Has the healthcare marketing tipping point arrived?

With the healthcare consumer  taking more control of and in their healthcare choices in a market that is evolving to a semi-retail model of healthcare, has the tipping point arrived in healthcare marketing to move from marketing communication activities to a hybrid consumer marketing model? 

Being responsive, outcomes transparent, delivering an exceptionally consistent patient experience from first contact through post purchase and the coming pricing wars, will have great influence on how to execute marketing at the hospital or health system.

An organization will still need to compete for that individual patient at some level in the five markets that you serve: Medicare; Medicaid; Exchanges; Commercial; and Uninsured. And within those market segments will be the ACOs, patient medical homes, narrow networks, bundled payment mechanisms, employers etc. 

It really comes down to the tipping points of the market- sustainability, presence, perception, outcomes, price and experience.

These are what healthcare providers need to focus on and incorporate for success in their marketing operations and campaign efforts in a consumer-driven market.

Sustainability- The resources to effectively and continuously communicate brand and differentiate what you’re offering across multiple channels.

Presence - By maintaining a continuous presence across multiple channels as in so many other consumer-directed industries you build brand preference.

Perception- With a sustainable, continuous presence in the marketplace, sooner rather than latter, your key messages become the opinion of consumers and they become fact in their minds.

Outcomes- No longer the great secret of healthcare, quality information is available from any number of consumer directed sources. The healthcare consumer and employers are seeking out that information. It’s another one of the tipping points in healthcare marketing.  Ignore it at one’s own peril. Define the market along outcome attributes or have competitors or the market define you good or bad. 

Price- As with outcomes information, price information good or bad is available. It’s another tipping point in marketing to the healthcare consumer.  Price could become the answer to the why should I go here, when all other factors are equal in their mind.

  

Experience- The actual customer experience matches the brand image, perceptions and opinions of customers that you created in the marketplace, that had been communicated in an integrated multi-channel sustained effort, that includes social media engagement.

The tipping point in the transformation of healthcare marketing has arrived.

To my readers- I offer my apologies for not posting for nearly two weeks now.  The fastpitch travel softball season has started for my daughter at the 16U A level.  Alex is a left-handed pitcher.  What is different for this season is that after 10 years of playing, it all comes to an end. She will stop playing at the end of the season in August after the USSSA National World Series where her tarvel team has been invited to play.  Alex has also made the decision not to play in college. She just wants to be a normal student figuring out what she is going to do with the rest of her life.  Great wisdom from one so young.   

This has been a big part of our lives for the last 10 years. I have seen her win tournament championship games, pitch a no-hitter and handle adversity with grace and dignity. Skills which will last her a lifetime.   I will miss it, especially the coaches, parents and players of the teams that she has been on. And much deep gratitude to Lisa, her private pitching and hitting coach who has helped her in ways un-imagined when this all started. And I will enjoy every last minute of it as a proud parent should. So I will post but only when the opportunity presents. Have a great summer. I know I will.

Ready for the tyranny of healthcare price competition?

The hospital marketing game is changing rapidly driven by easily accessible and readily available price and quality data. Hide one’s head in the sand if one must, but that information in the hands of the healthcare consumer will drive more innovation and change in how hospitals do business and marketing, than anything else imaginable.

Member co-pays and deductibles are rising.  Employers moving to defined contributions.  Millions of individuals have purchased health insurance or entered the market via Medicaid expansion. Healthcare consumers are facing the economic reality that they now to pay along several fronts. Can one really think of any better way to control healthcare costs by introducing a level of price competition and providing information which really up until now, was essentially unattainable?

There is nothing like having higher out-of-pocket expenses, coupled with the ability to obtain price and quality information, to estimate your own costs to get healthcare consumers to pay attention. Shopping for care among providers by price is a purely consumeristic behavior and it's not mystery shopping.

Just because one charges more doesn't mean higher quality.  The healthcare consumer already assumes quality.  And they assume that it is equal across multiple providers. Saying you have high quality or a better experience when you are unable to differentiate yourself in the market, is a claim that falls flat in a price driven market.

Markets based on price competition can be tyrannical in nature and a harsh mistress which is new reality for most in healthcare.  Now, doctors, hospitals and others will need to change their marketing operations and begin to deal on price.  Your brand takes on new meaning when price and choice become a critical component in the healthcare consumer decision-making process.  High price undifferentiated quality won't sell.

If a competitor in one’s market takes the first step and advertises lower pricing for some common diagnosis and treatments, what will be the response? Employers are already identifying providers based on price and quality.  Six million American go oversees for healthcare because it’s cheaper than here. If an innovator like Walgreens or private equity offers some of the same services but at a better price with the consumer in mind, is one ready to compete with that in the market?

Surviving all the change in healthcare is already hard, and unfortunately it’s about to get a lot harder. Competing on price vs. claims of quality requires a different set of healthcare marketing skills than a marketing communications focus traditionally found in most healthcare marketing operations.

Take stock and embrace healthcare consumerism and price competition. Growth is good.

How do you market the big box hospital post reform?

From what I have seen it’s pretty much the status quo when it comes to hospital marketing. Smiling happy patients, fluffy messaging that are all about you, shiny and dramatic shots of hi-tech equipment, new buildings with assorted other visuals, and copy that leaves one with more questions than answers. Not much really in the way of experience, outcomes or framing of expectations that a healthcare consumer could use to make a reasonable decision about seeking treatment.

So given the rapid change and evolution of the healthcare market place, with some wondering if the day of the big box hospital is coming to an end, what can be done by hospital marketing? 

Here are nine marketing strategies for saving the big box hospital.

1.  Brand and competitive position.

Consumers and patients are ready for convenient technology-enabled access to care. Use of mobile healthcare apps is on the rise. Healthcare providers that are capable of identifying consumers needs, and how they want their healthcare needs meet though technology focused on them, will gain new patients and the next-generation of physicians. 

2. Engage existing customers and patients.

An individual is only a patient 1/3rd of the time they come in contact with you.  That is during the diagnosis, treatment and recovery phase.  Pre and post this, they are a consumer not a patient.  So why then is it the only time you meaningfully engage them is during the period when they are a patient?  That doesn't seem like a lot of common sense. Consumer and patient engagement is about all of the time, not just some of the time.  Engaging the individual on a continuous basis builds loyalty and return use or repurchases behavior.

3. Engage the physicians and focus on the physician experience.

No matter the payment model you will still need a physicians or physician extenders order to get anything done in a healthcare setting. That means engaging physicians in meaningful ways, using the methods, technology, and systems that will make their life easier, improve their productivity and protect or increase their income. An effective and efficient physician has more to do with the impact of cost, quality in your organization then may other factors.

How hard is it for a physician or physician extender to practice medicine in your organization?  Understand their experiences overall from beginning to end, not just in isolated care segments. Fix what is broken, keep what is working. The more satisfying the experience, the better you will do financially.

4. Focus on the consumer/patient experience.

A healthcare provider's ability to deliver an experience that sets it apart in the eyes of its patients and potential patients from its competitors - traditional and non-traditional - serves to increase their spending and loyalty to the brand. You need to actively manage the customer experience in total by understanding the customer's point of view.  That is, all touch points internally and externally that a healthcare consumer/patient comes in contact with, which in turn creates the experience. Exceptional experience means gains in market share, brand awareness, and revenue.

5. Embrace innovation in healthcare.

Traditional ways of delivering healthcare are going by the wayside.  Price, convenience, access are the drivers in retail healthcare.  Find the need, understand the consumer’s behavior drivers, design offering around the consumer not you in a convenient location and price it appropriately. If you can't compete in this way, your market position, share and revenue will erode.

6. Agility is the name of the game.

Be nimble. Be agile. Be quick.  Healthcare marketing needs to move from the tried and failed to the exceptional, the innovative, the engaged and the motivational. You can't reach the healthcare consumer on an emotional level to make the right choices, treatment and lifestyle decisions as well as purchase decisions in your favor unless you are sufficiently engaged. .

7. Get moving on the social media program.

A hospital or health system needs to be where the healthcare consumer is living. And the healthcare consumer is on social media finding the information they need to make choices.  Social media is not a billboard, but an efficient and effective engagement strategy that can enhance the relationship.

8. Understand the multiplicity of markets.

You have five markets: Medicare; Medicaid; Commercial; Exchanges; and Uninsured. Baby Boomers are starting to demand that their healthcare experience be delivered their way, the way they want when they want. Retail medicine will continue to expand so tailor the healthcare offerings to the market accordingly. One size does not fit all. Outcomes and price transparency, access and convenience are the future and the future is now.

9. Quality Transparency will set one free.

This is the one that causes the most fear and trepidation among hospital executives and physicians, patients getting access to meaningful quality data that they can understand and use to make meaningful choices. Get ready it's here whether you like it or not, and it's just not a marketing technique. It's the right thing to do. Because if you don't someone else will.  And your quality and price data is out there. All it takes to some creativity to develop a Kayak type web site for healthcare and you're at the bottom of the food chain. No circling the wagons. The genie is out of the bottle and never going back.

If a hospital has no beds, is it still a hospital?

Should healthcare providers change marketing in an era of reform?

Faced with a cacophony of payment models from fee-for-service to value ad risked based with everything else in between, the evolving healthcare consumer and the newly insured, healthcare marketing becomes an even greater challenge than before. One size does not fit all. And growth is good.

The hospital or health system has five markets: Medicare; Medicaid; Commercial; Exchanges; and Uninsured. And in those five markets it’s about:  Sustainability; Presence; Perception; and Experience.

These are the four dynamics that healthcare providers need to understand and incorporate for successful marketing and campaign efforts in a consumer-driven market. In short the answer is yes. No longer nice to have, these four basic concepts are now business requirements:

 ·         Sustainability- The resources to effectively and continuously communicate brand and differentiate the offering across multiple channels

 ·         Presence - By maintaining a continuous presence across multiple channels as in so many other consumer-directed industries is how one builds brand preference

 ·         Perception- With a sustainable, continuous presence in the marketplace, sooner rather than latter, your key messages become the opinion of you by consumers and they become fact in their mind.

 ·         Experience-  The actual customer experience at all touch-points matches the brand image, perceptions and opinions of customers that you created in the marketplace, that have been communicated in an integrated multi-channel sustained effort that includes social media engagement

What to do?

A consumer-directed market is much different environment than a provider-directed market which requires skills and abilities that may or may not exist in an organization.   Key success factors for creating a high performance marketing operation that delivers revenue and market share in an era of reform in the new healthcare environment include:

·          A Vice President of Marketing senior management position that reports to the CEO and is involved in all decision making.

·         Marketing resources human, operational and capital budgets to support a multi-channel effort externally and internally.

·         Comprehensive strategic and measurably focused marketing plan that is integrated with the financial and operational plan of the organization.

·         Price, outcomes and experience transparency

·         Internal communication and training to educate the organization around marketing efforts, expectations and their role in the execution of the plan.

·         Creation of a comprehensive marketing dashboard which communicates activities and results on a monthly basis to all levels of the organization.

As the healthcare providers continue to consolidate across all segments, marketing will assume an increasingly important role in the survival and revenue generating activities for the organization. And that requires a far different innovative sustainable marketing presence that changes perceptions than the old way of doing things.

What does it take to implement a strategic healthcare social media program?

Over the past few weeks we have discussed the need for hospitals and health systems to partake of the social media revolution in reaching, engaging and driving the healthcare consumer to make favorable decision and choices.

It’s easy to talk about the rationale about the importance of an effective and efficient hospital or health system social media program.  Or to suggest social media channels as a starting point to drive consumer engagement and business.  It’s another thing to discuss the how you actually do it in a time of scarce marketing resources, lack of knowledge or the willingness to lead change.

What follows for your consideration are steps that need to be taken for a hospital or health system to embark on a fully integrated and effective social media program.

1.       It starts with leadership. If marketing does not have Board, CEO and executive leadership support, it’s not going anywhere. Why? Because it all about resource allocation and slaying some sacred cows.

2.       Improve the organizational marketing process. Let face it, we all do things that don’t make any sense or has become so ingrained it’s done without thinking. Take a step back and look at the marketing processes. Find efficiencies and increase effectiveness. Stop doing what doesn't work and move those resources to social media.

3.       Find the one person on the organization that knows social media and put them full time on the job or hire someone.  It takes an FTE dedicated to successfully run an integrated, efficient, engaging and effective social media program.

4.       Commit to social media all the time. The challenge is to keep in front of your audience with relevant information, all the time.  Attention spans are short.  If someone sees no changes on a pretty regular basis in your content or information, they will fall away.

5.       Measure everything.  Evaluate.  Adjust based on your findings. Redeploy budget as needed.

6.       Use social media with your physicians and employees to communicate, build organizational support and loyalty.

7.        Do the market research to understand and not guess.

8.       In the end if the resources can’t be allocated or the will is just not there consider outsourcing the social media function.

Bottom line is that the healthcare consumer and patient’s are out in social media searching for the hospital, health system or physician. So it is probably about time that the hospital, health system or physician is where they are, not where they would like them to be.

Is it time for hospital advertising to change?

With the healthcare consumer having a higher cost stake in healthcare choices with larger deductibles and co-pays, combined with the availability of price and outcomes data; it would seem that the time for change has come.

If one was to look at healthcare consumer in terms of interaction with the brand, only one-third of the time is spent as a patient during diagnosis and treatment. Two-thirds of the time they are healthcare consumers making choices and decision about where to receive care.

What should hospitals be advertising to create an unassailable market position, a strong brand, as well as an enlightened and informed consumer?  

Is it the "we are unique and world-class", have best doctors and locations that are accessible and convenient?

Then there is the ever popular, the technology is state-of-the-art, photo of the shiny new building or the doctor looking skyward like they are in great deep thought.

Another winner; we have the most shiny trophies and quality awards for several services. Oh, and even though we don't have a quality award for all services, if everybody else was as good as us message to go with it, “100,000 lives would be saved annually".

I think, that pretty much for the most part, sums up the current state of hospital advertising.  And when several hospitals are staying all of these things at the same time in a market, does anyone really believe that the consumer is paying any attention at all, when there is so little differentiation?  It all looks like "me too" and just shouting for attention.

It makes the Board, senior management and physicians feel good, all the while your audience receives absolutely no information that will help them make some of the most critical choices and decisions in their life.

The time has come healthcare providers to provide meaningful information in the marketplace that will allow the healthcare consumer to become informed, educated and participatory in the care decision-making process. 

The hospital or health system should be transparent and talking about outcomes and prices.  The healthcare consumer is hungry for information and searching the internet as well as other sources about you and how you perform. They are paying more of the cost and demanding more say in the process. And they don't like being treated like they are some small child who can't make a decision.

To use an often quoted metaphor, the wave of change is upon the hospital industry as we move from provider-dominated and controlled decision-making model, to a healthcare consumer and patient-directed controlled model, that is evolving into a semi-retail environment. 

Changing markets unless responded too can be a harsh mistress. 

Is social media the next level of patient engagement?

It’s a demanding healthcare consumer and patient out there.  Active in social media, they are used to being engaged across a wide spectrum of industries on their terms. So why should that be so different in healthcare?

Smart phones, tablets and applications are ruling the day and virtually no age segment is immune from that transformation of how they are engaged by organizations. How a hospital and health system as well as physicians engage patents and the growing healthcare consumer in the form of the newly insured, dictates the effective and efficient use of social media as part and parcel of the engagement strategy.

For example, the family went to dinner at Chili’s. I decided to check in with 4 Square. I have done that before but this time was different. I received the usual offer for a free salsa and chips appetizer for checking in as a thank you. But that’s when it became different and the engagement went to a different level.  

Next thing I know, I receive a message via twitter, asking me what looks good to me tonight on the menu? So I replied with the order but that I was substituting some items for a healthier meal.  Which elicited a reply response that sounds good with a smiley face icon.  And that got me thinking about social media engagement and healthcare.

So what really happened here? Social media is about a meaningful dialogue and an exchange of information. Chili’s meet that requirement. Regardless that the response was automated they still managed to engage me in a different way from the last time and enhanced my experience.  From a big data perspective and market research avenue, they also learned what menu items are of interest and how diners substitute.

There is a couple to things about this for healthcare and healthcare consumer or patient engagement.

When an individual checks in on 4 Square at a site of care there should be an acknowledgement with a response of welcome. Additionally, use this opportunity for a system generated message that pops up on the 4 Square screens that is positive about the location of care. One can bet that there are already plenty of negative messages out there already.

Now is the place and time for engaging the individual via Twitter. Are you there for care or visiting someone? Depending on the answer if visiting, then a reminder to visit the gift shop for flowers or other items that night make someone feel better.  Or if seeking care, messages that we hope your experience meets your expectations and let us know if there is anything that can be done to make the care experience better. But do it all in 140 characters.

One has now engaged the healthcare consumer or patient; started a meaningful dialogue; and is gathering useful experience data for experience process improvement.

Later today I will be going to a major area hospital to visit a relative. A hospital where my wife and children have received care on occasion and  where I was admitted for 23 hour observation for evaluation for cardiac event, which turned out to be not the case.

Each and every time I have used 4 Square to check in. Today won’t be any different.  And the social media silence won’t be any different from the hospital either. They still do not know who I am or how to engage me, and that is the wrong message to send in a healthcare environment that is moving to a semi-retail model to be sending to one whom has choice.  

That just screams we don’t know who you are and don't care.

What happens when social media goes awry?

In the discussion of the last few weeks, we have really focused on the sunny side of social media entry into the channel via Facebook to engage the healthcare consumer and patient's. But what happens when the special media channel turns bad on the hospital or health system?  It could be from a disgruntled patient, angry family, a vindictive employee, HIPAA violation, or poor judgment in content posted or reposted.  No organization is perfect so it must be anticipated that it will happen at some point. After all, the healthcare consumer, newly insured and patients are the new paparazzi. And staff makes mistakes. It happens.

So in the words of Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,  

Don't Panic

This is not to minimize in any fashion the seriousness of what is taking place. It’s to get one’s attention. 

Sometimes it becomes way too easy to panic. And that really needs to be avoided at all costs. So take these steps to mitigate the social media communications crisis to protect the brand and organizational reputation. Many of the steps are parallel and not sequential.

What to do when social media goes bad:

1.)    Do treat this as a communications failure and have a social media crisis communications plan already in place.

2.)    Understand what happened and why. Identify who the influencers will be to add voice and impact the conversation.

3.)    Actively monitor your online reputation.

4.)    Avoid the informational black hole.  Be ready with appropriate information and press statements.  You can’t hold a news conference every time you want to say something.

5.)    Have social medium appropriate messaging.

6.)    Integrate your response across all social media activities. Remember that some reporters use Twitter as a basis for information and facts without verifying the authenticity of the information.

7.)    If the organization blew it, take ownership.  No excuses, the appearances of excuses or pejorative behavior are allowed.  Social media users are a pretty savvy group and will see right through it. It will only make matters worse.

8.)    Integrate paid and earned media.

9.)    Have clear rules of social media engagement by employees.

10.)  Don’t forget to use your employees and their access to social media and how they can influence the conversation.  Employees are your secret weapon in this battle.

And lastly, here is hoping that a social media crisis never comes to your doorstep.

How can the hospital make the Facebook experience memorable?

Facebook represents one of the more enduring social media channels that hospitals and health systems can use to engage the healthcare consumer and build their brand. As the evolution of healthcare continues unabated, brand engagement and the healthcare consumer experience is everything.

Ask the healthcare consumer to define the brand of the hospital and health system. Ask them to define the experience.  Can they define the healthcare brand in the terms such as trustworthy, innovative, compassionate, or high quality?  Can they describe the typical experience one will have when they engage the hospital or health system?  Can the employees of the organization describe the brand positively or negatively?

That is the starting point. Understanding and defining the brand attributes you want the healthcare consumer to perceive and believe. Then use Facebook to build those attributes in the minds of consumer.  Perception; leads to opinion; becomes fact.  That is what the hospital or health system should be doing on Facebook.

So here are some concrete steps to take for building brand on Facebook:

1.       Define the brand attributes and test those attributes? Don’t guess. The time for guessing or thinking you know the answer without consumer input is over in hospital and health system brand development.

2.       Understand the experience that the healthcare consumer desires.

3.       Understand the level and type of engagement that the healthcare consumer wants.

4.       Based on the data for the three steps above, create the content plan along the brand attributes, experience and engagement to be built and strengthened on Facebook. Yes, one can have three plans- brand building, experience and engagement, but all three must be highly integrated.

5.       Create content that is memorable, engaging, supports the experience and builds the brand.

6.       Create a detailed tactical execution plan and timeline. This is an ongoing marketing activity. It is not once day, week or month. It is all the time.

7.       Integrate the Facebook activities into the life and fabric of the organization and employees.  Employees can be the biggest supporters of the brand or the most negative detractors.

8.       Assign this activity to one person. If it is passed around as a group effort as just an activity in the marketing department, at some point it won’t get done.

9.       Measure, evaluate, adapt and change as you go along.

10.   Be proactive with Facebook. Flexibility is the key here. Leverage healthcare news and events that people are talking about and how the hospital and health system band fits.

Facebook and social media overall for that matter is hard. It takes focus, time, commitment, effort and resources. But done correctly, the payoff is great.

Social media, hospitals and Facebook; a place to engage consumers?

Facebook I think represents an interesting challenge for hospitals to use, but it can be the social media channel of choice in attracting and engaging the healthcare consumer. Now that being said, Facebook is not a one and done activity.  

I see too many hospital Facebook pages that have weeks between posts.  Well, that is not engaging and probably doing more harm than good. The healthcare consumer and patients for that matter will stop looking at the hospital or health system page if it’s not engaging.  Simple really, no engaging content means no page views and lots of negative perceptions which carryover to the brand.  They will go elsewhere.

One needs to be able to post regularly and post often on Facebook.  Think of Facebook as an ecosystem that lives, breaths and changes as its users.  That means as a healthcare organization, one must keep up with the change, looking for those opportunities that can be leveraged to engage and build the healthcare consumer friendly brand.

That’s right, hospitals and health system as a business imperative have to build a consumer friendly brand.  If the healthcare brand is not perceived as friendly, engaging, meaningful, innovative and proactive, that organization is at a significant disadvantage in a semi-retail healthcare consumer-driven market.  

Where does a healthcare organization need to start? Follow the money. And it’s not as crass as it sounds.

1.) In this new age of healthcare one has five markets: Medicare; Medicaid; Commercial; Exchanges; and Uninsured. That’s it folks.  Submarkets and demographics abound but it still only comes down to five markets.  That is what I mean by follow the money. Look at your service areas in those terms and do the market research to understand how consumers are using social media.

2.)  From the data and not I think, develop the strategic social media content plan that is fully integrated into the organizational marketing plan. Social media is a channel, but as an active channel it has to be managed in a strategic, coherent, engagement, experience and brand building fashion.  

3.) Don’t boil the ocean. An organization cannot be everything to everyone.  It’s impossible and arrogant. This plan is built around the needs of the healthcare consumer, not the organization.

4.) This is the full time responsibility of someone in marketing. It’s not when we have time in this day and age.  It’s easy to say there is no FTE because we are “lean”.  I have learned that the great majority of hospitals and health systems marketing departments are really marcom shops not true marketing shops.   

That means you are probably doing a lot of stuff that has no value. 

It also  means that in becoming “lean” there was no process improvement to change what you were doing and removing inherent marketing organizational inefficiencies.  All it really means is that one is doing the same or more with less.

By the way hospitals and health systems aren’t as lean as they think they are. If you want to know about lean, talk to someone who works for private equity.

5.) Start collecting from patients, visitors, anybody really that comes in contact with the healthcare organization their social media preferences if they will share it. Collect those email addresses because this in many ways is about email marketing.

It will take marketing to build awareness of the Facebook page and it seems silly to spend money on ads, billboards and TV when one can place  a link to your Facebook page in an email.

I am stopping here for this post.  There is already a lot to consider and act upon in the first four steps.  Weeks if not months of work actually.  No spoiler alert either.  Check back next week for the next installment of as the hospital world turns around social media.

Until then, have a great week.

Can social media drive healthcare consumers to the hospital?

You bet it can and here’s why from this most interesting social media infographic: 41 percent of patients say social media affects hospital choice courtesy of healthcarecommunications.com.   This is really astounding when you consider the financial implications. Even better in the report was that 60 percent of doctors saying social media improves the quality of care. And one in two adults use their smartphone to look up health information as well.

When this information is combined with the Mayo Clinic survey  “Health Care Social Media List,”Social Media Health Network, with so few hospitals participating in some aspect of social media, the discussion is no longer about nice to do, but don’t have the time or lacking the willingness to  tackle the internal political issues, to a business strategy  that can drive the brand, awareness, perception, experience and ultimately revenue.

So who does the healthcare consumer trust in social media driven health information and content?  Doctors are first and that is no surprise at 60 percent. Nurses are in second place at 56 percent. Hospitals come in virtually tied with nurses at 55 percent. 

Only 46 percent of people trust health information from patients they know.  And if they don’t know you as a patient, that trust drops like a rock to 25 percent. Most interesting is that the trust factor for the top three is really only a few percentage points difference.

The point of all this is really to help marketing leadership in hospitals and health systems; have a rational fact-based discussion in their organizations on the impact of social media on the business strategy. This does affect the overall marketing strategy and positioning of the organization.

Marketing in hospitals and health systems isn’t about making things look pretty anymore; it’s about driving revenue, managing demand appropriately and improving the healthcare consumer and patient experience.  And that is not easy by any means.

Social media is more than an app for the Iphone or Android operating system that tells you ER wait times.  Social media is a platform of engagement and innovation. 

It’s not about posting pictures of new buildings or pieces of technologically advanced diagnostic equipment, those can go on Pinterest. It’s about how you develop content in the right context that is engaging, informative, educational, experience enhancing and drives business.  Social media gives a healthcare organization the ability to deliver content directly to the healthcare consumer or patient to meet all those goals. 

The time for waiting is over. The times to act is now, and drive a comprehensive social media strategy into the fabric of the hospital or health system.  The healthcare consumer is out here looking and making healthcare choices, and they can’t choose the hospital or health system that’s not out there in social media.

To blog or not to blog the hospital? That is today’s social media question.

One of the easiest ways for hospital and health system to take advantage of social media is blogging. Thousands of stories of quality care. There are the stories of dedicated and highly educated and trained professional employees.  There are physicians on the medical staff whose collective knowledge and practice of medicine tallies in the hundreds of years, with stories of quality, care and compassion to tell.  Volunteers coming in daily who have heartwarming stories of engagement and loyalty.  Consider the story lines of patients who would freely and willingly tell their stories of successful high quality care, engagement and treatment at the hospital or within the health system.

No additional resources needed for this effort. The communications talent in your marketing department is already in the building, ready to provide compelling content and context surrounding the hospital or health system.

Best of all you control the message.  The hospital or health system can link to the web site. Post to Facebook. Broadcast on twitter. Engage potential employees and followers on the hospital page on LinkedIn. And use the blog as a mechanism for establishing a strong media relations program to develop a press following.

And only 209 hospitals nationwide blog per the Mayo Clinic “Health Care Social Media List”?

I really don’t understand why, and please don’t site HIPAA.  There is nothing in blogging that requires the release of or identification of patient information. That is nothing but a smoke screen used to not engage in social media.

Let me pose to you this question.  How many times has the hospital or health system marketing staff, completed a Google search to see who is blogging and writing about the hospital or health system? Just because an organizations doesn't engage in an aspect of social media, doesn't mean that it’s not happening in the broader community.  Remember that the healthcare consumer is the new paparazzi.

But beyond that little exercise, blogging should be part of the structure of a strategic and fully integrated organizational marketing plan. It’s a method for communicating. It’s a method for building brand.  It’s a method of engaging not only the patient, but the newly minted health insured and the burgeoning healthcare consumer.  They are all out there searching for information, so why not provide them with the meaningful content?

Now that being said, this isn’t about fluff. Oh look at the new building. See our state-of-the-art cardiac cath lab.  Or the ever popular we have wireless internet and HD TVs!  This is about providing meaningful engagement content and using the blog inventively.

Since so few hospitals and heath systems blog, this is really a blue ocean strategy for reaching out and engaging. If a hospital or health system is the first in a market to blog, then the tone, tenor and terms of communication are established via content that has contextual clarity.   And that ladies and gentleman, makes everyone else in the market a me too.

 To blog or not to blog the hospital?  I think the question has been answered.

How can hospitals innovate in the use of social media?

In thinking about social media use by hospitals, I was struck by the innovative actions of Rhode Island Hospital that took Google Glass which was deployed to consumers, and creatively applied the emerging technology to healthcare. Physicians at the hospital use Google Glass with it being the first in the nation application to study its use in real-time bed-side consults.   This story was developed by the newspaper Providence Journal.  They also used YouTube to tell the story. And that is the genesis of today’s topic.

As we have been discussing, and my thanks to all those who have taken the time to share their thoughts in the social media discussion on various LinkedIn groups, social media is little used, but slowly growing in hospitals for patient or healthcare consumer engagement.  For example, Via Christi  is using social media and finding success.

So moving beyond Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and blogs which I would consider to be the basic building blocks and starting points for any social media initiative, how can hospitals and health systems use lessons in social media from other industries to engage the healthcare consumer and patient?

Consider the use of Foursquarefor example. It’s not just a location service that connects to a person’s Facebookand twitter account. It’s a useful tool for business to drive customers and engage the customer.

The other day I was with the family eating at Chili’s Bar and Grill and used Foursquare to check-in. No sooner had I done that, I received a message from Chili’s thank me for dining there and provided us with a free appetizer as thanks.  Then a short while late I received another text message from Chili's asking what they could do for me that day?

What does this have to do with healthcare and healthcare consumer engagement?  A lot.

Whether the hospital or health system or any healthcare provider realizes it or not, they are on Foursquare.  The consumer can add any business they want with a review as well.  Maybe the healthcare consumer statement will be good. Maybe it will be not so faltering. But it will be out there every time some checks in at the healthcare location with Foursquare.  

Beyond that little ditty, here is the Foursquare application to healthcare.  

What if when someone checked into one of the hospital or health system network locations, they received a welcome message?

What if the hospital or health system, was following patients and healthcare consumers on Foursquareand when they checked into a restaurant, sent a wellness message with tips or ideas on ordering from a menu for healthy eating? That is technology driven by the way and someone in the marketing department doesn't have to manually send a message. It’s really 24/7 engagement.

Or when a person checking in fitness clubs a message that encourages the person to continue their efforts at a healthy lifestyle through exercise?

What if the hospital or health system was actively managing its presence on Foursquare and was using that opportunity as a marketing channel for engagement in a host of other areas?

These are just a couple of small ideas on using one aspect of social media. But if the hospital or health system is not engaged and innovatively using social media, you can bet the healthcare consumer is wondering why there is so much silence.

Where should a hospital start the social media effort?

I say start from the easiest and move progressively forward into more sophisticated social media platforms.  It would be easy to bite off more than one can chew in social media. After all, with the availability of more than you can imagine social media outlets, an organization could pick too many the first time out and fail at all of them.

The most important point, and I really cannot emphasis this enough, is that social media is not a mechanism for being a billboard for hospital programs and services. Social media is a platform and medium to engage the healthcare consumer in order to create a meaningful engagement dialogue. A dialogue that is transparent, meets the healthcare or patients needs, provides meaningful information and enhances the experience with the hospital or health system.

But let’s start about what not to do. That can actually be more important than doing.

Sometimes a story is the best way to learn.   There was a hospital that will remain nameless, that I was following on Facebook. It wasn’t the most engaging or enjoyable experience.  The hospital postings were all about them. Nothing about the value brought or even the reason why a healthcare consumer or patient for that matter would actively engage with the hospital. 

The crowning moment came one day when the hospital marketing department posted a picture of the marketing staff, standing behind a table full of marketing communications award trophies for various campaigns and activities. In the end all it did was loudly proclaim as well as the content provided, look at us. It’s all about us.

Really? And the point of that Facebook post was? I hate to tell you this but the healthcare consumer doesn't care.  

So please, when you start the social media program to engage the healthcare consumer, try to control the organizational impulses of leadership who have little understanding of social media  and marketing.  Things like this only devalue the brand and make an organization look foolish.

Now it’s time for what to do.

These five steps taken sequentially can get the hospital started in social media. As experience and expertise builds you can expand.

1.       Understand organizationally that social media is alive. It is not static and unchanging. Social media platforms change and evolve on a constant basis. This means the organization has to monitor to see what people and competitors are talking about and sharing. Build internal support and educate the entire healthcare organization.
2.      Do the market research. If you don’t know what social media platforms the healthcare consumer and patients are engaging in, then how can you decide what social media platforms to choose? Oh, and because one may engage in social media, that is a meaningless experience to use as a basis for program decision making. Know the audience. Know the markets. Know what information the healthcare consumer is searching out. Know what social media platforms they use to gather information and engage. Secondary research may give one clues in how to proceed with primary market research in the hospital service area, but these are guides only. 
3.      Build a social media plan that is integrated into the overall marketing plan and strategy of the hospital or health system. Include in your plan, goals and objectives, key messages, engagement strategies. How it will be measured and evaluated and who is responsible for executing the plan. What gets measured gets done. Obtain executive by-in. If leadership does not support the plan or is not engaged in the effort, stop now and go find something else to do.
4.            Don’t boil the ocean. An organization has to build capacity, experience and expertise in social media.  Start with one platform. Be the best you can be on that social media platform and then expand and add capacity. Learn what the healthcare consumer likes and doesn't like. Test messages. Test engagement strategies.  Fail fast and become the learning organization and not repeating the same mistakes.
5.           Engage and build a meaningful relationship with the healthcare consumer. Stay away from meaningless fluff and anything that looks like it’s all about the organization. And listen. Listen very carefully to what is being said in social media and responds accordingly.

Okay, time to get started. The market is changing and the hospital is being left behind.

Is social media in hospitals easy?

Last week I wrote about what don’t hospitals  get  about social media. This week’s topic, is social media in a hospital or health system easy,  is about some ideas to re-energize and move forward with a social media program.

In hospitals and health systems, it really comes down to three questions to be answered. First, is there an organizational understanding  standing of the power of social media to engage the healthcare consumer and patients and its place in the annual marketing plan? Secondly, do you have the marketing  talent  to construct, execute  and evaluate the effort? Finally, can marketing resources - capital and human, be allocated to the social media program?

I am not going to debate whether or not a hospital or health system should or should not have a social media program.  That train left the station a long time ago and its catch up time for healthcare organizations.  But, if you can’t answer all three question positively, then you have some basic ground work to do before you move forward.

In the new world of healthcare where price, quality and a newly insured healthcare consumer paying more out-of-pocket costs for healthcare, social media represents an opportunity that can be used advantageously  to meet healthcare consumer’s and patient’s for that matter, demands for better direct engagement and experience.

Social media is an opportunity for establishing a one-on-one relationship with the patient, aka the healthcare consumer, directed by the healthcare organization that breaks from the pack, by creating an  experience that is memorable and can exceed an individual or families experience and expectations.

When you have constrained marketing resources, and you have to have a continuous presence in the market place to shift healthcare consumer’s attitudes, preferences and choices, a social media strategy that is fully integrated into the marketing plan and the healthcare organizations can achieve that end for you.

Follow these steps and you're on your way to developing and implementing  a strategically-focused, comprehensive and fully integrated, organizationally transparent social media strategy:

1. Strategy first, tactics second. Any old road will get you to where you want to go without a clear identifiable strategy. This is no different than a traditional marketing approach. Integrate the tools and techniques of social media  into your overall marketing efforts.

2.  Be clear about  your messages and what value using these tools will bring to your healthcare consumers.  The purpose is to engage in a dialogue not shout at them.  You have to understand what type of information and content your consumers want.  Without that knowledge you can say whatever you want, but chances are no one will be reading, responding or listening.

3. Take an integrated approach.  What goes on your web site is also on facebook and used in twitter to drive traffic to you.  Twitter is a great way to send out links for health related articles or news and information.   Have a video? Post it on YouTube. Writing a healthcare blog? You should be if you're not. Make sure twitter, facebook, YouTube, flicker etc follow you buttons are on your site. Running  Back-to- School, Sports or Camp physicals? Put it on twitter, facebook and even those coupon sites like Groupon. Holding a health and wellness event, ditto.

4. Use QR codes with your web site or specific page links or phone number embedded  in them to drive them to your site, call center or service line. Through the use of QR codes you can make your print and traditional activities social in nature.

5. Remember at all times your are building brand, perception and experience. This just isn't nice to have, people will remember what you say and do.  Be right the first time.

6.  Devote resources, budget, time and personnel for the task.  Your challenge is to keep in front of your audience with relevant information, all the time.  Attention spans are short.  If someone sees no changes on a pretty regular basis in your content or information, they will fall away.

7. Measure everything.  Evaluate.  Adjust based on your findings.

8. Be creative, don't limit yourself to the tried and true or what a competitor is doing. Be an innovator.

9. Use social media with your physicians and employees to communicate, build organizational support and loyalty.

10. Build excitement around what you are doing.

The budding  healthcare consumer and patient of today is social media savvy and networked to the nth degree.  They expect the same of you.

What don’t hospitals get about social media?

When I was reading the February 2014 issue of Hospitals and Health Networks, I came across a gatefold insert “Social Media What Your Hospital Should Know”.  I found it mildly interesting and a superficial treatment of an important topic.  But beyond the simplistic steps provided at best , what struck me were the following statistics reported  in the gatefold for hospitals;  1,292 have a Facebook page; 1,090 use 4Square; Twitter comes in at 998;, 716 for YouTube; and only 209 blog. The source is listed as “Health Care Social Media List,”Social Media Health Network, Mayo Clinic.

Really? Maybe it’s time for hospitals to get with the changes in the market.

I have written a lot about social media over the past few years. I guess it’s just falling on deaf ears.

A social media healthcare consumer engagement plan and platform isn’t a nice to have, or one to take a caviler attitude of “oh that’s nice”. Not having an active and engaging social media platform is costing revenue.  That’s right; lost revenue.  

Understand, 43 percent of healthcare consumer use social media for information gathering to make choices about which medical provider they will use. The healthcare consumer is also the new paparazzi and saying what is good and bad about the hospital.  And more often than not, it’s not good.

So what are the implications of not having an active and engaging social media program?

The healthcare brand is at risk. The organizational reputation is at risk. Utilization from revenue is at risk because the shift from production of care to risk and value based reimbursement will take time. The ability to attract high caliber employees is at risk. Patient engagement strategies are not as effective. The healthcare consumer’s experience suffers as well to name a few.

And the great lie in healthcare for not doing this is HIPAA.

It’s simple really; you do not put identifiable patient information on social media. End of the discussion. And if someone does, they are gone.  Period.   HIPAA does not preclude an organization from having an engaging and active social media program.

Social media is more than a marketing and communication channel. It’s about building relationships by engaging in a two-way conversation with the healthcare consumer, who at some point would generate revenue and for enhancing the experience. Social media can even assist in keeping a patient in network so you can decrease leakage.

I am not going to answer the question of  how to create a social media plan or platform that is fully integrated into the organizational marketing, engagement and experience plans. 

But if leadership is sitting back and asking that question, at least there is a glimmer of hope in beginning to understand they don’t know what they don’t know.  If leadership is not asking that question, then leadership is probably in a world of denial thinking he or she has the answers and knows all about social media

.

And to those in the second category I say, best of luck in surviving in what is evolving into a semi-retail, healthcare consumer driven market.

How are you retaining and engaging the healthcare consumer?

The financial stakes have never been higher as healthcare change steamrolls along. There is the growing and choice confident healthcare consumer demanding price and quality data. Reimbursement declines in Medicare and Medicaid continue unabated. Then there is the shift from fee-for-service to risk-based payments and new care models appearing nearly every day resulting in inpatient utilization declines.

And all of this has the greatest effect on how an organization engages and retains in network the healthcare consumer across a wide variety of touch–points, encounters and channels.

You know the old adage, it costs five times as much to find a new customer than to keep an existing one. 

It is truly a new day in healthcare.  Patients are becoming highly informed consumers making purchase decisions based on price and at some point will be utilizing quality data in that process.    

So what does that mean for the healthcare provider?  Without strong healthcare consumer engagement and retention strategies, the financial ramifications of losing the healthcare consumer to other providers and seeking care outside of the network can be ruinous.

This means that one needs to understand the healthcare consumer as never before, anticipating their needs by being proactive in establishing a meaningful relationship with a consistent stream of two-way communication.

It is an opportunity to reinforce your key brand promise and messages.

It's an opportunity to create customer evangelists for your healthcare organization, which through word-of-mouth marketing will bring additional healthcare consumers and revenue.

Here are five items one should consider for proactively retaining and engaging the healthcare consumer:

1.) Transparency and Quality dashboards.  This is about improving care, using best practices, learning and improving as a system to the individual level by engaging the patient.  A provider must be prepared to provide individual level utilization and quality patient reports, to engage the person in a meaningful way to create change in health behaviors, and foster appropriate utilization of services in the right setting.

2.) Voice of the Customer (VoC) program.  One has to be in constant contact and monitoring member attitudes, beliefs and reactions.  It's all part of the patient experience program and process. Engagement and retention strategies are all based upon the needs of the healthcare consumer, not the organization.

3.) Understanding the ongoing customer experience management program and process.  This isn't just about delivering an exceptional customer service at the point of care. You must identify all customer touch-points, from beginning contact to end point, and manage that experience across all of those touch-points. 

  

4.)  Developing comprehensive member communications that are transparent, meaningful and drive engagement customized to the individual level. This is really ongoing communications beyond health and wellness tips. They must also be delivered the way that the member wants them, be it on an Ipad, member web portal, email, hard copy, direct mail, telephonic etc.  One size does not fit all.

5.) Engaging the healthcare consumer through social media. Social media methods in engaging and retaining the healthcare consumer as a customer are nearly immediate and regardless of age group or demographic characteristic are growing exponentially.  Failure to include the social media channel in the organizational engagement and retention strategy is well, inexcusable.

With so much on the plate of healthcare leadership in trying to survive, healthcare consumer retention and engagement can appear at the bottom of the list. Going forward in the brave new world of healthcare consumerism, it’s one of the new critical essential business mandates whether one realizes it or not. To engage and retain is to survive and grow.

Happy Birthday to Healthcare Marketing Matters! On February 17, 2007, I started writing Healthcare Marketing Matters blog, and it hardly seems like HMM should be seven years old. But it is with hundreds of post and tens  of thousands of page views, here’s to the next seven years.  Thank you for reading, commenting and working so hard day-in and day-out to make healthcare marketing more strategic and visionary.  

How is healthcare consumerism changing provider marketing?

Technological and care delivery innovations, specialty pharmaceuticals, social media influences, data releases on price and quality, the healthcare consumer sending more out-of-pocket and exhibiting consumeristic behaviors in insurance choices and provider section, have come together to create the perfect storm.

How has this affected healthcare provider marketing?

It's a tough balancing act when an organization has never really marketed in an evolving semi-retail healthcare market, or communicated with the healthcare consumer in meaningful price and quality terms. Terms that grow your brand, build stronger customer connections and answers the question, what's in it for them?

So why should this be on leadership’s radar screen, as if there isn’t enough to worry about already?

I can give you five reasons why:

1. Retail medicine; 2. Price competition; 3. Newly Insured; 4.Consumer choice; 5. Social media.

These five market shifts are changing how healthcare organizations will do business. And if healthcare marketing is not changing, then what follows are the critical steps you need to take to leverage and move ahead to survive and thrive in an increasingly tough market.  

1. Market Research

Do the research on healthcare consumer behavior, what motivates them, how to communicate with them, how they make purchase decisions and price points they are willing to accept. Healthcare consumerism screams for market research. It's about the healthcare consumer, their needs, expectations, experience and engagement.  And thinking you know about them is not the same as having the quantitative date that knows them.

2. Business Savvy

Make the healthcare marketing department business savvy. Out with the marketing communications focus, and in with a data driven ROI marketing coupled with an understanding of finance, project management, and operations so that the marketing can be transformational. Going from saying "we care and provide world-class care" to building brand, engagement and experience as well as measuring that change in real terms requires a deep understanding  of the organization on many levels in order to be successful in the market.

3. Resource Commitment

Healthcare providers must resource marketing appropriately in capital and human terms in order to compete with retail medicine and pricing competition. Engage the healthcare consumer in a meaningful way and improve their experience. Build your brand and increase awareness. Presence builds preference. It cost money to accomplish market growth.

4. Agility

Be nimble. Be agile. Be quick.  Keep repeating that over and over again. Healthcare marketing needs to move from the tried and true to the exceptional, the innovative, the engaged and the motivational. One can't reach the healthcare consumer on an emotional level to make the right choices, treatment, lifestyle and purchase decisions in your favor unless you are sufficiently engaged.

5. Integration

Integrate your marketing plans deeply within the organization. The healthcare consumer is at the center of all that you do. Pay special attention to social media. Social media is not a billboard but an efficient and effective engagement strategy that enhances all the other marketing channels you use.

6. The multiplicity of markets and patient mechanisms

Not everyone will be in an ACO or a patient medical home. Not everyone will have employer sponsored insurance. Some won't have health insurance of any kind. Not everyone will be in expanded Medicaid programs.  Small business may decrease employee’s hours to not have provided health insurance.  Large employers are creating private HIXs and moving to defined contribution. Baby Boomers are demanding a healthcare experience the way they want. And retail medicine is here to stay and will expand.

That light at the end of the tunnel is healthcare consumerism and that Walgreens ACO has come to a location near you.