Why Patient Engagement Is Important In Healthcare Written by Jeff Tormey on April 7, 2020. Posted in Connect. Healthcare professionals tend to regard patient engagement as a high priority. It’s considered an essential indicator of quality care and correlates well with positive business outcomes. However, patient engagement is not a guarantee. Ultimately, it’s up to the patient to decide which healthcare options he or she would like to pursue. As a healthcare professional, you can only hope to provide the patient with the information necessary to make a decision. So what can be done about patient engagement, and why is it so important yet so difficult to achieve? What Is Patient Engagement? Patient engagement represents how patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers interact to make good healthcare decisions on behalf of the patient. Ultimately, the onus is on the patient to make the decision based on the information given. Patients who take an active role in their healthcare and utilize the services provided by caregivers and healthcare professionals to the utmost can be said to be highly engaged patients. Patient engagement has become a strategy to help achieve better health outcomes for patients while lowering the cost of administering healthcare services. Why Is Patient Engagement Important? Patients have options available to them. It’s not hard for a patient to go to another practice. They can search for doctors and practices online quickly, and they have access to customer reviews online. Thanks to the Internet and global interconnectedness, patients are no longer limited to their immediate area, either. Without actively getting patients engaged in their healthcare, they’re much more likely to have a negative experience and switch practices. Engagement tools can help cut costs, reduce waste, and lower the burden on staff. Technology has done wonders for improving patient engagement. Even ubiquitous tools like social media and search engines allow patients to have a much more active role in their care. What’s even more interesting is the growing availability of tools such as wearable tech that checks health measures and patient portals for patients to access their medical records safely online. By making sure that patients know about these tools, as well as providing active support for the latest patient engagement technology, your practice can help make your clientele a much more engaged one. Patient engagement leads to better health outcomes. How does patient engagement improve patient health? Engaged patients are, for example, more likely to attend regular health appointments and participate in recommended screenings. They’re more likely to understand why they’re important, too. They’re also more likely to actively look for information about health topics relevant to them. Engaged patients are interested in their health, and healthcare professionals can help instill a greater interest in a patient’s health. Engaged patients are more likely to be satisfied ones, and thus more likely to return. Thanks to improved health outcomes, as well as a sense of understanding between the patient and healthcare staff, engaged patients are more likely to report positive experiences and overall satisfaction with their care. As a result, they’re more likely to come back or recommend your practice to another. This has the effect of not only establishing a quality clientele, but also allowing that clientele to grow organically. In Summary Patient engagement is a key priority for healthcare professionals. Patients who are actively engaged tend to experience better health outcomes and have more positive interactions with your practice. With the advancement of healthcare engagement solutions, technology is increasingly helping patients take a more active role in their healthcare journey.
How To Get Patients To Sign Up For Your Medical Patient Portal Written by Jeff Tormey on March 24, 2020. Posted in Connect. If you’re looking for a way to improve patient engagement while making communication with patients easier, look no further than patient portals. More and more practices have started utilizing patient portals in their patient engagement strategies, and have found that they reduce costs, make it easier for patients to get necessary information, and improve recordkeeping. The vast majority of hospitals use patient portals, and smaller practices are starting to come on board. But the biggest problem these practices face is getting a patient to sign up for the portal in the first place. So how do you fix this problem? How Do Patient Portals Work In their most basic form, patient portals are web-based access points for patients to view medical data such as lab results and electronic medical records (EMR). But patient portals can do so much more. Practices can use patient portals that allow for communication between patients and doctors, appointment scheduling, and even bill payment. Patient portals come in two main forms: standalone systems and integrated services. Standalone systems exist only as a web tool, not integrated with a comprehensive practice management software suite. Patient portals are such great tools for reducing costs and managing patient engagement that the majority of hospitals in the US use one. But how do you actually get people to sign up? Tips For Getting Patients To Sign Up For A Patient Portal Enroll at the first appointment If you get a new patient, it’s important that you get them to sign up for your patient portal. Ideally, getting them to sign up before their appointment even starts can help improve engagement. Enroll for scheduling online appointments Online appointments are a huge value add for many patients, as it makes scheduling appointments much easier. For this reason, you should have them enroll to get access to online appointment scheduling. Provide registration to the portal when patients come in Many patients don’t register for the portal because it slips their mind. Having them register for the portal upon walking in allows this process to be done seamlessly within the regular intake flow. Link your portal sign up on all correspondence If you send an email, make sure to include a footer or signature that prompts them to sign up for the patient portal. This makes it easily available. Also, if patients call your phone, have your staff remind them that it’s an option. Optimize for desktop and mobile Most Internet traffic nowadays comes from mobile phones. Making sure that your patient portal can be easily accessed on one’s phone is an important part of making it easy to use. Get all staff involved with patient signups Your staff, especially the ones at the front desk, have mandatory interactions with patients. Having them remind patients of the portal and giving them opportunities to sign up is an excellent way to get signups. Make sure patients know the benefits Many patients don’t sign up because they don’t know what’s in it for them. Letting them know that it could save them money and time by giving them instant access to medical records, lab results, and communication with a healthcare professional may incentivize them to sign up. Enroll patients in bulk Import your list of unenrolled patient emails into the portal, and then have it send these patients an email to get them to sign up. Follow up with emails to those who have yet to pick a username and password. In Summary Patient portals are a hugely useful service that all practices, big or small, should provide. Get the team involved with patient enrollment. Consider the reasons why patients sign up to patient portals, and make the benefits known.
10 Topmost Healthcare Marketing Tips In 2020 Written by Jeff Tormey on March 4, 2020. Posted in Connect. Marketing for healthcare continuously changes. It’s challenging to identify healthcare marketing trends and determine which strategies to use to reach prospective patients. Healthcare establishments will get the best results by planning and fine-tuning their marketing strategy with the help of a few trending marketing tips. What is Healthcare Marketing? A process of strategically reaching out to healthcare audiences via messages and experiences to attract patients, develop strong relationships, and keep users engaged with your business. Planning Your Healthcare Marketing Strategies Every healthcare establishment should have a plan in place to keep up with trends in the industry to remain competitive. Crafting the right messaging in tune with those trends will allow your business to engage with your target audience at the right time. Fine-tune your healthcare marketing strategy Here are ten tips for fine-tuning your healthcare marketing strategy in 2020. Consistent branding The brand messaging of your healthcare business should remain intact when implementing a marketing campaign across a variety of channels. Evaluate the online patient experience Patients want to find the information they are looking for on your website quickly, view it clearly, and find it useful. You want patients to be able to interact with your medical site to be involved in their healthcare. Build a responsive website A responsive website will display beautifully on any device regardless of the screen size. 40% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is difficult to navigate, graphics are unattractive, or the site doesn’t load properly. Create great content The content draws visitors and search engines to your site. Regularly producing the best healthcare marketing content for your website that is valuable, consistent, and patient-focused will establish your healthcare business as a trusted authority in your field. Test site speeds 40% of users will abandon a website that takes more than 3 to 5 seconds to load. Periodically test the site speed to be sure you are capturing all users. Build a mobile responsive website 48% of people view websites and posts on their mobile phone or tablet. You want to be sure your site can be seen on any size screen to engage all viewers on your website. Optimize for the search engines 80% of consumers do their product and service research online. However, less than 10% of search engine users move on to the second page of search results. If your healthcare website doesn’t rank on the first page of results, consumers will not find you. Utilize PPC and display ads for Healthcare marketing Pay-per-click advertising and display ads can help a healthcare clinic or practice increase brand awareness and move your website up in rank on search engines in a relatively short time. Use video marketing Most healthcare marketers are using healthcare videos to connect with existing and potential clients, engage with them, and convert them into regular clients. Videos are being used to introduce the healthcare business and staff, inform patients about services, processes, and health conditions. Implement social media strategy Marketing on social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter is an opportunity for your healthcare establishment to reach a broad audience with your products, services, and message and stay connected to existing clients Using these tips to plan and fine-tune your healthcare business’s marketing strategy should reward you with an increase in prospective patients, website traffic, and loyalty among existing healthcare clients.
How To Create A Medical Website That Enhances The Patient Experience Written by Jeff Tormey on February 3, 2020. Posted in Connect. Well-designed Medical websites can make a big difference in elevating your medical business brand, generating more revenue, and improving the patient or prospective patient experience. Your medical website design can benefit from the following design tips. 1. Design Should Target Your Intended Audience Health and wellness websites should target consumers seeking information and services about the specific services provided by the healthcare or wellness provider. A general practice medical doctor offers different services to different types of patients than a cardiovascular doctor. The design of the website should cater to the target audience you seek to attract. 2. Keep it Simple, clear and well-structured Design your website so visitors can see what your business is all about and what services you offer when they enter your website. Too many pages, menus, and too much content or graphics can cause the visitor to get lost and confused on your website. Keep medical website designs simple, well organized, professional, and eye-catching. 3. Highlight Key Information The information that you most want your patients and prospective patients to know about your medical practice or clinic should be the first thing that catches the eye of the viewer. The entire website should be designed to highlight that essential information. 4. Create a Mobile Responsive Design A mobile responsive website can determine if someone is viewing the site from a smartphone, and will show the mobile version of the website. If a user finds your website on their smartphone, they can push a button to automatically dial the medical practice, making it very easy for the user to contact you. 5. Incorporate Appealing Visual Content Visual content captures the visitor’s attention first. Visual content is not limited to graphics. Website designs can utilize photos, slideshows, and videos to enhance your medical brand or provide information. Be sure that the visual content you incorporate in your design does not impair page load time. Stay away from designs that rely on Flash, as many devices do not support that technology. 6. Make it Search Engine Friendly Search engines recognize coding elements within a website that identify what the purpose of your website is. Your design should incorporate HTML coding tags and headers to identify your medical business and help your website rank in the top pages of search engine results. 7. Consider User Experience When a consumer visits your website, they want to quickly determine what your business does, find answers to specific questions, and become more knowledgeable about their healthcare. Health websites need to provide engaging, high-quality, relevant content in a variety of modes that will allow users to engage with the business and be more involved in their healthcare. 8. Follow HIPAA Compliance Whenever patient’s communicate with a medical business via their website, HIPPA regulations for privacy and security must be followed. Designers are held to a higher standard for medical websites. Medical websites that are well structured, mobile responsive, HIPAA compliant, and patient-focused will meet the needs of patients as well as the medical office or practice. The site will become a go-to tool for staff and patients alike.
The Importance of a Strong Millennial and Young Patient Engagement Strategy Written by web_developers on May 7, 2018. Posted in Connect. “Know your audience” is a central tenet of any communications strategy—and healthcare communications and IT are no exception. And that leads to two important questions all healthcare IT, marketers and communicators must ask themselves: • How well do you really know your patients in the general age range of 18 to early 30s (interchangeably known as “Millennials” and “Generation Y”? • How well does that knowledge influence your young patient engagement strategies? The “Largest Projected Patient Population” Perhaps a better descriptor for Millennials or Generation Y is “The Largest Projected Patient Population.” According to Pew Research Center data, Millennials—which Pew defines as “the population ages 18–34 as of 2015” that is now in the 21–37 range in 2018—already represent the largest generational population. But, as older generations age and their population sizes continue to decline, the Millennial population is projected to grow and remain steady until 2050.1 A Matter of Improving Young Patient Outcomes Questions about “knowing your audience” are important because they put a spotlight on what is called generational marketing, which is a vital component of a healthy and comprehensive patient engagement strategy—and bottom line. For young patient engagement, this couldn’t be more true. As Patient Engagement IT perfectly said: “Providers need to better understand the populations they serve and the threats to their business to remain competitive in their market and best manage their patients’ needs.”2 These questions are also about more than just ensuring your healthcare marketing strategy is hitting its most important demographic targets. Instead, it’s equally a matter of improving outcomes for young patients that are demonstrating a unique set of expectations, habits and tendencies for their healthcare. As Digital Journal explained: “There is a concern among healthcare professionals that young people, particularly those with long-term health conditions, tend to disengage from health services. The outcome is a reduction in health outcomes.”3 If disengagement is a problem, then simple logic would dictate engagement is a solution. But is the solution simple to achieve? The Millennial Patient Profile: Not What You May Have Expected Things could be relatively simple if traditional or current patient engagement practices for older generations could be trusted for engaging with younger patients. The reality is the Millennial patient profile has some unique features that make it markedly different from other generations, which means they require their own sets of engagement practices. One valid assumption is that as a tech-savvy demographic, Millennials are reliant upon technology for healthcare purposes. This was verified in the Warwick University-led LYNC study, which looked at how digital technologies were used for clinical communications between health professionals and Millennials. It revealed patients used various “DCCs” (digital clinical communications like e-mail, text messages and VoIP) for a per-day median 45 minutes and a maximum of nine hours.4But there’s more to understanding the Millennial patient profile (and young patient engagement) than their lifelong exposure to the Internet and smartphones. Consider these facts HIMMS shared about Millennial patients:5 • 11 percent of are uninsured • 17 percent do not think about cost when choosing a physician • 41 percent reported they ask for estimates before receiving medical services What emerges is a patient/customer profile (which HIMMS calls a “generational archetype”) that: • Uses and appreciates technology • Values health information and gets it from multiple sources • Has or expects positive personal relationship with his/her physician • Will find other caregivers after poor experiences How to Use DCCs for Millennial Patient Engagement A solid Millennial patient engagement plan needs to be more than just passively adopting and enabling digital clinical communication channels. Instead, research is showing that there are significant advantages for both patient and caregiver when DCCs are used with precision to enhance established connections. According to a Journal of Medical Internet Research article about the LYNC study: “…findings suggest that benefit is most likely, and harms are mitigated, when digital communication is used with patients who already have a relationship of trust with the clinical team, and where there is identifiable need for patients to have flexible access, such as when transitioning between services, treatments, or lived context. Clinical teams need a proactive approach to ethics, governance, and patient safety.”6 The JMIR identified the following DCCs and their best functionality in this regard: • Telephone: Urgent communications • Text messages: Appointment reminders for asking quick questions • E-mail: More complex or lengthy information and links to resources However, for bad or upsetting news, JMIR said classic face-to-face interaction is the best communication method. So, with a better understand of how young people pursue their health care choices, how do you now feel about the two questions asked at the onset? If you are having any doubts about your Millennial patient engagement capabilities or strategy, now is the time to start evaluating and improving them. Sequence Health is a cloud-based technology and services company that improves profitability and patient outcomes for hospitals and practices through end-to-end patient engagement solutions backed by clinical and non-clinical teams. Its HIPAA-compliant, SaaS platform improves care team workflows, automates patient communication and tracks patient progress to optimize the patient journey. Since 2004, leading healthcare providers have trusted Sequence Health to help acquire, manage and engage patients through complex episodes of care. 1 Generational Factors in Patient Engagement 2 Understanding Generational Differences in Patient Engagement 3 Digital Communication Helps Young Patient Engagement 4 Digital Clinical Communication (DCC) – Health Economic Findings of the LYNC study 5 Generational Factors in Patient Engagement 6 Timely Digital Patient-Clinician Communication in Specialist Clinical Services for Young People: A Mixed-Methods Study (The LYNC Study)
5 Ways to Get Your Own “Best Healthcare Website” Written by SQHealth-admin on May 2, 2018. Posted in Connect. We are frequently approached by hospitals and clinics that want to know how they can have the “best healthcare Website” or how their Website currently compares on a national, regional or local level to top healthcare Websites. Although we can use tools that deliver quantifiable answers for the latter—including Google Analytics and Alexa—they aren’t as useful for answering the former. Do a Google search for “best healthcare Website” and you will see hundreds of results for blogs, awards and other pages. Although many provide solid references for what a “best healthcare Website” might look like, they usually don’t give you the guidance to get your Website into the same class. Having a slick-looking, modern Website is always nice, but there’s much more to having a top medical Website. For example, the ever-popular Mayo Clinic’s Website might be regularly rank high on many “best healthcare Website” lists, but it doesn’t mean your hospital or clinic should make a duplicate version. Instead, you need a Website that not only looks great, but is great because it performs and functions for specific reasons. Here’s an easy and remarkably practical method for getting your Website onto a path that will at least improve its appearance and performance—and perhaps someday land you on somebody’s “best healthcare Website” list. The process borrows from the “five W’s” problem-solving technique ideal for becoming more aware of your Website’s strengths and weaknesses. Who is Your Audience? Your immediate response might be, “Well, duh, our patients!” But seriously, think about it: How well do you understand the background of your audience—which, yes, are your patients? This includes a matrix of: • Age • Gender • Culture • Income • Insurance and payment mixes • Geography and proximity • Medical priorities and needs With those points, you should develop some abstract profiles of your audience. Now visit your Website and take an honest look at all of it—photos, content, function, etc. How well does your Website look or feel relates to who your patients actually are or what they want from you? Takeaway: If your Website doesn’t reflect the makeup and needs of its audience, you will want to consider updating your content to be more representative. What Does Your Website Need to Be or Do? Now that you’ve thought about who your audience is, take it one step further: What do they need from it? This may include: • Appointment scheduling • Patient portals • Physician and specialty searches Or conversely, think about your Website and what your audience doesn’t need from it? This includes: • Slow loading times • Outdated or obsolete plugins • Unresponsive design/no mobile version Takeaway: If your Website’s technologies are not delivering the performance and convenience your patients expect, you’ll want to think upgrading or replacing your Website’s architecture or platform. Where are Viewers Finding or Using Your Website? If you regular follow this blog, you’ll already know the tremendous importance having a mobile-friendly healthcare Website. This is related to a simple fact: a majority of healthcare Website visitors visit on their mobile devices. Google’s recent mobile-first update (which uses the mobile version of a Website to determine keyword rankings for searches) has reinforced this concept and is already causing massive shifts in search engine result pages (SERPs). Takeaway: If you aren’t looking at your Website metrics at least once a month, you should immediately make it part of your routine. The more engaged you are with your metrics, the more inclined you’ll be to improve your Website. Even if you don’t have a strong healthcare SEO strategy, you still should be using Google Analytics to look at your healthcare Website metrics to learn as much as you can about your patient’s online visiting habits, routines and more. Why Do You Have a Website? This should actually be the first question in this list because it’s also the most important. Give it a moment and think: What’s the point of having a Website for your hospital or clinic? You will likely be flooded with numerous reasons why you have a Website, and most reasons will probably relate to the first question about “Who is your audience?” This is because the most important reason you have a Website is to improve patient experience—which in turn leads to more appointments, surgeries, etc., as well as better outcomes. It at that point you must ask yourself: If you can define crucial reasons for why you have a Website, what are you doing to ensure your Website fulfills those reasons? Takeaway: If your Website isn’t living up to its expectations, it’s time to revisit your marketing plan, pinpoint its objectives, and then start developing a strategy to improve your Website. You will likely discover you either have the internal resources or you don’t—in which case, you will want to find a proven medical Website design and development partner to help you in your quest towards having a “best healthcare Website”! As Sequence Health’s Website development leader, Tonni Islam is one of our most reliable subject matter experts. Sequence Health is a cloud-based technology and services company that improves profitability and patient outcomes for hospitals and practices through end-to-end patient engagement solutions backed by clinical and non-clinical teams. Its HIPAA-compliant, SaaS platform improves care team workflows, automates patient communication and tracks patient progress to optimize the patient journey. Since 2004, leading healthcare providers have trusted Sequence Health to help acquire, manage and engage patients through complex episodes of care.
It’s Not Too Late: Google Speed Test Your Healthcare Website NOW Written by SQHealth-admin on April 12, 2018. Posted in Connect. Will You Be Ready for the “Google Speed Update” and Its Massive Impact on Your Healthcare SEO Rankings? Google’s long-awaited mobile-first indexing finally began taking effect recently in full force, and we’re guessing you’ve seen the initial shockwaves for volatile healthcare keyword rankings. We hope you were well-prepared for it and am coming out unscatched. Now the newest trepidation among my colleagues in the SEO blogosphere is with Google’s next anticipated SEO game-changer: the so-called “Google speed update.” As with most big Google SEO shifts on the horizon, there’s always the “what we are certain about” and “what we think will happen.” For the Google speed update: • We are certain it will take effect in July 2018 and only impact some Websites. • We think it will soon after become a major ranking factor for all Websites (and will really hurt those that still haven’t recovered or adjusted from mobile-first indexing). For those reasons, we’ve been updating our healthcare SEO clients’ websites programming based on the results of the Google mobile speed test to ensure their page speeds are up to spec. It’s also why we’ve been receiving many questions about the Google speed update. Here are just a few! What Exactly is the “Google Speed Update?” Ever since 2010, desktop site speed has been what Google calls an important “signal” in its keyword ranking algorithm.1 The reason has always been simple: Google prioritizes positive user experiences, and faster sites contribute to that. The upcoming “Google speed update” increases the importance of that signal—but puts the focus squarely mobile page speed. Who Will the “Google Speed Update” Affect? When the Google speed update was first mentioned on its Webmaster Central Blog2 in January 2018, they explained: “The ‘Speed Update,’ as we’re calling it, will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries. It applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content.” Put another way: When the Google speed update rolls out in July and you notice some unusual drops in your rankings, you will probably want to first look at your mobile page speed. Chances are you have “pages that deliver the slowest experience” and Google is penalizing you for it. How Do I Perform Google Speed Tests? Google provides a free mobile speed and performance test that quickly gives you a comprehensive understanding of what you might expect from your mobile healthcare Website after the update is launched. Just enter your Website address, and in about a minute, Google will tell you your: • Loading time on a 3G network (and estimated visitor loss rates) • Comparison to top-performing Websites in your industry (which should hopefully identify yours as “Health”) It will also provide you with a free detailed report of fixes to speed up your mobile site. Google also recommends some other tools that we also think are useful for improving your overall healthcare website performance. These include: • Chrome User Experience Report: Use this to get metrics for how real-world Chrome users experience your Website. • Lighthouse: An open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of your Web pages. • PageSpeed Insights: This analyzes the content of your Web pages and then generates suggestions to make that page faster. We will continue to monitor this topic in the coming months! As Sequence Health’s Director of Digital 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 is a cloud-based technology and services company that improves profitability and patient outcomes for hospitals and practices through end-to-end patient engagement solutions backed by clinical and non-clinical teams. Its HIPAA-compliant, SaaS platform improves care team workflows, automates patient communication and tracks patient progress to optimize the patient journey. Since 2004, leading healthcare providers have trusted Sequence Health to help acquire, manage and engage patients through complex episodes of care. 1 Using Site Speed in Web Search Ranking 2 Using Page Speed in Mobile Search Ranking
Bariatric Medical Practice Marketing Rule #2: Make It Easy for Patients to Find You Written by SQHealth-admin on February 27, 2018. Posted in Bariatric Surgery, Connect. We kicked off this blog series with a discussion the first rule for growing your bariatric medical practice: the importance of “knowing your numbers.” This time, we will explore our next rule: make it easy for your patients to find you and begin their journey. Let’s begin with understanding how and where patients are finding healthcare services. It should come as no surprise that patients use online searches more than anything else—which includes personal referrals from physicians, family, friends and colleagues, as well as offline influencers like TV, magazines and newspapers. Click to view larger. We know this from a well-known Google study1 published this a few years ago that also showed how: • More than 85% of patients began their searches online for health-related topics • 48% of patients took more than two weeks to research before booking appointments • 61% visited two or more hospitals sites before “converting” (more on this in a moment) Find Yourself: Are You Experienced? When we’ve asked bariatric healthcare marketers if they’ve ever tried to find their own hospital or clinic online—the same experience a potential patient would have—the answer is often no. We are driving home an important point, not pointing fingers: If it’s not easy to find yourself online, imagine what it must be like for patients that aren’t even aware of you, especially in competitive markets! With so much at stake with patients being able to find your bariatric medical practice online, the importance of online search strategies, healthcare advertising and tools become increasingly obvious—and even more when you learn that: • Searches drive nearly three times as many visitors to hospital sites compared to non-search visitors • Organic search results are more than 80% more likely to be clicked on than paid search results The ABCs of Bariatric Marketing with SEO, SEM and PPC Great SEO (search engine optimization) is the key to getting your share of organic search traffic to your bariatric surgery center’s Website, but it can take time to develop a solid SEO strategy and to see the results. That’s why we should not be too quick to downplay healthcare digital marketing and the amazing potential of paid searches, also known as PPC (pay-per-click) and SEM (search engine marketing). With the right combination of creatives (ads), keyword selection and bidding, patients will take action. According to Google, it’s meant: • 28% visiting the advertised hospital’s Website • 21% considering the advertised hospital • 5% contacting the advertised hospital Conversions: Are You Turning Prospects Into Bariatric Surgery Patients? No matter how much search traffic comes to your bariatric hospital’s Website, it doesn’t mean anything unless you have great “conversion rates,” another way to say: Are you turning prospects into patients after they’ve found you? This leads to two immediate questions: • What is your current conversion rate? • How can you increase your conversion rate? If you are finding that your conversion rates aren’t meeting your expectations, you will want to again return to the earlier question about trying to experience what it’s like to search for your facility. This time, try to understand the experience of your Website. How would you answer the following questions: • Is your Website appealing to prospective patients? • Is your Website optimized for both mobile and desktop? • Is it easy for patients to find the right information? • Is there a clear call-to-action (CTA) on the Website to help patients get started? • Do you offer seminars—and if so, what type and how often? Don’t assume low conversion rates are entirely the fault of the Website, though. This is especially true if you are noticing a sharp decrease in rates between Website registrations and seminar completion. In this case, consider these enhancements: • Automated reminders prior to seminar • Personal phone call prior to seminar • Offer more seminar times or online options like Webinars We’ll close on that note, but when we resume, we’ll talk more about increasing intake rates after seminars and Webinars. As Sequence Health’s Central/Western Regional Director, Chris Stearns regularly engages with bariatric medical practices to find solutions that help grow their revenues and profitability. Sequence Health is a cloud-based technology and services company that improves profitability and patient outcomes for hospitals and practices through end-to-end patient engagement solutions backed by clinical and non-clinical teams. Its HIPAA-compliant, SaaS platform improves care team workflows, automates patient communication and tracks patient progress to optimize the patient journey. Since 2004, leading healthcare providers have trusted Sequence Health to help acquire, manage and engage patients through complex episodes of care. 1 The Digital Journey to Wellness: Hospital Selection
Got HTTPS? Big Chrome 68 Web Security Changes are Coming Written by SQHealth-admin on February 17, 2018. Posted in Connect. You’ve Got Until Summer to Update Your Hospital Website Security and Avoid Being Marked as “Not Secure” For more than a year, we’ve been closely watching Google for updates about their ongoing push for Websites to adopt HTTPS encryption (which is sometimes also called TLS/SSL encryption). Last week, we finally heard the game-changing news we’ve been waiting to hear since 2016: “Beginning in July 2018 with the release of Chrome 68, Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as ‘not secure.’” 1 An example of how Chrome 68 will mark unsecure Websites. The key word is all, and that’s because Google has been gradually phasing-in Web security requirements for certain kinds of Web pages. That will all change in July 2018, which is why it’s no longer just a good idea to update your practice or hospital Website security, but now a very, very, very strong recommendation to do so. Don’t be Confused, We’ve Got You Covered In case you don’t fully understand what any of this means—or its implications for your healthcare Website—don’t worry. As mentioned, we’ve been watching this closely, and we’ve said plenty about it our blog. We first suggest you visit Is Your Hospital Website Secure Enough for Google in 2017?, which we published in late 2016. In it, we addressed the basics of healthcare Web security, including: • How to determine your Web security status • How to update your Website security We next encourage you to visit another piece we published last fall, Will Chrome 62 TLS/SSL Requirements Affect Your Users’ Experiences or Your Online Rankings?. This time, we addressed Chrome 62’s labeling of certain pages that weren’t secured and explained its: • Potential impact to your SEO and SERPs (search engine result pages) • Likely impact to your hospital Website conversions and patient conversion rates • Possible impact to patient confidence in your brand 2018: The Year of Google Disruption? Those that celebrate Chinese New Year know that 2018 is the “Year of the Dog.” Because the Sequence Health SEO team so closely follows Google, we’ve become inclined to say 2018 might also be called the “Year of Google Disruption.” We have a feeling this year will be a big year of changes on the Internet as it relates to Google. We’ve already seen a lot of disruption in keywords rankings in January 2018. We also know Google has been threatening to change to mobile-first indexing (from desktop-first) for more than a year, which will not bode well for Websites that are not responsive or don’t have a mobile version of their Website (and which we’ve also discussed in our blogs). For the moment, we can be 100-percent certain about Chrome 68’s impacts on Website security—although the question now is knowing exactly which day in July 2018 it will get launched! 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 is a cloud-based technology and services company that improves profitability and patient outcomes for hospitals and practices through end-to-end patient engagement solutions backed by clinical and non-clinical teams. Its HIPAA-compliant, SaaS platform improves care team workflows, automates patient communication and tracks patient progress to optimize the patient journey. Since 2004, leading healthcare providers have trusted Sequence Health to help acquire, manage and engage patients through complex episodes of care. 1A Secure Web is Here to Stay
Bariatric Medical Practice Marketing Rules #1: Know Your Numbers Written by web_developers on January 19, 2018. Posted in Bariatric Surgery, Connect. The First of a Four-Part Series of Advice for How to Grow Your Bariatric Practice We regularly speak to many bariatric programs across the country, and we often hear how difficult it is to manage the day-to-day operations while keeping up with the hundreds of patients that are on their journey to bariatric surgery. Yet, no matter how many patients they have, nearly all want or need to increase their bariatric patient volumes. That is why we are frequently asked a simple but important question: “How can I get more patients and grow my bariatric practice?” Although there are no simple answers, we have been able to boil them down into four key rules that we explore in one of our most popular presentations, Four Key Strategies to Grow Your Bariatric Program. Which leads to the first rule: Know your numbers. Here is what we mean by that. What are Your Numbers? Where are They? Bariatric practice marketing is a numbers game you can play best if you have a firm grasp on your data. Otherwise, it is virtually impossible to develop strategies and gauge their effectiveness if you don’t know where you stand. Let’s start with some basics like: • What are your conversion rates from lead to surgery? • What is your average time to surgery? • Which steps in the prospect-to-patient continuum are taking the longest? • Where are patients falling through the cracks? Now ask yourself: • How quickly could you produce those numbers for analysis? • How simple would the process for accessing them be? • How reliable would the data you retrieved be? The last set of questions can be as telling as the first set. We’ve found the bariatric practices that can easily and accurately track their patient marketing, acquisition, management and engagement are almost always the most successful practices. Learn From Your Numbers Knowing about your bariatric practice’s numbers is only the beginning. Once you’ve established an efficient process for monitoring your bariatric marketing efforts and collecting data, you next want analyze your numbers and starting learning from them. And what better way to learn is there than to ask questions? Here is where we divide our focus into two primary areas, each with their own sets of unique questions. For how many of these can you produce answers? Do any spark insights into where your bariatric practice marketing is underperforming? Bariatric Marketing and Patient Acquisition • What is the conversion path of our marketing efforts? • How many conversions resulted from the campaign? • What is my cost per lead? • How many surgeries resulted from the campaign? • What is my cost per surgery? • What payor mix is my marketing campaign driving? • What is my most effective marketing medium? • What is my least effective marketing medium? • Of the surgeries we’ve performed, where did those leads come from? Bariatric Patient Engagement and Management • What is my conversion rate from lead to seminar registration: • …from seminar registration to attendance? • …from seminar attendance to consult? • …from consult to surgery? • What is my overall conversion rate from lead to surgery? • What is the average throughput for each of these milestones? • Where are patients falling through the cracks? • How long have patients been in each step? • What clearances need to be completed in order to have surgery? As Sequence Health’s Central/Western Regional Director, Chris Stearns regularly engages with bariatric medical practices to find solutions that help grow their revenues and profitability. Sequence Health is a cloud-based technology and services company that improves profitability and patient outcomes for hospitals and practices through end-to-end patient engagement solutions backed by clinical and non-clinical teams. Its HIPAA-compliant, SaaS platform improves care team workflows, automates patient communication and tracks patient progress to optimize the patient journey. Since 2004, leading healthcare providers have trusted Sequence Health to help acquire, manage and engage patients through complex episodes of care.