Posted by Melissa Abrams, WriterGirl Associate
When a healthcare organization has succeeded at being patient-centered, it manifests in various ways. But there’s no mistaking it.
Physicians speak about their colleagues with nothing but respect. They recognize others. Never is a hint of rivalry among colleagues detected. It’s all about the collective effort. Rather than take credit for successfully helping patients, physicians refer to patients as the heroes. Without exception.
The fascinating part is not that those who are paid by the organization demonstrate this orientation. It’s that patients do.
Patients speak of the organization as if they, too, had been indoctrinated in its mission. But they haven’t been. They have, however, experienced it; and the impression was powerful, memorable. Without fail, patients mention specific occurrences — the housekeeping staff who gave impeccable attention to cleaning corners, the nurses who staged celebrations of birthdays, anniversaries and other milestones to enliven long hospital stays. They mention physicians who called them at home, remembered details about their lives, patiently explained every aspect of treatment, embraced them and cried with them, cared for them and about them.
“They made me feel like I was the only patient they had,” is the resounding refrain. An organization cannot buy that level of goodwill.
Patient-centeredness isn’t a motto to be repeated in staff meetings or displayed in mission statements. It’s a way of life. A belief. A practice of everyone in the organization. You know it when you hear it. You also know when organizations are falling short of it. You perceive infighting between specialties. You observe egotism. You sense hurriedness. You listen to patients talk about their illnesses and how much better they feel now. But you don’t hear them mention experiences with individuals in the organization. No boasts about the fine housekeeping. No laughing about memorable moments with nurses by first and last name. No declarations that their doctors are now their friends.
The proof is in the patients. If your patients aren’t saying, unprompted, that you made them feel as if you had no other patients, you aren’t succeeding at patient-centeredness. What are your patients saying?
– Melissa Abrams is a WriterGirl Associate and freelance writer who has interviewed patients and physicians for leading health care organizations for more than a decade.
WriterGirl excels at interviewing patients and writing compelling patient stories that distinguish your organization.
Posted by Carrie Hill, Senior Project Manager
Ah, the benefits of PM. Those added ingredients that help with pain relief and sleep. Believe it or not, I’m not talking about the ingredients in pills; I’m talking about project managers (PMs).
Great PMs definitely relieve the pain and sleeplessness of project work. They are the big picture thinkers with eyes for detail. They are great listeners and ask the necessary questions. All in all, they are fantastic communicators.
PMs use all these skills to understand and communicate project objectives, manage deadlines and produce quality work. They take pride in meeting and exceeding expectations around the final product and timeline.
We’ve all experienced life without the PM too––where the likelihood of pain points and sleepless nights increases. It’s a good thing PMs are an option.
When deciding if you should enlist the services of a PM or not, consider the following label ingredients:
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Regular Strength
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PM Strength
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| Blurry estimate |
Managed scope & expectations |
| May not work within stated parameters |
On time & on budget |
| Minimum work provided |
Focused solutions |
| Limited, sporadic communications |
Professional, effective communications |
| May not adapt well to change |
Prepared for the unexpected |
| Produces “regular” product |
Produces high-quality product |
| **Note: PM Strength should be used when desired results aren’t met |
**Note: Look for desired effects––pain relief, good night’s sleep |
At WriterGirl & Associates (WG), PMs are an invaluable part of our services. It only seems natural to have a skilled PM coordinate all the moving pieces and eliminate the headache for our clients. Our PMs do crucial work upfront, and behind the scenes, to complete big projects, hit tight timelines and assure the quality of our work.
So, on your next project, avoid stress and headaches with your own prescription for success––a PM. If you are interested in learning more, please contact WriterGirl at reba@writergirl.com.
Posted by Reba Thompson, Director of Business Development
There are many parts I love about my job but nothing gives me more energy and enthusiasm than conferences. First and foremost, I love healthcare and I love learning about it. And, as everyone knows, healthcare is changing dramatically. The good thing is, with change comes enormous challenges that require strategic thinking and innovation. Having the opportunity to attend the Physician Strategies Summit only strengthened my feelings.
I attended the Physician Strategies Summit in late February and was deeply impacted by the three days of collaborating, learning and having fun with about 300 dedicated healthcare professionals.
So, what makes a good conference good? First and probably foremost is transparency. You have to be real about your successes, your failures, your strategies, your trials and your errors to move the industry forward as a whole. Great presenters and sessions largely depend on the willingness to share valuable/meaningful information with colleagues. It’s not about giving up your “competitive edge” or your “trade secrets” but rather empowering fellow professionals to successfully navigate the changing environment. You know the saying “two heads are better than one.” If we all can come together with the common goal of caring for our communities in the best way possible, then together we will come out better on the other side.
If you didn’t get the chance to go to the conference, I thought I’d share a few of my top takeaways with you:
- Over communicate with physicians – Be sure to communicate with physicians through various distribution methods and with frequency. Alignment is the name of the game. Physicians need to be next to you not pulled or pushed by you.
- “Strategy without numbers is a hallucination” – It is incredibly important for us to do the math. Data needs to be the driver of our behaviors and decisions, especially when it comes to growing volume, ensuring value and changing referral patterns.
- Physicians want to be marketed under the system – This is an integral part of successful physician marketing. As we move from today’s world of referral generation to tomorrow’s world of population management, it’s imperative to connect your physicians to your brand. Patients have more choices than ever when it comes to their health care needs so we must meet the patient where they are to remain relevant. If physicians are linked to the system it will ensure growth and keep referrals within the network.
Posted by Christina Noll, WriterGirl Associate
Imagine that doctors from other hospitals stood outside your building and tried to convince patients to choose their hospital for services instead. That’s exactly what happens when a patient goes online to find a hospital provider. There’s an overwhelming amount of content competing for everyone’s attention, which is why it’s more important now than ever to make sure your healthcare content stands out.
One way to differentiate yourself from other organizations is through a hospital blog, or family of blogs. Creating blog content is different from traditional website content. If done right, your hospital blog becomes a hub of your hospital culture.
Blogging is more current than a newsletter, longer than a social media post, and more personal than a website. Blogging gives you the option of disseminating information to patients in a way no other platform offers because it allows you to communicate directly in a very personal and real way. A good blog is an authority on a subject – an authority your audience trusts. Best of all, blogging is free, so your return on investment is huge.
A few ways to make sure your blog content stands out:
- Know what your audience wants: Don’t just write about any and all medical topics. Find out what type of content patients will find useful. What will add value to their lives?
- Be engaging: Use a conversational tone and don’t talk down to your audience. Blog content does not need to be as formal as your website; it should be relaxed yet professional.
- Make it reader friendly: Be succinct, because if you go too long you lose your readers. Use short paragraphs, bullet points and graphics.
- Include extras: Including links, videos and info-graphics in addition to valuable information will keep readers interested and encourage them to share, driving more readers to your website.
Posted by Christy Schlake, President & CEO
Decision making is hard work. It’s particularly difficult when you’re in an environment that is uncertain and changing.
Hospital environments in today’s world are, by definition, uncertain. Healthcare reform is looming, and no one can say definitively what that means for an individual hospital or system. That uncertainty can lead to paralysis, where you keep yourself so busy that you “forget” to make the decisions that can move you and your business forward.
But there are those who can make decisions, even in the face of uncertainty. I’ve watched people do this, and I’ve observed a few things:
• Recognizing and accepting that change is inevitable allows you to focus on the present, rather than regretting the past and worrying about the future.
• Looking at what needs to be done today – not next week or next month – in order to allow you to move forward is key to giving yourself permission to make a decision. Right now.
• Seeking help from others in order to clarify what action needs to be taken – what decisions need to be made – builds your confidence around your decisions.
• Understanding that not deciding right now is, in fact, a decision. This is an acceptable course of action when it’s a conscious process.
I’ve also observed that those who do the difficult work of making decisions feel better – they’re happier, more productive and more confident.
Psychology Today gives this advice:
Practice confident decision making by remembering one thing: You cannot have certainty, and you don’t need it. Ask yourself why certainty must be part of a decision. You can thereby embrace the answer and drop the angst.
Posted by Kris Martin, Vice President of Operations
Anyone who knows me knows that I, like many millions of other people, am a follower of Seth Godin. He seems to live inside my head. Sometimes when I read his blog, I feel like he was hanging around while I was talking to myself, and then wrote something that articulated exactly what I was pondering, but much more succinctly than I would have said it.
For example, I frequently say, “Don’t use 1,000 words when 10 will do.” Here at WriterGirl, we understand that statement. We know that fine writing, particularly for the web, means using as few words as possible to make a point. Once again, Seth Godin agrees, and he says it better than I.
Posted by Sheryl Imhoff, Senior Director of Operations
I just returned from the Content Marketing World (CMW) Health Summit held in Cleveland, Ohio this week. It was a fantastic experience!
The conference gave me a chance to connect and share ideas with over 250 other interactive and content marketing professionals from the healthcare industry. But more importantly, I was there alongside some of our clients, learning what they were learning.
It was exciting to see and hear about the latest trends and innovations from top health care marketers and thought leaders. They all “knew their stuff” and were open to sharing both their failures and successes. The keynote speakers gave me lots of food for thought and renewed my passion for our business and how we serve our clients. All I wanted to do was hurry back and share information and ideas with my colleagues.
In an in-depth workshop on how to develop a content marketing strategy to attract and retain the right patients, I sat at a table with one of our biggest clients. Together, we worked on skill-building exercises that helped us understand and evaluate our client’s current content strategy. How often do you have a chance to do this?
Attending this conference was less about creating new business opportunities and more about strengthening relationships with our current clients. What an opportunity! I can’t wait for the CMW Health Summit next year.
Posted by Christy Schlake, President & CEO
I attended the Mayo Social Media conference last month, and I came away transformed. I know that sounds dramatic, so let me explain.
I went to the conference feeling rather neutral about the role of social media in healthcare. I had a broad understanding of how social media is being used by patients and caregivers, but frankly, I wasn’t all that interested. But as I attended session after great session, I realized that social media, to my complete surprise, enables a generosity of spirit that I found quite touching. I watched a mother talk about how she’s used social media to share her experience of her child’s rare illness; how she’s carefully thought through what she wishes SHE would have known, and then has generously shared what she now knows. Her only goal is to help others, to ease their way a bit. That’s the kind of generosity of spirit I’m talking about.
Examples of this generosity of spirit were plentiful during the conference, but perhaps the best example was Doctor Natasha Bugert. Dr. Natasha is a pediatrician who has recently been featured on Good Morning America and the New York Times. Dr. Natasha walked us through how she uses social media to practice medicine, and while that doesn’t sound like something that would choke you up, it was. Even Dr. Natasha was choked up when she finished.
Other sessions were more practical. For example, at a session discussing how to encourage a hospital or hospital system to unlock social media in the organization, I was surprised to see that the majority of people in the room are currently facing this situation, that their organizations still don’t allow employees to have access to social media while at work. As one attendee put it, “We’re entrusted with people’s lives, but they don’t trust us with Facebook.” Good point.
That session made me realize that there is a lot of room within the industry – still, at this moment – for hospitals and hospital systems to become thought leaders in social media. There are myriad opportunities for using it to benefit patients, to communicate unique points of difference, to handle crises situations… the list goes on.
I walked away from this great conference with not only a new respect for the place of social media in healthcare, but also a genuine interest in how it can be used to help patients and caregivers at their moment of need. And in the end, isn’t that what healthcare is all about? The opportunities to demonstrate generosity of spirit – to help people in a time of need – are virtually endless. Why not jump in?
Posted by Reba Thompson, Director of Business Development
If I was ever wondering the answer to this question, the events of a cold snowy Tuesday morning told me. Yes, Good Samaritans exist, and I was the fortunate recipient four times in one day. The story goes …
“The WriterGirl team had an important client meeting at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012 at 8:30 am. Usually, this is a quick and easy trip that we make quite often but on this particular morning, conditions weren’t ideal. The weather was terrible from the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. There was a steady, snowy rain and big gusts of wind. We decided to drive my car since it was a four-wheel drive.
Everything was moving smoothly until we were about eight miles from our destination and we started having brake problems. We decided it was best to pull over (on the side of a major highway during rush hour… yikes!) and enter the first Good Samaritan, Christy Schlake. Christy was so kind and generous, she immediately retrieved her AAA card and gave them a call. I don’t have AAA but after this trip, I think I am sold. Within 20 minutes (I guess when you are stuck on the side of the highway you get first priority for safety reasons) the second and the third Good Samaritans showed up: a tow truck drive and a police officer.
Now, this meeting at OSU was extremely important and I was feeling terrible about the idea of us missing it. I asked the police officer if he could take my two coworkers to the meeting and I would go with the car and the tow truck. He kindly agreed and off they went. That left just the tow-truck driver and me, and he was such a gentlemen. Aside from preparing my car to be towed, the tow-truck driver called around numerous auto care places to see if someone could fit me in first thing since I was an out-of-towner. We finally found a Firestone about four miles away.
Enter the fourth Good Samaritan. The manager of the Firestone was so incredible nice. He took me as first priority and was very comforting. They put the car up on the jack and inspected each brake. They found the back right brake was missing a bolt! It was causing metal on metal rubbing, which was the extremely loud noise we heard every time I touched the brake. Sixteen dollars later I was on my way to OSU and even caught the last 45 minutes of the meeting! All in all, this inconvenient event was as pleasant as it could have been. From the side of the highway to the OSU meeting took less than two hours!”
So, I couldn’t conclude without a big thank you to my four Good Samaritans. You can trust that I will be paying it forward to others in a time of need.
Posted by Kris Martin, Vice President of Operations
As more and more physician practices are bought out by hospitals to reign in referrals and increase quality measures, the redesign of physician relations programs becomes more complex. Asking questions such as “what is the patient experience?” “how does the local environment impact reimbursements, trends and competition?” “what are the different physician types in the practice” are key to building a strong program that addresses the needs of the organization while creating value for the physicians involved.
But how does content come into play when you’re dealing with a culture shift? Communications begin as soon as the lightbulb appears above the board of directors’ table. At that stage, it’s all about creating buy-in from every party (or “audience” in marketing language) involved. For example, buy-in from administration who set the tone and champion the initiative; buy-in from physicians, who struggle to establish autonomy while supporting alignment with the healthcare system and its culture; and don’t forget about buy-in from physician practice staff, who are afraid of losing their jobs and are ever resistant to change.
Communications to promote buy-in are just the beginning (and continue throughout the course of the relationship). Beyond buy-in communications, ask yourself what each group needs:
- Consumers need content that builds trust, educates and elevates them to take an active role in their own healthcare.
- Referring physicians need content that teach them how and when to refer, what types of services are offered and the quality of care their patients will receive.
- Practice physicians need content that supports their needs, from physician portals that promote integration and eases the way for credentialing plus weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly communications to keep them apprised of news (market intelligence, day-to-day happenings) and offerings that apply to them (and how they serve their patients).
- Physician liaisons need content that helps them communicate with the physicians they serve.
And the list goes on. It starts by identifying the audiences, figuring out what each audience needs and then speaking to each audience a) in its own language and b) where that audience is. It continues by providing these audiences with the tools they need. An audience that is informed and agrees with (or at least acknowledges) your goals will always be your best champion.
Now, how do you execute on all this? A savvy content partner will have already executed on all of these strategies with other clients and should be able to guide you through any pitfalls that may occur along the way. Look for healthcare experience – not just writing experience, but real working experience in a hospital environment. Is there a partner who has experience developing content adaptable to all marketing channels? In this digital world, all platforms must be considered. Finally, has this content partner been involved in physician strategies communications previously? Some say “yes, we can do that” but have they ever?
There’s no right way or wrong way, but you definitely want to work with a partner who understands Quality, Efficiency and Patient Safety. Because, after all, in the long run, all of this effects the patient – and that’s all of us at one point or another.
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