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  Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay It is an understatement to say that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has fundamentally changed the way patients search for and receive medical care. With many more care options for convenient and accessible medical care, driven by the digitization of healthcare delivery, patients will never go back to the way it was.  Patients realize their need for hospital services revolves around specific services such as emergency care, intensive care, complex acute medical conditions, PICU, or NICU. With the awareness and experience of alternatives for care, patients are more in control of the medical care buying journey with their physician. While a patient buying journey map pre-pandemic was a useful tool in understanding key decision points in patient choice, now is the time to start anew and create a new journey map. Though we are still in the darkest and deepest winter of the pandemic, it will come to an end.   The updated patient buyer's journey will...

COVID-19 and the innovation that continues to rapidly evolve in patients' access and comfort in using digital healthcare can be transformational for the hospital. For example, the pandemic has placed the patient in charge of when, where, and how hospital services are utilized.  Suppose for a moment that the pandemic has taught patients how to change utilization behavior. In that case, telemedicine and digital healthcare teach that one only needs a hospital for a few medically necessary services that cannot be provided in a freestanding ambulatory center. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay The fourth wave of the digital healthcare transformation is an opportunity for the hospital. The patient is increasingly in control. Patients control their health and health data through wearables, mobile health platforms, telemedicine, and self-tracking devices. Patients have experience expectations based on previous non-healthcare digital experiences by selecting the most appropriate digital ...

Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay. We are on the 12 th day of 2021, and already, the signs are apparent it will be another challenging year for hospital marketers. One could hope for improvement, but the confluence of external events, price transparency, and changes in healthcare delivery poses exciting challenges. The tried-and-true traditional ways of approaching the physician and patient market are no longer sufficient. As hard as it is externally, hospital marketers, in many cases, still face the daunting task of driving revenue and building the hospital brand with diminished budgets.   The marketer's glass is either half full or half empty depending on your perspective. I prefer to see the glass full of tremendous opportunity. The choice can be boiled down to; you can either surf the wave of change or let it wipe you out by marketing in your historical approaches and channels.   Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay With that in mind, here are eight strategic trends t...

Beginning on January 1, 2021, patients should be able to search a hospital or health system website for the prices on 200 standard procedures. Mandated by CMS in 2020, the purpose was to provide a measure of price transparency for patients and consumers when seeking medical care. Image by Niek Verlaan from Pixabay  What happened? In randomly searching the internet on hospitals and health systems websites for pricing information, I found a confusing maze of information.   In all cases, the ability to find and search the information was difficult at best. I know my way around a website, search terms, and the internet as a healthcare provider and vendor marketing professional.   If I have difficulty finding, searching, and using the information to decide, how is a consumer or patient? Kudos to any hospital or health system that provided an experience that made the information easily accessible, searchable, and user-friendly. I am sure that over time with prodding from CMS...