How Online Bariatric Seminars Can Improve Patient Acquisitions and Outcomes Written by SQHealth-admin on May 24, 2017. Posted in Bariatric Surgery, Convert. The Right Healthcare Webinar Tools Can Help New Weight Loss Surgery Patients Meet Their Bariatric Surgery Requirements It’s likely that if you are reading this, you already know the importance of bariatric seminars for prospective and new weight loss surgery patients. Although not a federal regulation, bariatric surgery seminars are often considered a requirement by insurance companies before they will authorize the procedure. For years, bariatric surgery centers have conducted on-site seminars to advise new bariatric patients about what to expect before and after bariatric surgery, which often provides bariatric patient education for: • the pre-surgical process • dietary and fitness regimens • surgical options • the recovery process • various post-surgery/next-steps programs Further, in-house bariatric seminars provided new weight loss surgery patients an opportunity to meet the center’s bariatric surgeons. More recently, online bariatric surgery seminars have been offered as an alternative to in-house seminars. Not only does this enable bariatric surgery centers to offer more options for new weight loss surgery patients to attend seminars at times and locations that are more convenient, but it also improves efficiency for busy bariatric surgeons and staff. [poll id=”7″] The adoption of online bariatric seminars has occurred during a time when online videos have become easier and more affordable to produce—which is very attractive to bariatric surgery centers. However, the advantages can quickly be diminished if the online bariatric surgery seminar is hosted as an online healthcare Webinar with any number of online video streaming apps like: • YouTube • Facebook • Google Hangouts • Vimeo • Periscope Although these are adequate for sharing general bariatric patient education and bariatric surgery center marketing videos, they have some critical deficiencies when used for required bariatric surgery seminars. This is particularly true in the context of using them as alternatives to dedicated, pro-quality learning management systems (LMS) and Webinar software. Some key reasons include: • Tracking: It’s impossible (or difficult at best) to precisely track which new patients actually attended the bariatric seminar. Although YouTube and others provide basic analytics about users (e.g., geography, platform, visit length), they don’t capture the specific information needed to confirm a patient’s attendance or comprehension of the information presented. Yes, there are workarounds—for instance, patients can leave a comment, which could indicate when they watched the weight loss seminar, however, it requires them to also have user handles that make them easily recognizable—which is far from optimal. • Poaching: Social media-driven online video platforms like YouTube are highly aware of a channel’s content, which enables it to recommend other videos and display banner advertisements. The obvious problem is those videos and advertisements will likely come from competing bariatric surgery centers, potentially leading your lead to another program’s content. Further, any user comments are viewable by competitors, which further enables them to potentially poach your hard-earned new patient leads. • Privacy: Virtually any discussion about healthcare information and patients requires some mention about privacy, and online bariatric surgery seminars are no exception—especially if patients are sharing any personal information about themselves so that they can verify they attended a presentation. The process of acquiring new bariatric patients and providing bariatric patient management from surgery through recovery is a challenging and complicated one—and one where a decision about the real value of free or inexpensive weight loss seminars tools versus professional bariatric patient engagement solutions must be carefully considered. However, specialized bariatric patient engagement tools that have online bariatric seminar capabilities can quickly show a return on investment (ROI) by increasing bariatric patient acquisition rates and improving bariatric surgery outcomes. Kris Altiere is Sequence Health’s Director of Marketing and Creative. Please contact us to learn more about how Sequence Health can partner with you to develop a successful bariatric online seminar.
Healthcare SEO: Google Tips for May 2017 Written by SQHealth-admin on May 4, 2017. Posted in Connect. A Look at the Latest Google Tips That Affect SEO for Hospitals and Medical Practices We hope your hospital or medical practice is having a wonderful Spring! As we do each month, we have gathered the latest healthcare SEO Google tips that affect SEO hospitals and medical practices. And as always, the emphasis is on information for healthcare digital marketers that don’t monitor every event related to medical SEO. Google Analytics Home and Google Data Studio If your healthcare SEO strategy only looks at Website performance metrics on a limited basis—perhaps because you don’t have time or because you find analytics to be tedious and difficult—Google has recently upgraded and expanded two of its analytics tools that may encourage or enable you to use data to improve your medical SEO. First, Google Analytics: Last month, Google published “The New Google Analytics Home: Know Your Data,” in which it announced a redesigned “Home” page intended to provide “an overview of key aspects of your business’ online presence.” Second, Google Data Studio: In March, Google published “Data Studio now globally available,” in which it announced unlimited reports (instead of the previous limit of five) for its new “beta” analytics tool. This innovative tool collects data from multiple sources (e.g., your Website, Facebook page, YouTube page) and lets the user create customizable dashboards for presentations or reports. The takeaway: It’s very easy to slip into “analysis paralysis” with Google Analytics—a testament to the depth and complexity of data it can provide. The simplified Google Analytics Home page’s simple dashboard may be a blessing for the aforementioned digital healthcare marketers that need quick and easy-to-digest information or for the more advanced medical SEO’er prone to unproductive analysis paralysis. Likewise, the continued development of Google Data Studio may also be a blessing for digital healthcare marketers in either the “inexperienced or too busy” or “experienced over-thinker” camps of healthcare SEO. This is particularly true in the age of healthcare content marketing and healthcare social media marketing, which, like a hospital Website’s SEO, can be improved with performance data analysis. New “How Google Search Works” Search Engine Roundtable.com recently published “Google Updates Their ‘How Search Works’ Site,” which links to a redesigned guide that may be of interest to anybody involved in SEO for hospitals, but particularly anybody new to healthcare SEO. The takeaway: It could be argued that knowing how Google search works is worth knowing just for the intellectual curiosity about one of the most important technologies ever created and that affects virtually everybody’s lives. But for the novice digital healthcare marketer that wants to improve their medical SEO acumen, there may be tremendous advantage to having a better understanding of how search engines (especially Google’s) work. Improved Granular Review in Google Local Listings Search Engine Roundtable.com also published “Google Adds More Granular Review Filtering In Local Listings” in which it explained that rather than “full star” ratings (e.g., four stars), Google now lets users filter with “half stars” (e.g., 4.5 stars). However, what made this article so compelling was what one reader wrote in the comments: “The main problem remains and that is that Google’s reviews are filled with fakes written either by marketers stuffing their client’s with raving reviews (or negatives for their competitors) or reviews written by the business owner themselves. This problem undermines the rating process as a whole and will only get worse before Google comes up with some sort of solution, if one exists…” The takeaway: Call it what you want—cheating, unethical, “black hat”—there will always be people that want to game the system. Here, it’s with fake reviews…and yes, it does undermine the rating process. However, it is arguable that the problem “will only get worse before Google comes up with some sort of solution.” The only certain “solution” would be to eliminate review filtering, which benefits nobody. Instead, a more appropriate suggestion would be to not engage in such practices to market your hospital online. Although there might be some short-term gains—especially if your hospital is in very competitive market and may rely upon comparatively higher ratings to attract new patients—eventually, the heightened expectations will result in negative reviews. As Sequence Health’s Associate Director of Search Engine Marketing, Susan Gullion is one of our most knowledgeable resources for enhancing our healthcare clients’ search engine marketing strategies with SEO, PPC and social media. Please contact us to learn more about how Sequence Health can partner with you to develop a custom healthcare search engine marketing solution.
Getting Personal: Making the Most of Social Media in Healthcare with Facebook Bots and Facebook Live Written by SQHealth-admin on April 26, 2017. Posted in Connect. Recent developments in using social media for health are now enabling hospitals and clinics to make personal connections like never before, notable because social media—and Facebook in particular—has been routinely rejected by marketers from many sectors due to its impersonality. However, Facebook’s recent innovations are now providing capabilities that are perfect for healthcare marketing and communications, enabling hospital administrators and doctors to provide more personal levels of customer care. From profiling staff members to promoting services to distributing timely healthcare information, Facebook bots and Facebook Live are emerging as preferred social media healthcare marketing tools. And when used properly, they can significantly improve patient engagement outcomes. Here are some examples. Healthcare Marketing with Facebook Live Facebook Live enables healthcare marketers and staff to use video to interact with patients in real time. It is ideal for communicating the services and benefits that differentiate your healthcare facility from others. For instance, does your hospital or clinic have difficulty promoting or explaining: • Specialized medical equipment? • A unique focus on conditions and treatments? • Trendsetting procedures? Facebook Live can be used to put the spotlight on these sorts of features, allowing patients to better understand what sets your healthcare facility apart from another. With this type of information on hand, prospective patients will be better able to make appropriate care decisions while hopefully prioritizing your practice in particular. Scheduling Doctor Appointments with Facebook Bots Facebook bots are customizable programs that automate tasks. For example, scheduling doctor appointments no longer require a patient to call your staff and use valuable time to perform a relatively simple activity. Instead, Facebook bots can handle this task, letting patients send a simple message to get the ball rolling. This functionality has the added advantage of minimizing back office requirements, which streamlines your scheduling process without human assistance. Checking Medical Test Results with Facebook Bots There are many digital platforms that can now manage medical test results (like the popular MyChart phone app), so why not let Facebook be one more? When patients contact you via Facebook, a bot can provide access to results and medical data through a confidential portal. A fast and convenient alternative to paper results, this sort of system can offer a better substitute without the need for a follow-up appointment. This option can also be used to request copies of medical records, guiding patients to a records request process that can allow for a quick transfer of necessary documentation. Refiling Expired Prescriptions with Facebook Bots When a patient’s prescription is out of refills, he or she often ends up in a game of phone tag between the local pharmacy and his or her doctor’s office, desperately seeking a new script. A Facebook bot can simplify this process, automatically tapping into recordkeeping systems to let doctors know that their patients require assistance. A simple keyword system is all that is needed here; when patients provide a prescription number or other piece of contact information, bots can quickly and efficiently run interference to ensure consistent access to medication. Providing Healthcare Information with Facebook Bots When it comes to health information, many patients have more questions than answers. Oftentimes, seeking responses to queries means going to Google and doing general research with unreliable results, but chatbots can make this much easier and accurate. Instead of looking up information on the medical services you provide, customers can go to your Facebook page and get an automated response in seconds. Likewise, they can get answers about health information ranging from simple medical questions (like the definition and symptoms of a disease) to more complex treatment information. Considerations for Using Facebook Bots and Facebook Live • Privacy Issues and HIPAA Compliance: HIPAA is a critical issue in all areas of doctor-patient communications, and the legal protections surrounding confidential information are exceptionally serious. Medical practices implementing a chatbot system must be extremely careful to stay compliant under this law, ensuring that no access to personal data is directly available, or perhaps available at all without stringent verification of identity. • Emergency Services: As many healthcare professionals know, calling 911 is the best way to seek help in an emergency that requires medical care. Information to this end is usually available on hospital scheduling hotlines, Websites, social media pages and more, safeguarding providers against legal liability in the event that patients attempt to proceed with scheduling an appointment or seeking help online rather than calling emergency services. Any use of a chatbot will also need to take this information under consideration, implementing proper safety checks to ensure patients seeking immediate help are provided with the proper instructions. • Misinformation: Medical information provided by doctors is generally personalized to a particular patient’s needs, as not all advice can be applied universally. Information communicated through a chatbot will have to reflect these disclaimers as well, letting patients know clearly that any information made available is not specific and should not serve as a substitute for seeing a medical professional. As Sequence Health’s Associate Director of Search Engine Marketing, Susan Gullion is one of our most knowledgeable resources for enhancing our healthcare clients’ search engine marketing strategies with SEO, PPC and social media. Please contact us to learn more about how Sequence Health can partner with you to develop a custom healthcare social media marketing solution.
Google Tips for Hospital Website Admins: February 2017 Written by SQHealth-admin on March 9, 2017. Posted in Uncategorized. February 2017 was a relatively quiet month for Google, at least in the context of critical Google tips for hospital Website administrators as they relate to services such as Maps, My Business, etc. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t any activity that caught the attention of the hardcore Google watchdogs and bloggers, especially in the context of Google algorithms. For instance, Search Engine Roundtable’s “New Google Algorithm Update Targets PBNs & Links, Penguin Tweak?” identified an update that seemed to heavily target “black hat” SEO practices, which is best defined as very aggressive SEO techniques that aim to game the system for maximum search engine result page (SERP) results, rather than to develop content that has markedly more legitimate function and interest for Website visitors. However, as per the usual theme of this monthly blog, we prefer to focus on tips and updates for busy hospital Website admins that avoid intensive analysis and revisions to SEO best practices. In that context, there were some very interesting news and discussions that certainly warrant their inclusion here. How to Use Google Maps and the “New Restaurant Model” for Improving Hospital Visibility Search Engine Land recently published a superb article, “5 Ways You Can Improve Your New Business’s Visibility on Google Maps.” Rather than regurgitating its simple yet well thought-out tips that used new restaurants as a control in a model to validate its premises, you are encouraged to clickthrough and read it. However, if you need the motivation to explore this very important component of a successful online hospital marketing strategy, consider these figures from the article: • Google controls 95 percent of mobile search market share. • Google Maps overtook the Google Search app for fourth place in number of unique visitors with over 95 million users. It trails only Facebook, Messenger and YouTube in unique visitors. And thus, as the article smartly concludes, “that means appearing in Google map results is critical for local businesses.” The takeaway: Advice for how to improve hospital visibility with Google Maps that also does so in the context of “local business” is invaluable for hospitals and clinics. Although it may not pertain as much for healthcare facilities that have a wide audience (e.g., national or multi-state regions), it’s arguable that such facilities aren’t as reliant on Google Maps for visibility because they often have large budgets for advertising and other techniques for building brand awareness. Google Spaces Closing Down Don’t worry if you never heard of Google Spaces, because it was only introduced a matter of months ago. However, if you were one of the ambitious online hospital marketers that adopted it, you should be aware that it will be shut down on April 17, 2017. The takeaway: As of March 3, 2017, Spaces is read-only—which per Google, “means you can’t create new spaces, posts or comments. Also, new invitations can’t be sent, and new members can’t be added to spaces.” You’ve got until April 17 until your content disappears forever. Until then, you can still see, save or delete—with the last option probably being the wisest. As the saying goes, “the Internet is forever,” and it’s best to not let content that you will soon forget about potentially reemerge at a later time. As Sequence Health’s Associate Director of Search Engine Marketing, Susan Gullion is one of our most knowledgeable resources for enhancing our healthcare clients’ search engine marketing strategies with SEO, PPC and social media. Please contact us to learn more about how Sequence Health can partner with you to develop a custom healthcare search engine marketing solution.
Patient Engagement and Healthcare Technology Integration were the Stars Of HIMSS 2017 Written by SQHealth-admin on March 7, 2017. Posted in Other. Industry trade shows always have some sort of buzz — those two or three topics that really dominate conversations among attendees. The hot topics at this year’s massive Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference (HIMSS) were patient engagement and healthcare technology which are particularly noteworthy because of just how real they are. That’s because the buzz was driven by value-based healthcare, a complete redesign of reimbursement calculation already well underway by Medicare and some of the industry’s largest private payers. Nobody has to wonder if these ideas are going to come to fruition or if a change in facility policies or consumer behaviors will alter them. The 800 pound gorilla of healthcare coverage has committed to this transformation and it is most definitely happening. As we chatted with clients, partners and competitors, three big ideas driving healthcare technology development came up again and again. They are all closely related to the massive shift in how providers get paid, but patients will also be tremendous benefactors of operational and procedural changes to healthcare management. Patient engagement is all that matters. Providers face a pretty substantial dilemma: Patient outcomes are becoming the prime determinant of reimbursement amounts, but there is so much that goes into those outcomes that is out of their control. If a patient with a brand new knee has to be readmitted because he didn’t follow post-operative care properly once discharged, the hospital could get penalized for that. Providers are being held accountable for more than they can directly oversee and they know that engaging with patients is key to keeping costs down. Of course, it also results in healthier and happier patients. There is a tremendous need for healthcare technology platforms that engage patients throughout their entire care episodes, from pre-operative education all the way to full recovery. Providers want it to be easy for them to integrate across multidisciplinary teams of clinicians, marketers, accountants, and even human resource departments. The front-end for patients has to be easy to navigate and ready to engage with patients on the channels they use most (supporting mobile channels is an absolute must). Just a few years ago, the industry was focused on population health, but now it is all about engaging with individuals in user-friendly and personalized ways. Seamless integration is a must-have. The amount of data that is collected and processed for any care episode is immense and it would be impossible for any single solution to manage absolutely everything perfectly. Instead, providers are looking to build out networks of technology that best support their unique service offerings and patient demands; but if those systems can’t talk to each other, it creates way too much extra work and opportunities for error. Open APIs are becoming absolutely essential to integrate all of the different solutions serving the complex array of functionalities that providers and health systems need. There is no more room in the marketplace for platforms that can not easily integrate with enterprise EMR and any other system a provider uses. “This solution can do everything you need” is dead in the water. It’s been replaced by “this solution can easily share data with any other technology that you have.” Healthcare tech is moving at the speed of consumer tech. Healthcare technology has lagged behind consumer technology for decades. That is changing as even the largest healthcare systems are replacing clunky enterprise solutions with new platforms that solve value-based healthcare problems and engage with patient populations using the communication methods they prefer. The industry is at a critical mass where these ideas are driving healthcare IT development and the provider market is eager to adopt new solutions. This is moving at breakneck speed. As recently as last year, some major technology providers were just beginning to scratch the surface of this idea. But at this year’s conference, it was easy to see how much time and effort has been spent building interfaces that are easier to consume and incorporating ubiquitous technology. The designs of the past that favored workflow optimization over ease of use have been dumped, and providers couldn’t be happier about it. HIMSS provided a great opportunity for healthcare industry stakeholders to see what the future holds for IT solutions. It was also affirming for us here at Sequence Health to see that the market is craving what we offer — a healthcare technology solution that puts patients at the center of a model that drives engagement, cuts costs and integrates cross-functional teams and technologies.
Google Tips for Hospital Website Admins: January 2017 Written by SQHealth-admin on February 7, 2017. Posted in Uncategorized. One of our final blogs for 2016 was Top 2016 Google My Business Listing Changes for Online Healthcare Marketers, in which we listed key changes and new features that will help hospital Website administrators and online marketers prioritize their workflows and develop strategies for 2017. Due to the positive feedback from busy hospital marketers that can’t or don’t keep up with the seemingly endless updates—whether officially by Google or from a cadre of bloggers that scrutinize every perceived Google change—we thought it would be better to share a monthly digest of the most crucial tips. Along with covering My Business in our Google tips, we will be including all the Google technologies that we monitor, including new SEO algorithms, significant Chrome browser updates and more. [tweet “…our Google tips include new SEO algorithms, significant Chrome browser updates and more.”] Chrome 56 part I: TLS/SSL “Shaming” Another of our final 2016 blogs was Is Your Hospital Website Secure Enough for Google in 2017? In which we explained how Google would begin “shaming” Websites that weren’t using TLS/SSL security and how it might influence your SEO rankings. Late in January, Google rolled out the latest version of its Chrome browser, dubbed “Chrome 56.” As expected, the new Chrome shows a “Not Secure” label in the address bar of any Website not in compliance. The takeaway: If your hospital Website doesn’t collect passwords or credit card information, then you are OK—for the moment. However, as Google said in its blog Chrome 56 Beta: “Not Secure” warning, Web Bluetooth, and CSS position: sticky, there’s “a long-term plan to mark all HTTP sites as non-secure,” which means if you are not yet using TLS/SSL, it’s again time to think about updating your Website (for which we provided solutions in our aforementioned blog). [tweet “…if you are not yet using TLS/SSL, it’s again time to think about updating your Website.”] Chrome 56 part II: HTML5 and Auto-Disabling Flash The new Chrome also has another twist: Because it uses HTML5, which auto-disables Adobe Flash, as discussed in another Google blog, New in Chrome 56. This should also be of significant concern to hospital Website administrators that use Flash to create a more robust experience for patients and guests. Note it doesn’t eliminate Flash functionality. Your hospital Website users “will be prompted to run Flash on sites they’ve never visited,” which could be a minor nuisance, as well as an unfavorable impression for your brand. The takeaway: If your hospital Website uses Flash, now is the time to think about converting to other technologies and/or evaluating the importance of your Flash-driven content. [tweet “If your hospital Website uses Flash, think about converting and/or evaluating your content.”] Get Ready for Google’s Interstitial Ad Penalties As explained in more detail in Site Pro News.com’s Google’s Intrusive Interstitial Update Now Live, Google will soon likely penalize Websites that use interstitial ads, which the article identifies as anything that: • Blocks a page • Makes content unreadable • Pops up without interaction • Isn’t responsive (meaning it’s difficult or impossible to close on a mobile platform) • Bothers people • Annoys people The takeaway: This is primarily intended to make mobile users’ experiences better. If your healthcare online marketing strategy is dependent on mobile users, then you will most certainly want to take heed. And if your strategy isn’t mobile-centric, then perhaps this is yet another indication of how important it is to have a Website experience designed to accommodate this expanding demographic. [tweet “..how important it is to have a Website that accommodates this expanding demographic.”] As Sequence Health’s Associate Director of Search Engine Marketing, Susan Gullion is one of our most knowledgeable resources for enhancing our healthcare clients’ search engine marketing strategies with SEO, PPC and social media. If you already host your hospital Website with Sequence Health, we can guide you through the process of selecting the best SSL certificate. Stayed tuned for more Google Tips. For more information about hosting and other healthcare Website services, please contact us.
Driving Long-term Engagement is Key to Increasing Bariatric Surgery Volume Written by SQHealth-admin on February 3, 2017. Posted in Bariatric Surgery, Connect. What if there was a cure for diabetes but only 1% of the patient population even knew about it? And what if out of the people who were aware of it and sought more information from healthcare providers, only 15% ended up receiving it? That would no doubt be considered a national healthcare crisis. Stakeholders like advocacy groups, insurers and the Centers for Disease Control would want to know why patients were not receiving lifesaving therapy. Identifying and eliminating hurdles to receiving that care would quickly become a top priority for clinicians and healthcare systems. The Struggle to Convert Bariatric Surgery Candidates A feeling not dissimilar to this was present at the Texas Association for Bariatric Surgery’s 2017 Annual Meeting in Dallas last week. Bariatric surgery providers repeatedly expressed frustration at their astonishingly low conversion rate: only 15%. That means that 85% of the patients that express an interest in the surgical therapies that can help them control obesity and comorbidities like high blood pressure, diabetes, and severe sleep apnea, never end up receiving surgery. There are even more patients that aren’t measured because they don’t initiate information seeking. Let’s start with the patients that ask about the surgery but fall out of the funnel before converting. It’s understandable when you consider how lengthy the path to surgery can be. The average amount of time that passes between first considering surgery to undergoing it is three years. Those are also not idle years where patients are simply waiting for a date to open up; the path to bariatric surgery is complex and riddled with insurance pre-approvals, medical and psychological evaluations, and lifestyle changes that patients must commit to. Failure in any of these areas results in patients not receiving the surgery that can greatly improve their overall health. Read more : Bariatric Surgery Seminars: Online vs. In-Person How Insurance and Accreditation Impact Patient Access In addition, most hospitals in Texas are within miles of each other, competing for the same patient. I spoke with hospital administrators with bariatric programs that, although accredited by MBSAQIP, did not meet certain standards for insurance carriers, like BCBS Blue Distinction or Aetna IOQ. In one particular case, I learned that the hospital I was speaking with had to refer out 30%, or 35 of their bariatric cases to a competing hospital because the patients were members of an insurance plan that required the insurance’s ‘seal of approval,’ and you can bet that the competing hospital was accredited by the insurance provider. Of course there will be patients who start the process, only to realize they either can’t afford surgery or don’t qualify for surgery. But the number is far fewer than most coordinators realize, and they would know that if they tracked all of their leads. Also, there are alternative ways to keep these patients engaged, motivated, and help them achieve their desired goals, like offering a weight loss medicine program, non-invasive balloon procedures, or by offering discounted procedures with financing options for cash pay patients. Read more: A Guide to How to Verify Insurance Eligibility & Benefits The Challenge of Managing the Patient Journey Bariatric surgery coordinators are responsible for helping move patients through the process, but they are largely operating with hands tied behind their backs. Most of them are using simple Excel spreadsheets to keep up with patient progress. They know that this is inadequate for driving engagement and leading patients through a journey full of milestones, education, and paperwork. I heard the frustration again and again throughout the conference. This is one of the holes in healthcare (and frankly, EMRs) that led us to develop Sequence and a major reason we exhibited at the TABS meeting. Tracking patient engagement and measuring outcomes through a care episode is becoming a top concern for many healthcare providers as payers move to value-based reimbursement programs — but for bariatric surgeons, moving patients through an exceptionally long and complicated funnel is key to ensuring that they receive treatment in the first place. Turning Awareness Into Engagement What about the potential patients who never make it to the information seeking stage? The same principles that start with intent and successfully guide patients through the care journey from pre-op all the way through recovery can also be used in initial marketing. It’s a matter of supplying the best education at the right time, which is almost impossible to do with spreadsheets alone. Moving patients from “I’ve heard of bariatric surgery,” to “It sounds like it might be right for me,” is a marketing journey that is driven by the same methodologies that move patients from intent to conversion: well-timed education, engagement, and follow-up with outcomes that can be measured and quantified at every touchpoint. Done correctly with the right technology solution, managing the journey from awareness to intent effectively boosts conversion rates and shortens that three year timeline to receiving surgery. Improving Outcomes With Better Patient Management Bariatric surgery is moving quickly, with new procedures evolving and better long-term success rates. Providers are quite aware that one of the simplest ways to improve outcomes and increase the volume of surgeries they perform is to more effectively manage patients and guide them through the entire funnel. As Sequence Health’s Regional Sales Director, Nathan McCormack ensures that new clients are paired with patient management and healthcare marketing solutions that support their objectives. Please contact us to learn more about how Sequence Health can partner with you to give you the power to dramatically boost patient engagement and measure outcomes today.
Is Your Hospital Website Secure Enough for Google in 2017? Written by SQHealth-admin on December 30, 2016. Posted in Connect. With 2017 only a few days away, there will soon be a very clear distinction between all hospital Websites: those that have TLS/SSL encryption security and those that don’t. This distinction is not just a matter of whether or not your hospital Website uses TLS/SSL because of its implied security benefits, but it may soon have influence on your SEO rankings and how confidently Google’s Chrome browser presents your Website to visitors. “But, wait, how do I know if my hospital Website—or any Website—is secure?” you might be asking yourself right now. It’s simple: • Open your Chrome browser • Type in your hospital Website address • Let the page load • Look for the icon that appears in the address bar to the left of the URL Do you see a green lock icon in the address bar? If yes, and if the Website is yours, congrats, your hospital Website is secure! Do you not see it? Well, as you can guess, your Website is not secure. Another way to check is to look at the complete Website address (URL) after it loads. Do you see a “https://”? If so, it should be secure (but this is not a hard and fast rule, as it depends on whether or not the security certificate is valid). Otherwise, if you only see the more common “http://”, then you can be certain that it not secure. In this context, you are likely in one of two very distinct camps of hospital Website administrators and online healthcare marketers: those that understand what any of this means (and what to do about it) and those that don’t. If you are in the latter camp, you’ll want to read this. But even if you are in the former and haven’t yet made a decision or taken action, you might also want to read on! Google Chrome to ‘Shame’ Unsecured Websites in 2017 Although Google first announced that it would start giving more SEO juice to secured Websites in 2014, it was uncertain about how much impact this new Google ranking signal would actually have. As virtually anybody that is responsible for their hospital Website SEO knows, there is never any one specific ranking signal that makes or breaks your Page rank, SERP positions, etc.. Rather, it’s a combination of factors and often some unknown algorithm change that you don’t discover until well after the fact! Although still very much up for debate, SEO analysts indicate that the TLS/SSL impacts on ranking are typical in that although it might not hurt you if you don’t integrate it into your hospital Website SEO strategy, there is evidence that it can help you if you do. However, on January 1, 2017, Google will enact a very explicit change that could make a direct impact: It will begin “shaming” Websites that don’t have TLS/SSL certificates by adding a “NOT SECURE” notice to where you’d normally just see the small icon that indicates security status. This will initially only affect Websites that collect passwords or credit card information, but will eventually affect all “http://” Websites. At any Website, visitors are more likely to turn away or not return if they feel that their online security is at risk. Obviously, that not only hurts the SEO, but also the overall ability of the Website to fulfill its goals and objectives. But for hospital Website visitors, that sentiment is likely to be even stronger, no matter if they are just casually browsing to compare you to another hospital they are evaluating or if they are intending to make an appointment or share other personal information. Securing Your Hospital Website: What are TLS/SSL and Certificates? Naturally, you want to do everything you can to make your hospital Website visitors feel secure in their online experiences and to relate them positively of your brand. Fortunately, making your hospital Website secure enough for Google Chrome in 2017 is not too difficult to achieve. Without getting into a lengthy examination of how the Internet bridges a visitor to a Website or what the “TLS” or “SSL” acronyms mean or how “TLS/SSL certificates” work, the simplest explanation is your hospital Website visitors’ connections are either encrypted (secure) or they are not. If they are encrypted, it means that nobody can see the data that is passing between them and your Website. “TLS/SSL” is the technology that enables a secure connection; a “TLS/SSL certificate” is what actually binds the visitor and the Website securely. But What About Mixed SSL Content? “Mixed SSL content” means that you have some pages with TLS/SSL security and others without. If your hospital Website has mixed SSL content, you’ll need to update it so that the entire Website is secure. Otherwise, you can expect to get the unwelcome “NOT SECURE” label. How to Convert Your Hospital Website to TLS/SSL If you are now convinced that converting your hospital Website to TLS/SSL encryption is a best practice that you want to adopt, doing so can be a relatively simple process: 1. Request that the company hosting your site provide you with a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). 2. Visit your domain provider (e.g., GoDaddy) and purchase an SSL for three years or more. 3. Upload the CSR when prompted. 4. Download the SSL certificate, and send it back Web hosting provider. At some point during this process, you may be asked about what type of SSL certificate to generate. You will likely be given with three options, each with increasing benefits: • Domain Validated (DV) Certificate: Verifies your ownership of the domain • Organization Validated (OV) Certificate: Proves that you own the domain and that your organization is legitimate (verification process that you are a legitimate business) • Extended Validated (EV) SSL: Offers the highest level of assurance to your customers (applicants must pass an extensive vetting process) When choosing a certificate, be sure to find out if it covers one domain or multiple sub-domains. Once you acquire and install your TLS/SSL, you will now be able to provide a much more secure experience for your visitors and avoid any negative SEO or Chrome impacts. As Sequence Health’s Associate Director of Search Engine Marketing, Susan Gullion is one of our most knowledgeable resources for enhancing our healthcare clients’ search engine marketing strategies with SEO, PPC and social media. If you already host your hospital Website with Sequence Health, we can guide you through the process of selecting the best SSL certificate. For more information about hosting and other healthcare Website services, please contact us.
Top 2016 Google My Business Listing Changes for Online Healthcare Marketers Written by SQHealth-admin on December 22, 2016. Posted in Connect. If you are responsible for your hospital, clinic or other healthcare facility’s online marketing or patient acquisition, you are likely trying to tick off those lagging to-do’s from 2016 as you prepare for the upcoming new year. And just as likely, getting your Google My Business listings up to spec is on that list. Although usually in the “low-hanging fruit” category of easy but often overlooked tasks for online healthcare marketers, updating your Google My Business page (or pages) is a job that’s never done because there are often frequent changes and updates to what you can and cannot do. Here is a list of key changes and new features from 2016 that will help you prioritize your workflow in these final weeks of 2016 and develop your strategies for 2017. Google My Business Description Can Only be Edited in Google+ (August 2016) When patients and customers search online for local hospitals, doctors and clinics, they often rely upon the results from regular Google searches and Google Maps, which includes your: • Address • Contact Info • Hours (including holiday hours!) • Introduction (description) • Photos Up until August 2016, you used to be able to manage introductions in your Google My Business administration panel, but now it may only be done in Google+. So, if you haven’t updated them in a while—or have tried to but found that you were unable to in the My Business admin panel—be prepared to do it a little different than you have in the past. Get help: Visit Google’s “Edit your business listing on Google” page Manage Multiple Google Listings Via Bulk Upload Spreadsheets (February 2016) Although a relatively simple procedure, updating your healthcare facility’s Google listing can be tedious if you are managing multiple listings. This is particularly true for online healthcare marketers that manage hospitals with large campuses and have listings for specific departments or even multiple campuses. Likewise, the same applies if you are managing listings for multiple doctors or clinics. However, in February, Google simplified the process by allowing you to make changes with a bulk upload spreadsheet. Then in April, they rolled out a new easy-to-use process for enabling all of your listings for download. They continued to improve the process through the year by enabling bulk updates for: • Logo, profile and cover images (March 2016) • Spreadsheet change reviews (July 2016) • Editing attributes (e.g., “has Wi-Fi”) (December 2016) So, rather than having to go the the admin panel for each listing, finding the field that you want to change, and then having to enter updated information, you can now do it all from the convenience of a single spreadsheet that also lets you verify all information for all listings at a single glance! Get help: Visit Google’s “Manage Google updates” page, “Create your bulk upload spreadsheet” page and “Enable listings for download” page Manage Google Updates Automatically (August 2016) The importance of this feature is that it helps resolve a problem that many online healthcare marketers might not know even exists! The problem: Google can change or unpublish your listing if it discovers incorrect information in it from third-party sources or direct users. In such instances, your “Google Updates” status will indicate: • If new data was added • If data was removed • If data was replaced The solution: First, you’ll need to detect the change, which requires you to regularly monitor your listings. Second, after you’ve detected a change, you can manage the updates in bulk, using the aforementioned spreadsheet download/upload process. Insights Now Available for Photos (December 2016) Using analytical tools such as Google’s Insights is essential to any online healthcare marketing strategy because it enables you to not only learn how visitors found your healthcare facility’s listing and Website, but perhaps as importantly, what they do after they arrive at them. Content is ultimately what is attracting and retaining those visitors, which too often is narrowly considered in terms of the text on a Web page. However, a solid healthcare content marketing strategy should also include analysis—insights—for other crucial engagement metrics, such as: • Driving directions requests • Phone calls from the listing (e.g., how many, what times) As of this month, you can now capture and analyze performance metrics for your listings images—which means that if your listing doesn’t have any photos, getting some uploaded and making that part of your ongoing content strategy should become a priority. Get help: Visit Google’s “View Insights from your business listing” page Improved Local Search Ranking Guidance (March 2016) Last but not least, in March, Google announced its “Improve your local ranking on Google” guidance. Although neither a new change nor a new feature, it is no less important, as it is a very simple yet powerful document that explains: • What information is needed to maximize how often your healthcare facility’s local listing is found • How Google determines local rankings As Sequence Health’s Associate Director of Search Engine Marketing, Susan Gullion is one of our most knowledgeable resources for enhancing our healthcare clients’ search engine marketing strategies with SEO, PPC and social media. Sequence Health’s patient acquisition solutions can make your healthcare facility’s patient acquisitions smarter every step of way. Contact us today to learn more about Sequence, our innovative patient engagement platform.
How are MACRA and CJR Connected? Written by SQHealth-admin on November 22, 2016. Posted in Orthopedics. Most people involved in healthcare—especially as it relates to Medicare reimbursements—are generally familiar with with MACRA (the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015) and CJR (Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement). However, what might they might not fully understand is how MACRA and CJR are connected. The simplest answer is that MACRA and CJR are connected by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid’s goals for improving outcomes and reducing costs through value-based reimbursement and bundled payment models rather than the traditional fee-for-service model. A critical path for achieving this is to ensure that your hospital or clinic is prepared for better patient communication and management. However, to more fully understand the connections between MACRA and CJR—and how patient management technology fits in—it’s best to first briefly examine these concepts and what they strive to change or improve. Fee-for-Service vs. Value-Based Reimbursement Care Models More thorough examinations of fee-for-service vs. value-based reimbursement care models can be found on this blog and throughout the Internet. But most simply, the key differentiator between fee-for-service and value-based care is the difference between “quantity vs. quality,” respectively. The fee-for-service model rewards healthcare providers based how many patients and treatments a healthcare provider sees and provides (read: quantity), as where the value-based model rewards providers based on how well it treats them (read: quality)—as determined by CMS standards that include outcomes and satisfaction. What is MACRA? Enacted by the U.S. Congress in 2015, MACRA is a value-based payment system (also known as a “quality payment program”) to be associated with Medicare services. More can be learned about MACRA’s quality payment program rollout for January 2017, but one of its primary features is the introduction of two payment tracks: • Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) • Alternative Payment Models (APMs) Another primary MACRA feature will be the replacement of three existing quality reporting systems with a streamlined, more effective alternative. What is CJR? CJR was introduced earlier this year to test a new reimbursement model that encourages and rewards efficiency and satisfaction for Medicare hip and knee replacement surgeries. Also known as as LEJR (short for “lower extremity joint replacements”), it is one of Medicare’s most common inpatient surgeries. Putting It All Together: Linking MACRA, CJR and Value-Based Care LEJR treatment and recovery requires care from a spectrum of caregivers, including hospitals and post-acute care. Rather than reimbursing each with the fee-for-service model, CJR utilizes a “bundled payment” model for each “episode”—which is designed to encourage all caregivers to work together towards the same goals for which MACRA is intended: • To reduce visit frequency and in-patient procedures • To increase satisfaction, rewards, and patient-reported outcomes Those that are prepared for the MACRA/CJR transition will be better positioned to be rewarded economically; those that aren’t may be penalized. A crucial factor for being well positioned is to have technologies and systems that can streamline patient care coordination with workflow management. Are you prepared to deliver and document value-based care to ensure you maximize your earning potential under reimbursement models that feature bundled payments? If not, contact a Sequence Health representative to learn about our CJR bundled payment program solutions.