Tag: Healthcare industry

2017 Healthcare Marketing Trends for Hospital Administrators

New Healthcare Trends Means New Advanced Ways to Help Patients
New Healthcare Trends Means New Advanced Ways to Help Patients

Healthcare is a constantly evolving industry. Medical technology becomes more advanced while doctors and other healthcare professionals adapt to the changing needs of patients. In turn, healthcare marketing faces the challenge of shifting gears to accommodate these changes.

Here are some of the more significant healthcare marketing trends of the upcoming year that you should incorporate in your program.

2017 Healthcare Marketing Trends to Watch

  • Consumers have become more active participants in covering their own healthcare costs, sending them online in search of information. Relevant and compelling content is the biggest factor that will set you apart from the competition.
  • As consumers become more knowledgeable, they are less likely to respond to generic, broad-based advertising. Digital marketing puts an unprecedented amount of data at your fingertips for use in personalizing your message for specific targets.
  • While “old school” computers are still widely used, Americans make the majority of their connections via smartphones. If your online presence isn’t optimized for mobile, you’re seriously behind the curve.
  • If a picture tells a thousand words, then video speaks volumes. YouTube, Facebook Live, Instagram and other platforms give you the opportunity to share video and streaming content that immediately captures interest.
  • Everyone’s lives are full with jobs, families and other commitments, so people have become less willing and able to bend their schedules. As a result, they look for prompt and convenient healthcare service, much like they do with retail businesses.

Powered Hospital Carts from DJ Products

Our powered hospital carts such as the CartCaddyLite let your employees move heavy loads safely and quickly without inconvenience to patients. Visit our website for more information.

 

Healthcare Workers Report Feeling Less Valued

Nurse assisting an elderly patient in hospital ward
Healthcare Workers are Under Valued

It’s no secret that healthcare workers have tougher jobs than many other people. A recent poll sheds light on the difficult situation: healthcare employees are about as happy with their jobs as anyone else, yet feel less valued and struggle with work-life balance.

For healthcare employers, job satisfaction impacts the bottom line most directly in the form of employee retention rates. Those in healthcare fields are 35% more likely to leave their job for a small raise, compared to workers in other industries. Improving morale often costs far less than the churn of training new employees.

The poll, conducted by TINYpulse, found:

  • Healthcare workers rate how much they feel valued at 10% lower than the general population.
  • Work-life balance is rated at just 5.87 on a 10-point scale.
  • Healthcare workers are less likely to say they would be a customer of their employer than workers in other industries.

The data suggests that healthcare workers like their jobs and enjoy helping patients, but are dissatisfied with workplace conditions and employer communications.

Supporting employees with communication and organization-wide tools appears to be the solution for improvement and worker retention.

Suggestions include:

  • Open communication with employees about job satisfaction
  • Provide healthcare equipment that makes the job less physically demanding
  • Address issues related to coworkers and the organization, not just individual performance

Healthcare equipment from DJ Products includes motorized hospital carts for moving linens, janitorial supplies, dialysis machines, and other heavy items that are otherwise pushed or pulled manually.

Ease the burden of healthcare workers who exert physical energy moving healthcare equipment — morale and worker retention may depend on it.

Hospitals as the Newest Entrepreneurs Bodes Well for Patients

Hospitals are the Newest Entrepreneurs.
Hospitals are the Newest Entrepreneurs.

Better patient care and innovative methods — hospitals today are finding these not only helpful but necessary to sustain business in the current healthcare market. Providers are shifting from a focus on maximizing the volume of services toward a new focus on improving the quality of services. 

U.S. News & World Report finds that an entrepreneurial trend has taken over at hospitals in order to innovate and thrive in this complex and competitive industry. Many hospitals are finding new CEOs in the form of industry outsiders or doctors with a distinctly entrepreneurial mindset.

Hospitals need innovative leaders to help manage the organization through a number of changes. The Affordable Care Act has drastically altered the payment model, and profitability depends on a new set of parameters. The public has more options than ever, including low-cost walk-in clinics at retailers and pharmacies. 

Ultimately, hospitals need radical changes and visionary business leaders to handle these changes and figure out how to deliver higher quality patient care with well-managed costs.

For patients, this means that healthcare providers are trying to lower the cost of care while also shifting the focus toward patient satisfaction. When the healthcare business model is value-based rather than volume-based, patients win.

One way that hospitals can lower costs and improve their bottom line: making day-to-day operations more efficient. At DJ Products, we make industrial tugs for hospital equipment carts so employees can move linen carts and heavy supplies faster and with less risk of worker injury. Over time, industrial tugs improve productivity and lower operating costs.

Visit DJProducts.com for more information about hospital cart movers and industrial tugs.

Healthcare Business Trend Projections for 2016

Friendly Male and Female Doctors Isolated on a White Background.
Healthcare

Healthcare spending has grown at slower rates in recent years, and that trend looks to continue in 2016 and beyond. PricewaterhouseCoopers has released new projections from its Health Research Institute that estimate 4.5% net growth in 2016 — a relatively steep drop from a decade earlier.

The HRI report examines key factors that are curbing medical spending:

  • Cost-sharing increases for patients reduce the likelihood of seeking treatment
  • Telemedicine offering virtual visits and reduced costs
  • Comparison shopping and health advisers steering patients to lower-cost services

Other factors are increasing health spending in non-traditional ways:

  • Increased data security expenditures
  • Incorporating a swath of new specialty drugs

Healthcare Consumers Shifting to Retail and Ambulatory Care

Hospital administrators need to redouble their efforts to reduce operating expenses in order to compete. Drugstore clinics and physician’s offices can offer similar care at reduced costs, luring patients away from hospitals.

Controlling Costs Key in a Competitive Market

Hospitals can take numerous short-term and long-term steps to reduce costs:

  • Educate the public and promote healthy lifestyles
  • Use data and analytics more strategically
  • Adopt virtual care options whenever possible
  • Leverage new tools and equipment

On that last point, we are seeing hospitals improve care with efficiency and quality using equipment such as motorized hospital carts. Better tools for employees can streamline daily operations while also enhancing patient care. For example, motorized hospital carts may boost employee morale and help retain talented staff.

The decisions made now can help position your healthcare facility for better profitability in the volatile times ahead. For more info on motorized hospital carts and other tools to boost efficiency, visit DJProducts.com.