The Backstory

Reed Smith, Vice President of digital strategy at Jarrard Inc. wonders why in the world healthcare providers wouldn't want to manage their online reputation. And then he explains how healthcare providers can manage their online reputation - things like Google and Yelp reviews. It's hard work but worth it to avoid getting swamped by negative reviews and, worse watching patients leave for another hospital or doctor's office.

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Over the last year, healthcare marketers have run from thing to thing to keep up with the constant changes at their organizations. There's been no time to pause for breath and look out past today. But that needs to happen now, especially as attention is returning to the patient experience and digital tools, along with patient acquisition and retention. So we caught up quickly with Reed Smith, our VP of digital strategy, to see what he's tracking is the industry shifts back towards consumerism, interoperability, telehealth and patient experience. And, internally, the need to review internal communications tactics and channels.

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Spring is here, vaccines are out of freezers and in people's arms, public venues are reopening and Krispy Kreme is handing out free donuts. Meanwhile, the CDC is still telling us to keep our masks on, the headlines look very pre-pandemic (and not in a good way) and new COVID-19 cases are twitching back up. So...are we allowed to be optimistic yet? In the latest with Kim Fox and Tim Stewart, we get real about "Hanxiety" and how far our obligation to others goes. We also talk about how our friends at hospitals and health systems can leverage the trust they have and help push us towards the bright sunny optimism that we're all looking for.

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We're talking about price transparency. There's been increased attention on the topic as we come up on three months since implementation of the new CMS price transparency rule and as the industry and the media starts to shift away from the pandemic a bit to look at what comes next. We're seeing increased attention on whether or not providers are compliant with the new rule. And James Cervantes, associate Vice President in our National and Academic Health System Practice, has been looking very closely at the price transparency, interoperability and consumerism,and working with clients on communications around these issues.

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Today we're catching up on healthcare mergers, acquisitions and partnerships with CEO David Jarrard and Isaac Squyres, a partner in our regional practice and leader of our M&A team. What does consolidation look like post-COVID-19 and under the Biden administration? David and Isaac are watching this issue closely, as is our network of brokers, transaction attorneys and strategy experts across the country. We recently surveyed that network to get a sense of the trends to expect in 2021, and the short version is that even as there will be a lot of legal and regulatory wrangling, it's more important than ever to have a clear purpose and a clear story to tell about the value of care that hospitals provide and why a transaction is the right thing to do. Scale for the sake of scale won't cut it.

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A couple of weeks ago, we ran a conversation between Molly Cate, founding partner and chief innovation officer at Jarrard, Dr. Mark Wenneker, a partner at The Chartis Group and primary care internist who leads Chartis' behavioral health practice, and Dr. Danny Mendoza, a psychiatrist with the Beth Israel Lahey Health System and an expert in behavioral health integration. In that conversation, we looked at some clinical principles healthcare leaders can apply to their teams, patients, and the public to allay fear in this bizarre pandemic world we've been living in. 

It was all rooted in a white paper that we published along the same lines. You can find that white paper at jarrardinc.com. But as we went through that first conversation, and as things continued moving forward in the vaccine rollout, it became clear that the principles applied to vaccine hesitancy as well. There's a whole second discussion to be had with Wenneker and Mendoza about some of the psychology behind hesitancy and how healthcare providers can sort of guide people rather than push them. This is that conversation

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This conversation with Dorian Harriston, associate director of brand strategy at Cedars-Sinai, started out as an invite to talk about vaccine related outreach to minority and underserved populations. We do have a blog post that goes into some of Harriston's written answers to those questions, but this went much further, much deeper. 

We talk about how Cedars-Sinai has created an environment over the course of years to position themselves as a trusted, valued partner within the LA community. And really it's not community, but communities. That role as a community partner has allowed them to serve in unique ways during the pandemic. You'll hear a common theme from Harriston that effective communication is more about listening and letting others tell their stories than trying to push information. 

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Sometimes the title of a podcast picks itself. Today, our two favorite outspoken insiders, Kim Fox, and Tim Stewart, take on the vaccine rollout. It's been rocky, and there's plenty of blame to go around, but there's still time for hospitals, health systems and other healthcare providers to swerve around the potholes.

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We are living in a pivotal moment for healthcare organizations as they face an unprecedented, existential threat. 

Today’s healthcare leaders – from clinicians to executives – face a vexing challenge: how to successfully lead their organizations, patients and communities through a global pandemic. There is great opportunity in making changes to fulfill their missions and provide care and support to patients, the public and employees. A new approach to influencing and driving change is needed – an approach built from established clinical principles combined with effective communications practices.

Since behavioral health clinicians work daily to reduce patients’ anxiety and help them feel comfortable in specific situations, we turned to this field for insight. In addition to asking for ways to address pandemic-inspired anxiety and fear, we have captured their actionable advice on how healthcare leaders can most effectively guide their organizations today.

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Our CEO, David Jarrard, and Michael Peregrine of McDermott Will and Emery spoke in December about the relationship between hospital CEOs, their legal teams and their boards. The focus was on the increasing expectations for healthcare CEOs to be visible and out in the community as public figures, speaking to important issues of the day.

Now, as we're well into the new year, Michael and David take stock of what healthcare boards need to be thinking about going forward and doing some internal reflection about their role and responsibility - even who needs to be involved on the board going forward. There's some tough love, there's some hard talk. But they're necessary conversations for healthcare leaders to have today.

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