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?

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 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.