Creative Marketing Ideas for Healthcare Organizations in 2021 Written by Jeff Tormey on February 23, 2021. Posted in Connect. Medical marketing strategies vary widely, from using SEO and content marketing to traditional TV and newspaper advertising. Despite this, the game is always the same. The goal of successful medical marketing is to help others see your practice or hospital’s brand in a good light, while also reaching those who may be in need of your services so that they will choose you over the competition. So what kind of creative marketing ideas can you use for your healthcare practice in 2021? Here are a few that you can try. Creative Medical Marketing Ideas Host a virtual community event. The COVID pandemic is still upon us and many places continue to be locked down. Community events have slowed down considerably, but the community is still there. Why not host a virtual community event to spread the word about your hospital or practice? Virtual community events can be focused on health education, such as an information session about how to exercise and eat healthy during the pandemic, or about risk factors associated with COVID-19. This way, you can continue to play a role in your community even when community events aren’t going on. Start and grow a TikTok account. TikTok has grown dramatically in recent years and people of all ages are on it. By starting and growing a TikTok account, you can get in front of all types of people and get the word out about your practice. One benefit of having a TikTok account is that you can create content either for people in your local area, or for people around the world. Whatever you want to focus on, you can. One tip for TikTok: take advantage of trending hashtags. This isn’t too different from other social media, but trends aren’t just about hashtags: they’re about the content itself. By including trending songs or topics, you can take advantage of traffic that’s already there. Showcase your latest technology on YouTube. People love novelty, and showing off the kinds of technology that your practice uses can be a great way to generate interest on YouTube (and even TikTok and other platforms). Show off your new robotic surgery capability. Make videos showing how your robotic vacuums and mops clean the halls of the hospital. Take a video of your latest medical devices. The novelty will be both an attraction and a marketing strategy: your practice is on the cutting edge of medical technology and your videos can show it. Sequence Health is a provider of patient engagement solutions for practices of all sizes. They provide medical online marketing services and strategy for healthcare businesses.
Hospital Marketing Strategies For 2021 Written by Jeff Tormey on February 19, 2021. Posted in Connect. Hospital marketing strategies have changed a great deal since the start of the digital age. In the past, the focus was on traditional media and strong referral partnerships. Although referral partnerships are still extremely important, digital media has overtaken traditional media as the most important marketing consideration for businesses. We now live in a world marred by the COVID-19 pandemic and our reliance on our digital presence has become much greater. So what kind of hospital marketing strategies and ideas work well in 2021? Let’s dive into what medical marketing strategies still work. Digital Marketing Strategy & Ideas For Hospitals That Work in 2021 Healthcare SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Search engine optimization is nowhere near dead yet, despite what some “experts” will have you believe. After all, we all use search engines to help us find what we’re looking for. What these “experts” mean is that SEO has become much more competitive in recent years. You can break the mold by creating high-quality content, making sure your website is well optimized, and by making connections with other websites that will include links back to your website. Read more : How to Do Healthcare and Medical SEO? Content Marketing With An Emphasis On Video Content is king on the Internet, and it’s very likely that due to the pandemic, people are consuming online content more than ever. Use this to your advantage! Put out articles regularly and make sure they’re shared on social media. Video content, however, is where your practice can stand out from the rest. By creating informative and enjoyable content for the Internet, you can position yourself as an authority while also helping your online presence grow. Read more : Crafting the Ultimate Guide To Creating Healthcare Video Content: Four Key Considerations Online Reputation Management Your online reputation is such an important part of your online presence because it’s been shown that customers trust reviews. The general assumption is that online reviews are more trustworthy than marketing material, and because of this, prospective patients will use reviews to decide whether or not they want to work with you. To manage your online reputation, you’ll need to see what people are saying about you. What you’ll also need to do is ask your patients for reviews as a normal part of your processes. By doing this, you can get honest feedback from your patients that can then be used to help other prospects decide whether or not they should trust your practice. Data-Driven Decision Making There are a lot of different strategies and tactics you can use to help grow your practice. However, not all of them will work equally well. It’s important to make sure that you’re collecting the necessary data in order to make better marketing decisions. Collecting data on web traffic, traffic sources, search rankings, appointment scheduling rates, and appointment show rates will help you understand where your customers are coming from and what behaviors and actions they’re taking on your website. Use this data to decide where your marketing dollars will go for next year. Sequence Health provides patient engagement solutions, as well as healthcare marketing solutions such as healthcare advertising and healthcare SEO.
How To Use Healthcare Call Centers To Provide A Better Patient Experience Written by Jeff Tormey on February 10, 2021. Posted in Connect. Healthcare call centers have been used for decades by practices in order to save on staffing costs and improve efficiency. Unfortunately, hospital call centers haven’t always been the best at handling patient needs. A healthcare management consulting firm found that when 20 hospital call centers were called, 90% of them were completely unhelpful. These call centers serve an important purpose, as they help triage calls to the right department or provider and can also help with insurance verification, billing, and collections. But should hospital call center investment be cut, or is there a better way to use them? Let’s find out. Improving Patient Experience with Call Centers Train your call centers to be compassionate with callers. Some healthcare call centers may insist that their staff needs minimal training, however in order to get the results you want, you’ll need to use your understanding of your patients to help them serve your patients right. When patients call about a medical matter, they’re in a vulnerable position and need to be treated with basic human dignity and compassion. Call centers aren’t exactly known for this, and although the reasons for this are complex, staff can be trained to provide a compassionate experience for patients who call your phone. In your call center training, whether you use a manual or not, you need to make sure that callers are treated with respect and compassion. Otherwise, you risk ruining the chance of getting a patient before they’ve even set foot in your hospital or practice. Simplify and unify your processes. This seems more like a technical or business consideration, but overly complex processes can bleed into the patient experience and cause serious problems down the line. If you’re using multiple call centers to handle the load, then you want to make sure that all software suites used are compatible with each other and that a patient’s data can be accessed the same way no matter which call center they were directed to. Several healthcare companies have formed as a result of mergers and acquisitions, and this can cause unneeded complexity that would otherwise not exist. Making sure that all processes are streamlined throughout the organization will make the patient’s experience much smoother as it can cut down on wait times and reduce the risk of errors. Invest in multi-channel communications. Although the call center is still the backbone of patient-hospital communications, it doesn’t mean that patients are always able to call. A Harris Poll found that 64% of consumers would choose texting instead of voice for customer service. By investing in multi-channel communications, you’re able to connect with patients in the way that they prefer. You also give them the ability to connect with you any time they want. Use a call center that is willing and able to connect with patients through multiple channels. Sequence Health provides multi-channel patient engagement solutions such as transitional care management turnkey services, medical patient portals, and healthcare call center services in order to improve both patient experience and your bottom line.
How To Verify Medical Insurance Coverage: Medical Insurance Verification Guide Written by Jeff Tormey on February 7, 2021. Posted in Connect. The medical insurance verification process is one that is well-known to be annoying at best and disastrous at worst. A simple clerical error or missed question can lead to a patient’s coverage being denied. It’s paramount that you get the right information from the patient in order to prevent denials and to maximize reimbursements. In this article, you’ll learn how to verify medical insurance in a few easy steps while minimizing the risk of missing crucial information. Steps on How To Do Insurance Verification Make sure your patient’s information is up to date. Without up-to-date information, insurance may deny coverage. The best way to make sure information is up to date is to verify a patient’s information with the patient before they come in. The important information you need is: Full name Date of birth The name of the primary insured Name of the insurance provider Insurance provider’s contact information Insurance ID Group number There are a lot of reasons why this information may change. A patient may switch employers, get married or divorced, have a child, or switch insurance for any other reason. Also, make sure to request an up-to-date photo ID and the original insurance card. Make a scanned copy or a printed copy and keep it on file. Contact the insurance company. It’s recommended to contact the insurance company at least 72 hours before the patient comes to your office. This will reduce the risk of being denied and will allow you to have the information you need. You should have gotten the payer’s contact info from the patient. If you were unable to do so, you can find this information online on the payer’s website. Get the necessary benefits information from the insurance company. Verifying insurance can be like a game of telephone. For this reason, you’re going to want to clarify benefits information with the insurance company directly. You’ll want to get the following information: Confirm the basic information. Patient’s name, policy and group number, the name of the primary, and the relationship of the primary to the patient Whether the patient is covered on the date of service Whether your practice is in or out of network. If you’re out of network, then ask which services are covered. Copay and/or coinsurance information Patient’s deductible Coverage limitations There could be more information that is necessary to process the claim. Be sure to keep good records of everything in order to help the process go smoothly. If a patient has secondary insurance, then you’ll have to go through these steps with that insurance as well and you’ll also have to confirm how much will be covered by the secondary provider. Get verification of co-pay and answer questions that the patient may have. You’ll need to collect a patient’s due co-pay and make sure that they get a receipt. A patient will need this information to verify their own health insurance. Also, answer any questions that the patient has about their insurance, as it pertains to your services. This will make sure that the patient understands what they will need to pay and what insurance will cover. Read more: What Is Insurance Verification and Eligibility? Sequence Health offers patient engagement solutions for medical practices of all sizes. Sequence Health is also a provider of medical online marketing services to help increase your patient volumes and grow your brand’s presence.
Medical Content Marketing: How Content Marketing in Healthcare Works Written by Jeff Tormey on January 31, 2021. Posted in Connect. Blogging and video creation are two of the most popular ways that healthcare practices make content. This content isn’t for nothing, though: these practices are engaging in content marketing, and as a strategy, content marketing in healthcare has been shown to work. In fact, content marketing companies do a lot of marketing to doctors offices because it’s such a powerful strategy. So how can you take advantage of the power of content marketing? How does content marketing fit into a medical online marketing strategy? What Is Content Marketing? Content marketing is a strategy that relies on creating and distributing highly valuable content on a consistent basis in order to build a loyal audience of people who are relevant to the business. It can be done through blog posts, video, infographics, and more. The idea behind content marketing is that you give away value for free in order to do several things. First, you’re getting your name out there by connecting your practice’s brand to valuable content. Second, you’re becoming a trusted authority, allowing your readers to see you as someone who should be trusted with their healthcare. Third, you’re helping to engage the patients you already have by producing content that they could benefit from. How Do You Get Traffic to Your Content? Content marketing is only as good as its reach, and there are many ways that marketers aim to build up their website traffic. The first and most common way is through search engine optimization, or medical SEO. You can check out another article on Benefits of Medical SEO. Another common way is to post content on social media and content sharing platforms. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are great ways to build up traffic to your content. You can also use content sharing platforms such as Reddit, or Youtube for healthcare video content. Some healthcare advertising companies use content marketing as a way to get a lot of eyeballs to your website, however this requires paying for advertising that could be better utilized by advertising your services directly to people who have shown interest, such as through search advertising. Should I Invest In Content Marketing? The answer is yes, however there are some things you should consider. First, content marketing requires content creation. Blog posts require time and energy, or the funds to pay a blog writer. Videos are even more expensive and time-consuming to produce. You’ll want to understand the cost of creating content before you commit to a content marketing strategy. There are content marketing companies that can help you produce content, but before you choose one, you’ll need to understand what kind of content they’ll produce for you. Not only that, you’ll want to see the quality of this content to gauge whether you’re willing to put your brand name on that content. Sequence Health provides patient engagement solutions, including content creation and medical content marketing services. Learn more about what Sequence Health can do for your practice!
Patient Pre-Registration Tips for a Better Experience Written by Jeff Tormey on January 8, 2021. Posted in Connect. Check-in processes are notorious for consuming staff resources and making patients wait longer than they have to before they receive care. One excellent strategy for improving your check-in process is to implement patient pre-registration. How should patient pre-registration be handled? Does your practice need to improve its patient registration system? Let’s discuss. Why Most Practices’ Patient Registration Process Is So Awful Patient registration is a nightmare. There are so many data points that need to be collected, such as demographic information, contact information, appointment scheduling information, health history, and what kind of health insurance coverage the patient has. All of this is absolutely necessary to make sure the hospital is able to get reimbursed by insurance. Not only that, much of this information needs to be collected and saved into a practice’s CRM; in the healthcare industry, CRMs are vital to maximizing revenue. Because of all the information that needs to be collected, having a patient register in the hospital can take a very long time and turn into a very painful process for both the patient and hospital staff. The Solution: Patient Pre-Registration Patient pre-registration is when part or all of the registration process is performed before the visit. This method allows the patient to fill out the necessary information on their own time. Patient pre-registration can save a great deal of time for staff and patients. The process typically starts one of several ways: Over the phone. The registration process is conducted by a new patient coordinator and starts before the visit. Via mail. The practice sends forms to the patient via mail and expects them to mail back a completed form or submit it on the day of the visit. Through the patient portal. The patient signs into their patient portal and completes pre-registration there. Using online forms, either downloaded or on the Web. Similar to the mail, the patient fills out the form and submits it online. In order to get the benefits out of patient pre-registration, it’s recommended that healthcare providers follow these tips: Use electronic forms if possible. Electronic forms can integrate with your CRM, stay HIPAA compliant, collect e-signatures, and ideally can be done from a patient’s phone. Train staff correctly. New patient coordinators need to be able to enter patient information into the Healthcare CRM directly, guide patients through pre-registration, answer any questions that the patient has, and schedule the patient in correctly using the information provided. Automate as much of the process as possible. Patients should receive automatic reminders to pre-register. Staff should not have to spend time scanning pre-registration forms to input them into another system later.
Impact of Social Media on Healthcare Businesses Written by Jeff Tormey on December 17, 2020. Posted in Connect. When social media first came to the scene in the early 2000s, nobody expected that it would become a mainstay of our lives. But now that social media platforms are used by billions of people around the world, governments and businesses of all types have had to adapt. One of the major impacts that social media & healthcare digital marketing has had is on healthcare. People are now getting healthcare information faster than ever before. They’re also getting misinformation more than any time in our history. Our focus in this article is to detail the impact of social media on healthcare businesses and how healthcare business owners can take advantage of it while still staying within legal and ethical guidelines. Impact of Social Media on Healthcare The ease of sharing information. Thanks to social media, it’s easier than ever for people to access and share information about any topic, and healthcare is no different. Of course, this has its downsides. Because social media is a free space where anyone can say what they wish, there’s nothing stopping people from spreading or sharing misinformation about health. Those who own practices need to be careful about the content they share. Healthcare business owners are also encouraged to use their platform to refute misinformation that they see. A study published in 2017 shows that people’s comments influence how others interpret information and that commenting on misinformed opinions can be effective in changing people’s minds. The new connections that medical professionals can have with their audience. Medical professionals have started to take on authoritative positions, regardless of their research experience and published works, building a base of readers entirely through social media. Doctors and researchers can share their point of view with the world and connect with those who benefit from what they have to say. It’s become a lot easier for medical professionals to have a real relationship with their audience, taking in feedback as soon as it comes in, and sharing the stories of those they helped. The rise of patient influencers. Patients are taking to social media to detail their experiences dealing with their condition. Some people have spoken at length about receiving bariatric surgery or chiropractic treatment, whereas others talk about what it’s like to have a chronic condition with no cure. These patients, who are not medical professionals, share their stories and what worked for them. As a result, other patients listen to them and sometimes take their advice. This can be a good thing, but it can also be very dangerous. Patient influencers are not qualified to give medical advice but are free to share their stories. It’s important that healthcare entrepreneurs understand a little bit about where patients get their information while also ensuring that patients do not misconstrue a fellow patient’s narrative for medical advice. If you would like to learn more about how social media can be used in healthcare, contact Sequence Health Check out our post where we share 4 ways that patients use social media to chronicle their weight loss journey
Patient Retention Strategies for Reducing Leakage Written by Jeff Tormey on November 19, 2020. Posted in Connect. Patient volume is one of the most important metrics for your practice. Making sure that there’s a steady flow of patients is paramount for keeping your business alive. But the most important source of patient volume comes from patients who have already visited you in the past. Current patients who continue to trust you to take care of their needs are the backbone of your business! As a result, you need to keep them satisfied so that they will not only continue to come in but so that they will refer others as well. When patients decide to switch providers, we refer to that as leakage. Your job as a practice owner is to keep leakage as low as possible. So how do you reduce leakage and keep patients satisfied? Patient Retention Strategies & Ideas Make sure patients are treated with respect at every encounter. It’s such a simple thing, but it’s so important. Patients are in a vulnerable state when they walk into a medical practice. Whether it’s a routine checkup or it’s a consultation about a very serious condition, two things are for certain: 1) they would probably rather be somewhere else, and 2) they’re more vulnerable than they’re used to being. For this reason, it’s important to remind them that the people who work at your hospital or practice are human, too, and understand their need to be respected and treated fairly. A patient should never feel like an intrusion or a nuisance. Make sure that they feel like their needs will be attended to, even if the office is hectic. This will require you to train staff, particularly new staff, on how to treat patients with proper respect. Do whatever it takes to reduce wait times. Nobody likes to wait, and patients experiencing long wait times may feel that their needs are being ignored. They may feel like they’re just another headache for the organization, even though you don’t see them that way. Reducing wait times by making sure that appointment scheduling is done in advance, keeping physicians and other staff accountable for operational efficiency, and keeping patients well-informed about their appointments so that missed or late appointments do not affect others’ wait times. Sometimes, things happen. If a patient’s wait time cannot be reduced, do what you can to notify them in advance and give them an opportunity to reschedule if they would not like to wait. Giving patients an option goes a long way. Reach out to patients who are overdue for an appointment. Patients might not know they’re overdue for an appointment. It’s up to your practice to make sure that messages are being sent to them. If you know that a patient hasn’t scheduled an appointment that they’re supposed to get, reach out to them! There are plenty of reasons why a patient would fail to schedule an appointment, and the most common ones have to do with their own schedule. It’s also important to follow up and connect with patients. If possible, ask them why they didn’t make an appointment when they were due for one. Maybe they moved and are no longer in your service area, or maybe they simply didn’t have the time. Want to learn more about how you can increase the number of patients who come in? Check out our tips to increase patient volumes! Learn more about Sequence Health’s patient engagement solutions!
How To Increase Patient Engagement with Patient Portals Written by Jeff Tormey on November 12, 2020. Posted in Connect. Patient portals are used commonly by hospitals and medical practices that want to provide patients with an easy, secure way to access their electronic health records (EHR). They also help the practice, as patients who use the portal no longer have to use your staff’s time to access medical records that belong to them. They’ve also been shown to help patient engagement. A systematic review published in 2019 that examined 58 different articles found that patient portals have enabled the discovery of medical errors, improved adherence to medications, and providing better communication between the patient and the healthcare provider. We’ve also explained the importance of patient engagement in a previous article. So how should practices use medical center patient portals to improve patient engagement? How Patient Portals Improve Patient Engagement Patient engagement in healthcare is linked to better health outcomes. Those who are more engaged with their care are more likely to take medication prescribed, tell physicians about relevant health information, and commit to lifestyle changes prescribed by the physician. What patient portals do is give patients access to their own health information while also providing a secure messaging and appointment scheduling platform. They also provide relevant education to patients. Patients who are able to get their own health information are able to stay better informed about their own health, leading to better outcomes. So what does this mean for your practice? In short, it means that efforts to inform patients and encourage patients to use the portal could directly lead to better health outcomes and higher patient satisfaction. How To Get Patients To Use The Portal Tell patients about the portal during their appointments. When going over a patient’s health information during an appointment, physicians should be checking to make sure that patients are aware of the information you have on record. The patient should then be told about the portal’s existence and its benefits. When the patient is getting ready to leave, staff should give them instructions on how to use the patient portal. Inform patients during reminder calls, texts, and emails. Since your patients are not in your office most of the time, it makes sense to reach out to them directly and tell them how they can use the patient portal. In emails and text messages, provide them direct links to the portal while informing them of the benefits. Encourage patients to use the portal. Patients need to know why they should use a patient portal, otherwise they’re not going to use it. Let them know how they can benefit by using it. Appeal to their busy schedule and tell them that they could easily set online appointments. Another way to get them to sign up is to incentivize new patient portal signups. Offering small gifts or potential prizes to those who sign up to the patient portal is a good way to get them to sign up.
4 Secrets To Effectively Market Doctors’ Offices & Medical Practices Written by Jeff Tormey on November 5, 2020. Posted in Connect. Most doctors get into medicine to save lives and make a real impact on their communities. They did not go into medicine because they wanted to run a business. The problem is that medical practices are businesses, and they need to be run as such if they’re going to succeed. Part of running a business is marketing it effectively, making sure that people know who you are, what you do, and what you can do for them. Doctors often report that the operational and business aspects of running the practice are the most stressful parts of their job. We’re here to make it a little easier. In this article, we’re going to go over a few tips on how to market medical practices. 4 Secrets To Marketing Your Medical Practice Be where your people are, and engage with them. Where do your people hang out? Apply this to your community. Sponsor community events and spend time with your local chamber of commerce or board of trade. Be active on social media, as well, so you can share content and company updated with the people who care the most. You need to be visible on the search engines so you can be seen by those who are actively looking for you. Investing in search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC) is an important part of making sure that people can find you. Ask for reviews from patients and referring physicians. In the digital age, people trust online reviews far more than they trust marketing material. Use this to your advantage! Get patients to leave honest reviews of your practice on Yelp, Facebook, Google, and other places online. How do you do this? Just ask! When your patients are about to head out the door, ask them to leave a review about their experience. Send reminders to patients via email. Or, call them and ask if they’d like to share their experience. Become an authority. One excellent way to market your practice is to provide quality information for the wider online community. Blogging and videos are a great way for you to engage with people while also giving people the education and information they’re looking for. By sharing your point of view and giving people real help through blog posts and videos, you can eventually become a trusted resource for people looking for info. Embrace new ideas. At the dawn of social media, some people became early adopters. Those who were able to find their audience on social media early on gained a distinct advantage from those who didn’t. Of course, not all new ideas make sense, but by giving them a little more thought and diving a little deeper into the latest technologies, you could find a goldmine for your practice. There’s always room for new ways to communicate with patients! Elevate Your Practice with Strategic Digital Marketing In today’s interconnected world, the success of your medical practice hinges not only on exceptional patient care but also on a robust and forward-thinking marketing strategy. By actively engaging with your community, leveraging the power of online reviews, establishing your expertise through valuable content, and embracing innovative technologies, you can significantly enhance your visibility and attract new patients. The “4 Secrets” outlined in this guide provide a clear roadmap for modernizing your outreach and ensuring your practice thrives in a competitive landscape. Implementing these strategies can be a complex endeavor, and this is where expertise from a partner like Sequence Health can prove invaluable. Remember, effective communication and a strong online presence are no longer options—they are necessities for growth and patient engagement. Contact us today to transform your medical practice marketing. Are you in need of some ideas for medical online marketing? Check out this article for more ideas for marketing your medical practice!