Will you be the first to own wellness in your market?
We continue to push and cajole hospitals to establish a brand positioning in their market around wellness. That is, if your hospital is known for one thing, let it be known as the resource for health and wellness support, resources, content and offerings. Why wellness? Here are three primary reasons: Read More
Gettin’ paid
Here’s the “How to Deal With a Leadership Challenge Tip of the Week.” We’ve heard this one a number of times over the years, but it’s become more frequent recently, and it goes a little something like this:
“Why should we invest in XYZ? We don’t get paid for that.”
This often comes from a CEO or CFO of a hospital, and what they mean is that whatever it is your asking them to invest in, the organization doesn’t get reimbursed for it. For example, we’ve heard this used in regards to investing in a better patient experience. One CFO we know said the following during planning for a major expansion:
“Why do we need to spend so much on patient rooms? We could just stick them in the hall and we’d get paid the same.”
Read More
Hospital awards – the madness continues
For those of you who follow this blog or have heard me speak, this will be a beating of a dead horse. But I can’t help myself, given a conversation I just had with a healthcare marketer who told me of two new hospital awards her organization had received, two of which I had never heard. The question is, will this madness ever end? Read More
Step right up to get your free colonoscopy…
Across the U.S., companies are finding ways to try to help customers purchase products and services in these tough economic times. Much has been made of some of the offers by car companies, started by Hyundai’s Assurance plan: anyone who buys or leases a vehicle in 2009 can return their car to the dealer and stop making monthly payments without affecting their credit score. According to Consumer Reports, the program isn’t just for consumers who’ve lost their jobs in tough times; it also extends to those who become physically disabled, lose their driver’s license due to medical impairment, are self employed and file for bankruptcy, or get a job transfer overseas. At Interval, we’ve even introduced a new offering to help our clients – hospital and health system marketers – who are having budgets and staffs slashed as the healthcare industry struggles.
This week, Walgreen announced Read More
Newspaper strikes back – oh, and it’s a great healthcare story
Perhaps the traditional media powers read Adam’s last blog post “Bye bye traditional media” and decided to launch a counter-strike. In this Sunday’s Star Tribune, the front page features a story by healthcare reporter Chen May Yee on new tactics by hospitals to collect payment for some procedures ahead of time. Here’s the counter-strike: the article, “Hospitals forced to become bill collectors,” is only available in the print edition of the paper. There is a teaser online, and I imagine at some point down the road (a few days? a week?) the story will end up on their web site. But for now, unless you pick up the paper itself, you’ll have to wait.
So there are two blog posts in one here: Read More
The economic crisis: Tipping point for healthcare consumer behavior?
With their own money on the line, consumers are beginning to use the same value criteria for healthcare decisions – service, price, experience, brand equity and more – as they do with other purchasing decisions. To date, however, the new healthcare “consumerism” has not led to a widespread change in consumer behavior. But this nation’s current economic crisis may well be the tipping point; the driver of fundamental change in how and when consumers engage hospitals and health systems. Read More
Be there or be…healthy
Is it possible that the intense feeling you had when you were a student – the “be in your chair when class starts” mentality – is forcing people to make a choice between being healthy or not? As a recent article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press points out, that might be the case. Read More
Disrupting healthcare
I spent today at a Master’s Forum event in Minneapolis entitled The Innovator’s Prescription. There were great speakers and many insights (Michael Howe, former CEO of MinuteClinic, gave one of my favorite quotes of the day when he said, “When you hear those in healthcare speak of integration, that’s not the same type of integration consumers want.”) Read More
Tis but a flesh wound…
More grim news on the impact of the economic crisis on healthcare providers. A new Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll says 53% of respondents said their households had cut back on healthcare in the previous year due to cost concerns. According to the study, “The most common actions reported are relying on home remedies and over-the-counter drugs rather than visiting a doctor or skipping dental care.” Read More
Elasticity in healthcare demand, fo sho
The Star Tribune continues to do a great job of covering the changing dynamics of the healthcare industry. The lead story on the front page of Sunday’s issue, “Minnesota health care: Condition Critical,” is a terrific primer on the various reasons for, and the impact of, the financial struggles of local hospitals and health systems. The quote that may capture the most important change comes from David Wessner, CEO of Park Nicollet Health Services:
“We’re seeing that demand is far more elastic than it was in other years.”
Read More