Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• NPR article: Combining Models, New Projection Puts U.S. Coronavirus Deaths At 110,000 By June 6
• National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker by Strata Decision Technology

Key TakeAways

Consumer Targeting

• Hospitals will have a small window of time to fill their surgery queues, identify which procedures they’re most equipped to perform and think about the kind of financial impact they want to make during this time.
• Start at the bottom of the funnel with patients whom you already know.
• Then, move on to patients that need surgeries your hospital is most equipped to perform. You can get them in quickly and provide financial stability for your hospital at the same time.

How Do Health Systems Implement This?

• Marketers will use the “outside-in approach” when patient information isn’t available.
• There’s also the “inside-out approach,” which allows access to customer databases so that marketers can focus on patients that are most at risk.
• We start by following this approach:
• Who is the audience?
  • What are the procedures we’re most operationally ready to return immediately?
  • Then we communicate through the most appropriate channel to meet this audience.

Learning from Patient Behaviors

• We are looking at the patient information that is readily available at the hospital’s disposal and then we start leveraging that information for audience creation. 

Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

Modern Healthcare article: Deferred Procedures Drain Hospital Revenue by $60 Billion a Month

Health Leaders article: Three Revenue Cycle Hurdles for Resuming Elective Procedures

Key Takeaways

Revenue Loss for Hospitals and Health Systems

• COVID-19 is going to continue to be a financial pain; commercial payments will be important moving forward to turn a profit.
• According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, an estimated 25-43 million people could lose their employer-sponsored health insurance coverage before things settle. Some will land in state Medicaid programs, some will buy individual plans they can afford, and as many as half will go without insurance.

Challenges for Rapid Recovery

• Opening back up will involve organization across the health system; from service lines, to staffing, OR space, and even determining the priority of patients.
• PPE will be an ongoing concern for weeks, if not months. Reassuring staff and patients that you have adequate supply is essential.
• Measures should be made clear on the visitation process for patient families and guests. Communicate your plan on how to keep these individuals safe.
• If you haven’t already, marketers need to find a way to be a part of the reopening committee. It will aid in how you communicate when going to market and gaining patient trust.

Financial Fear

• Consumers are concerned with their financial situations and are withholding out of pocket spending even if they are employed.
• The idea of stretching out prescriptions and putting off medical expenses is a significant financial fear for health systems. It is taking more effort to convince patients to come back into a hospital post-COVID-19.
• Marketing owns the consumer lens in a health system, and we should be bringing that outside perspective about financial fears through our communication strategies to meet our community where they find themselves.

Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• ReviveHealth COVID-19 Communication Hub

Key Takeaways

Internal Communications

• Understanding that employees will have a spectrum of feelings during and after the reopening of hospitals is essential in providing the appropriate support needed.
• Health system leaders should think about the humanity of and the experiences of their front-line workers as they create their internal messages.
• Two-way communication is essential in understanding how people are feeling.
• Focusing on listening and providing open forums that allow for two-way communication will show support and empathy from hospital leadership.
• Continually communicating resources to front-line workers will provide comfort as these individuals navigate the trauma created from COVID-19. Resources can and should include:
  • Mental health support
  • Counseling
  • Telemedicine

Future Internal Communications

• Moving forward, companies need to prepare for the second wave.
• In order to prepare, you should start by asking:
  • What can you do better the second time around?
  • Do you have the resources you need in place?
  • What is your crisis plan?  
• Remember to be human and transparent.

Key Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• Modern Healthcare article: California hospitals ask governor for $1 billion in immediate aid
• Bain article: The U.S. is not fully prepared to resume elective medical care
• Modern Healthcare article: U.S. faces 'truly daunting' challenges on needed COVID tests:
• ‘Plandemic’ article

Key TakeAways

Observations About Patient Acquisition

• Consumers are trusting their local health experts to provide guidance during this time, and are thinking about their health more than ever.
• 6/10 people are willing to switch providers, according to our latest research, even if they already had a planned surgery before the COVID-19 shutdown.

3 Primary Levers to Pull for Patient Acquisition

1. Direct response
   • Before proactively marketing a service line, the organization must be ready for those seeking care by maximizing reactive tactics.
   • Example tactics include:
     • Always-on search
     • Website content (particularly on service line pages)
     • Call center capabilities
     • ORM
     • Find-a-Physician tool
2. Physician referrals
   • The quickest and most powerful way to impact volumes is by understanding and improving physician referral patterns.
   • What does your outreach program look like?
   • What can you do to make your referral process as easy as possible?
   • Provide educational messages so referring doctors know they’re sending patients to a safe place.
   • Don't forget physician-to-physician communication.
3. Demand generation – How can you be top of mind?
   • Once direct response and physician referral tactics are in place, systems can generate demand for service line volume through targeted personalized marketing, promotional campaigns, and content marketing programs.
   • Example demand generation tactics include:
     • Personalized marketing campaigns
     • Promotional campaigns
     • Content marketing
   • The luxury of building relationships isn’t available during this time. We’re advocating that health systems think about unifying their service line campaigns for efficiency. 

Key Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• Bain survey: The US Is Not Fully Prepared to Resume Elective Medical Care
• Alan Shoebridge article: The 80% Healthcare Economy
• Revive’s Latest Consumer Survey Report

Key TakeAways

Returning to Clinical Settings

• 56% of consumers have concerns over the cleanliness of hospitals and that they might contract Covid-19 from other patients.
• 76% of consumers surveyed are planning on altering how they seek care going forward.

Opportunities for Brands

• Health systems should be consistent in their messaging to consumers. It’s important to avoid self-promoting and focus on being empathetic.
• This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to reach consumers and retain their loyalty.
• It’s too early to market competitively. Health systems have gained an empathetic following that they should harness as long as possible.
• Any information about testing and how to receive it is still essential.
• Health systems need to continue to work as equals to make sure factual information gets to their communities efficiently.  

Key Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• Nation’s hospitals losing about $50B a month fighting pandemic according to AHA: https://www.aha.org/news/headline/2020-05-05-report-nations-hospitals-losing-about-50b-month-fighting-pandemic
• Epic Health Research Network: https://ehrn.org/
• Expansion of Telehealth during COVID-19 Pandemic: https://ehrn.org/wp-content/uploads/Expansions-in-Telehealth-COVID-19.pdf

Key TakeAways

Virtual Care Adoption

• Virtual care has expanded by 300% since last year.
• According to the EHRN findings, 50% of healthcare visits are done through Telehealth.
• Virtual care has been forced upon providers and consumers.
• Looking ahead, you should be asking:
  • Over the next 1-2 weeks
    • What’s happening competitively? What is being offered?
    • Start with your brand strengths
  • Over the next 1-2 months
    • How does your virtual program match up to others?
  • Long term
    • Is your virtual program infrastructure set up so that it can withstand long term use of virtual health?
    • In order to be effective in the future, health systems need to optimize their organizational strategy. 

User Experience Mapping

• It will be critical to set expectations for consumers as they visit your website and come across these new platforms.
• Training doctors on how to practice online will be necessary to the system’s adoption of the platform and the patient experience.
• Healthcare marketers can set up key measures to see what drives the patient experience and, in turn, what gets them to return to a health system. 

What’s the difference between Telemedicine and Telehealth?

• Telemedicine is physician-to-physician and physician-to-patient.
• Telehealth is broader, with capabilities such as texting and remote health.

Key Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• Washington Post: Historic financial decline hits doctors, dentists, and hospitals

Key TakeAways

Consumer Preferences

• Consumers find videos to be more engaging, accessible, and memorable than any other type of content.
• Video as a means of storytelling and advertising is no longer a nice-to-have-option – it’s a necessity.

Video Trends

• The most common use of video today is through social media content/marketing.
• The good news is that your video doesn’t always need a full production crew to be effective.
• Some key factors to consider when making a video is the content and how and where it will be distributed.
• Live video is not new and has been around for a while, but right now, it's more relevant than ever.
• Marketing videos can take many forms during a time like COVID-19, such as:
  • Q&A sessions
  • Behind-the-scenes
  • Patient testimonials
  • Interviews with experts
• There are many different ways to present your videos to ensure your message is reaching the right people:
  • Explainers
  • Presentations
  • Website heroes
  • Tutorials
  • Webinars
  • Customer testimonials
  • Interviews
  • Live streams
  • Live video

Key Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• STAT Article: Three potential futures for Covid-19: recurring small outbreaks, a monster wave, or a persistent crisis
• Becker Hospital Review: Health system opening log

Key TakeAways

Does Joe Public care NOW?

• He does – we now know from our research that consumers want to hear from their hospitals and health systems often, and they trust them as a leading source of information.
  • The question is, when we move away from the crisis, can they maintain that sentiment?
• There is potential that the perceived role of the health system changes indefinitely going forward.

What should a health system be focused on communicating right now?

• All regions will be different, but around the idea or reopening, while there's a rush to get to the market with a high-level "we're open", it's not that simple.
• There are internal, patient, and external communications involved with a reopening message, and you must communicate specifically what is opening.
• While we know it is difficult, it is important to contact every patient who has postponed procedures before going out to the market with any reopening messages.

What have you seen operationally going well and what have you seen as problematic?

• The good: internal recognition of how hard this will be and the fear of consumers, as well as the increased use of telehealth.
• The bad: chow you reopen needs to be centralized, orchestrated approach and rolled out appropriately. Instead, many health systems and hospitals are doing this chaotically and driven mainly by the physicians.

Do you think COVID-19 will fundamentally change how health systems market once the crisis is over?

• It's still too soon to know exactly the answer, but we see that the consumer will view the value and perception of health systems, hospitals, and physicians as heroic.
• We also see the potential for cost and industry "disruptors" to be emphasized in light of the new hospital and health system perception.

Key Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• Stat News Article: Health care worker suicides hint at COVID-19 mental health crisis to come
• USA Today Article: Coronavirus strains cash-strapped hospitals, could cause up to 100 to close within a year
• Becker's Hospital Review Article: 25 states resuming elective surgeries
• Morning Consult Report: American College of Emergency Physicians COVID-19

Key Takeaways

Addressing the fear of opening up again

• 1/3 of Americans have put off care due to the COVID-19 crisis.
• Patients are going to need multiple reassurances when hospitals open up their doors to minimize the patient's fears. They'll want to know:
  • What are you doing to sanitize?
  • What are you doing for infection control?
• Each health system should conduct local market testing to understand what resonates with the consumers in their community.

The financial reality post-COVID-19

• Health systems should continue to build relationships with Chambers of Commerce and other business-minded organizations at the local level.
• Members of these organizations are vital ambassadors for health systems because:
  • They can provide insight into the economic impact of a health system on a community.
  • They can offer help to employers and find out what they need from their health system.
  • They can talk to elected officials about securing funds for the future.
• Many hospitals and health systems will be vulnerable to acquisitions post-COVID-19.
  • If that's the case, communications and business leaders should begin preparing communications plans to make this challenging announcement.

Key Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

• HealthLeaders article: Teladoc Health Visits Jump 92% in Q1, Revenue Tops $180M

Key Takeaways

Patient Retention Marketing Strategy

• Health systems have focused on high-level brand awareness before COVID-19, and the concept of patient retention is now new territory for hospital marketers.
• Focusing on patient retention will require an understanding of who the customers are, what their needs are, and how to communicate with them.
• There should be an organizational approach to reopening health systems that should focus on:
  • Patient acuity
  • Operational readiness
  • Profitability
• Marketers can help by delivering clear messaging that patients and internal personnel need to hear as it pertains to opening their doors again for elective surgeries.
• Virtual visits and telehealth can be a way of building trust and reassurance with patients as they are waiting for their rescheduled surgeries.