The Über Community Hospital

Last week I traveled to Lowell, Massachusetts, by way of Boston, to attend a strategic planning meeting with the team at Lowell General Hospital (LGH). My firm is starting a new project with LGH and we were there to get a briefing on the assignment. We first worked with the folks at Lowell General Hospital in 2007 and they have accomplished a ton over the last three years. This is definitely a community hospital on the rise, and in many ways it’s what a community hospital ought to aspire to be.

I know it is trite, but I was excited to see that they now share important information with visitors via flat panel TVs in the lobby. I’ve always liked their lobby because it is an open atrium. It feels very inviting and welcoming, making a great first impression. Lowell General Hospital has also installed the Skylight Access® Interactive Patient System in patient rooms – a new interactive network empowering patients by allowing them to “easily request services from housekeeping and food services, learn about their medical condition and wellness with educational videos, play games to pass the time, or chose from a full line-up of premium TV channels.” (Source: For Your Health Magazine, Volume 1 – 2009)

What impresses me most about LGH is the investment they’ve made in bringing top quality care to the people of the Merrimack Valley Region through the acquisition of the latest in medical technology. In most cases, there is little reason to go anywhere else. A recent issue of their For Your Health Magazine puts their technology in perspective:

“From a high-tech electronic medical records system to the area’s most extensive array of digital mammography suites, and leading-edge cardiac catheterization laboratories, Lowell General invests in technology that advances the healthcare resources available to our community.

Among the most advanced in this region, our Storz® operating suites enable surgeons to perform state-of-the-art procedures, including singleport laparoscopy and 3D-guided navigational neurosurgery. While our daVinci® Robotic Surgery system uses highly advanced minimally-invasive 3D technology to enable surgeons to magnify, visualize and operate on even the tiniest nerves and most delicate tissue with amazing accuracy and precision.

In addition, we partner with the area’s most prestigious medical centers to provide tomorrow’s cancer care today, offering the latest clinical trials and cancer risk assessment – including genetic testing.”

But that’s just the beginning. LGH now offers heart patients state-of-the-art Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD), that protects patients from life-threatening arrhythmias. “The battery-powered device – about the size of a deck of cards – is surgically placed under the skin in the chest, and wires are passed through a vein to connect it to the heart. When the ICD detects abnormal heartbeats, it sends an electrical shock to the heart to restore a normal rhythm.” (Source: For Your Health Magazine, Volume 2 – 2009)

Lowell General Hospital is also participating in Cancer Clinical Trials. The Cancer Center at Lowell General Hospital provides patients with the option of participating in a variety of clinical trials, allowing patients access to innovative treatments that often are not available at other community hospitals. Clinical trials at LGH are sponsored by organizations such as the National Cancer Institute or cancer research hospitals in Boston that want to reach people in the Lowell area.

Remarkably, LGH is also offering patients facing a traditional or laproscopic hysterectomy the option of robotic-assisted hysterectomy with the da Vinci® Surgery System, a leading edge technology. They are also performing prostate surgeries using the da Vinci Surgical System. Typically, the benefits that are linked to robotic-assisted surgery include less trauma to the body, less blood loss during surgery, smaller incision, and faster recovery time. LGH is also performing  singleport laparoscopic surgery, a minimally invasive approach where the surgeon operates through a single incision in the patients belly button, leaving no visible scar. This type of surgical procedure is being used for gastric banding and gall bladder removal.  The surgeries are performed in two of LGH’s new integrated surgical suites. The suites are optimally designed, giving the surgeon finger tip control of patient information systems, audio, video, lighting and medical equipment – all accessible through a single touch screen. This is some of the most advanced technology available that you’d expect to find at Mass General or Tufts Medical Center – and you’ll find it at Lowell General Hospital in Lowell, Massachusetts. That’s part of what makes it an Über community hospital!

Another important ingredient is the organizational culture at LGH and its commitment to a positive patient experience. A good indicator of this is the fact the Lowell General was named one of the Best Places to Work (2009) in Massachusetts by The Boston Globe.  The award recognizes the most progressive companies in the state based on employee opinions about company leadership, compensation and training, diversity/inclusion, career development, family-friendly flexibility, and values and ethics. In my experience, patient satisfaction is often a byproduct of employee satisfaction. The leadership team at Lowell General Hospital has successfully fostered a caring and compassionate, patient-first culture among its employees. Combine that with their investment in technology and you’ve got an Über community hospital. It is a pleasure to see this organization flourish by doing so many of the right things!

Post by Dan Dunlop, The Healthcare Marketer

A Busy Couple of Weeks for this Healthcare Marketer

What a busy couple of weeks. Last Friday (January 22, 2010), speaker submissions were due for the 2010 SHSMD annual conference, to be held in Chicago, September 13-15. I sent in a couple of proposals and wrote an additional proposal for one of our clients. If you make an effort to speak at the healthcare marketing conferences, you have to be vigilant about keeping track of these submission dates.They tend to sneak up on me. It feels like I just attended the last SHSMD conference and now it is time to be planning for the next one. You also have to come up with interesting and engaging topics. If you are like me and work on the agency or consulting side of the healthcare marketing world, then the conferences often prefer that you partner with a client/provider. I’m fortunate that I have a few clients who are excellent presenters. At the last SHSMD conference I presented with Dr. David Fairchild, the chief medical officer for Tufts Medical Center in Boston. He was such a comfortable presenter. Even though this was our first time presenting together, we were able to play off of one another really well throughout the presentation.

On Wednesday evening I sent off my firm’s submissions for the Healthcare Advertising Awards - sponsored by Healthcare Marketing Report. To get the early submission discounted fee, the entries had to be postmarked by January 28th. If you haven’t sent in your submissions, don’t worry, the regular deadline is February 18 and the late deadline is March 5, 2010. Of course, you’ll pay more for each entry. I’ve been sending in submissions to these awards competitions for 15 years and I still have no idea what will win. It is a total shot in the dark. Win or lose, I feel really good about the work we’ve submitted.

On Thursday I finished my firm’s submissions for the Lamplighter Awards, produced by the New England Society for Healthcare Communications. These were fun to do because it was entirely electronic. The whole process took place online. Rather than having to spray mount ads and billboards, and load TV and radio spots onto DVDs, all we had to do was upload the creative files with each electronic submission. I much prefer this process. It is less costly and far friendlier to the environment. When I compare this to the heavy package of materials we FedEx’d off to the folks at the Healthcare Advertising Awards, it seems that this approach is a no brainer. By the way, the Lamplighter award entries are due at 5pm today! Last year was the first time my agency entered the Lamplighter Awards and we found it to be a very positive experience (that means we won!). We greatly value our relationship with the New England Society and its members. And we’re looking forward to their spring symposium, May 24-26, 2010, at the Stoweflake Resort in Stowe, Vermont.

We just finished going through the agency review process with a major academic medical center on the east coast, and now we are working on putting together all of the formal agreements that are necessary to start the new agency relationship. Our goal is to have all this contractual stuff put to bed and be up and running by February 10th. Winning new accounts and starting a new marketing relationship is very exciting. My team can’t wait to get started. More about that in the future!

My team and I also spent a good part of the last two weeks preparing an RFP response for a hospital in Massachusetts that is looking for a new marketing firm. On Wednesday we sent off the completed response via FedEx. In our business, responding to RFPs is very important in order to keep new business flowing in our door. There may only be three of four opportunities that pop up in a given year in which we are interested in pursuing. So we have to make the most of those opportunities. They typically involve a ton of work.

I’ve also been busy preparing for two social media webinars I’m conducting the week of February 15th. One is for Progressive Healthcare Audio Conference and the other is for GrandCare. I love doing webinars but they take a lot of preparation if you want them to be a valuable experience for the attendees.

Now we’ve got to turn our attention to preparing entries for the Aster Awards, another of the major healthcare marketing awards competitions that we participate in each year. The 2010 Aster Awards Deadlines: Early Deadline: February 27, 2010; Late Deadline: March 15, 2010. You can check them out online at http://www.asterawards.com.

So, 2010 is off to a busy start. I think that bodes well for the rest of the year. Economic data released last week showed that the economy grew in 4th quarter 2009, so there are signs of recovery. Keep your fingers crossed! I’m optimistic.

Post by Dan Dunlop, The Healthcare Marketer

How Will Tablet PCs impact Healthcare?

You’ve no doubt heard the news that Apple is set to release a new tablet PC this week. That got the folks at Medical Software Advice thinking about whether or not this new device will be the first tablet PC to break through in the healthcare industry.

They’ve created a short survey (8 multiple choice questions) about what tablet PC features are important to healthcare professionals. They’ll use the results from the survey to determine which tablet PC is best positioned to rule the halls of healthcare. Even if you’ve never used a tablet PC, they’d love to get your opinion on what features are important.

Here is the link to the survey:

http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/uncategorized/which-tablet-pc-will-rule-the-halls-of-healthcare-1012610/

If you’re interested and have the time, consider taking the survey. Thanks!

Post by Dan Dunlop, The Healthcare Marketer

The Latest Report on the Health of Americans

This morning in the New York Times, brought to my attention by Ann Nickels, is an article outlining the report released last month by the National Center for Health Statistics that gives a portrait of American health in the first half of 2009. According to the report, there is good news and bad news.

Here’s an excerpt from the story (Source: New York Times, January 26, 2010):

“Americans report that they have been exercising more. Nevertheless, more than a quarter were obese in 2009 (with a body mass index of 30 or more), up from 19.5 percent in 1997.

The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes has also risen steadily, and, in 2009, 8.8 percent of Americans received diagnoses of the illness, compared with 5.3 percent in 1997.

Alcohol consumption has been steadily rising over the past five years, and the number of adults over 18 who had five or more drinks in one day at least once during the year rose to 23.6 percent in 2009, compared with 19.2 in 2004. The percentage of adults reporting serious psychological distress has remained steady, at around 3 percent.”

Check out the article online at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/health/26stat.html?emc=eta1.

Post by Dan Dunlop, The Healthcare Marketer

New Study: Journalists Turn to Social Media

Are reporters using social media as a resource when writing stories? I’ve always maintained that most reporters would prefer to do online research as opposed to speaking with a live person for background research. It’s just easier; so why not take the path of least resistance? With all the buzz around social media, it’s not surprising that blogs and social networking sites are now viewed as important research sources by a majority of journalists, according to a new survey conducted by Cision and George Washington University.  The study, titled “2009 Social Media & Online Usage,” reports the results of  “an online survey of Print and Web journalists from September 1, 2009, to October 13, 2009, to measure use of, and attitudes toward, social media for researching and reporting stories.” The report is available for download from Cision at no charge. Just go to http://tinyurl.com/yeagdeq and enter your information. (Source: Cision, 2010)

Here are some of the findings from the study:

• Most journalists – 56% – said social media was important or somewhat important for reporting and producing the stories they wrote.
• Almost nine out of ten journalists reported using Blogs for their online research (89%).
• Approximately two-thirds reported using Social Networking sites and just over half make use of Twitter for online research.
• Newspaper journalists (72%) and those writing for Websites (75%) use Social Networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook for online research significantly more often than those at Magazines (58%).
• It is important to note that Corporate websites, press releases and especially PR professionals remain consistently used resources for journalists when writing or producing stories.
• Three-quarters of those responding take the number of website visitors (76%) and number of comments or views (74%) into account when measuring the impact of their stories. Number of Twitter followers and number of inbound links are the next most-used metrics (43% each).
• Experience makes a difference: Those with less experience consistently utilize online and social media metrics to measure the impact of their stores more often than do those with more experience.
• Most journalists responding (84%) said news and information delivered via social media was slightly less or much less reliable/vetted than news delivered via traditional media.
• Lack of fact-checking, verification or reporting standards is the number one reason (49%) for journalists’perceptions on the reliability of news and information from social media sources.

This is an interesting study, and extremely valuable for PR professionals who are advising clients on social media strategies. Again, check it out on Cision’s website by going to http://tinyurl.com/yeagdeq.

Post by Dan Dunlop, The Healthcare Marketer

The Pixie, The Fexy and The EMPixx?

I thought I’d seen it all when I received a mailer a couple of years ago promoting the Blingy Awards. In general, awards competitions have gotten out of hand. Then today one of my co-workers handed me a promotional piece produced by the American Pixel Academy. The headline on the piece read: “Add new life to your Awards shelf.” It was promoting three different awards competitions:

• The Pixie Awards (Deadline November 5, 2010) – The Pixie Awards honors outstanding work in the fastest-growing area of the moving pixels industry: Animation, Motion Graphics and Effects. http://www.pixieawards.com. If you win, you get one of these statues of a figure resembling Tinkerbell!
• The Fexy Awards (Deadline March 5, 2010) – The Fexy Awards honors outstanding use of Photoshop®, Illustrator®, After Effects®, Flash®, Apple Motion®, Final Cut®, filters and other FX software in Print, Web and Moving Pixels. http://www.fexyawards.com.
• The EMPixx Awards (Deadline July 2, 2010) – The EMPixx Awards honor excellence in the production of five categories of Moving Pixels: TV Commercials, TV Programs, Corporate Videos, Internet Moving Pixels, and Independent Films & Videos. http://www.EMPixxAwards.com.

As if there weren’t enough awards competitions out there already, you’ve got three new beauty contests to enter. Enjoy!

Post by Dan Dunlop, The Healthcare Marketer

Using Social Media for Hive Marketing

Okay, this post falls under the category of shameless self-promotion packaged within useful content. In the past I’ve written about Hive Marketing; it’s the practice of taking a small group of brand advocates and activating them on behalf of the organization. You bring them together in a group, allow them to share information with others who share their love for the brand, and give them the tools to go forth and serve as brand ambassadors. Ideally, these energized supported leave the hive and create buzz in the community, spreading the word about your organization. To read an earlier post on Hive Marketing, go to http://tinyurl.com/ykoe3hv.

In the January 2010 issue of Healthcare Marketing Advisor, there’s an article written by Mark Shelley and myself about this notion of Hive Marketing and how your organization can use social media vehicles to energize brand advocates. The article gives extremely practical information for how to use LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to leverage the power of your supporters. Our message is simple: it is not enough to have members of your network speaking to each other. You want to empower them to leave the hive and create buzz about your organization.

Check out this practical look at social media by going to http://www.hcpro.com/publication-3474.html to download the latest issue of HMA.

Post by Dan Dunlop, The Healthcare Marketer

Despite Financial Woes, HCMC Goes Green

A January 12, 2010 article in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune details the efforts of Hennepin County Medical Center to go green; this, despite a $25 million budget deficit. HCMC is a 465 bed academic medical center and Level I trauma center located in downtown Minneapolis. It is really remarkable what this medical center has accomplished.  Thanks to a waste reduction grant from Hennepin County, the hospital has established an active recycling program that is expected to handle 100 tons of organic waste (food scraps, soiled paper napkins and plates) that will be turned into soil additive to be used in landscaping.

Here’s an except from the article:

And HCMC officials, estimating that they will save at least 1 million gallons of water annually by not sending food scraps down the garbage disposal, figure that the hospital will cut its sewage and water costs as well, said Paul Kroening, a supervising environmentalist with Hennepin County.

“Is there a dramatic cost savings on this? No, absolutely not. It’s relatively small over a lifetime,” Kroening said. “The benefit that HCMC saw in this is that they’re in the health care business and they see the results of having a healthy environment.” (Source: StarTribune.com, January 12, 2010)

Composting and recycling are not the only sustainable practices employed by HCMC. It has also eliminated trans fats from the food it serves in its cafeteria and to patients.  Interesting, it also planted an organic garden on the roof of its trauma center. Herbs and produce from the garden are used in hospital cuisine. As I said, they are doing remarkable things at HCMC!

To view the article online, go to http://tinyurl.com/yaxne4z.

Post by Dan Dunlop, The Healthcare Marketer

Green Initiatives on the Rise in Healthcare

Yesterday I came across an article in Managed Healthcare Executive Magazine titled “Green initiatives growing among healthcare facilities.” Lately I’ve been writing a lot about the green movement in healthcare, or as I prefer to call it, the healthy hospital movement. It’s wonderful to see hospitals working to develop healing environments that are both healthful and that help to sustain your spirit. I recently posted about my trip to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ.  In the lobby of their Pavilion, there is a huge atrium with a wall of live Bamboo trees, several light features, comfortable (non-institutional) seating, and wireless Internet access for guests. Those are all elements that make the visitor’s experience less stressful and more pleasant. The message to hospitals today is simple: Healing environments should no longer have a cold, institutional feel.

Here’s the opening blurb from the Managed Healthcare Executive Magazine article:

“From Recycling and waste management programs to nontoxic paint and permeable pavement, hospitals across the country are implementing green initiatives to produce healthier environments for patients and staff, which they say saves not only energy, but money.” (Source: Managed Healthcare Executive Magazine, January 2010)

The article goes on to give a few examples of healthcare facilities who have jumped on the sustainability bandwagon. One of the organizations featured happens to be one of my firm’s clients: The East Carolina Heart Institute at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, North Carolina. They are part of University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina. You can find the article online at http://tinyurl.com/ya6ecl6. Here’s part of what the article had to say about the Heart Institute:

“The East Carolina Heart Institute, which is attached to the Pitt County Memorial Hospital in North Carolina, has implemented both green and general health ideas into its structure, including ergonomic equipment, natural light and an energy efficient utility plant.

The structure has only been open for a year, but was built with energy efficiency in mind, according to Brian Floyd, executive director of the Heart Institute. It also contains recycled materials in the carpet as well as in bathroom, kitchen and ceiling tile.

Natural lighting is one feature that overlaps in the green movement and healthy hospital movement. An effort was made to light the Institute with large windows in patient rooms, physician work areas, waiting rooms, lobbies and cafes.” (Source: Managed Healthcare Executive Magazine, January 2010)

If you’d like to learn more about the healthy hospital movement or the East Carolina Heart Institute’s sustainable practices. I recently wrote an article about this subject for the Alternative Health Journal. You can find that article online at http://tinyurl.com/ybg9csp.  It details the work done by Lexington Medical Center and The East Carolina Heart Institute to create healthy environments for patients, visitors and employees. This is definitely a hot topic.

Post by Dan Dunlop, The Healthcare Marketer

An Ascending Healthcare Brand in Camden, NJ

I’m fortunate in my line of work to have the opportunity to visit medical centers across the country. For the last two days I’ve been in the Delaware Valley doing consumer research in the Philadelphia and South Jersey market. Yesterday my team and I did one-on-one consumer intercepts asking area residents about their perceptions of healthcare providers in the region. We also conducted a focus group with an incredible collection of female healthcare decision-makers. They were remarkably well informed and demanding!

I’ve spent most of today visiting Cooper University Hospital at their health sciences campus in Camden, New Jersey, just across the river from Philadelphia. Camden is a city that is slowly being revitalized, thanks in large part to Cooper’s commitment to growing its health system and medical school in Camden. Cooper is arguably the leading hospital in South Jersey.

Spend just a few moments in its new $220 million patient pavilion, and you’ll quickly understand that Cooper and its board of trustees have driven a stake in the ground; although they already have an exceptional health system with centers of excellence in heart, cancer, orthopedics and neurosciences, they have committed themselves to building a 21st century university hospital that will rival anything across the river in Philadelphia. That’s what I call driving a stake in the ground! And let me tell you, there are some exceptional healthcare providers in Philadelphia, beginning with Penn Medicine (University of Pennsylvania Health System) anchored by the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Penn was ranked 8^th overall on the U.S. New & World Report Best Hospitals list for 2009-2010  As if that’s not enough, Philadelphia is also home to the Thomas Jefferson University Health System and Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals. These are truly world class organizations. And one day Cooper plans to rank among them. Interestingly, having met the folks at Cooper and seen what they’ve already accomplished, I believe they will do it.

Another tidbit about the Delaware Valley: Within a 100-mile radius of Philadelphia is the nation’s largest concentration of health care resources with 373 physicians per 100,000 residents in the Greater Philadelphia region. When one looks at the excellence within various specialties, the competitive landscape within Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley becomes even more complex:  Think of the Fox Chase Cancer Center and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

One remarkable part of my visit to Cooper was eating an early lunch in their Oasis Restaurant. The food was the best I’ve had on this trip and the service was impeccable. This is a restaurant located in a hospital! The wait staff kept checking in on me, and truly worked as a team. They all seemed to take ownership of me as a customer.  As I was leaving the restaurant, the waitress noticed that I was carrying a nearly empty water bottle, and she offered to fill it up for me. That is customer service! The restaurant is located right off the lobby of the patient pavilion, and provides easy access for visitors to the hospital as well as staff. I noticed several members of the medical staff having lunch at a table next to me.

If you want to see a healthcare brand on the rise, check out Cooper University Hospital at www.cooperhealth.org. They have a remarkable story to tell.

To close, here are a couple more photos from my visit to Cooper.

Post by Dan Dunlop, The Healthcare Marketer