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  Image by David Mark from Pixabay Does the headline question have you thinking? There is a more profound meaningful patient experience, engagement, and marketing activity for hospitals than meets the eye in the headline. When was the last time one said thank you to the patient for trusting you with their care, treatment, and recovery? Hospitals have doctor, volunteer, and employee events to thank them for all their hard work. But those activities, for the most part, are annual and expected. When was the last time your hospital thanked a patient, not through a community event or a patient satisfaction survey asking for a high score or a patient-focused event, but thanked them while they were still in the hospital? And that is the difference . We all read, hear and talk about the mission of the organization and it is essential. The mission is what drives the hospital. It's the true north compass point for interactions with employees, physicians, vendors, and patients.   ...

  Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Everybody talks about Artificial Intelligence (AI), but what does that mean for the healthcare provider and vendor marketing? AI is already with us as a part of our everyday lives; look at Alexi, Siri, Google Home, and Cortana. These devices already know what we want and assist us in navigating a complex world at home, at work, and in our play. They help us search for medical services and vendors who provide medical products and services. If you think about it, AI will have a profound effect on how hospitals anticipate the needs of and engage with patients and how vendors create a new prospect journey independent of sales. At some point, direct contact with an individual, be it a physician, clinician, or salesperson, will come into play, as human touch will always be needed. But for sales, prospecting for new customers will become less about cold calling and existing client referrals, to responding to well-developed leads uncovered by the buye...

  Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay For several years now, hospitals and other providers have marketed to patients that they are patient-focused using any number of brand tag lines. Cleaver and memorable in most cases, the brand taglines, in a few short marketing communications messages, hit various marketing channels. You can replace healthcare providers with vendors and patient-focused with customer-focused for the same result. I am not writing today about how you become patient or customer-focused. Previous blog posts have addressed the characteristics and mechanics of what it takes to be patient or customer-focused. If you are interested, you can read “Patient & Customer Centricity is Culture- Driven, Not Program Driven” http://bit.ly/2PVtRLW , and “ Your Definitive Guide for Making a Hospital Patient-focused in a Pandemic World https://bit.ly/2Go5Ri5 .” Today is more concerning what does it mean to say you are patient or customer-focused. And in saying “we’re patient o...

  Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Let me repeat the headline a little differently. Is the patient's hospital marketing experience, given its importance as a first-touch experience and engagement opportunity, been forgotten? Given all that has been and continues to be written about experience and engagement, how the patient experiences the hospitals' marketing efforts, as they align with the patient's experience and engagement expectations, could cause a disconnect for the patient and in the market. Case in point. I just had my annual physical with my PCP. Even though there was no indication of vascular disease, she thought it was fruitful to have a vascular scan. Since there was no indication, my PPO would not pay. My PCP referred me to a screening service that regularly provides vascular scans at a discounted cash price to drive utilization not affiliated with the hospital. The service understands that in retail health, the most effective source of referrals will be ...