With very little encouragement, a professional colleague of ours will enthusiastically explain why her personal physician is an outstanding provider. As it happens, her hero-physician is highly skilled, credentialed and experienced. But one of the top reasons that she will recommend her physician is that the practice actively uses text messages and patient-physician email to […]
Of course, everyone in healthcare has a command of “communications skills.” Doctors, nurses, medical staff, administrators and office employees…everyone “communicates” with patients and co-workers. The trouble is…sometimes ya ain’t so good at it. Good or bad, interpersonal communications can be verbal or non-verbal, express subtle or obvious ideas, and/or be filled with medical jargon. Although […]
[Series Article] Studies reveal hard science data behind why the sometimes fanciful, sometimes fictional art of storytelling is highly effective as a communications tool. In healthcare marketing, storytelling is growing in popularity from doctor-patient conversations to branding messages. Of all the stories in the world, there’s one—The Story of Storytelling—where “Once upon a time…” doesn’t […]
Be forewarned, this is an “elephant in the room” post about dealing with difficult patients. It’s a common situation and a sensitive topic. And if you’re uncomfortable confronting the problem, or dealing with challenging, dependent, manipulative, noncompliant, upset and/or time-sucking patients…then read no further.
While making a professional call on a doctor’s office the other day, a colleague of ours watched $5,000 walk out the door. The small-but-painful drama that unfolded in the reception area is worth retelling if our experience can save other medical practices from losing patients and revenue. It was a real-world lesson in physician and […]
Have you noticed the recent wave of TV commercials for one-to-one video calling (Apple Facetime), or multiple participation (GoToMeeting) video collaboration, or one-to-many webcasting? In business, it’s all as close, convenient and immediate as your smart phone, tablet or laptop. For personal and small business uses the service is free or low cost and it's […]
For hospitals, health systems and practitioners, “patient experience” has gone from trendy buzzwords to strategic imperative. In fact, the totality of patient experience and satisfaction is a top-tier issue for individual providers, hospitals, group medical practices and executive decision-makers. With these folks in mind--just about everyone--the following are 10 Top Patient Experience articles, including best […]
There’s an amusing but instructive doctor and physician marketing lesson to be found in listening to television interviews and discussions. The idea is to take note of a media pundit’s careful choice of words. The lesson is not so much in WHAT they say as in HOW they say it. In politics they call it […]
Editor’s Note: Most physicians are completely comfortable with digital technology. Several studies confirm that they often look online for medical or professional information, and they frequently use email to communicate with colleagues. But when it comes to patient communications, as few as 20 percent are emailing patients. Not only do patients want email, text and […]
By Neil Baum, MD Most of us like to think of ourselves as good to excellent communicators. However, if we were to survey our patients about our communication skills, we would find, to our dismay, that we are deficient in our ability to receive and transmit information to our patients. A study that monitored provider-patient […]
It seems that our recent post, If We Trust Doctors with Sharp Instruments, We Can Trust Them with Social Media, ignited some lively discussions among healthcare marketing professionals on LinkedIn. As a bit of background, the big idea behind our “If We Trust Doctors” post is that social media has taken a leadership role in […]
Understandably, interpersonal and communications skill is one of the vital core competencies for physicians. But communications is also one of the biggest gaps in physician competency, according to the American Hospital Association’s Physician Leadership Forum. Some of the obvious applications for good communications include working effectively with provider team members, professional colleagues and doctor-patient interaction. […]
We do it all the time…often without thinking much about it. To convince, collaborate, entice or persuade, everyone is “selling” something. It can be as casual as nominating a place for lunch, or presenting an idea. And doctors, dentists and virtually all healthcare providers regularly seek agreement and compliance from patients about a course of […]
Two snippets of recent healthcare news look like they are likely to collide with the next patient-physician encounter in your office. What’s more, they are loaded with potential physician marketing and communications challenges. We’d like to hear about your experience and what you think about these two conflicting issues: Google’s Symptom Search: aka “Doctor Google.” […]
To hitchhike on a brilliant concept by Stephen Covey: information flows at the speed of trust.* For physician-patient communications and healthcare marketing there’s a powerful payoff in getting the communications cycle right—beginning with the basics. Four of the benefits that flow at the speed of trust are compliance, engagement, improved outcomes and a prospectively positive […]
Healthcare marketing is in need of an overhaul, according to Advertising Age (AdAge), the respected advertising and marketing industry publication. They arrived at this conclusion after talking with 25,000 consumer/buyers of healthcare products and services. Marketing and advertising that only targets the prospective patient might miss the mark and not get the job done. As […]
This is a quick post about a clever little idea. Healthcare marketing professionals can use this powerful four-word question to engage patients and inspire instant, on-the-job comments from the public. Here’s how it works. The four words are: “How am I doing?” Put this question and a brief invitation immediately below your signature block for […]
In what is described as “the first systematic assessment of hospital websites,” a new study suggests that most physician, hospital and health system websites could improve their websites. The analysis, published in the Journal of Healthcare Management, evaluated over 630 websites from four dimensions, ACCESSIBILITY, CONTENT, MARKETING and TECHNOLOGY. And, according to this in-depth study, […]
If you live and work with the hints and helps in short maxims, there are dozens of “five-minute rules” to guide you in everything from computer science to digital discourse. Some of these “rules” are informal at best. In computer science, the five-minute random rule says to cache randomly accessed disk pages that are re-used […]
There’s a lively discussion among doctors and healthcare providers about communicating with patients via email. We’re not talking about the use of occasional and informative broadcast “eNewsletters” (a common healthcare marketing tool) that are sent from a practice or hospital to a list of opt-in patients. This is the arguable notion that a one-to-one email […]
Perhaps there is a tendency to take patient satisfaction for granted. It’s the part of doctor marketing that everyone does and, really now…there’s nothing to it. No big deal. Patient presents with symptom…diagnosis confirms…treatment follows…everyone’s happy. Right? Maybe not. Sound clinical care can resolve the medical problem, but the patient may still have a sense […]
In this guest post, Dr. Janice Frates offers ways for healthcare providers to use caring, concern and affordability as medical practice marketing tools. Here are her suggestions to build rapport and inspire patient satisfaction because tough times are here to stay. Gradually, it’s dawning on all of us that the current recession is now the […]
Here are two distinctly different but well-told stories that are worth sharing. The two storytellers—a photographer based in the Netherlands and an orthopedic surgeon in New York—probably don’t know each other. One story is about social media at work in the hospitality industry. The other is about patient-physician communications. On the surface these topics are […]
Sometimes we think that Stewart Gandolf has way too much fun over at his blog, Gandolf’s Marketing Magic. I submit as evidence, and for your consideration, Stewart’s recent post that begins with the story about how a customer complaint became a YouTube music-and-video saga (in three parts) titled United Breaks Guitars. As a quick disclosure, […]
Tips for provider and staff who talk with reluctant patients scared by economic tough times. Effective physician-patient communication skills are increasingly critical in the clinical setting. Here's why the "new normal" in healthcare now demands a team approach that applies these basic ingredients. It's a page from every successful sales executive's playbook. Some physician stories […]
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” –George Bernard Shaw Doctors and patients don’t agree about how well they are communicating with each other. This according to a study published in the August Archives of Internal Medicine. We suspect this physician-patient communications failure isn’t limited to internal medicine […]
Neil H. Baum, MD Today the patient is far different than the patient of a few decades ago. Patients can find healthcare information just as easily as a physician and many are taking a greater role in their healthcare and want to be involved in the decision making and work with the doctor as a […]
