On the 8th Day of #HITChristmas … Amy Jose and Spectrum Healthcare Partners

Note: In case you missed the other 12 Days of #HITChristmas, you can start with the first day here along with the story behind #HITChristmas or read all 12 days here as they are published.

On the 8th Day of #HITChristmas we’re excited to feature, Amy Jose and Spectrum Healthcare Partners.

Tell us about yourself and your work at Spectrum Healthcare Partners

I’m an Integrated Marketing Strategist at Spectrum Healthcare Partners. Our marketing team is responsible for internal and external communications, public relations and marketing efforts for a physician-owned, multi-specialty independent organization comprised of over 200 physicians, and 500 advanced practice providers, other clinicians and supporting administrative staff providing services throughout Maine and northern New England. Our team is small so we each wear several different hats, but much of what we do is working to position ourselves to stay relevant among hospital systems despite us not being a hospital.

We have hospital-based physicians and orthopaedic physicians and surgeons, all focused around providing cost-effective, high quality care. Our orthopaedic team is four groups merged together within the last 5 years, so aligning internal cultures is another one of our focuses. I work on implementation of programs that contribute to those organizational goals. We are responsible for our philanthropic initiatives as well, Spectrum donates over $400,000 annually to various local and statewide charities, so we represent the organization at events throughout the state to increase brand awareness and promote our communities to live an active lifestyle. Additionally, I do a majority of our graphic design, which we’ve brought in house over the past year, and support our Director of Marketing with planning and implementation of other strategic initiatives.

What’s the most exciting project you’ve worked on and why did you enjoy it so much?

The most exciting project I’ve worked on is the launch of our rebrand and switch from Spectrum “Medical Group” to “Healthcare Partners.” The rebrand brought each of our specialties under one umbrella and one unified brand mark, eliminating both internal and external confusion about how each separate brand worked together. Integrating hospital and clinical cultures is challenging and this was a great first step. We were able to give our brand a fresh, crisp, new look and work with several of our divisional groups to encourage them to become advocates for the new brand. Aligning our divisions like this is exciting for the future of Spectrum because instead of constantly trying to explain how we worked together, we can now be focused on how our specialties can package services together to provide patients with a more comprehensive experience. And better position ourselves to be a resource that supports both our employees and communities to be active and take steps towards healthier lifestyles.

What patient trends are you seeing in the industry and what are you doing to take advantage of these trends?

The desire for value-based care has hospitals and physician groups nationwide focusing on the transition from fee-for-service to value-based care in efforts to simplify the consumer journey. Consumers have a desire for the most convenient and cost-effective care that lives up to their expectations and we, as healthcare marketers, must let them know that our organization is going to provide that. We are expanding the locations in which we offer our orthopaedic walk-in clinic, we are the only one in the state that allows patients to see an orthopaedic specialist immediately. We are concentrating on how we can improve the consumer journey, from before they enter our system of care and after their visit is over as well. This starts with the digital world and how consumers are hearing about us. They want to be able to visit a website, schedule an appointment, see their health information electronically, and they have to be able to find what they are looking for within 3-4 clicks. We are revamping our website to try and provide a better experience. Another piece of the consumer experience pie comes from working to create a better work environment where employees feel valued and satisfied with their jobs. A happy employee is likely to deliver a better experience to a patient, so our efforts to improve internal culture and employee experience directly impact patient experience.

Why is working in healthcare marketing a challenge?

Working in healthcare marketing is challenging because the marketing and healthcare industries independent of each other are in a constant state of innovation and advancement. There is a need to simultaneously focus on both short and long-term goals. I once heard someone (who is far more credentialed than myself) say that even the best healthcare marketers in the country can’t measure ROI in its entirety. Reporting on ROI continues to be a challenge to gain buy-in from upper level management and to show the impact that marketing can have organization-wide. It’s also our job to educate our physicians on the importance of each digital experience, and how influential a positive website experience is for contributing to patient acquisition and retention. Often this is challenging because of the hesitation from physicians and key stakeholders to put more dollars into a marketing budget for parts of the marketing plan that won’t provide them with immediate insights into results.

What’s the best use of technology you’ve seen in healthcare marketing and why?

I think that having a comprehensive CRM is one of the greatest ways to use technology. We live in a digital world and a CRM is a solution for marketers to send personalized messages to a targeted audience based on behaviors and other demographics. The CRM can pull so much information about a person that it’s almost creepy! Not only location or behavioral habits but also health history data, digital habits such as TV stations watched or websites visited, financial data, personal data such as age or timeframe when someone moved into a certain location demographic, the list goes on. Additionally, it combats some of the previously mentioned challenges in measuring and reporting ROI for marketing efforts that directly influence the consumer journey.  The transition to value-based care will require data-driven insights to make decisions and as the shift towards more and more becoming artificial intelligence-based, a CRM can help to provide some of these insights.

In Greys Anatomy, what’s your favorite scene or character and why?

Favorite character is easy, Cristina Yang. The cliché answer that makes the most sense would be to say Meredith, obviously because she is married to Derek Shepherd, but Cristina is just a badass. From sticking up for herself to her residents tirelessly when she is just an intern, to saving her best friend’s husband’s life while being held at gunpoint when she is still only a resident, she works flawlessly under pressure, stays calm and is confident in her abilities to do her job. She is so focused on her work, she struggles at times to find the time for a relationship but expresses that she loves being married to her work and doesn’t need one or that she won’t have someone that doesn’t support that piece of her. She acts so tough on the surface and has a little bit of Olivia Pope in her (that’s my Scandal reference, for those of you who have seen even just one scene with Olivia, you know that’s a compliment), but really is soft and loves her people. When she’s nominated for the Harper Avery Award, she insists that she goes alone and that she doesn’t need anyone there because she might not even win. She arrives to the ceremony and wishes that Meredith and Owen were there, calls Meredith to express that and finds out that they are both there to surprise her, and are already waiting for her at their table. She’s confident, brilliant, talented, sassy and hilarious. Basically, I want to be her.

What can the healthcare IT community do to help you and Spectrum Healthcare Partners?

For Spectrum, the healthcare IT community can continue creating opportunities for like-minded people to connect and grow by collaboration of thoughts to further our education on the tools and platforms that will (and already are!) simplify the patient journey and improve healthcare delivery for our patients. Personally, this community has consistently provided me with valuable and relevant content that I often find myself applying in my everyday work. Healthcare marketing and IT is definitely a challenge at times, but so many of the relationships I’ve built over the past few years through conferences and the amazing agencies we get to work with really motivate me to continue learning and working in this field. The #twitter community too – One of my favorite things is getting to meet someone in person that I’ve talked to on twitter and recognizing each other from these chats!

Be sure to follow all of the 12 Day of #HITChristmas.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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