Oakwood Hospital let a nurse go for posting remarks about a suspected cop-killer in her care. Per the dismissal:

“As healthcare providers, we have a legal and ethical responsibility to protect patient privacy and we are bound by HIPAA rules and regulations to ensure that we do so. All of our employees are trained and expected to protect patient information. This means keeping details confidential that might make it easy to identify a patient even if his or her name has not been revealed. That’s why disciplinary action, even termination, may result from sharing information about patients inappropriately in any public forum or setting.

While we cannot discuss specific details regarding any current or former employee, we all have a legal and ethical responsibility to put our personal opinions aside and provide the care required for any patient who has entrusted us with their health.”

The kicker was that the patient’s name was not revealed by the nurse, but by the news media. Where is the line between personal and professional in healthcare? Does this imply that HIPAA extends beyond the borders of the hospital but even into the homes of practitioners?

Come find our exhibitor table at FSHPRM on July 21st and 22nd to learn more about how MedTouch can help your organization improve its online presence. Ask about our summer webinar series.

We hope to see you there!

Sincerely,

Reneé Crane
Director of Business Development

First, we launched six websites:

• Exeter Hospital
• Sterling Health Plans
• Bassett Healthcare
• Massena Hospital
• HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Northern Virginia
• Partners Healthcare International

Then, we also won six awards for our clients:

• The University of Kansas Hospital: A Best in Class!
• Rochester General Hospital: 2 awards!
• Core Physicians
• Synergy Fitness
• Hudson Health Plan

In addition, we brought on three more new clients, added a fifth location, and even made a number of new hires, including our recent Vice President of Client Services, Sandra Fancher.

Wow!  That’s a lot!  We can’t wait to tell you everything we’re up to this quarter!

Kevin Robinson, Communications Director at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, a MedTouch client, will be speaking on Creating Culture Change: Managing Buy-In & Revamping Communications Systems. In 2008,  SVMC became the first hospital to win an Interactive Media Award for its physician recruitment website, aimed at engaging millennial doctors who’d graduated or completed residency after 2000 who would aprreciate the lifestyle and community offered at SVMC.

Come find our exhibitor table at NESHCo on May 25^th to learn more about how MedTouch can help your organization improve its online presence. Ask about our spring webinar series and upcoming SEO survey. MedTouch will also be sponsoring a hospitality suite from 9:30 – 11 pm.

We hope to see you there!

MedTouch Social Media Survey

ALL DAY CONFERENCE: Weds October 28th

Just because travel budgets are tight doesn’t mean you shouldn’t miss out.  Together with NESHCo, MedTouch brings you its first virtual conference.

Join us for a full day of topics that are hot on everyone’s mind right now. We’ll bring you all the goods on social media, search marketing, quality and transparency and we’ll cap it off with our finale session jam packed with information on making it all happen in the current recession.

Date: Wednesday, October 28
Time: 9:30 am -3:30 pm

Technical Needs: Just a computer and a phone

Cost: Pick one session, two sessions or stay all day. All for one low price.

$59 per log in for NESHCo members
$79 per log in for non members

Speical: $59 for everyone — use discount code MedTouch when registering.

Register: Click here.

Schedule at a Glance

Session Descriptions

9:30-10:45 am The Convergence of Healthcare and Social Media

Social media continues to be a hot topic but it can be overwhelming to determine what your organization wants to be in this social media world. Kel Kelly from Kel & Partners will begin with a Web 2.0 overview to offer a road map for social media strategy — everything from what social media is, why you should care and how you can get started. Then there will be a panel discussion of strategies for hospitals that want to harness the power of social technologies like blogs, social networks and YouTube. The panelists will discuss how to integrate social media into your communications plan through the review of case studies and dos and don’ts.

11:00 am-12:15 pm How Search Engines Continue to Transform Consumer ExpectationsWith 80% of Americans searching for health info online, search engines are influencing the healthcare conversation like never before.  This session will review the latest research on the intersection of health and search, explore why consumers are increasingly turning to online resources, and discuss how healthcare organizations can swim upstream to get out in front of key issues, such as quality ratings.  We will also offer tactical opportunities of reaching into the clickstream of search traffic and finding local consumers to you as well as how to pick battles you can win!

12:45-2:00 pm The Quality Mantra in Health Care

Quality has become a “mantra” in the health care field.  A great deal of time, effort and expense is being spent by provider executives on improving quality, measuring quality – and using quality as a comparative differentiator.  This strategic emphasis is creating marketing challenges for provider executives.  The rise of pay-for-performance and transparency initiatives has placed acute pressure on hospitals to track and elevate performance on a whole host of quality metrics.  In this presentation, we will review the quality movement and its implications for marketing and competitive strategy. We will also provide a few best-in-class examples of communicating care quality and leveraging transparency through external advertising, public relations, and community outreach efforts.  We will examine different ways providers use price as a marketing strategy including the pro’s and con’s of different approaches.  Finally, we will provide case examples of where quality and public quality ratings were used successfully as part of a marketing strategy – and where those efforts failed to achieve desired goals.

2:15-3:30 pm Marketing in Tough Economic Times

Research shows that recessions trigger rapid changes in market share – and those changes benefit marketers who sustain their media budgets during the downturn. The temptation may be to hold off on spending until the economy begins to revive but rather it’s time to keep your organization in the forefront of your consumers. So how do you make more out of your marketing and public relations efforts in these tough economic times? This panel will discuss marketing tactics during a recession, grassroots marketing efforts and making the most of free PR and media relations.

• The University of Kansas Hospital
• Alaska Physician Jobs
• Core Physicians

We have a few more waiting in the wings and we will let you know about those once they are done.

#1: Turn Traffic Into Appointments
Why Search Matters

With 80% of the American population performing healthcare research online, web marketing has gone mainstream. Search engines offer an unprecedented opportunity to reach people looking for services your healthcare organizations provides. By analyzing and increasing your search traffic, you can improve your organization’s profile online while driving transactions. This forty-five minute webinar is perfect for anyone struggle to keep up with their changes in search traffic and results.

Register: Wed, Jul 8 2pm EST | 1pm CST | Noon MST | 11am PST
Register: Thurs, Jul 9 Noon EST | 11am CST | 10am MST | 9am PST

#2: Best Practices in Social Media
A Research Update
As of June, 250 hospitals in the US are using social media.  But to what purpose?  And how are they measuring results?  This presentation – based on careful research rather than opinion – will highlight the best tool for healthcare organizations to generate traffic, what media children’s hospitals can exploit better than anyone else, and why crisis communications is a 24×7 job in a completely new way.   You’ll also learn why senior leaders demand ROI for these projects, how to provide it to them before asking for funding, and how this will dramatically change your staffing needs.

Register: Tue, Jul 14 3pm EST | 2pm CST | 1pm MST | Noon PST
Register: Weds, Jul 15 3pm EST | 2pm CST | 1pm MST | Noon PST

#3: The Good, the Bad, the Very Ugly
An Introduction to the Specific Challenges of Healthcare Website Design
Designing and reorganizing a website for a healthcare organization involves overcoming specific brand, organizational, and technical requirements. In this insightful webinar lead by our own Interactive Developer, you will come to appreciate the three essential principles of good web design, understand how to work within and around organizational barriers, and deliver a successful, attractive, and useful project.

New York, LA, and Chicago — the 1, 2, 3 of largest metros — are only going to grow by 10%.

Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta (4, 5, and 6) will grow about 50%.

As the Boomers retire to warm weather states, the change and impact to healthcare delivery services will be two fold. First, end-of-life care in these metro areas will boom, which has mixed financial results. Second, the migration of Boomers out of other (Northern/Mid-West) cities will reduce the baseline procedures that most healthcare systems rely on to stay in the black. (Heart, ortho, neuro, cancer, and peds/OBGYN.)

This suggests that we’ll see a clear two-tier health system emerge in the most rapidly growing cities — new buildings, new technology, new delivery mechanisms but likely only for those who can pay for it.

More about Metro growth here.