Medical Errors are O.K.

The following post is from Stephen Texeira. Good title, eh? It motivated you to read this far. How about this? I meant what I wrote up there. There is nothing wrong with medical errors; they are a part of doing business. In fact, they are necessary. Well now that I’ve gone way out on a [...]

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Index Means More Work for You

The following post is from Stephen Texeira. It’s never an easy thing to market a hospital. Whether you are facing stiff competition from a big, university-affiliated research center; cutbacks in reimbursement rates; unions jockeying for a better position; or the the memory of a not-so-distant negative press event, your job as a health care marketer [...]

How’s Your Crisis Communication Plan?

The following post is from Robin Texeira, an Associate of Wide Angle Communications. Everyone should be aware by now of the necessity of incorporating social media tools into their hospital’s marketing program.  What you may not have considered is how effective social media can be during a crisis. Innovis Health in Fargo, North Dakota, is [...]

Perspective

The following post is from Stephen Texeira. A recent article on Healthcare IT News, reported that web-based technology is playing a critical role in keeping tabs on the increasing number of swine flu cases around the world. It’s always good when the technology that we all take so much for granted can come to the [...]

Domino’s didn’t have a Twitter Account, do you?

The following post is from Stephen Texeira. Do you think that you and your hospital are equipped to respond to a potential online crisis within 24 hours? Are you sure that you’ll even know about it in 24 hours? Two recent online crises — one affecting Domino’s Pizza and the other Amazon.com — illustrate not [...]

Is Your Hospital Ready for a Flu Pandemic?

The following post is from Robert Polzoni. American health officials on Sunday declared a public health emergency over increasing cases of swine flu, confirming 20 cases in the United States and expecting to see more as investigators fan out to track down the path of the outbreak, according to an article in the New York [...]

Doing it right, doing it wrong

The following post is by Stephen Texeira. California Department Of Public Health Issues Administrative Penalties To 10 Hospitals That was the headline of an announcement from the DPH yesterday, and it came as sweet music to my ears. Not because I’m a cynical person who relishes the thought of hospitals having to pay fines, but [...]

Find a sad person

The following post is by Stephen Texeira. Do me a favor, okay? Next time the press calls about a tragic event at your hospital, make sure you put somebody on the phone who sounds just a little bit sympathetic about what happened. I don’t mean somebody who’s going to weep all over the reporter and [...]

Crisis Communications

The following post is by Phil Siegel, an associate with Wide Angle Communications. In every person’s lifetime, according to Andy Warhol, we will all enjoy at least 15 minutes of fame. In the world of crisis communications, it is our goal to reduce this number significantly. A poorly handled crisis like the Exxon Valdez remains [...]