Posts Filed Under ‘Brain Candy for Health’
For all Americans, a hospital Emergency Room is an important access point for critically – pun intended – important health care. ERs are vital for community health maintenance. And given the sheer volume of visits, any hospital’s ER is an important source of patient volume and possible admissions.
But what, exactly, are ER staffers attending to? In a healthcare-related fact sheet, HealthLeaders magazine listed the top ER diagnosis. The abridged list below – reformatted here as a “Top 10 List” – is a fascinating snapshot of what ails Americans – and what prompts them to seek immediate care. The stats below, from 2006, rank ER diagnoses that led to same-day discharges.
| Rank |
Diagnosis |
Total number of discharges |
| 1 |
Sprains and strains |
6,375,245 |
| 2 |
Superficial injury, contusion |
6,107, 869 |
| 3 |
Upper respiratory infections |
5,285,382 |
| 4 |
abdominal pain |
4,381,653 |
| 5 |
Open wounds of extremities |
3,697,836 |
| 6 |
Intervertebral disc disorders, and other back problems |
3,236,278 |
| 7 |
Nonspecific chest pain |
3,018,660 |
| 8 |
Headache (including migrane) |
2,825,233 |
| 9 |
Open wounds of head, neck, and trunk |
2,692,292 |
| 10 |
Skin and subcutaneous tissue infections |
2,610,735 |
The next five are “other injuries,” urinary tract infections, otitis media (inflammation of the middle ear), upper limb fracture and connective tissue disease. The list points to the important role ERs have for both the medically distressed and for hospitals in need of revenues. To us, the ailments also bring to mind the signature line from “Hill Street Blues,” our favorite 80s-era police TV drama: “Hey, let’s be careful out there!”
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Posted by Jack Stenger on February 16, 2010 at 10:15 am
Filed under: Brain Candy for Health, Ramblings
Starbucks has received accolades and criticisms aplenty for its “My Starbucks Idea” program. My vote? I’m a fan. I’m not even a super-consumer. I’m barely a coffee drinker by most standards. But I appreciate when an organization opens itself up to its public. Starbucks has more Facebook fans than Coca-Cola. That’s quite a feat considering Coke’s history as the world’s greatest brand (yes, we’re Atlantans)!
Keeping tabs on “My Starbucks Idea” is fun. Starbucks knows they can’t make everybody happy – but that’s not the point. The point is active engagement. This concept shows that the Starbucks brand management team understands both the role of the influencer and the power of social media. They know that if you’re going to invest time, energy, and financial resources into social media, you shouldn’t treat it as another box to check off on your marketing or PR “to do” list.
We all know social media is the hot topic right now. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when it comes to developing – and then carrying forward – a social media plan. But it doesn’t have to be so daunting. And that’s what makes “My Starbucks Idea” so great. It’s simple. And it shows they care about what their customers and partners think.
So, how are you using social media to converse with your constituents? Have you identified key influencers in your market (or in the direction you want to move)? Have you successfully engaged them? Is social media an afterthought for your organization or has it been fully embraced?
Starbucks understands that the more individuals they inspire to be brand champions, the more their longevity as a market leader is secured. And their approach to social media fully supports this. If you’re looking for inspiration for your social media strategy (and how it can feed your overall growth strategy), check out what they’re doing. And if you have other examples to share, we’d love to hear them!
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Posted by Jenny Brower on December 14, 2009 at 11:42 am
Filed under: Brain Candy for Health, Brain Candy for Wealth, Brain Candy for Wisdom
Tags: Coca-Cola, Facebook, Starbucks
The vast majority of professionals worldwide are using social technologies for business purposes, according to an August 2009 survey by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education, but most are not measuring return on their investment.
Determining the success of your social media efforts can be a big investment in and of itself, but there are a few basic measures that cost next-to-nothing. Here are a few:
- Track the growth of your various social media channels
- Record your unique blog page views
- Count the number of Twitter followers
- Watch Facebook Fan Page interactions
- Track unique website visitors
- Analyze traffic generated by SEO, Facebook events, Twitter promotions, etc.
- Track leads and monitor leads by source (inbound web, email, trade shows, seminars, etc.)
Start there. While some of these measures won’t necessarily translate into a hard-core ROI or measure the business value generated, you’ll at least be doing something. You can’t manage what you don’t measure.
What measures are you using?
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Posted by Donna Bowling on October 8, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Filed under: Brain Candy for Health, Brain Candy for Wealth, Brain Candy for Wisdom, Ramblings
Tags: Measurement, ROI, social media
Your marketing investment should do at least one of four things:
- Create awareness of your brand and its offering(s)
- Change perceptions of your brand in ways that will encourage someone to choose your brand
- Give incentives for someone to “buy” more of what you’re offering or choose your offering more frequently
- Make your brand more available and more accessible
So, how are you doing?
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Posted by Donna Bowling on October 6, 2009 at 9:14 am
Filed under: Brain Candy for Health, Brain Candy for Wealth, Brain Candy for Wisdom, Branding
Tags: marketing investment
We came across a link on Mashable about a soon-to-be-published book about social media policies.
While the folks at Mashable have produced a number of their own articles and guidelines about social media policy, they’re still recommending you take a peek at what other organizations may be doing: A good resource is available from Chris Boudreaux, author of the upcoming book, “Social Media Governance.”
The soon-to-be-released book has a website where you can actually review the policies of 82 organizations from big-business to non-profits. You can even upload your institution or organization’s policies if you so choose.
Of particular interest to us were the policies of the types of organizations we serve: Higher-ed and healthcare.DePaul, Harvard Law, Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic’s policies are currently included on Chris’ list.
Just curious?
- Do you have a social media policy?
- Who was responsible for creating the policy?
- Who should have been responsible for creating it?
- Can guidelines go too far?
Oh, here are links to a few of Mashables’s posts about Social Media Policy:
Happy policy-making.
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Posted by Donna Bowling on September 20, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Filed under: Brain Candy for Health, Brain Candy for Wisdom
Tags: Chris Boudreaux, Cleveland Clinic, Clinic, DePaul, mashable, Mayo, policy, social media, Social Media Governance, social media policy
Next week, September 21st thru September 25th is Advertising Week. Advertising Week is North America’s premier gathering of cutting edge communications leaders. The Week is a hybrid of thought leadership and special event programming, uniting clients, creatives, media and inspiring figures in the biz.
Can’t make the event? Well, you can still (sorta) participate. Visit here to vote for your favorite advertising icons and slogans. Each year, two slogans and two icons are voted-in.
Question. Last year’s winning slogans were “We Deliver For You” and “What Can Brown Do For You?” Without looking, can you let me know the organizations the taglines belong to? [Both are pretty darn easy.]
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Posted by Donna Bowling on September 17, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Filed under: Brain Candy for Health, Brain Candy for Wealth, Brain Candy for Wisdom, Branding
Tags: advertising, Advertising Week, icons, slogans, taglines
[Borrowed and edited a wee bit, yet strongly believed, from Cam Foote, editor Creative Business]
The main product of our business is our “mindpower” — creative solutions to the issues and opportunities facing our clients and prospects. And, good ideas — creativity — can be tough to define, or agree upon.
One person’s passion is often another’s poison. So, it’s no wonder that potential clients often ask us to take a project on speculation. That is: To “test” our creative product in much the same way they may try out other types of products before purchasing.
Unfortunately, we must turn down such projects. This [post] may explain why NOT doing spec work actually makes us a better, more stable and reliable partner for whom to do business.
It lets us keep our prices low
We make money mostly by selling our time. Unlike businesses that sell products, we can’t take time back and resell it. Thus, the less time we actually sell, the more we have to charge. So we attempt to hold our prices down by keeping busy.
We also have substantial fixed overhead costs — rent, utilities, computers, peripherals, software, etc. So the higher the percentage of our time that is productive (billable), the more we can spread those costs, and the less each individual client gets charged for them.
In addition, the only way we can recover our overhead costs is through what we charge our clients. If we accept speculative projects, the overhead for these non-billable hours would have to be added to the factor we charge our regular, long-term, appreciate, paying clients. We don’t think this would be fair.
We want to give you only our best
We are very proud of our track record of helping many different clients with many different challenges. In doing so, we have come to understand the crucial components in producing outstanding creative work.
First, outstanding creative work requires good, complete input from our clients. It takes time and effort that’s tough for them to justify unless they are committed to awarding an assignment. Yet without it, we can’t show how good we really are. Or our best effort may well be misdirected; a great shot that hits the wrong target.
Equally important, great creativity requires enthusiasm. We need to be excited enough to pour all our energy into a project. Frankly, that’s impossible without knowing whether we will be chosen to go all the way, or even get paid.
And, finally, developing creativity is very labor intensive. Although we wish it were otherwise, good work seldom comes in a flash of inspiration. Rather, it usually requires research and thinking time, then the working through of many different ideas and approaches. This makes it difficult or impossible to do good work in a compressed time frame.
Speculative projects, whether done by us or some other firm, usually require cutting every creative corner. That’s hardly in your best interests, or ours.
We’re a small firm, in business to stay
We hope our small size is what attracts many to our firm. Because we are small, you get to deal directly with those actually doing your work; there are no “middle-men” to muck things up. It also means we’re more flexible, and able to turn things around faster. We can offer better, more personal service, too. And, because our overhead is lower than that of the “big boys,” so are our fees.
Another reason for our success is that we are good business people
We know that a small business like ours (probably yours, too) has to watch costs carefully and can’t afford to give much away. If we weren’t careful — if we did give away our time — it is likely we wouldn’t be here next time you called, which means you’d have start all over again bringing someone else up to speed learning your business. We doubt you’d want that, and we know we wouldn’t. We believe we should both be looking to build a long-term, mutually-productive and cost-efficient business relationship.
Truth is, small organizations like ours can seldom afford to accept speculative projects. If you find one that will, be skeptical. They may be desperate.
As for larger organizations and agencies, yes they can afford to do speculative projects, and often do. But that’s the very point. If they do have the volume and staff that makes it a small risk for them, they’re probably too big to give you the personal service and outstanding creativity you’re searching for.
We hope you’ll give us the opportunity sometime soon to prove just how good we really are. In the meantime look at our portfolio. The work we have done for many other clients with many other challenges speaks volumes about our abilities.
Unless you’re willing to offer what you offer for free, don’t ask me to.
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Posted by Donna Bowling on September 1, 2009 at 10:00 am
Filed under: Brain Candy for Health, Brain Candy for Wealth, Brain Candy for Wisdom, Ramblings
Tags: spec work, speculative
Recent economic figures show the current recession is not letting up. Pain has spread to all sectors, and hospitals have been no exception.
The perfect storm of 2009 has meant less access to credit, softening patient volume, and decreased state funding for distressed Medicaid programs. “Batten down the hatches” might seem like a plausible tack. But In the midst of trouble, there is a better management strategy.
Hospitals should position themselves for better days ahead. And that strategy is plotted out in the cover story of the June H&HN magazine.
Preserve Cash on Hand
A recent AHA survey showed 59 percent of all hospitals are reporting moderate to significant decreases in cash on hand. That means CEOs and CFOs must be even more vigilant in watching income statements. Money out the door means of a buffer against current challenges.
Pare Back Capital Costs
It’s a given that major capital projects have been postponed. But even smaller capital expenditures should be minimized. Cut backs are rarely popular. Officers need to be effective communicators, consistently making the frugality case to medical staff and employees.
View Future Opportunities
Administrators should think about the right way to grow service lines. The key is recruiting clinicians for existing services, thus negating the need for expensive capital outlays. It helps that private physicians are weathering their own crises with their own private practices. In fact, a recent healthcare employment trend has shown a rising doctor preference for hospital employment.
Revisit Strategic Plan
Any plan will have to adjust for the ongoing effects of the nation’s credit crisis. To be sure, tough decisions can’t be avoided. But tough decisions today means some hospitals will emerge from the credit crisis of 2009 in an even stronger position.
Which of these – or other strategies is your organization implementing or considering?
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Posted by Jack Stenger on July 20, 2009 at 10:54 am
Filed under: Brain Candy for Health
Tags: healthcare
Across the country, hospitals are suffering. Patient revenues are down. Investment portfolios have tanked. Large capital construction projects are being delayed. Staff is being cut.
But despite recessionary times, hospitals are still hiring doctors. In other high end employment realms, even lawyers are getting pink slips, but docs are still very much in demand. The enduring competition for medical talent is examined in the June issue of Health Leaders magazine.
What’s behind the trend? The article “Help (Still) Wanted” offers one large explanation – the re-emergence of the employed physician model. For many younger physicians, hospital employment is preferred over private practice or work in a small physician group. Hospital employment can mean regular office hours, and greater consistency in fee-payment schedules.
Hospitals also get the nod, the article notes, because of prevailing occupational circumstances. Paperwork associated with the multi-insurer system sometimes can mean private practice physicians spend an inordinate amount of time in non-patient related activities. Also, Washington-led movements toward health payment structures have led more doctors to seek medical staff positions.
For hospitals, then, continuing physician recruitment remains a top priority. Strategic talent hires means growth in critical service lines like orthopedics, along with cardiac and cancer care. Keeping doctors on staff means these bottom-line friendly services are performed “in house.”
Tough times can translate into postponed capital improvements and painful layoffs for non-medical staff. But for hospitals with an eye toward better times ahead, physician hires today means a better positioned tomorrow.
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Posted by Jack Stenger on June 24, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Filed under: Brain Candy for Health
Tags: Health Leaders Media, physician employment
Have you heard about “The Rescue”? It’s a grassroots organization aimed at shining a spotlight on the humanitarian emergency — invisible children — occuring in Uganda. Uganda is facing Africa’s longest running war (23 years) with the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) led by a man named Joseph Kony. To make his point to the Uganda goverment he abducts children in middle of the night and turns them into child soilders. That’s the short version.
The team organizing “The Rescue” is using a similar marketing approach to that used by the Obama campaign. In a carefully orchestrated way, they are using text-messaging, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email, promotional gear and word-of-mouth to build buzz and share information about their cause.
A favorite blogger of mine, Rohit Bhargava, studied how “The Rescue” organizers are harnessing the power of viral marketing and even developed a slideshow entitled “8 Marketing Lessons: The Rescue Of Joseph Kony’s Child Soldiers Campaign” to illustrate their smart approach. Rohit developed this presentation because he appreciated the organizers’ marketing savvy. A savvy marketer himself, he also knew that by sharing his commentary on their marketing tactics, he could help them reach an even broader audience.
If you’re searching for good examples of how to develop an integrated viral marketing campaign, spend some time studying “The Rescue” effort. Now, let’s hope their good work made a difference.
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Posted by Jenny Brower on April 28, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Filed under: Brain Candy for Health, Brain Candy for Wealth, Brain Candy for Wisdom
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