Author Archives: Susan Lilly

by Susan Lilly | May 16, 2013 · 5:49 pm

Marketing Service Lines through Storytelling

When the marketing team is brainstorming about how to promote hospital service lines, a key component of that is to load up on patient stories. Even though people get online to do research, what they really want after any diagnosis is to know they are not alone. That is why the successful patient testimonial is so powerful.

Obviously, hospitals don’t want to violate HIPAA laws by disclosing information while patients are being treated. But people can tell their own health care story anytime (in fact, they already do). In other words, the story comes from the patient, not the hospital. But these experiences – with permission, of course — can be highlighted on the hospital’s social media sites, and patient testimonials (formal or less so) should be a prominent feature of any hospital’s online presence.

For example, with more oncology practices becoming part of the hospital clinic, a logical way to highlight the skills of oncologists is to relate the ever-growing number of stories of triumphs over cancer, large and small. This also provides a benefit to the clinicians who don’t have the resources to market their services. Consider these cases: the woman who beats back a recurrence of cervical cancer (http://bit.ly/13YVIKs); or, the retired man who has overcome prostate cancer (http://bit.ly/11j2H3P). These stories inspire others, improve collaborative relations with physicians, and build your hospital’s brand.

Speaking of personal stories, I’ve just passed my own 2-year mark of receiving the dreaded diagnosis of breast cancer. Karen originally wrote about this in Oct. 2011 (http://bit.ly/148vRzW), and I wrote a follow up about the self-directed health consumer here: http://bit.ly/10Tlam0. Since it’s such a widely-known side effect of chemotherapy, I thought I would share a photo history of my hair (!) which I lost during treatment, and is now back and as unruly as it’s ever been. One small triumph illustrating the body’s ability to heal – that’s a compelling patient story, yes?

Photos, L to R:

1) My hairstyle before chemotherapy; 2) I’m “over the hump” with infusions, but note the loss of eyelashes and eyebrows (they come back quickly!); 3) I dressed as Sinead O’Connor for Halloween (2 months after last infusion); 4) our holiday card and 5) my current hairstyle. I’m patiently trying to grow it out, although curls are a new hair challenge for me!

3 reasons to think about population health

As health care continues its shift from volume to a “value-based” reimbursement structure, hospitals and health systems are rethinking population health, as they are increasingly responsible for patient care beyond institutional walls. In fact, one of the stated goals for newly created accountable care organizations (ACOs) is to “improve population health.” And because providers will be penalized for “never events” and unnecessary hospital readmissions, effective health education programs have never been more important.

What is Population Health?

According to the AHA, population health is the strategic platform upon which to improve the health status and outcomes within a population. Improving population health requires effective interventions to do the following:

Expand prevention & wellness services
Improve quality & patient safety
Increase care coordination

Why Does it Matter?

Although resources are tight, marketing leaders are always searching for ways to grow share in their markets. Targeted messages that emphasize your hospital’s population health priorities can help build market share by:

Delivering on brand promise – by encouraging consumers to take an active role in their health, you are improving the health of the community. By improving the health status of the community, the disease burden is lowered.
Attracting new patients – decide on which population cohorts to target to improve health (e.g., chronic disease populations; or, middle-aged (40s & 50s) men and women, as this commercially insured population is highly receptive to taking charge of their health).
Promoting physicians and specialists – showcase physicians as experts on certain health topics at online events, while building good will among the physician community – an essential partner in care delivery and outcomes.

Hospitals alone cannot take care of its population’s health. Improving health status requires the synergies of patients, families and other resources, such as providers, public health agencies, social services, employers and insurance companies. But, by starting with the community you know and serve, you can build a healthier population, one patient at a time.

Content marketing can differentiate your joint replacement surgery program

Although demand for joint replacement surgery continues to be robust, most healthcare marketers face saturated markets. Orthopedics remains one of the top volume producers for hospitals and that trend is not expected to change – for example, knee replacement procedures alone are expected to grow to a staggering 3.48 million surgeries a year by 2030. (In 2010, there were 244,000 knee replacements among Medicare beneficiaries.)

One way to break through the marketing din is to develop a content marketing strategy to reach and engage prospective patients at each point in their quest to alleviate pain and restore mobility. To do this, we need to understand how consumers discover, consume and share health information on-line; and the role of search and social interaction across the consumer decision or buying cycle. Continue reading →

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Filed under Joint Replacement Marketing, Orthopedics Marketing, Trends in Marketing

Tagged as corporate communications, digital marketing, healthcare marketing trends

by Susan Lilly | July 24, 2012 · 5:34 pm

Corrigan Partners Receives SWaM Certification for the State of Virginia

Corrigan Partners was recently certified as a Small, Women and Minority-owned Business (SWaM) by the Commonwealth of Virginia. This means we now have the ability to bring our expertise in marketing, public relations, social networking, SEO and communications management to Virginia state government agencies.

Our firm was founded in January 2010 by a group of women representing decades of experience in strategic planning, branding, marketing, internal and external communications, content management and social media. We have been fortunate to grow the practice to bring in many more accomplished professionals, and today work with a diverse group of clients ranging from large health systems to physician practices, start-up companies, technology partners, non-profit agencies and other businesses.

This is obviously a time of great uncertainty and change for all healthcare providers, but perhaps especially for those affiliated with, or funded by, government agencies. We look forward to helping state-funded health care organizations as they move to the front lines of population health management and primary care delivery.

And a special thanks to the Commonwealth of Virginia for developing this program to encourage small business creation and innovation! We are firm believers in the value and immediacy of government working with smaller, more nimble service providers – and we look forward to putting the unique skills of Corrigan Partners to work on behalf of a diverse portfolio of health care decision makers.

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Filed under Corrigan Partners

Tagged as Corrigan Partners, healthcare marketing, Healthcare public relations, healthcare social media, social media, SWaM, SWaM Certification, Women and Minority-owned Business

by Susan Lilly | June 28, 2012 · 3:59 pm

Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Law

Today, the Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate to purchase health insurance, viewing the requirement as a tax. We’ll leave it up to the legal experts to analyze the decision, and to the political experts to tell us what it means for the election.

For hospital strategists and marketers, we try to take a broader, and more action-oriented view. Here are three things to do or keep top of mind right now:

Make it clear to your patients, families, staff, volunteers, and other supporters that this ruling enhances your organization’s ability to uphold its mission on behalf of the communities it serves. Many of those who are uninsured today – and who are treated in hospitals regardless of ability to pay — will be covered eventually under the law.
Although the Supreme Court has upheld the law, its future in the next Congress is less certain. However, payment reforms rewarding outcomes and consumer coverage protections are underway and unlikely to be walked back.
This is an opportunity to engage your constituents through town forums and social media, on a topic that will be even more on everyone’s mind. Not debating the politics, but listening to peoples’ concerns, and being proactive in responding to those concerns on blogs, Facebook, etc.

The fundamental dynamics that are reshaping the health care market have not changed: people are living longer and demanding more services, chronic diseases are on the rise, costs continue to escalate, and reimbursements continue to tighten. Meanwhile, the pace of technology innovation is ever quickening, and the promise of personalized genetic medicine is tantalizingly close.

Health systems, hospitals, doctors and other providers will continue to seek more tightly integrated relationships to create the scale, expertise, care delivery models and mutually-beneficial incentives to successfully address the new economics of both market and government-led reforms.

Today’s decision, although impactful, won’t solve the systemic challenges facing the health care industry. While the three branches of government try to sort it out, health care providers should stay focused on their mission and engaging with their consumers to help them through these uncertain times.

Show us your Best Cinematography!

Last week, nominations were announced for the Academy Awards. Cinematography is one those “artistic” categories that many overlook, but it’s a lot like marketing. How? Let’s look beyond the standard technical definition of “lighting and camera choices.” What makes a movie memorable? Yes, a strong story and compelling performances are essential – but what about the feelings, the memories, a good movie promotes? More often than not, this can be traced back to its cinematography – such examples include “Titanic,” or more recently, “War Horse”. What do you see? What do you feel?

The cinematographer is responsible for the technical aspects of creating the images, but works closely with the director to ensure artistic aesthetics are supporting the director’s vision of the film. Starting to see how this relates to marketing? Let’s look at how your team works . . .

Do your marketing efforts support the organization’s overall vision?
How do your campaigns support the visual identity of your brand?
What kind of emotional experience are you associating with your brand?

Just as the cinematographer creates a “mood” or “experience” for the director to convey to the movie audience, so too does the marketing function bring to life for consumers the brand as articulated by the hospital’s vision.

For example, the goal of one mid-Atlantic hospital is to be “the world’s preeminent health care institution.” As a patient there, I have seen this demonstrated first hand. The campus is like a small city – clearly a world-wide destination. There are signs everywhere in at least 8 different languages. Other signs reassure me I’ve made a smart decision because I’m visiting the nation’s “number one hospital” (eight years in a row, according to US News, as they helpfully note). Additional wall hangings are prominently displayed reminding hospital staff to be deferential to patients and remain vigilant with hand-washing. I have to tell you, it works. I’m thinking to myself, “ I’m so clever for picking this hospital for my care. And I feel safe while I’m here.”

So, how are you like the cinematographer for your hospital? How do you create the “artistic aesthetics” to deliver your institution’s brand promise?

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Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as creative marketing, marketing, marketing best practice, marketing support

by Susan Lilly | December 7, 2011 · 8:08 pm

Get Ready for the Self-Directed Health Consumer

So this is Susan Lilly, recently “outed” on this blog as a breast cancer patient, and now, a survivor. My experience over the past year has given me some fresh insight into trends that we’ve been talking about here at Corrigan Partners, most notably the rise of the self-directed health care consumer.

After my diagnosis last spring (Stage 2, invasive ductal carcinoma), I pretty much created my own treatment path by assembling a disparate, but top-notch medical team. Why does this matter to health care marketers? Because I did this without the sway of traditional marketing messages. In fact, I decided to go out of area for part of my treatment because I found out about a unique surgical procedure from a top hospital’s online forum for breast cancer patients. Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under Healthcare Social Media, Marketing, Oncology Marketing

Tagged as breast cancer, breast cancer survivor, health care consumer, marketing, oncology marketing, social media marketing

Author Archives: Susan Lilly

3 reasons to think about population health

Content marketing can differentiate your joint replacement surgery program

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