0
For nearly two decades, I have heard hospital marketing executives complain about their exclusion from discussions of hospital operations. Either they are invited to their organization’s ops council to listen and learn, or they are excluded from these meetings altogether.
Smart hospitals are realizing that the people charged with watching over and protecting the brand must be included in operational discussions, because the brand and hospital operations are one. And, in an effort to better marry the brand experience with the brand promise, the really, really smart hospitals are going one step further by including marketing executives in ongoing quality improvement efforts.
Sound crazy? Think about it.
Every day, hospital brands are being more defined around quality. Report cards are everywhere: CMS, Leapfrog, HealthGrades, and J.D. Power, to name just a few. Top hospital lists are abundant, including rankings published by Modern Healthcare, Hospitals & Health Networks, and U.S. News & World Report. And then there is the high-profile quality curriculums offered up by The Joint Commission and Institute for Healthcare Improvement, which are constantly in the news.
That’s not all. Payers are moving toward reimbursement models that reward quality and penalize mistakes. Patients can look up readmission rates, infection rates, and mortality rates. And detailed physician information is available with the click of a mouse.
Quality is fast becoming the most dominant brand platform in healthcare. Which is exactly why marketing executives must get involved in quality improvement. As guardians of the brand, marketing executives represent the brand promise in the marketplace – which means they are now obligated to help fix the brand experience. As such, marketing executives must now, more than ever, roll up their sleeves and dig their hands into the muck of mire of hospital operations.
The brand should not be left to chance. And marketing executives should not be left on the outside of hospital operations looking in.
Back to top