By Jamie Roberts, Editorial Director

Individuals might choose a hospital based on its reputation for clinical excellence, but they stay loyal to those systems that emphasize a positive patient experience. Customizing a better patient experience using technology was the lesson of several hospital systems presenting at HIMSS 2018, which convened 45,000 health IT professionals this week in Las Vegas.

With the shift to value-based care emphasizing patient satisfaction measures like the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS)—not to mention social media sites such as Healthgrades and Yelp capturing the good, bad and the ugly of patient reviews—hospital systems are compelled to deliver better patient experiences that differentiate themselves from the pack, build customer loyalty and drive profitability. Dignity Health, a large San Francisco-based health system, is working with startup Docent Health to deliver such an experience for their maternity patients.

By John Lavey | Hammock President/COO

Few organizations are as trusted as KLAS Research for its evaluations and ratings of the software, medical devices and services firms serving the healthcare industry.

A “Best in KLAS” distinction is the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” for the industry, and a company that meets KLAS benchmarks can receive some of the best kind of marketing available. A great KLAS score can help a small company, in particular, get on the radar of large prospective customers.

By John Lavey | Hammock President/COO

Marketers focused on reaching hospitals have a different lead generation challenge than marketers in other industries. In a consumer environment, or in larger business-to-business markets, you are fishing in an ocean with millions of targets.

By Steve Sullivan, National Sales Director

I’m hearing more and more buzz about ABM (Account Based Marketing) as a “new” idea in marketing. For those of you scratching your head, we can boil it down fairly simply—it is an approach that targets large prospects by targeting each buyer or person with influence.

By John Lavey | Hammock President and COO

I’d like to think I’m a healthy person. But as I knock out my second handful of Trader Joe’s Cocoa Hazelnut Cookies while writing this piece, I’m reminded that healthy eating is more of a big idea than a reality, at least for me. (I’m willing to exercise regularly, but exercise accounts for a depressingly low amount of daily caloric burn.)

By John Lavey | Hammock President and COO

While wrapping up several year-end customer media and marketing content projects, I remembered the story at the opening of David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech, “This Is Water,” at Kenyon College in 2005.

The story tells the tale of two young fish who meet an older fish as they are swimming. The older fish nods at the younger ones and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” The two young fish continue swimming, until one looks at the other and says, “What the hell is water?”

By John Lavey | Hammock President and COO

How often have we found ourselves sitting in waiting rooms for hours on end for the privilege of spending our own money? Then, after we’ve checked in, we may sit in another cold room in a backless paper gown never knowing what’s going on or what’s taking so long. And if we raise our hand and ask a question, we’re seen as the crazy one. Most of us just accept—and expect—this reality.

By John Lavey | Hammock President and COO

Yesterday at emids’ Healthcare Summit—one of the few healthcare conferences to successfully deliver thought leadership, in my opinion—a few panelists started to get real about the idea of consumerism in healthcare. My takeaway? Marketers should be a lot less focused on patients and consumers and think more about how to solve problems for people.

By John Lavey | Hammock President and COO

Many healthcare marketers are trying to complete projects left on their plates for 2017, while others are trying to set the table for next year. With just two months left on the calendar, it’s prime time to launch critical projects now that will pay off dividends in the new year.

By John Lavey | Hammock President and COO

Is your content strategy strictly focused on generating leads and using social channels to push out content? One new study suggests that what may be successful in the short term may actually undermine your customer relationships in the long term.