations to excel under the stress of the pandemic. Knowledge developed about rapid problem-solving, process improvement, optimizing critical care team efficiency and hospital flow steeled teams for this crisis. Some high-performing organizations recently provided insights on how they met these difficult challenges. Go with the Flow Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Medical Center, part of Northwell Health, was among the hardest hit regions by COVID-19 patient surges in early 2020. It went from ...
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SHSMD’s Top Workforce Roundup: April 6, 2022

By The SHSMD Team posted 04-05-2022
SHSMD would like to facilitate conversations, resources and strategies for its members as the field experiences transitions and a need for implementation of workforce solutions. Please visit the AHA workforce homepage for a host of resources that you can use and customize for your community. New Workforce Resources: AHA Launches Health Equity Roadmap New Data - Hospitals And Health Systems Add 5,100 Jobs In March AHA Issues Statement on Ruling in Nurse Patient Safety Case The below is a roundup of current news stories on the topic of workforce: 1. Poor Medical Workforce Diversity Harming Health Equity, Experience ...
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3 Takeaways from Recent Telehealth Analyses

By The SHSMD Team posted 03-15-2022
Nearly all stakeholders have been pursuing a telehealth expansion strategy with an eye toward the post-pandemic future. Provider organizations, health care disruptors in retail, payers and equity firms alike have been investing significantly with a less than complete picture of what virtual care’s future holds. Questions remain about who the primary telehealth users are, where utilization is concentrated, how patients prefer to access care and how physicians feel about delivering care in this manner. Two recent reports looked at these issues and came to a similar finding: Absent significant change, telehealth will continue to shrink. Among the findings ...
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5 Ways to Ease Staffing Shortages Now and into the Future

By The SHSMD Team posted 03-08-2022
For the first time in nearly two decades, staffing shortages replaced financial challenges as the top concern among CEOs in the American College of Healthcare Executives’ annual survey. In December, a Moody’s Investors Service report forecast that staffing shortages and labor costs will bring higher expenses and an ensuing decline in operating cash flow for nonprofit hospitals and public health care. Many believe today’s staffing shortages, particularly in nursing, are more pronounced than in the past and will persist beyond 2022. But there are steps that can be taken now to ease future workforce pressures. 1 | Customize Retention Strategies ...
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3 Principles For a Seamless Patient Digital Experience

By The SHSMD Team posted 02-22-2022
Hospitals and health systems are ramping up efforts to create seamless digital consumer experiences that rival those found in retail. Health care organizations reported new levels of use in patient portals, online health information gathering and mobile apps in the 2021 Most Wired Survey conducted by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME). Prioritizing patient preferences Recent reports also indicate that digital health leaders are prioritizing tools to improve patient engagement and outcomes. Among the findings from a survey of CHIME members conducted by the patient engagement platform developer Intrado: ...
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How to Address 3 Critical Health Care Focus Areas For 2022

By The SHSMD Team posted 02-14-2022
Health care providers face a reality that was unimaginable a couple of years ago. Service lines continue to be interrupted by COVID-19, with no end in sight. The health care workforce is stressed out and stretched thinly amid the so-called Great Resignation wave. Care delivery increasingly is being moved from hospitals to outpatient facilities and the home, thanks in part to an explosion of digital technologies. These and other trends have sped up health care transformation. And while the future appears anything but clear, thought leaders have issued a slew of predictions and analyses about what executives should be taking away from the current trends. ...
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What Do the Next 5 Years Hold for Health Care?

By The SHSMD Team posted 02-07-2022
The COVID-19 pandemic has created massive changes in the U.S. health care system, stressing institutions, the workforce and individual caregivers. But it has also spurred lasting permanent change, including a massive pressure on the workforce, profound shift to digital solutions, increased awareness of inequities, exposure of weaknesses in financing models, recognition of the need for more effective integration of physical and mental health in policy and practice, and the imperative for improved emergency preparedness. Futurist Ian Morrison, PhD highlights key insights from leaders in the field featured in the 2022-2027 issue of Futurescan: Health Care ...
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6 Imperatives to Improving Behavioral Health Access

By The SHSMD Team posted 01-31-2022
Increasing access to behavioral health care services and raising awareness has taken on greater importance during the pandemic. Building and maintaining a successful regional behavioral health network through community partnerships can support this effort. Likewise, improving the social factors influencing health for those with behavioral health needs can play a vital role in making services more accessible. A new AHA Executive Summary, “Regional Networks: Improving Access to Behavioral Health Services ,” provides insights for communities that want to improve access to behavioral health services through community partnerships. The report, based on in-depth ...
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5 Key Competencies for Emerging Health Care Leaders

By The SHSMD Team posted 01-25-2022
The unprecedented speed and scope of the COVID-19 pandemic forced hospitals and health systems to address many unexpected challenges. As health care leaders and their teams rebuild and have time to reflect, they learn about decisions that worked and those that didn’t, and about what capabilities they will need to harness in a new pandemic-impacted reality. COVID-19 has amplified the need for and impact of leadership. Prioritizing certain leadership capabilities and growing the next generation of leaders will enable the transformation needed and position the field to reimagine care delivery. What characterizes the transformative health care leader? While there’s ...
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Adding a Personal Touch with Customer Relationship Marketing

By The SHSMD Team posted 01-18-2022
The marketing team at Ochsner Health is leveraging customer relationship marketing (CRM) strategies and technology to help improve patient outcomes. CRM refers to a personalized approach to marketing that focuses on the relationship between the patient and Ochsner Health over time. “We all know that healthcare tends to lag behind other industries when it comes to consumer marketing and offering highly personalized campaigns. Part of that is just the nature of the industry, and our unique challenges with privacy laws,” explains Stacy Martinez, Marketing Director at Ochsner Health. “But, through our CRM platform and using data that we have available, we’ve ...
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Is Subscription-Based Digital Health on the Horizon?

By The SHSMD Team posted 01-10-2022
COVID-19’s reset of the U.S. economy will reverberate well beyond the pandemic. For health care executives, the critical question is to what extent the business model and nature of competition in care delivery may change. The answer will involve two key challenges, notes Ken Kaufman, managing director and chair of health care for the consulting firm Kaufman, Hall & Associates, in the recently released Futurescan 2022-2027: Health Care Trends and Implications publication from SHSMD. First, health care executives will need to define their approach to telehealth, digital health care capabilities and care delivery. Second, consider how services ...
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Refining Your Brand: Setting Yourself Apart and Telling the World

By The SHSMD Team posted 01-04-2022
Tampa General Hospital has always been an essential part of the community; a trusted resource that delivered world-class care. As TGH’s capabilities have grown, they needed to educate their community and the world about the advanced care now available. “Our branding and messaging previously were pretty similar to everyone else in our market,” explains Allison Pondo, Assistant Director of Marketing and Consumerism at Tampa General Hospital. “It focused on lifestyle and connection. It was very warm and comforting, and we really only focused on our service lines in our digital.” However, there was something missing. “There were just no true differentiating ...
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3 Workforce Strategy Imperatives

By The SHSMD Team posted 12-14-2021
Health care executives have no shortage of core issues to solve for today. Managing population health, achieving health equity and transforming care delivery during a pandemic are just a few of the top priorities. Overarching all of these issues is the increasingly pressing concern of a workforce shortage. A clinical workforce strategy has become paramount as the field seeks to address the ongoing shortages of physicians, nurses and other mission-critical positions. The recently released AHA 2022 Talent Scan from the AHA Workforce Strategy team provides a road map for addressing: resilience, flexibility, capacity and strategy. Key to these efforts ...
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Easy and Efficient Crisis Response

By The SHSMD Team posted 12-06-2021
When a crisis occurs, your team must manage communications effectively and efficiently so key stakeholders are informed. For greatest success with these time-sensitive communications, establish your crisis response communications protocol before a crisis occurs. Deana Haworth, Chief Operating Officer of Hirons Agency, shares best practices on how to prepare for crises. “If you have discipline and you start adopting this process, every announcement, every update that you need to provide to your stakeholders is easier and easier and more efficient.” Categorize Your Target Audiences Haworth suggests a concentric circle model with the primary audience ...
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The Road to Becoming a Digital Marketing Leader Starts with Your Team

By The SHSMD Team posted 11-30-2021
One thing all healthcare organizations can agree on is that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of the “digital” world. They were tasked with re-envisioning their digital strategies to meet the new demands. A key part of this transformation? Getting buy-in from staff… everyone from administration, to physicians, to marketing team members. “You need the bandwidth, the people, to get from here to there. Understanding where your staff is, understanding what they're going to need in order to be successful with this next stage of things, that’s become a huge gap in the way organizations are trying to assess operations right now,” states Ben Dillon, ...
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Responding To an Active Shooter Incident: Lessons from a Health System Marketing Perspective

By The SHSMD Team posted 11-15-2021
No matter how much an organization prepares for an active shooter situation, there are still actions that have to be implemented “in the moment.” Such was the case for the Allina Health Urgent Care–Buffalo Crossroads clinic in Buffalo, Minnesota, in February of 2021. While the onsite employees were navigating this terrifying situation, the marketing department also had an important job to do. “From getting that initial call I was just thinking, ‘What can I do and what can our team do?’ So, one of the things we did is handle boots on the ground. That's what we needed to do. It was getting a message out to the community, getting with the spokesperson, the ...
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Growing Importance of Behavioral Health in the COVID and Post-COVID Landscape

By The SHSMD Team posted 11-08-2021
It’s hard to imagine that anyone “escaped” the COVID-19 pandemic without a financial, health, or personal impact. Behavioral health, in particular, has suffered greatly. Even individuals who may have been considered “well adjusted” struggled with their mental health. Dr. Harsh Trivedi understands just how severe the consequences of the pandemic have been—and how those effects will continue into the future. “Whether you're a part of healthcare, whether you're in the general community, regardless of what you do, the behavioral health impact is going to be huge. That's important, because we know of the substantial relationship between overall health and behavioral ...
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