Viewpoint: Strategies for Success

COVID-19 Communications Lessons Learned

By The SHSMD Team posted 2 days ago
During a SHSMD webinar on the new normal , a panel of marketing and communications experts from Michigan Medicine shared their experiences on hospital marketing and communications during COVID-19 and what they expect the next normal to look like. The expert panel featured: Rose M. Glenn, chief communications & marketing officer. Denise Beaudoin, senior director of digital strategy and engagement. Sally Liaw, senior director for executive communications. Mary Masson, senior director of public relations. Rebecca Priest, senior director of marketing. COVID-19 Microsites Attendees shared thoughts on how they created ...
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Managing Social Media During a Pandemic

By The SHSMD Team posted 9 days ago
Robbie Schneider oversees social media strategy for Franciscan Health’s 12 hospitals in Indiana and Illinois. Franciscan Health was discussing COVID-19 in social media as early as January, though it wasn’t until six or seven weeks later that a critical number of cases emerged in their service area. Schneider pointed out that “while we’ve always known that social media is flexible, but now with folks being at home at all hours and having different needs, you're not beholden to the old rules out there. And so I think this is a great time for experimentation and trying out new ideas.” She notes two important challenges. The first is to stay on message and ...
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Communicating about Essential Care during COVID-19

By The SHSMD Team posted 16 days ago
Even while responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals and health systems must also plan for a return to non-emergent care. This calls for coordination among clinical, planning and marketing teams, as hospitals or health systems must not only be safe but communicate that to community members who are still actively concerned about contracting COVID-19. Timing Reopening Knowing where your organization and community is on this path from COVID-19 response and recovery will help you strategize for the present and prepare for the future. In reality, there will be many markets where response and recovery will ebb and flow over many months, requiring strategists ...
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Preparation and Adaptation: How Rush University Maintained Resilience During COVID-19

By The SHSMD Team posted 23 days ago
Rush University System for Health combined preparation and adaptation to remain resilient throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Ryan Nagdeman, AVP of marketing strategy, Rush University System for Health and Julia Brady, president of Envision Brand Advisors LLC took the time to share their thoughts on resilience, adapting preparation designed to respond to terrorist attacks and the importance of leadership during crisis. The full podcast is available online . Rush’s preparation started back in 2012, when Rush constructed its hospital tower , the first in Chicago designed for a mass outbreak of a highly infectious disease. The tower has 40 negative pressure rooms; ...
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The Changing Role of Planners and the Planning Function During the COVID-19 Pandemic

By The SHSMD Team posted 29 days ago
Lisa Crockett, executive director, strategy and planning at Providence St. Joseph Health in Tumwater, Washington, shared insights in a podcast interview on how the planning function and organizational roles of planners have changed during this crisis. Reaching out and Connecting with People Like Never Before Crockett pointed out that as well as unprecedented challenges, the pandemic creates unequalled opportunities. “Eyes are on us in health care right now and we have a chance to tell our stories, to explain what it is like on the front lines…to form strong working relationships with other partners in the community, with our patients, with their families. ...
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SHSMD Members’ COVID-19 Communication Samples and Insights

By The SHSMD Team posted 04-28-2020
SHSMD recently hosted a webinar featuring Alan Shoebridge, director of marketing at Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System in Monterey, California, and Ryan Nagdeman, associate vice president of marketing at Rush University System for Health. They introduced the COVID-19 Communications Resources collection and during the webinar, asked participants to describe some of their communications successes. We’ve collected a few of the responses and grouped them by theme below. Branding Tiffany Conover, director of marketing and communications at Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes, Indiana, shared that they “just produced a ‘ Faces of Good Samaritan ’ ...
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Spectrum Health’s Story of COVID-19 Preparedness

By The SHSMD Team posted 04-21-2020
Holly Sullivan, senior director of marketing at Spectrum Health and SHSMD’s board president, took the time to describe how the System Marketing & Communication team responded to COVID-19.  Spectrum Health, a health system with 14 hospitals across West Michigan, was not as immediately challenged by a surge of patients with COVID-19 as the larger metropolitan areas were, but it still lost no time in preparing.  This team has many responsibilities as it relates to communicating critically important information internally and externally, more specifically: Creating PSA messages distributed throughout all channels to communicate critical information/updates ...
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Resource for Internal Staff Communications during COVID-19

By The SHSMD Team posted 04-14-2020
Revere Health is a network of clinics located in Utah that provide primary and specialty care. They do not offer inpatient services. Lexi McCausland, the communications manager for Revere Health, took the time for an interview with SHSMD to discuss the resources she and her team of three have created to support internal communications during COVID-19. Lexi and Revere Health kindly agreed to share their resources with the SHSMD community.  Revere Health created a SharePoint site with resources such as: Updates and resources (printables, signage, community resources). Protocols such as referrals for testing and scripts for talking with patients. ...
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Responding to Offers of Community Support: SHSMD Members Share Approaches

By The SHSMD Team posted 04-07-2020
Individuals and organizations alike are reaching out to their local hospitals, offering financial donations as well as gifts of meals, homemade masks and banners thanking health care workers for their heroic work. However, there are some potential complications with these gifts, and in a discussion on MySHSMD, several members shared their strategies. Meals for Staff At Fisher-Titus Medical Center in Norwalk, Ohio, Alexandria Cruey, director of marketing and communications, shared that many local businesses have reached out with offers of meals for health care staff. The donors are not allowed in the building, which, due to COVID-19 restrictions, ...
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Recognizing Employees during COVID-19

By The SHSMD Team posted 03-31-2020
During this health care crisis, hospitals and health systems are looking for ways to thank their staff for rising to the challenge. In a discussion on MySHSMD, several hospitals and health systems described how they are recognizing their staff. Signage and Notes T. J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow, Kentucky, “has created signs with words of encouragement to hang at employee entrances, in breakrooms, etc. We are delivering these to each of our locations along with a thank you note…Also, our CEO is sending out a daily email update to all employees and he is very genuine each day in thanking them for caring for our patients and for being Superheroes,” ...
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Find Inspiration and Innovation Outside of the Health Care Sphere

By The SHSMD Team posted 03-24-2020
When building marketing strategy, it’s easy to get comfortable with the way things have always been done within your specific industry or sector. Staying in that bubble may be effective to a degree, but looking outside your industry opens up unique opportunities you may not have considered. It’s what Kristen Plunkett, senior consultant at Fahrenheit 212, and Adam Ruben, associate partner and head of idea development at Fahrenheit 212, referred to as “out-of-sector innovations” during their presentation at SHSMD Connections 2019. “What we find is that in the realm of innovation, it is often most helpful to study those things outside of your direct domain. ...
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The Call to be Urgently Empathetic: The Transformation to Human-Centered Care

By The SHSMD Team posted 03-18-2020
By: Holly Sullivan Everyone eventually becomes a patient. Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and endured a complex 12-hour surgery. While recovering in the ICU at one of the best academic medical centers in the country, the nurse encouraged me to use the restroom, which was out in the open so patients could be monitored carefully. A few minutes later, I found myself surrounded by six male doctors and residents who were rounding. They came into the room without regard to my privacy and started discussing my case. I was at my most vulnerable and there was no regard to my basic human dignities. This kind of dehumanizing is all too common in ...
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Empowering Providers and Health Care Leadership to Be Your Best Brand Advocates

By The SHSMD Team posted 03-09-2020
By The SHSMD Team Social media is becoming a key component of health care marketing. According to Claire Simmons, director of clinical communications at Atrium Health, 40 percent of individuals choose their physician based on social media influence. Yet, many providers and those in senior leadership are reluctant to participate in this type of marketing strategy. “When it comes to health care in particular, to our beloved doctors, it still feels a little bit new and it's not quite as prestigious as some of the other things they have been asked to train and implement,” stated Simmons. “And, let's be real, a lot of times they think, ‘this is something my ...
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Engage Your Health Care Audience with New Platforms and Technologies

By The SHSMD Team posted 02-27-2020
As new technologies and platforms are introduced, health care marketing teams have an opportunity to develop them into viable communications channels. Yet, you can’t send your marketing manager out into the field with just a smartphone and expect to get the kind of quality product your audience expects. Rebecca Stewart, senior director of content marketing at Hartford HealthCare, and Nick Dethlefsen, video production manager at Hartford HealthCare, presented at SHSMD Connections 2019 on how marketing teams can capitalize on using Facebook Live and podcasting as marketing tools — but only if it’s done the right way. Audio First, Video Second Health care ...
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Google Changes Ads Policy as Health Care Advertisers Scramble to Adapt

By The SHSMD Team posted 02-24-2020
By: Kara Rozek, Jorge Cordova and Nate Clarkson Facing mounting pressure to crack down on misinformation campaigns, Google implemented a new policy aimed at misleading health care ads, with evidence-based treatments inadvertently caught in the dragnet. What is the core challenge? Google cast a wide net in implementing a new policy against unproven medical procedures last month. The policy aims “to prohibit advertising for unproven or experimental medical techniques” applying across all ad serving platforms, with particular emphasis on “unproven or experimental medical techniques” including stem cell therapy, cellular (non-stem) therapy and gene therapy. ...
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SHSMD 2020 Trends: Health Care Away from the Hospital

By The SHSMD Team posted 02-18-2020
Health care is increasingly taking place outside the hospital, whether in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), retail clinics or the home. As early as 2017, Mark Bertolini, the CEO of Aetna, declared , “If you have to go to the hospital, we have failed you. What if that were the way the system was designed?”  Health care is increasingly taking place outside the hospital, whether in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), retail clinics or the home. As early as 2017, Mark Bertolini, the CEO of Aetna, declared, “If you have to go to the hospital, we have failed you. What if that were the way the system was designed?” As often happens, the technology is ahead of ...
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Futurescan: Transformation and Disruption

By The SHSMD Team posted 02-18-2020
This blog post is adapted from “Transformation and Disruption” by Ian Morrison, PhD, originally published in Futurescan 2020-2025 .   The Society for Health Care Strategy & Market Development ( SHSMD ) and the American College of Health care Executives provide articles about the future of health care, based on interviews with renowned thought leaders or Futurescan 2020–2025: Health Care Trends and Implications . The annual publication helps health care strategists negotiate the path ahead for some of the major factors creating transformation in health care. The key theme is the need to simultaneously evolve the core health care model while responding ...
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2020 Trends from SHSMD: Collaborations and Partnerships

By The SHSMD Team posted 02-11-2020
This is another one of SHSMD's blogs exploring top trends for 2020. Catch up on the series here . Collaborations and partnerships are a core competency for health care strategists . Hospitals and health systems are collaborating with almost every imaginable kind of organization. These include but certainly are not limited to tech companies, government entities; employers; community service providers; educational organizations; law enforcement, and other health care organizations. Hospitals also continue to collaborate with out of industry organizations like the ride-sharing companies, grocery store chains, and retail spaces to create greater accessibility. ...
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2020 Trends from SHSMD: Metrics and Analytics in Health Care Strategy

By The SHSMD Team posted 02-03-2020
Hospital and health care strategists, whatever their discipline, are increasingly expected to mine and leverage data to derive insights for decision making. Counting likes on a Facebook post, average time spent on a contact center call, number of people who saw a television ad or even the number of new patients in a year are examples of easy but incomplete metrics. Instead, strategists are looking for metrics that evaluate the true impact of their efforts.Hospital and health care strategists, whatever their discipline, are increasingly expected to mine and leverage data to derive insights for decision making. Counting likes on a Facebook post, average time ...
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These Are Good Times for Health Care Marketers: Addressing Gender Inequity Is Overdue

By The SHSMD Team posted 01-29-2020
Medical Marketing & Media’s 33rd Annual Survey Report indicates that the average salary for health marketers (director level and up) has jumped 12 percent. That’s huge. In the last decade, health care is the only U.S. employment sector to have added employees in every month. In that time, pharmaceuticals and health tech have globalized and driven expanded health care, too. MM&M’s Heath Marketer’s Average Salary 2016 : $139,000 2017 : $157,000 2018 : $164,000 2019 : $185,000 The latest average salary is just the start, as nearly 70 percent earned a bonus, which on average was $37,359. And, over half of the respondents rated their ...
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