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.

Dodge: Can you elaborate on your business model and how this works and the company’s plan for the next five years?

Plath: We pioneered a successful business model for providing superior neurology physician on-call coverage to hospitals in which those hospitals pay SOC in exchange for coverage and consultations, but they receive and retain all patient and insurance billings. This enables SOC to offer good compensation to our neurologists for their work and, in exchange for that, we demand a professional level of efficiency and customer service from our physicians that is unmatched in telemedicine and rarely found even in bedside consultations. SOC’s business model allows hospitals to initiate the use of our service without any capital investment and then derive a significant positive financial impact, many times in less than 90 days, and from that point onwards derive a growing positive return. Our service is a unique and attractive approach to solving the problem of finding specialists willing to take calls and the responsibilities that come along with that.

As a result, SOC has experienced extreme, rapid growth—starting with six pilot participants in one state, we now have more than 115 hospital clients and contracts for more than 25 hospitals in 17 states. Our physicians are providing more than 1,100 consultations per month, more than any bricks and mortar medical center or telemedicine program in the country. Our plan for the coming years is to continue to expand nationwide, and include clinical telemedicine offerings in other service lines, such as orthopedics.

Dodge: You recently rebranded the entire company from your logo and messaging to collateral and the website. Can you tell us about that process and why you decided to make it a priority?

Plath: Since inception, we had maintained a somewhat “under the radar” approach to give us the time needed to build up a base of business throughout the country. By 2010 we were ready to build a comprehensive marketing and public relations program, which included everything from developing a new website, collateral, and sales presentations and tools to creating a tradeshow and conference strategy, communications approach, and media plan. Initially we had decided to maintain the current logo and branding since it had not been tested in the marketplace, however, it became clear as we moved further into the process of developing the website and collateral that an entire re-branding was necessary.  

Dodge: As part of the rebranding, you also undertook direct marketing initiatives and social media. Can you discuss the importance of looking at all efforts comprehensively and the impact this has had internally as well as externally with customers and prospects?

Plath: We knew that when we got in front of hospitals our close rate was very high—the problem was that not enough hospitals knew about our service. It became very important for us to create awareness of our services in the marketplace. We therefore chose to utilize both traditional as well as online marketing initiatives. Additionally, since we were building an entirely new, comprehensive website, we wanted to realize its fullest potential by driving traffic to the site. Social media, including twitter, LinkedIn and a blog, provides a way for us to drive traffic to our new website and also helps to position SOC as a thought leader in the industry.

Dodge: To others considering a rebranding, what key takeaways would you share?

Plath: In considering a rebranding, it is important to include all of the internal stakeholders very early on in the process, and more importantly, to define what the process will look like. Since rebranding is not to be taken lightly, define what you hope to achieve by the rebranding effort and get agreement on your goals and objectives from all stakeholders. 

Dodge: Many of our clients are either using social media (blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), or seriously considering it. Can you tell us about SOC’s approach to social media, the benefits of using it, and why you decided to make it a focus? How do you see social media playing a bigger role in your communications with clients and prospects?

Plath: More and more people are getting their information through online sources such as Twitter feeds, blogs, etc., including hospital administrators and clinicians. In fact, many hospitals now have Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, so it became important that we include social media as a key component of our communications strategy. In terms of efforts to generate interest from the media, gone are the days when sending a press release to the editor will get you noticed. Many healthcare writers and media in general are getting their news and ideas on what to report on from Twitter in particular. Understanding the complexity and daily demands of using social media as a marketing tool is one thing I was keenly aware of and therefore enlisted Dodge’s services to help us get off the ground with our social media efforts.

Dodge: Any parting comments?

Plath: Rolling out the new brand, materials, website, etc. to our colleagues and to existing customers and prospects was so rewarding. People were excited and proud to show off our new personality. Moreover, we were thrilled to learn we won numerous industry accolades and awards for the corporate identity as well as the website…it was hard work, but our efforts have truly paid off.

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.

Shifting to the search for our pediatrician, one of my primary questions was centered on whether or not an EHR was used in the practice. Yet again, the group we selected ultimately plans to adopt an EHR to avoid penalties, but not any time soon. In searches thus far none of the existing EHRs provide what the group considers to be adequate reporting capabilities or tracking for a pediatric setting.

In our world we talk about EHRs saving time and costs, allowing the providers to see more patients and improving clinical care. They most certainly do for some, but not for others it seems. What’s more, despite the technology, the paper-based forms and hard copies of patient charts are abundant. One step at a time is certainly necessary, but what will it take beyond the ARRA incentives and eventual penalties to move physicians to fully implement and use EHRs, make them feel comfortable with the technology and eventually create the efficient, “data-based decision-making” setting we’re striving for? Between these specialty healthcare settings I’ve encountered in my recent experiences, it’s easy to see firsthand the industry adoption issues that we face. Clearly the topic is top of mind in these practices. While we have numerous examples of success stories, I can only imagine there are more practices in situations like mine than adopters out ahead of the curve. What have your experiences been, how does your background impact the way you look at the rapidly changing face of healthcare when you have to play the patient?

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.
2. Testimonials and case studies: These marketing tactics arm you with powerful sales tools that can be used a variety of ways. Testimonials can be sprinkled throughout your Web site, in brochures or other marketing collateral—they ultimately support the statements you are making and give them credibility. Case studies on the other hand can be posted to your Web site or e-mailed and handed out to prospects. They show prospects how your clients are using the technology and the results and benefits they might experience. This article offers some helpful tips on asking clients to participate in case studies and testimonials.
3. Speaking and award opportunities: Having clients present educational sessions or participate as part of an expert panel at industry events is a great way to demonstrate the value of your products as is nominating clients for industry awards. These tactics enable potential prospects interested in the speaking or award topic to learn about your organization in a non-advertorial way.
4. Referrals: By developing strong working relationships with clients and encouraging their product feedback, you’ll often find that they are happy to refer your offering to colleagues. You can also create a database of client references to put in touch with prospects who want to speak to end-users.
5. Client forums: Creating user groups, client forums or best practices award programs will help you get to know your clients better. It could also help you uncover details that might lead to great media opportunities you otherwise may not have known. Additionally, creating this type of community for users can be attractive to those interested in your technology so they can learn how others are implementing the applications and using them on a daily basis.

Investing the time to know your clients can have a huge payoff. Not only will you make them happy by promoting their business, but you’ll also reap the benefits of having third-party credibility.

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.

With this in mind, we chose Capario. It had a ring to it, was free of connotation, stood out from our competitors, enabled us to purchase an easy-to-remember URL and was different than the other healthcare IT names out there.

By selecting Capario, we avoided descriptive names that would pigeonhole us into one product offering and knew our selection would allow us to evolve as the healthcare industry’s needs changed.

Q: What was the most important lesson you learned throughout the project?
A: Rebranding has a trickledown effect on every aspect of your business. It’s important to look closely at each internal piece of paper and electronic document as well as software interfaces and other client-facing items because you can be assured there is a name or a logo on everything. For example, payroll checks, 401K accounts, lobby signage, HR manuals and client enrollment forms all have to be updated. To meet deadlines and successfully re-launch your organization, it requires company-wide buy in. Every department must work with marketing to orchestrate this great effort.

Another important consideration is the legal process involved in re-naming your company. Ensuring your new name does not have trademark issues or resemble other company names in your space is vital. It’s a far larger process than you may imagine that requires patience, time and a good trademark lawyer.

Q: How did you prepare internal staff for the launch?
A: Constant internal communication was imperative as we rebranded. We wanted staff to feel like they were part of the process, promote buy in and ensure that they had the opportunity to contribute to the decisions we were making to reshape the company. Effective communication at each step of the way helped us generate a feeling of excitement and gave staff ownership of the changes we implemented from the name to collateral.

To prepare staff for external communications, we developed FAQs, talking points and other support materials for each department. We also held informational sessions with client-facing teams to prepare them for the changes and questions they might encounter from clients and prospects. Overall, our efforts seemed to pay off and made the transition as smooth as possible.

Q: How has the market responded to the new brand?
A: We feel our new brand has been well accepted in the market and that it’s a positive reflection on our approach to the way we do business.

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?

Minimize the marketing hype
For starters, and yes we are all guilty of it at one point or another, make your press release as straightforward and fact-based as possible by including the information that editors want.

• Try to minimize marketing language.
• Hone in on the news you are presenting and what it’s all about.
• Make sure the editors and – just as important – your target audiences understand what you’re highlighting.

Supplement with social media and other tools
While you may pay for wire distribution of press releases, social media sites like Twitter provide a free medium for disseminating your company’s recent news. By posting a compelling, brief overview of the content, you may gain the attention of individuals in your target audience and, depending on who’s watching, a news editor.

SEO-friendly content is another cost-free way to optimize visibility. You could even improve your ranking in Google and Yahoo searches. Think, key words that your prospects would type into a search engine when looking for a new solution in your sector.

Get it to the right person
While wire services are an easy way to send out a press release to numerous people, they don’t necessarily mean it is ending up in the correct person’s inbox. Make certain you are being as targeted as possible in your distribution. For example, national distribution may not always be the way to go.

Additionally, follow or befriend editors on social media sites like LinkedIn or Twitter as well as monitor each publication’s blog. This will keep you informed of what they’re covering and what might pique their interest. After you’ve done your homework, don’t be afraid to reach out and share your news if it’s a good fit.

Though this may seem like PR 101, going back to the basics with a few new bells and whistles will help you stay ahead of the competition and garner the attention your news deserves.

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.

 

2. Twitter is just for celebrities who want more media attention and people who feel the need for their friends to follow their day-to-day activities, from what they ate to the most recent gym workout.
   Not quite. Although Twitter does hold value for these audiences, it also is a good tool for healthcare companies to connect with their customer base, listen to what’s going on in the HIT industry, keep track of competitors and improve search engine visibility, etc. This article provides some insight into the importance of using Twitter as a business and the value it can bring to your company.

 

3. You have to be a major corporation to be on Twitter and gain followers.
   Nope. Associations like HIMSS with 2,885 followers and MGMA with 673 followers use Twitter as do other small and large HIT companies, such as NextGen. In other industries, mom-and-pop companies have revolutionized their businesses through Twitter as shown in this New York Times article.

 

4. Tweeting is just a black hole for companies to waste time doing unproductive stuff.
   In fact, many companies are creating a two-way dialog with target audiences, others are strengthening company loyalty and some are just listening and learning by following competitors, editors and associations. And Gartner released a report earlier in the year further highlighting a few of the different ways companies are using Twitter.

 

5. Healthcare editors and trades don’t cover Twitter or even use it.
   Definitively false. In June, American Medical News published an article on Twitter and whether or not physicians should be using it. Editors from numerous HIT trades use Twitter to highlight what they’re currently writing about, seek potential sources, post blogs they’ve written and promote their interests. It’s a great way to connect with editors and find out more about what types of stories they’re looking for to ensure you’re targeting the right person with story pitches. By posting thought leader commentary and links on your Twitter page as well as providing editors with the information they need, you may gain a few editors as followers and become a go-to source for information on particular topics.

Now that the myths are decoded, perhaps you’re wondering how to get started. This 101 guide will walk you through the process and you’ll be tweeting or just listening in no time.

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.

So, perhaps the value is clear, but how do healthcare IT companies make the leap? Where does one learn to ‘tweet’? How is a business supposed to successfully use the application to their advantage?

According to a New York Times blog post, Twitter is on it with a 101 guide for businesses as well as case studies showing how other organizations have successfully launched into Twitter. Perhaps that’s enough for now, but soon marketing and sales departments will be looking to justify time spent using Twitter and its ability to impact the bottom line. It only seems a matter of time before commercial Twitter accounts with bells, whistles and analytics become the next step in this new venture that’s changing the way companies think and act.