The Patient-Centered Medical Home is a hot topic. Docs are scrambling to become one. Hospitals are trying to market themselves as such. But I’ve yet to see it done well. As healthcare marketers, we all know what this well-meaning phrase means. But think about consumers. They don’t have a clue. In fact, it’s worse. They think PCMH is something completely different. While I haven’t yet done formal research, my anecdotal and “friends and family” data (not to mention my gutt), indicates misperceptions about an actual  physical place, a medical home, an extended care facility where people reside.

Some folks think it may be more “homey”, where “the patient comes first” (getting closer), but no normal consumer understands the real definition… “an approach to providing comprehensive primary care that facilitates partnerships between individual patients and their personal physician, and when appropriate, the patient’s family.

I’ve been thinking that a better way to convey what a PCMH is may be to convey what it’s not. It’s an old creative trick. It’s also how I felt as a patient recently - where I was shuffled from one doctor to the next, each in their own specialty and discipline (including my attempt with a “naturalist” type of M.D.), each in their own world really, oblivious to each other, oblivious to the best coordinated care for me.  I realized I felt lost, alone, confused, homeless, like a medical ORPHAN! I kinda wanted my mommy. Or at least one wonderful doc to shepherd me through the maze. People get what Medical Orphan means. Again, my unscientific data revealed, “Abandoned”, “Someone who can’t get the care they need,” “A person that’s alone.”

I’m hoping to develop my PCMH campaign for some lucky client soon! In the meantime, let me know if you’ve seen any good marketing on the PCMH concept. As with a lot of our healthcare jargon, I think we have a long way to go before we can assume people understand what it means.

Healthcare marketers who are hesitating over beefing up their interactive and social media plans just got a wake-up call thanks to Millward Brown’s latest research. We all know that trust is what makes us return to a brand time and time again. It makes us tell our friends. And when it comes to our health, it’s how we prescribe healthcare services for one another. But who whould have thought that recent research would show that WebMD is the eighth most “trusted” and “recommended” brand in the U.S.?

The internet is, more than ever, the place we turn to when we need immediate feedback about our health or the health of our loved ones. Face it, it’s a lot faster than getting that appointment with your GP. It’s always there. Combine that efficiency with the power of communication that the internet provides (think social media) suddenly, WebMD at number eight just isn’t such a shocker. What do you think - ever used WebMD? Write back and let us know your favorite healthcare destinations online.

When I was a kid, I remember seeing schoolteachers out and about (i.e., store, restaurant) and just couldn’t believe it.  What?  They let them out of the school?  Shouldn’t they be in the classroom – clapping erasers, reading the dictionary or putting the border on the bulletin board?  It was hard to imagine them as everyday folks doing everyday things.  I find I do that with physicians.  Shouldn’t mine be at the office – reading scans, looking through a microscope or discovering cures?  Nope.  Turns out they get to lead normal lives too.  And boy do they.  A study from Manhattan Research found 64% of physicians own smartphones and that this number is expected to rise to 81% by 2012.  And can you find them updating their status on Facebook?  Yes, 88% of them have visited the site.  But, odds are you won’t find them tweeting – with about 16% of them using Twitter, which is a bit less likely than the U.S. adult population at large. 

We’re currently developing a hospital branding campaign for one of our newest clients, Otsego Memorial Hospital (OMH).  It’s a community hospital located in Gaylord, MI, a beautiful city famous for it’s skiing and amazing landscapes.  Which brings me to the question, how do you brand a community hospital?

As healthcare marketing and branding experts, we’ve seen one of the most common and greatest obstacles many community hospitals are faced with is how to re-position themselves in the community.  Most already know the hospital name, they know the location, but they are stuck in the mentality that the only thing the hospital can handle is a broken arm.  When in reality, community hospitals are more than just that now.  They are stepping up to their game; hiring leading specialists and providing more comprehensive services.

Below is a community hospital brand campaign example from Danbury Hospital in Connecticut:

Their campaign goal was similar to many community hospital goals: convince consumers to look past their old-time preconceptions and see the hospital as a high-care provider.  The imagery is a nice blend of humanity and high-tech and so far, the brand campaign results deem it pretty successful.

As a team, we’re having a lot of fun working on the concepts for OMH and I look forward to sharing them with you in a few weeks.  I will also share some insight on how and why we recommended the strategy used to develop the campaign and continue to update on its success.

In the meantime, have you seen or created any powerful community hospital brand campaigns?  I would love to see them.

Through my work in organ donation healthcare marketing over many years, I have learned that organ donation is a topic that people either don’t want to think about - or one that is near and dear to their hearts. I fall into the latter category. You can’t hear the life-changing stories from organ recipients and families of organ donors and ever be the same. Which is why I’m so excited about the opportunity to use social media tools to extend the Donor Drive 2010 message for our long-time client, The Gift of Life Michigan.

Part of the problem with getting people to sign up has been getting them to take the time to register online (btw, just signing your driver’s license is not enough!). Hence, this quick-read, yet multi-functional microsite is designed to make it VERY simple. The widget allows you to sign up right there. You can share the widget via Facebook and Twitter. Email messages can be sent to family and friends letting them know you’ve just registered and encouraging them to follow suit. You can see the total count of registered donors, even by county. Compelling recipient and family donor video testimonials and opportunity to share your own organ donation story provide the emotional connection to seal the deal.

It’s only been a couple of weeks and already over 5000 widget impressions and over 125 widget installs. Help share the gift of life. Sign up on the widget below and share the widget.

And know that you’ve made a difference. Just one donor can save or improve the lives of 50 people. And there are thousands in Michigan just waiting for your help.

Let us know your thoughts on this social media strategy and any other successful cause social media strategies you’ve used.

Healthcare marketers are often challenged with to how to participate and ultimately lead health conversations through social media channels. In this highly regulated market, even marketers armed with great social strategies can find that they face seemingly insurmountable barriers thrown up by administration and information technology departments.

So how can you become part of the conversation when the thoughts you express could create a liability or privacy concern for your organization? Here’s one idea: borrow third party expertise. Turn the conversation away from your organization, your doctors, your services, and tap into some of the rich public health resources available online.

Why not get familiar with the major public health research publications such as Environmental Health Perspectives (fd: Brogan & Partners publishes and markets EHP on behalf of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences). Stay ahead of the competition when it comes to understanding the major health concerns of today and tomorrow by commenting on the research or news provided by these publications and the esteemed researchers that contribute to them. You can then draw connections back to your service lines as a way of providing additional information.

You’ll appear smarter and better informed while fostering a feeling of goodwill among consumers because your organization is taking the time to help them understand how to live healthier lives. Got other ideas on how to insert your organization into the social sphere while limiting exposure? We’d love to hear them!

Maybe it’s the New Year that making me nostalgic, maybe it’s my upcoming wedding … not sure exactly, but something has got me reminiscing.  Funny that during this time, I saw an influx on Twitter about old-school advertisements, and ran by a nice photo homage dedicated to vintage healthcare ads.  Looking through the images, I am amazed to see how much the healthcare advertising rules have changed.  Take this ad for example:

The copy reads, “For prompt control of senile agitation.  Thorazine.  Thorazine can control the agitated, belligerent senile and help the patient to have a composed and useful life.  Can you imagine being a pharmaceutical company and running this print ad now?  The AARP would be outraged!

Not sure if the changes are good or bad though, I feel like now as healthcare marketers, we have to walk such a fine line.  What do you think?

It’s that time of year. I’ve been reading lots of healthcare marketing predictions for 2010, failed predictions from 2009, best-ofs, worst-ofs, etc…so I thought I’d keep it simple and arm you with some top Healthcare Marketing Facts & Stats to help you sound in-the-know at your next big pow-wow.

• the number of docs using Smartphones more than doubled to 64% over the past year.
• 61% of adults search on line for health information. 8 of 10 Internet users have searched online for health information.
• 9 of 10 ad campaigns in 2009 involved consumer participation.
• 35% of adults say they personally will be better off if health care reform passes; 27% say they will be worse off.
• There are now over 1,000 hospital social media sites (mostly Facebook, Twitter, YouTube).
• Over 90% of hospitals have no functional comprehensive EHR today. Large and teaching hospitals are leading the way.
• 67% of physician offices (4 or more docs) do not use EMR.
• The patient-centered medical home model has been implemented in over 100 pilots across the country. An industry leader, Geisinger Health Plan, has yielded ROI of over 250%, including 12% ER utilization reduction, 20% hospitalization reduction and 48% rehospitalization reduction.
• For the first time in history, women (our key healthcare target) make up half of all workers. Fifty plus women are the healthiest, wealthiest and most active generation of women in history.
• Chances are you know this one, but I can’t not include it…approximately 46 million people in the U.S. are uninsured; 80% of these are U.S. citizens; 80% are in working families.

Confidently insert these zingers into high level meetings and discussions as appropriate! Got any of your own to share with us?

I blogged  a couple months ago about the “pink glove dance” — the so-cute breast cancer awareness video starring dancing hospital employees of all kinds– that every healthcare marketer watched with envy (except its creators at Providence St. Vincent) as it spiraled to over 6 million YouTube views.  A marketing phenomenon of viral proportions.  Followed by the next marketing phenomenon: Colleagues saying, “We should do something like the pink glove dance!” Problem is while you can try to “go viral”, you can’t plan or guarantee viral.  Take for instance, this wannabe from another hospital.
  
I give them credit for trying, but it just doesn’t have that pink glove viral quality. What do you think?

All healthcare advertisers and marketers know that reaching college audiences is near to impossible.  With that in mind, how would you develop a break-through campaign that would actually encourage this target to change a behavior?

In order to reduce the onset of H1N1 our client, The Michigan Department of Community Health, needed to find a way to encourage college students in the state to wash their hands, cover their coughs and sneezes, stay home when they are sick (well, that one isn’t that hard) and to get the H1N1 flu vaccine - without sounding like their mom.  Enter coaches from two of the most popular Michigan universities.

As a die hard Spartan and a girl with an extreme crush on MSU’s coach, Tom Izzo, I can say that I would do anything he recommends.  I hope the rest of the students in Michigan feel the same (even if they would rather hear it from U of M’s coach, Rich Rodriguez).

What do you think about the spot?  I would love to hear your feedback.

I was recently interviewed for a healthcare marketing book and was stumped by one of the author’s questions: Do you have any examples of leaders in measuring results in healthcare marketing? I had to stop and think about this one, do a little background research, noodle it around with some peers, to confirm my first thought: No. No one emerges in my head as consistently leading in this discipline. And yet results measurement is so paramount to the integrity and justification of what we as healthcare marketers do.

In my mind, measurement involves 2 key areas: Communications Objectives (awareness, preference, inquiries, response due more directly to marketing communications); and Marketing Objectives (volume, market share, visits, referrals, satisfaction - outcome due to myriad of factors, not singularly marketing communications).

There there is the intriguing new landscape of brand engagement measurement, which goes beyond patient satisfaction to measure the emotional experience and connection with the brand. Gallop offers such a study tying it to financial performance and HCAHPS. I am all about creating an emotional experience and tracking it excites me. I believe this is the wave of the future. Hospitals that master this (along with other tracking) can claim the measurement leader position.

As the agency, we are constantly nudging our clients to track campaigns for marketing program success and budget justification. I like to think that we at Brogan are leaders in this discipline, but in the end, success measurement is largely out of our hands and really up to the client.

So tell me, how would you have answered this question?

Here’s a cool idea for a hospital or health plan to think about. It’s actually through an initiative by Volkswagon called the fun theory  but I think it would be an innovative healthcare marketing strategy that could really create some buzz.  Why? Because rather than just saying they’re all about wellness, they’d really be creating it. Take a look at what the musical steps make people do. Use them! A hospital or healthcare organization could sponsor this in a local mall.  And really get people talking… and walking up those stairs!

Wouldn’t you take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator?