Lessons From The SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic, Are You Ready For A Chief Engagement Officer?

A significant change has taken place in hospitals and health systems as an unintended consequence of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.  Hospitals and health systems were forced on an unprecedented scale to rapidly engage with government, first responders, employees, patients, and the community. The engagement also required a new level of cooperation, communication, and information sharing between competing hospitals and health systems in any given location.

Image by ar130405 form Piaxabay

A new level of organizational transparency was required, as the communication flows and the information needed to be transmitted significantly varied depending on the audience and communication channel being used. In doing so, hospitals and health systems learned that meaningful engagement and transparency made a difference with patients and the community. 

A hard-won first lesson as most engagement activities until the pandemic, we minimalistic and more along with the ones of marketing messages or readily available wellness information.

The second lesson was that patients and the community responded positively to the new engagement and information.  The hospitals and health systems led, and for the most part, experienced positive outcomes from the transparent and informative engagement efforts.

The third lesson was the discovery that patients and the community became engaged and turned to healthcare organizations as trusted sources of information. Audiences liked and appreciated knowing what was transpiring and how it impacted them.  In experiencing the new engagement, patients and the community found they wanted it, which set up not only an engagement expectation but an experience expectation as well as going forward post-pandemic.

Image by Mystic Art Design from Pixabay

The genie is out of the bottle, and there is no going back.

The question now on the table is, how will the hospital or health system maintain the level of patient and community engagement going forward?  And, the question is critically important.

That is where the position of Chief Engagement Officer comes into being.

It is essential to understand the role of the Chief Engagement Officer is to cut across organizational silos and boundaries, to unify, and manage all the engagement activities, and messages aimed at patients, and community.  Let me repeat this important point. Unify all the engagement activities across the healthcare organization.

Given the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the requirements of engagement and communication across multiple disparate audiences, the hospital and health system became, out of necessity, a highly integrated, communicative operation. The patients liked it. The community wanted it. First responders liked it. The media loved it.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Going forward, the benefits of keeping patients and the community-engaged with the hospital and health system at a high level is apparent. It’s the new normal now and meeting the engagement and experience requirements of the patient and the community has become a long-term strategic business requirement.

Back to the question posed in the headline, are you ready, or at least preparing, for a Chief Engagement Officer?

Michael is a healthcare business, marketing, communications strategist, and thought leader. As an internationally followed healthcare strategy blogger, his blog, Healthcare Marketing Matters, is read in 52 countries and is listed on the 100 Top Healthcare Marketing Blogs & Websites ranked at No. 3 on the list by Feedspot.com. Michael is a Life Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives. An expert in healthcare marketing strategy, digital marketing, and social media, Michael is in the top 10 percent of social media experts nationwide and is considered an established influencer. For inquiries regarding strategic consulting engagements, you can email me at michael@themichaeljgroup.com. Connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Opinions expressed are my own.

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