field notes

In a recent Webcast, we teamed up with Citrix's global strategy lead for audience & content marketing to discuss a modern approach to journey mapping that considers customers' psychological drivers.

If there were one problem I could snap my fingers and fix in healthcare, it would be invisibility.

Ahhh, tax season. It used to be that time of year that you handed a giant folder over to your accountant – not merely for convenience but because he actually knows how to navigate the complexity of tax forms. Until, that is, TurboTax reimagined the tax experience, empowering millions of consumers to complete their taxes all on their own.

I recently sat down with White Rhino’s healthcare practice leads, chief digital strategist Shawn Gross and VP of client services Tara Becker. With more than 15 years experience leading marketing for Boston’s top hospitals, I wanted their perspective on what 2017 holds. Shawn made a chilling comparison:

The patient portal has become the primary consumer access point to a patient’s electronic medical record. Moreover, it is becoming an entirely new channel for the delivery of healthcare – a place where patients schedule online appointments, view messages and lab results, and take advantage of e-health services.  

I recently facilitated a discussion with a boardroom full of hospital executives about how to improve patient experience by making hospital quality data (mortality rates, average length of stay, and the like) more transparent. 

The healthcare industry is up in arms over the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) new hospital quality rating measure – 22% of which will be dictated by patient experience. According to Bloomberg BNA, when the new rating system goes into place, “many prominent hospitals that are in the top echelon of other quality rating reports…may receive one or two stars out of a possible five, indicating that they have the poorest quality in comparison with all other hospitals.”

While hospital executives are putting pressure on the CMS to ensure the ratings methodology is accurate and fair, smart marketers aren’t even breaking a sweat. Instead, they’re creating a brand experience that results in happier patients – and quality ratings.

Last April I wrote that mobile and wearable technology will become integrated marketing program differentiators for hospital marketers by offering patient experience strategies that support both the sick and the healthy.