Key Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• Rev Cycle Intelligence Article: 1 in 5 Hospital Execs Expect Revenue Declines of Over 30% in 2020

Key Takeaways

Transitional Messaging

• We're seeing a shift from safety messaging to communications about accessing care in a post-COVID-19 world.
• There's a lot of fear from clinicians and administrators to make up lost time from a revenue standpoint and get people the care they need.

Timeline for Transitional Messaging

• The next narrative health systems and providers should be conveying:
  • It's safe to come back to healthcare.
  • You should be getting the healthcare you need.
  • Here are the specific service lines that are open and available now.
• We're going to move forward with reassurance messaging in the current market and evaluate every 30 days so that we can continue to be agile in our communications.

Scenario Planning for a Resurgence  

• We're looking at multiple scenarios with our clients. We're asking:
  • What happens if cases spike in the summer?
  • What happens if cases drop?  
  • What happens during the flu season?
• In some cases, we're using the same overarching brand campaign construct focused on personal safety, staying indoors, and wearing masks.  

Positioning Messaging

• We're looking back and using successful past campaigns and putting the focus of the messaging on the community and off of us.
• We want to position our clients as leaders through a campaign that can not only be good for now but can also carry them through 2020 and 2021.

Channel Engagement

• Provide a Q&A or some mechanism for people to be able to come in and ask questions.
• Virtual care and telemedicine are going to play a big part in this as well. We want to make sure that we are connecting to audiences looking for care in that modality.

Transitional Messaging in Leadership

• Leadership has been remarkably on board and enthusiastic about connecting and becoming more trusted by consumers and patients in the community.

Tracking the Narrative

• We should focus on patient retention and getting the individuals whom we already know need care.
• As we step up as community leaders, this is an opportunity for patient acquisition.
• We're going to focus on how people are coming to visit the resources that we are providing. You should ask yourself:
  • What kind of questions are they asking?
  • What is the volume of questions we're getting through some of those channels?
• We are creating individualized URLs so that we can see from a digital standpoint what is working well with consumers. 

Key Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• CNBC Article: Hospitals are rescheduling elective surgeries but worry about demand after the backlog is cleared
• The New England Journal of Medicine Article: Where are all the patients?
• Our Qualitative Research Among Patients Awaiting Surgery

Key TakeAways

The Missing Domino 

• The volume recovery that we're seeing constrained on the surgical side is also happening on the nonsurgical side. We're trying to focus on how to replace that missing domino if all the earlier dominoes fall. 
• Surgical schedules are at risk of being anemic due to a lack of patients. Patients haven't seen their specialist, they haven't had diagnostic imaging, they haven't had lab work, and other crucial stepping stones that are necessary before surgery. 

Lower-acuity Services  

• Rapid Recovery that's focused on surgical volume is only going to solve a short-term problem. It won't solve the longer-term volume of getting people back into those other services that could lead to higher margin surgical volume or different types of treatment. 

Higher Level Funnel Services 

• Instead of starting at the very top of the funnel, we should begin with the part of the funnel that's just before surgery. You should ask: 
• Who's had a referral to a specialist who hasn't had that appointment fulfilled? 
• Who's had an appointment with a specialist but hasn't had their diagnostic imaging and their labs done? 
• Who has preventive screenings that were scheduled that haven't been fulfilled? 

Building Patient Confidence 

• We need to focus on the patient and where they are at emotionally. People are concerned about safety, cleanliness, and protocols, so we need to reassure them that they are safe with us.  
• There's an opportunity to be substantially more personalized because we know the patients that have surgeries on pause will have referrals.
• We need to focus on streamlining their care so we can reassure them and meet them where they're at from a messaging standpoint.  

The Missing Domino Takeaway 

• If you are not already pursuing a Rapid Recovery strategy that includes operations and marketing working hand in hand, start right now. You risk losing share to first advantage movers in your market otherwise. 
• Focus on proactive marketing, physician relations, and physician engagement around reaching all of those patients that will eventually be surgical patients or patients in higher-margin treatment services.  
• Start planning for fall and winter. If we don't prepare properly for the seasonal flu and a COVID-19 resurgence, the consumers and others might decide we're not able to handle the problem and could be forced into another shutdown scenario.  

Key Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• Reuters Article: Large employers push back on U.S. healthcare mergers during coronavirus crisis
• New York Times Article: The Public Has Been Forgiving. But Hospitals Got Some Things Wrong.
• World Health Organization Article: More than 117 million children at risk of missing out on measles vaccines, as COVID-19 surges

Key TakeAways

Coming out of Memorial Weekend

• It's important to keep in mind that we've flattened the curve, but we're not out of the woods yet. Health systems and marketers need to reiterate to their community the importance of social distancing and personal hygiene.

How to Prepare for a Second Wave

• Health systems should do some research and polling to gauge if the public sentiment about their hospitals has gone up or down.
• Health systems need to evaluate what's been done in the past so they can prepare for the fall. They should ask:
  • How have we rolled out communications for past flu seasons?
  • What's the plan of action if we have to contend with the flu and COVID-19?
  • What does this all mean for testing capabilities?
  • How do we roll out communications and recommendations for the public?

M&A Activity

• A variety of large employers are pushing back against M&A activity due to fears relating to a lack of quality care and higher costs.
• Large systems might be predatory toward smaller systems that are in need of financial support.

The Impacts of Delayed Care

• One hundred million children are unable to receive the vaccines due to delayed care.
• We have to consider pediatric public health and its relation to vaccines and make sure we're communicating with parents.
• It's important to communicate with at-risk groups to make sure those children are receiving care.
• Marketers should consider the high number of unemployment figures we're seeing during this time and recognize that many of these children's parents had insurance tied to their occupation.

Key Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• Modern Healthcare Article: April was the worst month ever for hospital operating margins

Key TakeAways

Reflections from a CMO

• As marketers, we've aligned to take on the task at hand.
• We've assessed the best way to use our resources in a responsible way to make an impact.
• Providing clarity to our team has been crucial to our well-being during this crisis.  
• In past crises (Hurricane Katrina, for instance), we were able to pull help from other markets. Unfortunately, with COVID-19, we're all in the same place — unable to use our networks for resources as we have in the past.
• The ability to be proactive in our earned media has earned the confidence of our leadership and executives.
• We come at each challenge with a sense of responsibility.

The biggest takeaway from this time

• The ability to be clear in answering:
  • What is the task?  
  • What is the strategy?
  • Who are we trying to serve?
• Understanding that people don't have extra bandwidth at this time and providing them with grace and clarity.  

The biggest challenges in moving forward

• Eventually, we will return to what is familiar. As we get further away from this period, it's crucial to keep disciplined and to continue the impact we've created during this time.
• We will focus on these things:
  • Recognizing good work.
  • Talking about results.
  • Finding the "why" behind the strategy.
  • Creating the ability to move quickly. 

Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• New York Times Article: I Was Supposed to Eat at a Restaurant. I Bailed.

Key TakeAways

A Macro Perspective

• Fear of infection is gradually declining, though two-thirds of Americans are still concerned about becoming ill or fear someone in their family will become infected.
• 83 percent of people believe that social distancing is effective in saving lives.
• Although unemployment numbers are high, there's still more optimism about the job market than the financial crisis of 2008.
• In Jarrett's findings, there are three types of public opinions:
  • Those who are ready to reopen.
  • Those who do not want to be the first to step back out but are ready to reopen.
  • Those who will not return to normal life until there is a vaccine.

Consuming Information

• In the first part of March, Republicans were apprehensive about precautions; by the middle of March and into April, the parties were mostly on the same page about precautionary measures. Now, we're seeing a sizable partisan gap again.
• People are choosing their own news, and it's impacting how they're processing the pandemic. There are significant differences between partisan parties about PPE, reopening, and the death count.
• Health systems have patients of every party and should consider understanding the psychology of what drives people.
• Healthcare providers are still considered the most trusted news source, but there is a disconnect between providers and communities.

Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• CNN article: Florida and Georgia facing scrutiny for their COVID-19 data reporting
• Vox article: Georgia’s COVID-19 cases aren’t declining as quickly as initial data suggested they were
• Kateto survey: The State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey
• Primary Care Collaborative survey: Primary Care & COVID-19: Week 8 Survey
• Subscribe to our bi-weekly COVID-19 communication insight reports

Key Takeaways

COVID-19's Impact on Primary Care

• 70 percent of practices have reported a 50 percent drop in inpatient visits, and only half of those visits are reimbursable.  
• One-third of primary care clinicians believe COVID-19 is going to affect the independence of primary care practices across the country.
• According to Epic Health Resources, there has been an 86 to 95 percent decrease in cancer screening during this time.
• Many patients have put off care, which is going to increase acute care over time.

What Should Marketers Be Doing to Support Primary Care Clinics?

• Continue to push for patients to come in for annual exams.
• Make sure your hospital has a digital experience enabled.
• Increase self-screening and make sure they have easy access to virtual visits if they find something abnormal.

Key Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• Axios article: Spine and joint procedures have taken a dive during the pandemic 

Key TakeAways

The Providence St. Joseph Covid-19 Approach

• Responding to the media and internal audiences was incredibly important because the news was swinging between two extremes.
• Providence was able to get their unbiased perspective out into the communities that they serve, which allowed their consumers to have the best information from those battling the crisis.  
• Providence had 1400+ COVID-19 patients in the last two months and have had to delay 110,000 surgeries due to the shutdown.
• They created an internal dashboard that lets their providers and healthcare workers know where they stand with PPE and testing to provide transparency. They are in the green in almost all metrics, but want workers to know the policies they have in place if they ever go in the yellow or red.
• It was vital for Providence to launch the 100 million mask campaign so that they had enough PPE for their front-line workers.  
  • It took on a life of its own in when Mukilteo (a Washington furniture factory), Nordstrom, Alaska Airlines, and others stepped in to make sure their hospitals had enough PPE.  
  • Eventually, AHA adopted the campaign and allowed it to go nationally to ensure hospitals across the country had enough PPE. 

Key Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• The Commonwealth Fund Article: Primary Care as a Bulwark Against COVID-19

Key TakeAways

Primary Care and Reverse Trends – Walmart Health

• Is retail health COVID-19 proof?
  • Walmart Health is promising because it provides convenience and affordability while having a business that is minimally affected by the pandemic.
  • There have been multiple stores that have been noted as COVID-19 hot spots, but surveys tell us this data has failed to dissuade consumers from going to the stores.
  • Retail healthcare is focused on community-based care, which has shined during this time.
• Is there a generational difference?
  • Millennials don’t feel a need to have a relationship with their PCP.
  • COVID-19 might be the time to build trust with consumers and educate them about the importance of having a PCP.
  • The eruption of hospitals actively using telehealth will provide convenience for consumers in interacting with a health system. 

Key Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• New York Times article: Hospitals knew how to make money. Then coronavirus happened.
• Kaiser Family Foundation article: Eligibility for ACA health coverage following job loss
• Axios article: The coming coronavirus mental health crisis:
• The Case for Building a Post Health System Brand
• VCU shoutout: A collaboration between a doctor and black clergy in Richmond could be a model. Health care should be the next great social justice movement. 

Key TakeAways

Being a Leader in Today’s Market

• Markets that have provided transparency, continuous public health and education messaging, and partnerships with other markets, have proven to be trusted leaders during this time.
• Contact tracing is critical for cities and states that are taking a more cautious approach to reopening.
• There’s a need for people and employees to understand their mental health resources and how to access them. Ask yourself what the need is in your market and as a leader of that community, what can you do about it?
• Keep the dialogue and relationships going with public figures about the importance of public health messaging even as COVID-19 starts to decline. 

Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• New York Times COVID-19 cases dashboard
• Times article: As New COVID-19 Cases Decline in New York, the Rest of the Nation Is Going the Opposite Direction

Key Takeaways

Fears of Returning to the Hospital – Qualitative Research Results

• We surveyed 13 people in each market that were scheduled for surgeries as well as patients with acute needs during this time to try and understand their feelings and fears regarding hospitals and what steps we need to take to work through those fears. 
• When asking patients if they were ready to receive care today, here were the three main buckets they found themselves in: 
• Not afraid at all. 
• Not afraid, but if "xyz" is not addressed, will put off medical care. 
• Willing to put off medical care. 
• We found that patients aren’t as trusting of healthcare systems as they initially thought they'd be.
• Most individuals stated that they want facts about what they will experience when they see their physician.  
• We found instances of individuals wanting to avoid excessive interaction with clinical staff and other patients.