Who’s the Scapegoat for Rising Health Care Costs?

Posted by: Liz Mortek // January 9th, 2012

Insurance companies, for the most part, have received the blame for rising health insurance costs and premiums.  In an effort to sway public opinion, Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina has implemented a new PR campaign encouraging its audience to look at all parties – not just insurance companies – but at attorneys, doctors, hospitals, consumers, and pharmaceutical companies to be held accountable for the soaring costs of treatment and wellness care.

“Scapegoats” are the mascot for this campaign, with the image dominating a microsite, print ads and TV commercials.   Making the point that all players in the health care industry are to blame for health care costs, the purpose of this campaign, according to Michelle Douglas -public relations manager at Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina- is to “shake up the conversation and do something shocking. We wanted to frame the discussion in a different way.”

@EMortek

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2011: The Year in Healthcare Jargon

Posted by: Neil James // January 3rd, 2012

Our language is not unlike a particularly catchy internet meme or a fashion trend. It starts with just a few people at first, and before long, everybody is Rickrolling.

Healthcare jargon is no exception to this rule, as Cheryl Clark discusses in a new article for HealthLeaders Media, Top 12 Healthcare Buzzwords For 2012. According to Clark, oxymorons are the theme of this year’s list, which includes terms such as “Cultural DNA” and “Palliative Intensive Care.” Terms specific to health insurance such as “Day 31” and “Essential Benefits” also appeared on Clark’s list.

@NeilAndrewJames

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Thinking of mHealth? Your Physicians Will Thank You

Posted by: Neil James // December 12th, 2011

Launching a mobile marketing program for your hospital or clinic won’t just benefit your patients – it helps your doctors too. And as we all know, when the doctors are happy, life at the clinic seems to run just a little smoother.

David Lee Scher, MD, discusses this phenomenon in a new article for KevinMD.com, 5 Reasons Why Physicians Will Love Mobile Health. One of the strongest reasons doctors will love mobile marketing, according to Dr. Scher, will be the positive effect that mobile has on adherence to treatment regimens and medication. Further, Dr. Scher states, mobile technology will allow physicians to access the health status of their patients in more frequent intervals than quarterly, bi-annual or annual visits allow.

@NeilAndrewJames

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Nearly Half of U.S. Physicians Just Google It Like the Rest of Us

Posted by: Neil James // November 16th, 2011

Okay healthcare marketers. Take a look around a make sure there are no doctors in sight.

Are they gone? Okay, lean in. We have something to tell you.

Sometimes, doctors don’t know everything.

We know! Despite what you may have been led to believe, like the rest of us, doctors have occasional gaps in their knowledge.

So where do they turn to fill these gaps? According to a new survey by Wolters Kluwer Health, as discussed by Katherine Hobson in a new article for the Wall Street Journal, professional journals (68% ) and colleagues (60%) are unsurprisingly cited as the most frequently tapped sources for information used to diagnose, treat and care for patients.

But interestingly, according to Hobson, 46 percent cited general web browsers, such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing and frequently used sources for clinical information. Further, Hobson states, more than four in 10 physicians regularly used free online services such as WebMD.

Why the reliance on search engines? Hobson says that search engines are plenty capable of delivering good information. The difficulty lies in separating wheat from chaff. This is a task, Hobson argues however, that lends itself well to most medical backgrounds.

@NeilAndrewJames

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How Family Practice Physicians Can Apply Social Media (And Why They Should)

Posted by: Andrew Meyer // October 24th, 2011

The American Medical Association reported last month that nine out of ten physicians use social media for either personal or professional purposes. Given this widespread acceptance of social media, Brian Peach, Manager of Media and Public Relations for the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians and Foundation, suggests that family medicine physicians have a terrific opportunity to leverage social media to enhance the understanding their profession and the improve health of their patients. His ideas for physician use of social media include, “Tweeting an enticing tease about a news item or medical blog, publicly supporting pro-patient legislation, even telling your friends on Facebook how much you love your job and why…”  Family doctors, he states, have an “unprecedented opportunity” to use social media as an outreach tool.

@ALouMeyer

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Doctors to Patients in Social Media; “Keep Your Distance”

Posted by: Neil James // October 19th, 2011

You don’t need to be told that the impact social media has had on healthcare. More people are searching for health information online and in their social networks than ever. Doctors are leveraging social technologies to build both their practice and professional reputation.

But consider the results of new surveys, discussed by Ken Terry in a new article for InformationWeek:

  • Nearly nine in ten physicians, according to QuantiaMD, are using social media
  • The same QuantiaMD survey found that two-thirds of physicians use social media for professional purposes
  • According to Pew Internet, 65 percent of the general adult population used social media

Given the amount of patients who use social media in combination with the sheer percentage of physicians who use it in a professional capacity, one might think that sites such as Facebook and Twitter might be an accepted backdrop for legitimate medical care.

According to Terry, however, QuantiaMD found that one-third of physicians had received an invitation to “friend” a patient on Facebook. Three-quarters of those doctors declined the invitation, typically citing confidentiality issues and the desire to separate personal from professional online profiles as the reason for doing so.

Further, only three percent doctors visit health-specific online communities, although for a different reason according to Terry. A lack of time and awareness of these forums are the largest contributing factors to doctors not participating in these communities.

@NeilAndrewJames

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Seattle-Based Health System Allow Patients to E-Mail Physicians Via Mobile App

Posted by: Neil James // September 21st, 2011

More than one-quarter of mobile apps are used once and then never again. Offering legitimate value to those you hope will download is essential to ensure that your hospital’s mobile creation isn’t one of the four banished to the island of forgotten apps.

Need a good example of how to offer value? Ann Tracy Mueller discusses a new iPhone app created by Group Health Cooperative that helps patients create a deeper relationship with their physicians. Group Health’s app allows patients to personally e-mail their physicians, schedule appointments via their phone and check wait times at the nearby pharmacy!

@NeilAndrewJames

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Does More Information About Physicians Help Patients Make Better Decisions?

Posted by: Neil James // September 14th, 2011

We live in an age with more information than ever. We can pull up reviews of nearby restaurants. We can pull an unlimited array of statistics on our favorite baseball players. We can pull up the price of airfare to New York from every available airline. All of it in an instant. All of it free of charge.

Now, according to Jeremy Kohler in an article for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, new Missouri legislation has unclassified previously private information about physicians and published it online at  pr.mo.gov. Missouri residents are now able to, via this database, learn where their physicians earned their degrees, whether they are certified for a specific medical expertise and whether they have been disciplined by regulatory agencies.

While the legislation was primarily aimed at improving transparency, it fails to address how patients will actually use this information to make better healthcare decisions. Does knowing where a doctor received their degree or whether they are certified in a specialty impact a patient’s healthcare decision-making in a positive way? Tell us your thoughts!

@NeilAndrewJames

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Experts Advise Careful Tweeting from the Operating Room

Posted by: Andrew Meyer // September 12th, 2011

Although hospitals are generally hypersensitive about potential liability (and rightly so), live tweeting during surgical procedures has become a fairly popular practice. In Hospitals and Health Networks, Susan Kreimer discusses the potential pitfalls involved with tweeting from the OR and suggests ways to offset any risks. It comes down to having a formal plan, says Kreimer. This ensures that standard patient safety and privacy measures are followed and establishes protocol for responding to unexpected emergencies during a procedure. Kreimer also notes that the rationale for posting surgical Twitter updates and video should extend beyond marketing, noting that perceived PR benefits could actually backfire should something go wrong during an operation.

@ALouMeyer

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Why Doctors Lag in Understanding Of Healthcare’s Business Side

Posted by: Neil James // September 8th, 2011

Doctors aren’t much different than a lot of us in that they didn’t get into their profession to calculate depreciation of fixed assets or to draft a balance sheet. It is for this reason, however, that these critical stakeholders are left disappointed and disillusioned when the very real worlds of medicinal practice and economic reality inevitably collide. Why does this happen? Michelle Mudge-Riley, DO, explores this issue in a new article for KevinMD.com, How Can Doctors Understand the Business Side. According to Mudge-Riley, fewer than half of graduating medical students receives adequate education on the economics of both practicing medicine and healthcare as a whole. Much of this ignorance is self-inflicted, says Mudge-Riley, who cites her own personal experience as a med student of being solely focused on medicine at the expense of developing knowledge on the business side.

@NeilAndrewJames

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