Health care is in the midst of a shift toward a consumer-centric model — empowering patients to have a greater role in how their health care dollars are spent. But there’s a problem. It’s hard to shop around if no one can tell you how much services cost. A new price transparency guideline from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which went into effect in January, is aimed at addressing the opaque nature of health care pricing. Hospitals are now required to publish a standard list of prices online in a machine-readable format for patients. University of Utah Health took the requirement a step farther.
Read MoreTechnology is drastically changing how we live. This is particularly evident in healthcare, where technology like wearable devices such as Apple Watch give users updates on their health in real time. That same technology is opening up new avenues for healthcare organizations to connect with chronically ill patients. The Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD) recently released Futurescan 2019-2024: Healthcare Trends and Implications, which looks at how technology reframes the way care is delivered and a number of other key issues.
Read MoreChatbots — a computer program or that has text or voice conversations — are redefining customer service, especially in healthcare. A 2017 Juniper Research study found that healthcare providers that use chatbots can expect average time savings of just over four minutes per inquiry, with average cost savings in the range of $0.50-$0.70 per interaction. While the success of the chatbot is often calculated in saved nickels and dimes, a bot’s ability to provide a “human-like” experience is also an important indicator of success.
Read MoreGetting lost in a hospital isn’t an uncommon experience. A report from 22Miles, a digital signage software company, found more than 30 percent of first-time visitors expressed confusion in finding locations within a hospital campus. The same report found 25 percent of staff members could not find some destinations within their own campuses. To combat this issue, more organizations are turning to wayfinding apps to navigate consumers from their home to the specific locations within the hospital.
Read MoreWe all have that miscellaneous drawer somewhere in our houses. Mine is filled with instruction manuals, incense and lighters, a sewing kit, leftover screws from Ikea furniture, and my label maker. While the junk drawer seems like a great way to store small, useful household items, in many cases, it’s an ineffective solution to poor organization and hoarding. The same thing happens with websites. It can be hard to figure out a designated home for a lone pharmacy technician training program that doesn’t fall under GME, CME, or CNE.
Read MoreAt the 2018 SHSMD Connections conference in Seattle, SHSMD convened a series of presentations on value as part of its “Value Initiative.” What does value mean for health care organizations? How can they achieve it? One of the presenters, Jessica Farrar, director of strategic planning and decision support at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Maryland, spoke about traditional metrics that don’t tell the whole story in a value scenario.
Read MoreCompetition is an essential part of healthcare marketing — it leads to innovation, helps improve the customer experience, and (hopefully) staves off complacency. In the battle for ranking in digital healthcare marketing, there is one competitor organizations should never go up against: themselves. Unfortunately, companies don’t just compete but get eaten alive, by their own digital marketing efforts, in part, because of content cannibalization.
Read MoreWhile there are many good reasons why a doctor might refer a patient to an outside physician, from an organizational standpoint this occurrence — known as referral leakage — is bad for business. Organizations lose on average $780,000 annually per employed physician that refers out of the health system, according to ReferralMD, a physician referral management organization. That translates to an estimated $200 million to $500 million in lost revenue to competitors each year.
Read MoreAfter a long day of running a busy kitchen at one of New York City’s top clubs, executive chef Tom Myers would wind down the day by riding home on his motorcycle. However, on September 14, 2014, his relaxing ride home ended abruptly when a vehicle that was making a left-hand turn hit him. The collision flung the 56-year-old married father of two adult children into the air and totaled the bike.
Read MoreTen-year-old Rayana has big dreams for her future. The New Jersey-resident wants to go to MIT and become a structural engineer when she grows up. Just three years ago, the odds of the fourth grader being able to fulfill her lofty goals were diminishing. Diagnosed with sickle cell disease when she was born, Rayana was getting sick, and her previous treatment wasn’t working.
Read More