Leadership development programs in healthcare organizations: What they are and how to assemble them.

In the highly competitive, perennially-changing healthcare industry, management prowess is vitally needed by those in positions of authority, but in isolation it is insufficient for delivering optimal results. Instead, management proficiencies must be complemented by leadership skills which amplify managerial efforts and outcomes. One avenue for building leadership acumen in healthcare organizations involves the establishment of leadership development programs.

The leadership expectations statement: A simple tool for enhancing leadership in healthcare organizations.

Healthcare organizations are reliant on cadres of managers to oversee operations, ensuring the delivery of excellent patient care and accomplishment of institutional missions. These managers obviously must be well versed in the principles of management, but they also must be proficient in leadership. As leadership can take many different forms, healthcare organizations must take care in their associated leadership development efforts to ensure that they have a firm grasp on the precise leadership qualities needed within their given organizations.

Evaluating leadership development programs in healthcare organizations: A profile from practice.

To enhance leadership acumen and intelligence among the managerial ranks, many healthcare organizations establish leadership development programs. Doing so makes perfect sense as the caliber of leadership within health and medical institutions profoundly influences all aspects of operation. Although leadership development programs are very capable mechanisms for advancing the state of leadership within healthcare organizations, a notable enhancement-evaluation-is needed to maximize their potential.

Marketing communications in health and medicine: perspectives from Willis-Knighton Health System.

Background: Communications prowess is a key ingredient of productive healthcare delivery pursuits, with associated successes clearly positioning health and medical establishments for growth and prosperity. Many conveyance mechanisms are at the disposal of healthcare providers, permitting numerous opportunities for engaging current and prospective patients. For the best communicative outcomes, all must be considered when formulating marketing communications initiatives, with consideration first, of course, requiring that healthcare providers acquire an understanding of communications options and associated fundamentals.

Foundational elements of communication in health and medicine: avenues for strengthening the marketing communications mix.

Background: When one thinks of opportunities to engage patients, the marketing communications mix often is the first thing that comes to mind. Its five components of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing represent tried and true pathways for establishing productive dialogues with customers of healthcare institutions. But in formulating and deploying the marketing communications mix, health and medical establishments must not neglect foundational elements which play vital communicative roles, impacting the perspectives of patients and influencing associated patronage.

Integrated marketing communications: a strategic priority in health and medicine.

Background: Healthcare establishments portray themselves to their patient populations using many communicative mechanisms. Perhaps the first avenues that come to mind are the outward conveyances of the marketing communications mix, including advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing. But other prominent communicators also exist, including the people employed by healthcare institutions, the places in which services are delivered, and the brands that represent given establishments.

Reflecting on "Marketing communications in health and medicine: perspectives from Willis-Knighton Health System": understanding the big picture.

Background: Willis-Knighton Health System's special supplement in BMC Health Services Research, "Marketing communications in health and medicine: perspectives from Willis-Knighton Health System," focuses on advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and related communicative avenues, associated theory, and more. Across the supplement's articles, insights from the institution's experiences are presented, addressing the components of the marketing communications mix, foundational elements of communication, the patronage process, and the necessity for integrating marketing communications.

Discussion: As an understanding of the big picture is crucial in marketing communications, especially given that many of its components must be effected simultaneously, this particular article takes the insights provided in the supplement and presents them in an operational framework, demonstrating the marketing communications process.

Personal selling in health and medicine: using sales agents to engage audiences.

Background: Personal selling-the use of sales agents to personally deliver messages to target audiences-is often not the first conveyance pathway that comes to mind when thinking about marketing communications in the health services industry. This is not surprising given that sales force roles are not as public and prominent as other promotional avenues, such as advertising and public relations. Further, the titles held by those in sales-oriented roles in the health services industry are usually more discreet, carrying designations such as community liaison, business development officer, and the like.

Response hierarchy models and their application in health and medicine: understanding the hierarchy of effects.

Background: Successful patient engagement pursuits naturally require healthcare providers to possess a detailed understanding of their target audiences, with one of the most important processes to comprehend being the manner in which they learn about particular establishments and decide to extend their patronage. While health services patronage pathways vary between and among consumers, general patronage patterns exist which can provide enlightenment regarding this important process. Achieving knowledge on this front can help healthcare providers maximize opportunities to engage audiences and acquire all-important market share.

Sales promotion in health and medicine: using incentives to stimulate patient interest and attention.

Background: Sales promotion-the use of incentives to encourage patronage-is a staple of marketing communications in the health services industry. Sales promotion applications commonly used by health services organizations include free samples, free trials, coupons, contests, and loyalty programs. These avenues engender goodwill, appreciation, and attentiveness; they also serve as small, but powerful promotional mechanisms by reminding recipients of healthcare institutions, compelling particular actions, encouraging repeat business, or prompting some related desirable in an effort to hasten exchange and bolster loyalty.

Advertising in health and medicine: using mass media to communicate with patients.

Background: Advertising-a marketing communications method involving the paid use of mass media to deliver messages to desired audiences-represents one of the most common and effective avenues for engaging current and prospective patients. Although late to proliferate in the health services industry due to tradition, the medium of communication is now firmly established and routinely deployed by health and medical organizations far and wide. Despite widespread use, healthcare providers must take opportunities, when and where possible, to stay abreast of the latest details concerning advertising and its associated applications, increasing the likelihood of successful audience engagements.

Direct marketing in health and medicine: using direct mail, email marketing, and related communicative methods to engage patients.

Background: Direct marketing-the delivery of messages via mail, the Internet, and similar routes directly to consumers-is used extensively by healthcare organizations to attract and inform current and prospective patients of health and medical offerings and opportunities. Examples of direct marketing include direct-mail marketing, telemarketing, and Internet marketing, with routes being selected on the basis of their ability to reach desired audiences. The various avenues offered by direct marketing afford options to address most any sought group.

Public relations in health and medicine: using publicity and other unpaid promotional methods to engage audiences.

Background: Public relations-a marketing communications method involving the use of publicity and other unpaid promotional methods to deliver messages-historically has served as the communicative workhorse of the health services industry, representing the predominant pathway over many decades by which health and medical facilities conveyed stories to the public. While other components of the marketing communications mix, perhaps most notably that of advertising, have now captured a significant portion of interest, attention, and use by healthcare establishments, public relations remains a valuable communicative avenue when deployed properly.

Discussion: As an unpaid method of promotion, public relations is uniquely positioned among its counterparts in the marketing communications mix which require direct expenditures to reach audiences.

Catalyzing marketing innovation and competitive advantage in the healthcare industry: the value of thinking like an outsider.

Background: Marketing arguably is the most critical administrative responsibility associated with the pursuit and realization of growth and prosperity, making prowess in the discipline essential for any healthcare institution, especially given the competitive intensity that characterizes the industry. But in order to truly gain an advantage, healthcare establishments must tap into innovative pathways that their competitors have yet to discover. Here, thinking like an outsider can pay tremendous dividends, as health and medical organizations tend to focus inwardly, limiting their exposure to externally-derived innovations and advancements which often can supply differentiation opportunities.

Healthcare establishments as owner-operators of digital billboards: making the most of excellent roadside visibility and high traffic counts to better connect with patients.

Background: Given the importance of communicating effectively with current and prospective patients, healthcare institutions must direct considerable energies toward achieving associated excellence. Pursuits usually center on addressing the marketing communications mix properly, but in order to maximize communications prowess, attention also should be directed toward incorporating emerging communications innovations, when and where possible, to bolster opportunities to connect with patients.

Discussion: In pursuit of communications excellence, Willis-Knighton Health System's executives reflected on campus dynamics in the context of modern outdoor advertising technologies, namely, digital billboards, which present electronic advertisements on-demand, around-the-clock.

Driving brand equity in health services organizations: the need for an expanded view of branding.

Background: Branding-the assignment of names, logos, slogans, and related elements of identity to institutions and their product offerings for the purpose of conveying desired images to target audiences-is of paramount importance in the health services industry. Associated initiatives traditionally have centered on developing verbal and visual brand expressions, but opportunities abound to drive brand equity by supplementing traditional pursuits with new, different, and unexpected expressions that afford highly memorable experiences.

Discussion: Willis-Knighton Health System has possessed an expanded view of branding for decades.

Am I seeing things through the eyes of patients? An exercise in bolstering patient attentiveness and empathy.

Background: Modern marketing thought heavily emphasizes the need for healthcare providers to possess a customer orientation, placing patients at the focal point of attention within health and medical establishments. This has motivated significant investments in tools and techniques that foster outstanding service, attention, and support. Such investments in isolation, however, offer no guarantees that a true customer orientation will emerge.

Target marketing in the health services industry: the value of journeying off the beaten path.

Background: Target marketing, a practice used to more effectively address the wants and needs of customers, involves three interrelated activities: market segmentation, targeting, and product positioning. The practice follows a perfectly logical process. For a given offering, healthcare institutions select a desired group to pursue and arrange service characteristics and related attributes in a manner to entice that particular group to forward patronage and become customers.

Establishing Good Samaritan programs in healthcare institutions: a method for enhancing patient experiences and increasing loyalty.

Background: Healthcare institutions deliver essential services that practically everyone needs at least periodically over the course of their lives. Hospital admissions, in particular, place patients in circumstances very foreign to them, with uncertain outcomes often being the case, causing stress for care recipients and their loved ones. Health and medical establishments must be very mindful of this and work toward supplying environments that are as comforting as possible for those in their care.

Formulating productive marketing communications strategy: a major health system's experience.

Background: Healthcare establishments serve as key community resources, bringing into locales a wealth of resources aimed at enhancing and improving health and wellness. Without effective communications, current and prospective patients will remain unaware of available offerings, foiling opportunities for mutually beneficial exchange. Today, healthcare organizations engage audiences by selecting from among the components of the marketing communications mix, but this wasn't always the case.

Tithing programs: pathways for enhancing and improving the health status of the underprivileged.

Background: While quick and easy access to healthcare services is a reality for some, others experience significant hardships, even for receipt of the most basic health and medical care and attention. To those who effectively have been shut out of the healthcare marketplace due largely to economic deficiencies, healthcare providers engaged in the delivery of charitable services are a critical lifeline. Myriad attempts by governmental entities to remedy disparate access and shore up the delivery of healthcare services directed toward the disadvantaged have failed to close gaps, warranting pursuit of novel methods that offer potential and the hope that sufficient access might one day become a reality.

Bridging access gaps experienced by the underserved: the need for healthcare providers to look within for answers.

Background: Health and medical providers dedicated to serving the poor face daunting challenges, with the most obvious one pertaining to the provision of services with little or no expectation of remuneration. This hardship often is overlooked by broad society as many view the delivery of healthcare services to indigent populations to be covered fully by government health insurance programs or other forms of public assistance. This, however, is only partially true and, even when reimbursements or similar payments are provided, they often fall short of covering the actual costs associated with rendering services.

Advancing indigent healthcare services through adaptive reuse: repurposing abandoned buildings as medical clinics for disadvantaged populations.

Background: Challenges abound for healthcare providers engaged in initiatives directed toward disadvantaged populations, with financial constraints representing one of the most prominent hardships. Society's less fortunate typically lack the means to pay for healthcare services and even when they are covered by government health insurance programs, reimbursement shortcomings often occur, placing funding burdens on the shoulders of establishments dedicated to serving those of limited means. For such charitably-minded organizations, efficiencies are required on all fronts, including one which involves significant operational costs: the physical space required for care provision.

Billboard advertising: an avenue for communicating healthcare information and opportunities to disadvantaged populations.

Background: Healthcare communications directed toward the disadvantaged have the potential to elevate the health status of these underprivileged and highly-challenged individuals. From conveying advice which encourages healthy lifestyles to communicating the location and availability of various medical resources, healthier lives and communities can be realized. Success on this front first requires establishing an effective communications link, something that is made more difficult as communications options available to the disadvantaged are more limited than those available to advantaged populations.

The hub-and-spoke organization design revisited: a lifeline for rural hospitals.

Background: Characterized by declining populations, high poverty, reduced employment opportunities, and high numbers of uninsured residents, rural communities pose significant challenges for healthcare providers desirous of addressing these medically underserved areas. Such difficult environments, in fact, have forced the closure of many rural hospitals across America, with scores facing the same threat, compelling intensive efforts to identify pathways which will yield an improved future.

Discussion: Collaborations with stronger urban or suburban healthcare institutions offer a prudent avenue for rural hospitals to continue serving their patients.