ICD-10, Meaningful Use, ACOs…what other buzz words can we throw in that are top of mind for each and every healthcare executive? Certainly, plenty others make the list right now, and while the benefits to these major initiatives vary, one commonality is spurring them all—patient care. It makes sense, right? We should always push to better patient care, coordinate information across providers/facilities and enhance outcomes, but it’s certainly a tall order. However, there’s more to it than the care a patient receives.

The overall patient experience is quickly rising to the top of the list when it comes to challenges healthcare execs see as pressing. In fact, a recent HealthLeaders study shows that 37 percent of hospital executives view this as their top priority or within the top five according to 55 percent. Patient experience impacts everything, from before patients arrive to after they leave. If a patient visits your facility and receives great care, but doesn’t have a good experience your efforts are lost. It becomes a competitive advantage against other hospitals and health systems in your community; it builds a loyal customer base and increases retention; it can even attract new patients.

Beyond this, the patient experience will soon also impact the bottom line for better or worse come October 2012. CMS will roll out the Hospital Inpatient Value-based Purchasing program, which replaces the previous pay-for-performance program and offers a financial incentive to hospitals that meet or improve upon 13 key measures. The incentive will base 70 percent of the payment amount on clinical measures and 30 percent on the patient experience, or HCAHPS scores (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems). While it may sound like a nice-to-have, hospitals who don’t participate will lose 1 percent of their Medicare payments.

There are plenty of articles detailing how hospitals should approach this mandate and the patient experience, from practical how to’s to examples of strategies and technologies hospitals have employed, but there’s not one simple approach that will result in a win for all. Only with time will we see the true best practices for a meaningful patient experience.

What are you seeing hospitals and vendors doing to address this?

Kathleen Plath, VP of marketing at Specialists On Call, recently met with us to discuss her company’s recent rebranding initiative. In a sea of telemedicine vendors that provide the technology, but not the specialists behind it, Kathleen’s company has been on a mission to be heard above the chatter.

Dodge: Tell us a bit about SOC’s history and the mission behind starting the company.

Plath: Specialists On Call, Inc., or “SOC”, is the fastest growing and leading provider of clinical telemedicine services to hospitals in the U.S. We are accredited by the Joint Commission and led by a physician with 20 years of successful business experience. Since our founding in 2007, we’ve offered the services of experienced, emergency neurologists to hospitals through a 24/7/365 on-call service with a 15-minute response time. In fact, to date we have more than 45 board certified, fellowship trained, neurologists—half of them drawn from our university partnerships and half from private practice. These individuals provide emergency consultations to hospital emergency departments, inpatient units and ICU’s via our telemedicine infrastructure, which includes a collection of industry standard videoconferencing, EHR and PACS systems woven into a single cost-effective solution that is coordinated by our centralized call center and clinical staff. This past February we expanded and began providing on-demand psychiatry consultations in addition to our neurology on-call service.
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Mobile health, m-health, mHealth, whatever term you use, chances are you’ve heard a lot about it, even in the midst of all the healthcare chatter from ACOs to EHRs to ANSI 5010. Smart phones have surely spurred the trend and adding iPads to the mix downright accelerated it. According to research from Bulletin Healthcare, for example, providers’ use of smart phones to access medical reference information is up by 45 percent since June of 2010.

Giving providers the ability to access medical information, patient details, etc. in real-time, wherever they may be, is clearly game-changing, but there’s an important part of the story that’s not necessarily getting the play it deserves. Patient interaction.

Patients are not just patients, they’re consumers, and, yet, in healthcare the same conveniences provided by other industries are not readily available. Take for example this recent study from the Commonwealth Fund. According to CMIO’s coverage, only one in five U.S. adults with internet can make a doctor appointment online or communicate with their provider via email. And a mere 14 percent of these individuals can access their medical records electronically. Whether it’s these aforementioned tasks or the ability to view test results, make a payment for recent services, or monitor and track progress related to a chronic illness via your mobile device, the technology is there to cater to patients. Yes, there are a million things to focus on in healthcare right now, but take a step back. At the end of the day healthcare is a service industry and there’s always more we can do to make it easier on patients.

As I near the end of my pregnancy, I’m holding down my daytime gig of being a PR/marketing professional in HIT, but I’m also moonlighting as a professional patient. And, at the same time this is happening, the rollout of the ARRA incentives for meaningful EHR use draws closer. We’ve seen the articles lamenting the barriers, others singing the program’s praise and some recently on the impact this will have on vendors and its potential “for bringing measurement, data-based decision-making and accountability to the practice of medicine,” according to Dr. David Blumenthal in a New York Times post.

Before starting this pregnancy adventure, I didn’t have an intimate understanding of my providers’ use of technology. Now, almost 40 weeks later and immersed in a myriad of visits, I’ve been granted a peek into the world and opinions of my medical team as I often couldn’t avoid my curiosity about their use of EHRs or lack thereof, and their feelings about ARRA and meaningful use. Do they think that utilizing an EHR in accordance with the terms set forth by meaningful use will bring better measurement and clinical support into their practices? Are they already using a system of some sort on its most basic level? With so many test results and forms needed by OB patients, why isn’t there a PHR used to create greater efficiencies?

My primary OB for example, a group of savvy, younger physicians from a variety of backgrounds, has taken a hybrid approach. None of the nurses taking vitals can tell me what EHR they are using, just that it makes entering weight and blood pressure easy. And what about the physicians? After numerous appointments and regularly seeing only paper charts, one OB recently showed up with a tablet PC to my visit. A previous user of a full-fledged EHR at another job, Dr. A—to protect her identity—felt that using an EHR as fully intended was not only cumbersome, but really generated more billings and did not necessarily lead to better clinical care. When using the system and entering all the notes and fields required, the previous EHR still took Dr. A more time to use per patient than traditional charting despite being well beyond the implementation phase. Much happier with the approach she currently uses, my OBGYN practice now uses an EHR to track some basics and have paired it with a document management system for electronic scans of certain paper forms, resulting in a somewhat comprehensive patient view.

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While we sing the praises of social media, such as Twitter, blogs and LinkedIn, healthcare IT companies need much more to succeed. For example, social media doesn’t replace a marketing strategy, nor does it substitute for public relations efforts. And taking on a social media campaign is not a short-term strategy that should be entered into lightly. You need buy-in, a realistic budget and a dedicated team, whether it’s internal or your PR agency, to man the effort and ensure it’s given the resources required to actually accomplish your short- and long-term goals.

Check out this article from AdAge that further expounds upon these points and appropriately sets social media expectations.

Whether you’re selling to consumers or other businesses, there’s no better endorsement than one from a client, and this is especially true for healthcare IT vendors. Showing prospects that you have clients willing to speak on your behalf gives your product third-party credibility and often puts it ahead of competitive products. We’ve included five ways you can utilize your clients to drive sales and generate buzz around your offerings.

1. Media opportunities: When securing media coverage highlighting a customer’s use of your products, it’s important to realize the story has a life beyond the month it’s issued. You can e-mail prospects and customers a link to the piece once it comes out; order a PDF from the publication for e-mailing or posting on your Web site; or secure hard copy reprints for use as part of a direct mail or for your sales team to hand out at meetings or tradeshows. (more…)

This Q&A is from our conversation with Jim Riley, vice president sales and marketing at Capario. We asked him to share his thoughts on the healthcare company’s recent rebranding initiative, which spanned everything from a new corporate name, logo and tagline to a new Web site, collateral materials and a comprehensive public relations campaign.

Q: Why did you select the name Capario? What brand attributes did you want to represent?
A: When we started the rebranding process, we viewed it as more than a marketing strategy – it was a company-wide, fundamental change in the way we did business. A brand personality of fresh, contemporary, innovative and unique accurately portrayed the image we wanted to reflect and the new direction we were taking. (more…)

In public relations, press releases aren’t really the Holy Grail, but they are certainly a meat and potatoes staple of the profession. That being said, many have speculated if this form of PR is moving toward extinction, especially as social media continues to gain momentum. A recent opinion piece from Bulldog Reporter highlights this exact issue and evaluates the press release’s vital signs. Currently, there is no true replacement for press releases, but surely there’s room for improvement.

So, what can you do to ensure your press release stands out from the rest of the healthcare IT vendors while keeping up with the changing times? (more…)

Twitter has been all the buzz for the past few months, but many people still have misconceptions about this social media tool from who is using it to how it can be used. Following, we’ve decoded some of the most prevalent Twitter myths in the healthcare industry.

1. Nobody in healthcare uses it.
   To the contrary. I think everyone has seen the story of how hospitals are utilizing Twitter during surgery to connect with potential patients, share information with other practitioners and improve the educational value to residents. This other article discusses how physicians and hospitals are using the social media tool in public health emergencies, like swine flu, to disseminate information to various audiences. (more…)

Twitter has undoubtedly been a hot topic for quite a few months now. We know hospitals for example have been twittering during surgeries and other organizations like HIMSS have been using it to publicize Web content and upcoming events. But, what’s in it for you as a healthcare IT vendor?

The value of business-to-business and business-to-consumer conversations conducted through Twitter is hard to ignore. For example, this recent New York Times article provides insight into how many small companies have significantly grown their operations or customer base through relationships built in Twitter. (more…)