If you are running a healthcare business, you’re going to have a lot of different considerations to keep in mind. One of the most crucial elements that you need to get right is marketing. Marketing will ensure that patients, clients, and customers are able to easily find your business and when they do, they’ll want to connect.
Let’s explore some of the key steps you can explore to guarantee this is the case and the action you must take.
Instant Answers
It’s important to be aware that when a patient searches for a medical support option they are often scared or worried. That’s why they will want instant answers to their questions regarding the service you provide or the products that you offer. It’s important not to keep them waiting. One of the best ways to avoid this is with a chatbot that you can easily add to your business website. A platform like this will ensure that customers immediately feel as though they are being heard and taken care of.
Going Mobile
In the past, most of the traffic to your site and other parts of the brand would be derived from devices such as a desktop computer. But time has moved on and now it’s far more likely that a customer will be searching for your business on their phone. This is particularly true for medical companies which are often local service businesses. They’ll want to find a doctor, clinic, or practice close by and that’s what you need to keep in mind when you are running your marketing campaign.
If you reach out to the right marketers, they will know how to ensure that your site is optimized for mobile use. This means that it will adapt and shift to ensure that it continues to operate regardless of what device a customer uses to view it.
What About SEO?
Regardless of whether you are running a DIY marketing campaign or hiring a professional company, it’s important to guarantee that SEO is approached the right way. Specifically, you need to think about the latest trends in SEO and how to find the right keywords for your business. Arguably, you should be looking at something like Google search console results. This will help you discover fresh keywords that you should be targeting.
It’s fair to say that COVID-19 has taken every business through the wringer and that does include companies operating within the healthcare industry. There are still challenges on the horizon that need to be addressed. Here are some of the issues to consider.
Equipment Shortages
During the first weeks and months of the pandemic, it was widely reported that there would be equipment shortages if immediate action wasn’t taken. While many locations are through the first wave, these shortages have not disappeared and are still a major concern. You need to make sure that your medical company is prepared for this challenge. Speak to your supplier and guarantee that they will be able to source the equipment as well as the PPE that you need over the coming months. If you fail to do this, then you could struggle to provide the solution that patients need.
Missed Diagnosis
One of the biggest issues that are currently being felt due to COVID-19 is certainly the fact that patients simply aren’t able to access the same level of attention and support. Currently, a lot of patients are not being allowed to see a doctor at all. Instead, communication is handled over the phone or through a video call. In either case, there are some questions surrounding whether it’s possible to provide an accurate diagnosis. It might be the case that issues with a patient’s health are being missed completely. This might even lead to a lawsuit. There are seasoned wrongful death attorneys at your service that can offer advice here and who have already claimed COVID-19 could cause a rise in cases like this.
Long Delays
Patients have already reported that they are experiencing long delays in getting the support required. This is even true for long term health issues including mental health problems. We have already reported on the med shortage for mental health issues caused by the lockdown itself. There is no easy way to tackle this issue head-on. However, it’s certainly true that now is the absolute worst time to have an inefficient business model.
By Heather Annolino, senior director healthcare practice, Ventiv.
In recent weeks the U.S. has experienced a significant increase in new COVID-19 cases. For healthcare facilities in these regions, this is a constant reminder that things are “not business as normal” and has resulted in administrators needing to continually monitor the changing COVID-19 response landscape to reduce risks which could affect the quality of patient care.
With this in mind, patient safety is more important than ever. The ability for healthcare organizations to implement predictive analytics and data-discovery tools that identify hidden patterns and trends is essential. This allows them to focus on interventions and changes in processes, detect vulnerabilities, and increase preparedness before, during and after an incident to further decrease patient harm.
Moving forward, healthcare organizations must embrace a heightened level of risk management to provide an environment free from harm. These new risks, along with gaps in longstanding processes, require better risk management and patient safety systems with the ability to capture, track, and analyze data in real-time to enhance processes that will mitigate future risks.
Working as a centralized reporting tool, these systems can also remove any biases to assist with making enhanced decisions to continually drive operational efficiencies.
Here are three system requirements for an effective, integrated patient safety tool needed for healthcare leaders to elevate care, enhance quality and reduce risk throughout different phases of the pandemic.
The telehealth market is expected to reach $10 billion this year, which represents a 80% jump in growth. Much of this has been driven by the coronavirus and, prior to the pandemic, as a response to skyrocketing healthcare costs.
Current safety concerns surrounding at-risk patients visiting hospitals and other healthcare facilities have increased the urgency for solutions that provide critical medical support while mitigating risk.
Lawmakers have responded by relaxing antiquated rules and policies limiting telemedicine access that would otherwise have required decades of debate and lobbying efforts to change. This conversation has also created renewed interest in Telehealth as one answer to the growing healthcare crisis in this country.
That all represents significant progress, however there is still one big, unanswered question: How to address billing and insurance coverage issues.
Back in April, politicians, media and influencers were widely cited as saying patients were covered for Telehealth services. However, many telehealth patients were still getting billed. This was largely because of the fact that payer groups including the government, insurance companies and private enterprise “didn’t get the memo” or were slow to change their policies. In essence, without the participation of these payer groups, the promise of Telehealth was empty.
As a result, millions have been denied access to cost-effective solutions that also ensure patients are safe and secure from Coronavirus and other issues. This is unacceptable. If we are truly committed to delivering quality medical care online, then the healthcare community, our legislators and patients must demand a standard telehealth reimbursement and billing system for all — no matter who you are or what insurance you have.
The digital age has changed our interactions and expectations in ways both big and small—from how we shop and travel, to how we communicate and connect with one another. As with all other industries, the pressures and the possibilities of these technological advancements has spurred digital innovation in healthcare.
However, with the additional stressors of COVID-19, the healthcare industry’s acceptance and adoption of these applications has skyrocketed, as has the opportunity to explore creative uses of these platforms while examining ways to improve both outcomes and experiences.
Virtual care, broadly defined as remote interactions between patients and healthcare providers, has been a part of the healthcare delivery ecosystem for years. It has been an option for some patients, particularly for low-acuity episodic care where convenience is the highest priority when resolving the clinical need, but it has not been widely pursued nor embraced by either providers or patients until now.
In a recent survey of 1,000 patients who utilized virtual care in 2020, 72% had their first-ever virtual visit during the pandemic. With the sudden onset of COVID-19, convenience was no longer the sole driver for pursuing virtual care, but rather a combination of safety, speed of access, and convenience.
Given that the majority of patients using virtual care are new to this care delivery method, health systems need to educate the patient community on both the availability of these types of appointments and on what to expect before, during, and after them. In the aforementioned survey, 52% of respondents received outreach from their established providers, with an additional 15% and 13% hearing from their health system and insurance companies, respectively.
Technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) are having a big impact on health care and health insurance, with research by Bain predicting that the revenue obtained from IoT and analytics alone will reach 22 billion by 2025.
In the health insurance sector, technologies such as artificial intelligence are enabling companies to sift through millions of pieces of data to find ways to reduce premiums, match products with their ideal target market, and generate new business leads. How can technology empower health insurance brands to deliver better service and build a larger client base?
Wearable Technology
Current leaders in the health insurance industry often ask beneficiaries to use wearable devices that track activity and calorie intake. Doing so enables them to collect vital information that can be used to offer reward programs. Various insurance providers are offering discounted rates on health insurance, and life insurance for diabetics. Discounts may seem small at first, but over the lifetime of a policy, consumers can save thousands of dollars.
It also encourages wearers to take vital steps to prevent obesity, Type 2 diabetes, stress, and other diseases and conditions linked to an inactive lifestyle or to a poor diet comprising high percentages of sugar and refined ingredients.
If you have an aging relative, such as a parent or a grandparent, who lives farther away from you than you would like, you might wish to consider relocating them. There are many reasons why one might wish to take the steps to relocate an aging relative.
Perhaps the benefits that they might receive in your state as opposed to their own are more desirable for someone in their physical situation. You might feel that your relative is no longer able to take care of themselves without daily assistance, and you would like to provide that assistance by having them move in with you. It could very well be the case that you simply would like to be closer to them so as to spend more time together.
Whatever your reasons may be, relocating an aging relative, especially one who has underlying health issues, can be a challenge. However, there are a few things that can help to make the process a bit easier both on you and on your loved one.
By Chad Reid, vice president of marketing and communications, JotForm.
Chad Reid
When it comes to telehealth, COVID-19 has been something of a game-changer. The popularity of telehealth has been growing steadily, but patients generally viewed it as a complementary service to their regular in-person care. Until recently, that is.
As the pandemic continues to rage across the nation, telehealth has become a necessity. According to early data, telemedicine firms have seen as much as a 50% increase in the volume of visits during the pandemic. It might seem tempting to view that statistic as a temporary spike, but it reflects a trend that was already gaining momentum.
This increase in demand has put a strain on many institutions whose telemedicine solutions were either nonexistent before the pandemic or not designed for such heavy use. It has also thrown the flaws in existing systems into plain view, making it clear that there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
Wherever you might have been on your telemedicine journey pre-pandemic, your position has probably changed. Regardless of past experiences, it’s time for the healthcare industry to figure out how to make telehealth workmoving forward.
Navigating Telehealth Benefits and Challenges
Telehealth has the potential to revolutionize access to healthcare. In theory, it lets people in rural areas reach specialists anywhere in the country and expands affordable care options to low-income patients. Unfortunately, that potential hasn’t always become a reality. Historically, these groups have been the least likely to take advantage of all that telemedicine has to offer.
That may be changing, though. The pandemic has not only smashed through many of the existing barriers to telehealth adoption — making it more widely available and used — but it has also pushed insurance companies to increase acceptance of these visits.
Done right, telehealth services can increase access and improve quality of care through remote monitoring and more frequent check-ins. Telehealth can also save everyone money — particularly the patients with chronic conditions who account for 90% of annual healthcare costs. To achieve these benefits, though, telemedicine has to be implemented in a purposeful, cohesive way that protects patient privacy and encourages care continuity.
