 |
|
| Engaging
employees with Web 2.0 |
We continue with our look at web 2.0 tools and their impact on healthcare communications for the consumer. How are your patients viewing these tools? Do consumers even know what they are all about and "what’s in it" for them? Janet Guptill offers insight as to how you can use these tools to personalize the connection with your patients and consumers, taking your relationships to a whole new level.
We hope you will benefit from this month’s Vericom HealthLink. |
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
The Vericom Institute for
Learning (VIL) is all about Building
Indispensable Relationships one client
at a time. At Vericom, we continually seek to
learn about your challenges in healthcare and
how we can help you improve your communications
and relationships with your patients and
consumers, employees, and physicians.
Collaborating with
Consumers - Web 2.0 in Healthcare
Collaboration has become the new form of
value creation in business, and companies are
taking the initiative in directly collaborating
with you, the consumer. HP, Cisco, and Nokia
recently collaborated on the development of a
camera/cell phone that beams digitized pictures
to an HP printer. Airlines, beginning with
Southwest, allow you to go on-line and print out
your boarding pass at home. Federal Express
allows you to track your packages yourself,
online. Time Magazine further captured this
concept when it declared the 2006 Person of the
Year to be “YOU!”
In their book,
“Revolutionary Wealth”, the Tofflers describe
the shift to consumers doing the work as the
rise of the “prosumer.” It is no wonder we are
tired at the end of the day when we have been a
bank teller (using an ATM), a travel agent
(booking travel on-line), and a stockbroker
(making online stock trades). In 2002, nearly
360 million online purchases were made in the
U.S. A recent Dilbert cartoon shows an executive
boasting that “over time, with luck, we’ll train
our customers to do our manufacturing and
shipping, too.”
Michael Porter in his
book, Redefining Health Care, talks
about “value based competition” in healthcare,
defined as holding providers accountable for
their outcomes as well as their costs. The
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or
CMS, has embraced this concept with its “Value
Driven Healthcare” agenda, pushing for greater
transparency regarding health outcomes and costs
across the entire population. Hospitals are
being pressured to become more “transparent” by
publishing their outcomes. They are also being
held accountable for reducing patient care
errors and are increasingly focused on patient
satisfaction assessment and scoring.
Here are some things to remember to help
you engage your hospital’s patients and
consumers:
Business is personal -
think about how to personally connect with your
consumers through online support groups,
customized follow-up, and personalized
information-sharing. Invite people to register
for helpful knowledge targeted to their
interests and concerns. Don’t make them repeat
the same information each time they come to your
hospital.
An interactive environment is
key - Conversation is two-way. Utilize
touch screen kiosks, online chat, and
interactive patient education videos. Remember
their birthdays, remind them of appointments,
and encourage them to track their healing
progress.
Self-service should be easy - When using tools that require the consumer to
do the work, make sure the tools are easy,
quick, and fun to use. Add clever touches, give
away free recipes, and limit what they have to
remember to come back again.
And
remember this key concept from Thomas Malone and
Robert Laubscher, “The fundamental unit of the
new economy is not the corporation but the
individual.”
|
|
If
you would like to share what you are doing to
engage your customers using web 2.0 technology,
please contribute by clicking HERE
 |
|
|
|
|
Aurora Health
Care |
 |
Here’s how one
Vericom SoundCare client is using the internet,
Web 2.0, and other collaboration tools to motivate
and engage their key audiences.
For
the second year in a row, Vericom client, Aurora
HealthCare, Milwaukee, WI, has received
recognition for their web site as among the best
in the healthcare industry. Acknowledging that
healthcare is now being viewed and discussed
differently today than in year’s past, Aurora has
developed tools and programs to assist patients
and employees in getting information from new and
varied sources. Neal Linkon, Manager, Web
Communications, cites some examples of available
resources on their web site that have been
well-received to date:
CEO videos - One of the top
10 pages viewed on their site, these videos
address current and popular issues and
correspond to what people are reading in the news.
Viewers are encouraged to give their feedback.
RSS feeds - 100+ people have
registered to regularly receive news releases, and
quality and growth information
Podcasts - 200-300 regular
viewers and growing
Aurora has also gotten
involved with web 2.0 tools for employees in using
Wikiis for information sharing.
With a
deluge of health information available to
consumers today, patients go to the Aurora site
because they “trust” their healthcare provider to
have current and accurate information. Although
these web communications tools are not yet a core
part of its marketing strategy, Aurora’s “just try
it” attitude seems to be working well. Marketing’s
approach is entrepreneurial with varied resources
that enable them to effectively reach their
different audiences. Learning from each web
experience, Aurora just plans to expand and grow
as it goes along. |
Click here to see a sample of how
Aurora Health Care is making the
connection. |
Personalized
Healthcare and Care Management |
If implemented
into the system correctly, personalized
healthcare has the potential to improve the
safety, quality and effectiveness of healthcare
for every patient in the country.
A
common American phrase is "have it your way."
We, as Americans, expect to have a customized,
personalized experience. The question is, does
this apply to healthcare? The term "personalized
medicine" is new to healthcare jargon, but
personalized healthcare has the potential to
improve the safety, quality and effectiveness of
healthcare for every patient in the country. By
using "genomics," or the identification of genes
and how they relate to drug treatment,
personalized healthcare enables medicine to be
tailored to each person's needs. |
| Read the full article powered
by HealthLeaders |
|
|
|
| |
This Month:
|
| Brought to you by the
VIL |
by Janet Guptill
|
|
Aurora Health
Care
|
|
|
Upcoming Health
Observances |
|
|
|
|
 |
| Maximize your marketing
efforts with SoundCare on-hold communications
solution. Click here for a
SoundCare demo on a FREE Vericom mp3 player! |
| |
|
FAQ |
|
How can SoundCare
highlight important relationships my hospital
has with health
organizations?
SoundCare clients
have access to Vericom’s
Health Observance Calendar, an annual
calendar marking national health observance
days, weeks, and months to assist clients in
developing a comprehensive SoundCare program.
Clients frequently use SoundCare to allow
callers to register for sponsored events, such
as the American Heart Association annual walk,
inform about dates and locations, and recruit
volunteers. As SoundCare recognizes the
time-sensitive nature of these events, messages
can be deleted once events have
passed. |
| More
FAQ's |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
