We're not talking gift shops or Starbucks. Lake Health's West Medical Center in Ohio recently became the first in the country to feature an entire wellness-focused retail store inside the hospital.We spoke with Gary Robinson, Vice President for Government and Community Affairs, on the venture that could influence how organizations nationwide work to keep patients healthy and out of the hospital.But healthcare reform didn't drive Read more »

This year's Carolinas Healthcare Marketing and PR Society fall conference in Asheville, N.C., is all about changes in "altitude." Waking up to views of the Blue Ridge Mountains is perfect inspiration to think bigger.Sessions focused on hot topics from managing physician relations to connecting with generational audiences to overcoming administration's challenges to social media to guerrilla tactics.Here's a quick synopsis of some of our favorite Read more »

If you couldn’t make SHSMD 2011 in Phoenix (or all the breakouts you wanted to), our team highlights five of the best sessions on Days 2 and 3.ThursdayMeasuring Social Media in Healthcare (Wes Williams, Valley Health System and Dean Browell, Feedback)Marketers still silo social media — treating it independently of other marketing efforts — but the public doesn’t think about brands in silos, as in "Wow, this brand is great in Read more »

When you’re facing a challenge, do you ask others in similar situations for advice? The Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development’s By The Numbers report did – 193 of your peers to be exact — to help answer key questions about healthcare marketing departments.How does your marketing budget compare? Are others allocating funds differently? Is your department smaller or bigger than it should be? Which measurement Read more »

It's been a power-packed day and a half of leading, learning and fun at SHSMD 2011. Here are a few highlights.Lance Secretan, author and expert on organizational transformation, gave everyone a shot of inspiration. He noted he big difference between motivation (fear-based) and inspiration (love-based). Which would you rather embody? Among leaders, nothing great happens without a dream. In talking about building inspiration from within a Read more »

Continuous learning is the best investment you can make for your organization and yourself.Organizations like The Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD) are excellent resources for sharing ideas, learning best practices and spotting trends.This year, SHSMD's annual conference heads west to Phoenix Sept. 14-17.Whatever your challenge or interest, over 150 sessions, workshops and roundtables delve into healthcare's Read more »

As healthcare marketers, we stay on top of trends to predict (as much as possible anyway) market shifts that could affect bottom lines. With new data from the 2010 Census, AdAge recently noted Five Surprising Facts Marketers Should Know. It seems easier to make the leap from these facts to how they will impact brands like smart phones and purses. But healthcare marketing always seems to be a laggard in activating trends. Our question is: what Read more »

Ed Bennett, web guru at University of Maryland Medical Center and author of the Found in Cache blog, just updated his well-known Hospital Social Media List.It includes 1,188 Hospitals using:548 YouTube channels 1018 Facebook pages 788 Twitter accounts 458 LinkedIn accounts 913 Foursquare accounts 137 BlogsAbout a year ago, the number of hospitals on Twitter was higher than the number on Facebook. Since then, Facebook Read more »

We had the honor of presenting at the New England Society for Healthcare Communications (NESHCo) earlier this week, and I don’t think any group could have shown us more Southern hospitality. Despite some rainy weather, Wentworth by the Sea was as beautiful as we could imagine New Hampshire. It’s a hard act to follow a boat cruise, clam bake and fresh-cracked lobsters, but the sessions provided great food for thought.Here are some of our Read more »

The Virginia Society for Healthcare Marketing and PR (VSHMPR) held its spring conference in Richmond at the gorgeous Jefferson Hotel. Great sessions and people!

Some of our top takeaways:

Healthcare Reform

• Bob Holsworth kicked off with a talk on the politics behind healthcare reform and ACOs (Another great synopsis here.)
• Bob noted healthcare reform has been so politicized, the more often than not, party lines determine your opinions about whether it will be beneficial or not.
• His healthcare bill is about same as his mortgage. (Whoa!) but he's not alarmed. Bob believes in the costs associated with having access the highest quality care.

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