What Should Hospitals Advertise?

That question of course, assumes that you believe hospital advertising is appropriate. And you may well believe that it is also a waste of resources. Which I think is a most dangerous position, given the ongoing transformation of the healthcare market from a provider-directed to a consumer-directed or as some prefer a patient -directed model.

Arguments aside, what should hospitals be advertising to create an unassailable market position, a strong brand, as well as an enlightened and informed consumer? Remember, when you are marketing to consumers, they don't become a patient until they receive a service from you. So three-quarters of the time in their interactions with you, the "consumer" is only a "patient" during diagnosis and treatment.

Should it be being the best at all things or a category of service?

How about having the most current technology?

Maybe it could be who has the most quality awards and highest patient satisfaction?

Or, it could focus on the physicians with messaging about having the best specialists in the region?

Then, there is the here are the insurance plans we accept, followed by the, we have big screen TVs and private rooms.

I think, that pretty much for the most part, sums up the current state of hospital advertising. And when several hospitals are staying all of these things at the same time in a market, do you really believe that the consumer is paying any attention at all, when there is so little differentiation, it all looks like "me too" and just shouting for attention?

I am sure it makes the Board, senior management and physicians feel good. All the while your target audience receives absolutely no information that will help them make some of the most critical choices and decisions in their life.

And that can't go on any longer.

Time really to stop treating the healthcare consumer like they are some kind of idiot. People are coming to the realization that healthcare is not such the "black box that the consumer can't possibly understand the complexity of medical care".

It's time for meaningful information in the marketplace that will allow the healthcare consumer to become informed, educated and participatory in the care decision-making process. Time for marketing to begin to lead in hospitals instead of being order takers, and talking nonsense in their markets.

You should be transparent and talking about your outcomes. You need to engage in a meaningful dialogue that gives individuals the information that they want and need. The healthcare consumer is hungry for information and are searching the internet and other sources about you and how you perform. They are paying more of the cost. Demanding more say in what goes on. And don't like being treated like they are some small child who can't make a decision.

To use an often quoted metaphor, the wave of change is upon the hospital industry as we move from provider-dominated and controlled decision-making, to consumer and patient-directed, controlled healthcare. Your choice, change, be responsive and surf the wave to success, or be washed over and deposited on the ash heap of history.

You can continue the conversation with me on:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich
Web site: http://www.themichaeljgroup.com/

For more information, or to discuss your strategic healthcare marketing, customer experience management, marketing/sales integration or start-up needs, you can learn more at my web site the michael J group; email- michael@themichaeljgroup.com; or phone by calling me at 815-293-1471.

Using QR Codes in Healthcare Marketing

Have you ever considered using Quick Response(QR)Codes in your healthcare marketing? Do you even know what a QR Code is?

For those who may be unfamiliar with QR codes, they were developed by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave in 1994 for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing. It is called QR Code for Quick Response Code because it is intended for its content to be decoded at high-speed. The QR Code is a two-dimensional code consisting of black modules arranged in a square on white background. It is readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera and smartphones. QR Code™ is a registered trademark of Denso Wave Incorporated.

QR Codes are used with regularity in marketing in most other parts of the world.  The U. S. lags in use.

Its About Convenience

This is really a convenience application aimed at mobile phone users. And I think it has great application for use in the healthcare industry. Mobile-tagging as it is called, provides you the ability to communicate information to a user, be it the URL to your website or micro site, phone number of an account representative, display text or used to compose an email or text message. The QR Code can be placed in newspaper ads, magazines, billboards, buses, direct mail, email messages, web sites, blogs , in just about any medium you can think of.

Immediate Response for Return on Marketing Investment

Now instead of asking someone to dial a number, go to a web site, your QR Code in whatever medium you are using can be scanned immediately with the users phone or a QR scanner and the information accessed. It could be connecting the users phone to a wireless network and placing the call. It could be to a web site or specific page or even find-a-doc. You can measure the effects of your campaign immediately.

QR Codes are free and can be generated by any number of sites on the web. I used Google to find a site and randomly picked delivr. The QR Code for this blog was generated at delivr. It is very easy to create your own QR Code and took less than 30 seconds.

For example, below is the QR Code for my blog:


It contains the URL to get you here. I can now place this on business cards, emails, text messages, ads, any medium really to direct traffic to my site. Scan and go. Literally no waiting. No typing in an address. Nor waiting till I get home to use the computer or find a wifi hot spot for the laptop. Naturally, a users smart phone needs the app but those are readily available and free as well. You may want to include a QR Code reader app on you web site for mobile phone users with smartphones to download if they do not have one. Some smartphones using the Android operating system already have the app. Point the phones camera, take the picture, use the app. That all it takes.

QR Codes are known as a physical world hyperlink or in my world, PWH for short.

Of course there are message size limits and variants called Micro QR Codes which are essentially smaller versions of the standard QR Code applications. I am not going to delve into any more detail of this because so much information is available on the web and easily understood that you can do this yourself.

So as 2010 begins to come to a close, start looking at how applications in other industries can kick-start your 2010 healthcare marketing to another level and increase your customers convenience for using you, your products, your services, generating revenue and strengthening your brand.

You can continue the conversation with me on:

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich

Michael Krivich is a senior healthcare marketing executive and internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger read daily in over 20 countries around the world. A Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives as well as a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association, he can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for hiring as your senior marketing executive , for interim assignments in all aspects of healthcare marketing whether it be strategic or tactical market planning, rebuilding and revitalizing your existing marketing operation, integration of sales and marketing teams, media relations or service line revitalizations. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations , I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

Using Healthcare Focused Webinars to Drive Revenue

Recently, I have been seeing a large amount of advertising directing individuals to come to a hospital or physicians office, clinic etc., at a specific date and time, usually at the physicians or clinicians convenience, for a health and wellness program.

That is so 1990s.

In this day and age, with internet savvy audiences and patients who are networked to the web, social media, information and such, it seems silly that most healthcare providers would continue to offer only one way for individuals to access health and wellness programs. If you're not using webinars, then you're not meeting your customers needs.

And it's pretty easy to do.

Using WebEx, Talk Ready, Go To Meeting for example, a 30-45 minute health and wellness seminar can be given on a day and tme more convenient for your audience. They can be recorded and archived on your web site for consumer play back at anytime of their choosing. You now begin to build up a library of self-generated health information that is branded to your organization, contains your key messages and promotes a specific service line or targeted capability.

Think about the possibilities for reaching out to employers this way as well. A webinar directed at Human Resource professionals in local companies.

For Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), a way to keep in constant contact with your members providing targeted health information.

For hospital physician relationships a way to hold a department meetings or offer CEU program that can be more convenient.

For the media and local press, a way to hold a press conference or announce a new service or technological application when they say their not coming on site.

The possibilities really are endless. Your imagination is your only limit here.

Okay, you can't do wellness screens this way, but it could be used to drive volume to the screens as a follow-up to the webinar.

Return on Marketing Investment

This strategy and tactic is designed to capture downstream volume and revenue. Let's face it, initially there is little return on a webinar. It's the post webinar relationship management and communication activities that bring the return. By capturing a webinars attendees information, you now have actionable data on which to design more effective marketing and communication programs. Mass marketing that is individualized. You can create a relationship that is more meaningful because it is based on their needs. You're building a customer database for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and loyalty programs.

So, its 2010 and change in healthcare is accelerating and will only continue to do so. Time to expand your arsenal of strategy, tactics, tools and techniques to build relationships, loyalty, volume and revenue.

You can continue the conversation with me on:

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich

Michael Krivich is a senior healthcare marketing executive and internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger read daily in over 20 countries around the world. A Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives as well as a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association, he can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for hiring as your senior marketing executive , for interim assignments in all aspects of healthcare marketing whether it be strategic or tactical market planning, rebuilding and revitalizing your existing marketing operation, integration of sales and marketing teams, media relations or service line revitalizations. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations , I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

The Changing Role of Healthcare Marketing

Much has changed in 2010. One could say a titanic shift that has created a tsunami that is in its early stages of being felt. With that in mind, it begs the question of what is, or will be the role of healthcare marketing going forward?

Healthcare reform simply will not be repealed. Adjustments will be made and the legal challenges will continue to be filed for several years, but overall repeal is a distant dream of the far conservative right. Despite the public pronouncements, a significant amount of money in the billions of dollars in future revenue and earnings is at stake for all the players to allow for regression.

In a time where the majority of individuals and families have some form of health insurance, I believe that marketing will have a role to play that is much different and more important than today. In an age of healthcare consumerism with patients controlling their health information, (and yes individual health information is the property of the patient, not of the doctor, not of the hospital, not of any healthcare provider), marketing needs to take on a significant role in the life of the healthcare organization beyond the traditional communication activities.

Marketing healthcare organizations contrary to a popular myth, is not any different from what occurs in other industries. It is similar to the conceptual myth of not-for-profits. There is no such thing as a not-for-profit. There are legally defined tax-exempt organizations, but no not-for-profits. I digress, for that is a topic for another day.

Many of the traditional marketing activities will continue as well as the new social media and online marketing. Those won't go away, but will become more highly integrated, brand strengthening and value driven across service lines.

Understand that I am not talking about pharma, medical device manufacturers, insurance companies, suppliers and retailers moving into the healthcare space. They get it. They understand the power and importance of marketing. This is for all the other healthcare providers that are still trying to operate like its 1990.

The Expanded Healthcare Marketing Role:

Marketing Leadership

Moving from the manager or director level to the VP senior manger level. Marketing is strategy first, tactics second. The voice of marketing should reflect the voice of your customers and not be a second thought. Your future programs and services will be determined by the needs of the market, not your gut feeling. You cannot become a customer-driven or market-driven organization if the skills and experiences of marketing is not at the leadership table.

Managing the Patient Experience

Managing the patient experience. If anyone is prepared to understand and mange the patient experience across the organization it's marketing. Hospitals in particular are making the mistake of putting operations in charge of patient experience. This is an oxymoron really. For the most part Ops can't get a discharge process together in less than 3 or 4 hours. How can you expect them to manage the patient experience? Patient experience means just that- understanding what that patient experiences is at all touch points. And then changing or managing that experience to its fullest potential for the benefit of the patient and the organization. Patient experience is an integrating process across the entire organization internally and externally. One organization to the patient, one patient to the organization. It is not simply another quality program or flavor of the day.

Understanding and Executing Demand Management

The hospital is no longer the center of the healthcare universe. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is designed to keep people out of the hospital. You can actually see a hospital admission as a defect in the process of care. Marketing needs to understand what the demand for healthcare services will be, when they will be needed and manage that demand making sure that the hospital or health system has the right resources, in the right place, at the right time to meet demand. Gone are the days where marketing departments will be driving demand to fill hospital beds. They will drive demand to the appropriate place and location of service.

Becoming a Revenue Marketer and Having Revenue Accountability

Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) is necessary for anything marketing accomplishes, traditionally, socially or online. Marketers in healthcare organizations need to become revenue producers, not resource consumers that show little value beyond, it looks nice. In fact, marketing should have P&L as well as an SG&A accountability for many of the products and services being offered by a healthcare organization.

Marketing the Manager of Change

Who better in an organization than for marketing to manage the healthcare organizations transformation from an inward-focused it's all about me, to an outward-focused market and consumer driven organization? Open to much debate, this is probably the most controversial look at the expanding role of marketing. Individual who have looked internally at their organizations all of their careers, do not necessarily have the skills, training or abilities to change an organization 180 degrees. And that is the type of change we are talking about here.

The future of healthcare holds great challenges and opportunities. Time for proactive change instead of reactive change. Clocks ticking and you're being left behind.

You can continue the conversation with me on:

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich

Michael Krivich is a senior healthcare marketing executive and internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger read daily in over 20 countries around the world. A Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives as well as a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association, he can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for hiring as your senior marketing executive , for interim assignments in all aspects of healthcare marketing whether it be strategic or tactical market planning, rebuilding and revitalizing your existing marketing operation, integration of sales and marketing teams, media relations or service line revitalizations. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations , I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

Marketing to the Networked Patient

Healthcare is changing at a far more rapid pace that at any time in its history. I am not referring to the pharmaceutical or technological advances which have no doubt improved the quality of care and in most cases, the quality of life as well.

Since 1983 with the introduction of DRGs, we as an industry have been touting the benefits of wellness, individual responsibility in health and the patient taking an active role in their healthcare. Much has changed since that time and much has remained the same. But now, the game has really changed.

Welcome to the age of the networked patient.

The networked patient is someone who has an intense curiosity about their health condition, expects to have an active role in making healthcare decisions and this is most important, they want control of their health information. They use in internet, social media and seek out others. They read and study about their health condition. They ask questions and will seek out alternatives. The look at providers from a quality standpoint and make judgments based on that information. They want an answer to their own needs.

The patient is asking what is their ROI by using you?

The days are quickly passing by where we can assume that we are still in control of the overall care and treatment process and information without much questioning or interaction by a patient. And you know what, that is not a bad thing.

Marketing to the networked patient

There are some key to keep in mind when starting to market to the networked patient:.

Your brand, your brand promise and messaging is all important;

Quality data transparency, reporting and patient access to same is everything;

 Access to their own health information 24/7 is a deal breaker if not provided;

Talk about the patient experience and outcomes;

Don't insult this patient with messaging that is all fluff, about us or is just plain condescending;

All communication needs to be personalized talking to the patient not at them;

Use all available communication channels- Iphone apps, email, social media, web site blue button, direct mail, etc.

Be creative, this is uncharted territory so limits are nonexistent and don't place any on yourself. Stop saying, why we can't do something, start saying how we can. This is a major change in the way healthcare is administered and delivered in the U.S. Providers need to recognizing that the age of the healthcare consumer is upon us. Failure to do so will be at your own peril.

You can continue the conversation with me on:

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich

Michael Krivich is Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association and can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for consulting services in strategic marketing, integration of sales and marketing, media relations and interim marketing executive leadership assignments. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations , I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

Accountability, Responsibility and Change

$1.5 Trillion and Counting


A couple of weeks ago, Health Affairs reported that healthcare spending increased by $750 billion to $1.5 trillion. It was also predicted that by 2017 healthcare spending would increase to $4 trillion. Okay, can anybody without giggling too hard really admit that they can comprehend and understand exactly what $4 trillion means? Monopoly money... it has no meaning except for those that can figure out how to be part of that spending. Hospitals, health systems, medical device manufacturers, pharma, physicians, associations etc., all looking at what piece of the pie is theirs. The economist's know what that means. So what else are we to spend our money on?

Well, that kind of spending is unsustainable and will force concrete action to fix a broken healthcare system. Just what that will look like is any ones guess at this time. Don't fix it and we will have rationing, long waits and a national healthcare system where no one is cared for. And a dollar that so far south of the Euro that it will never come back. Government has enough trouble running Medicare and Medicaid now, what in good gosh almighty makes anyone think they can run a national healthcare system.

A bet and forecast for my money..... Like Chicago politics, once everyone figures out how they get theirs, healthcare reform will happen. Everybody wins except for the consumer......


Medicare Rates Are Cut!


Scream the headlines and the hospital administrators, national leaders decry the action. OK, what does it really mean. First, Medicare is not being cut. Second, it is still growing. Third,what was cut was the rate at which Medicare is growing. And fourth, it is just not the rate healthcare people want. How about instead of crying for what we don't have find ways to be more efficient and productive, reduce medical errors, promote standards of care and become more self sufficient and less whinny.


Having been outside of the hospital part of the healthcare industry now for a couple of years and reading and watching, I never realized how whinny hospital execs are. We are expecting someone else to fix our problems. Maybe its time as healthcare executives we stepped up to plate, reached consensus on a strategy and drove some real national policy agenda and change. Instead we are reactive and acting surprised when someone steps with a solution on issues that we should be leading and then we react with the why it will not work, not the why it will. Oh wait, if we did that we couldn't complain much anymore. No wonder no one takes the healthcare industry seriously. I am sure this really endures me to the industry.


IT Anyone?


Expensive... needed.... and the right thing to do. EMR, e-prescribng, RHOIs (which may be dead anyway) and a whole host of issues besides the technical ones. Seems to me to be the cost of doing business. We all agree that government wants IT, doctors and hospitals want IT, employers want IT from providers and national healthcare leadership want IT and the AHA wants government to pay for IT. Sorry, there I go again not being part of the solution but adding to the let someone else pay for what I need to do for my organization from a cost of doing business perspective.

My simple question is, so why is the government expected to provide the cash to hospitals, health systems and others to move to computerization? Money for IT might just be available if every hospital in the US didn't have to provide every service, piece of new technology, improved efficiency and productivity, reduced medical errors and improved customer satisfaction.

In the end....

These are not simple problems and do not have simple answers. I have made light and poked fun, and I am sure irritated a bunch of people along the way. But at the end of the day, unless we can come together, use a little common sense and ask what is right for all instead of what's in it for me, we could solve these problems. Maybe that's what Senator Obama has figured out, the American people have figured out and we are just waiting for everybody else to catch up.