Your hospital’s doctors and nursing staff work hard to provide high quality care — why not emphasize that in your marketing messaging? Here are five tips for marketing hospital quality.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), quality of care embodies six pillars — safety, efficiency, timeliness, equity, integration, and patient-centeredness. Hospital staff must provide safe, individualized healthcare that reflects each patient’s unique health profile and socio-economic background to earn high marks in hospital quality.
Quality is a key differentiator for U.S. patients, 57% of whom report feeling more concerned with their quality of care now than they were pre-pandemic. As a result, third-party hospital quality awards are now a top consideration for consumers searching for high quality care, and for good reason. Patients treated at one of America’s 250 Best Hospitals between 2021 and 2023 had a 31.4% lower risk of dying than patients treated in hospitals that did not make the list.1 Showcasing your hospital’s tradition of excellence shows patients that quality of care is your top priority, boosting patient trust and driving long-term conversion and retention.
To keep your hospital’s stellar performance at the forefront of consumers’ minds when they shop for healthcare, follow these best practices for incorporating hospital quality into your marketing messaging.
Making Hospital Quality a Marketing Priority
A hospital’s performance speaks for itself, but glowing patient reviews and quality awards certainly help amplify that message. Still, you shouldn’t stop at receiving praise–you should actively promote it. Here are five ways to maximize your hospital’s outreach by emphasizing its quality of care:
- Underline the Patient Experience: Health care is personal, and patients expect hospital staff to be compassionate and understanding when they feel most vulnerable. One study found that positive testimonials sway 72% of consumers, which makes favorable patient reviews a valuable tool in your digital arsenal. Incorporate anecdotes from patients who’ve benefited from your hospital’s care into your social media and website campaigns to bring awareness to your exceptional care and place your hospital on patients’ radars.
- Use Social Media as a Display Wall: Our world is digital, so take advantage of it! Share your hospital’s achievements with followers on social media by showing behind-the-scenes glimpses of how your hospital staff made it happen. Use hashtags and link these posts to your website’s landing pages and press releases for easy routing.
- Incorporate Quality as a Recruiting Tool: Patients aren’t the only ones swayed by hospital quality: a recent NEJM survey found that an employer’s reputation for quality outcomes and excellent clinical support/medical staff rank among the top five most important differentiators for physicians during their job search. By promoting your hospital’s reputation for providing high quality care, you can build an elite team of doctors that will drive patients to your hospital.
- Celebrate Your Star-Studded Team: Recognize your hospital staff for all they do to keep patients happy, healthy, and safe. Taking the time to uplift and shout out nurses, doctors, administrative staff, and other pivotal team members can go a long way toward boosting retention and acquisition rates. Show your patients who might be on their care team when they visit your hospital—studies show that 74% of patients will applaud your authenticity.
- Harness the Power of a Third Party: Behind physicians, health information websites are America’s most trusted resource for accurate health and wellness information, which makes finding outside support an essential part of your brand awareness strategy. Position a physician as a thought leader and have them speak to publications on a particular health topic, or license a third-party hospital quality award to lend credibility to your quality promotions.
Keeping quality as the core focus of your marketing and operational efforts will show patients how committed you are to providing the best possible care.
Maintaining a High Quality of Care with Healthgrades
Whether your health system is looking to differentiate its high quality care or enhance its ongoing improvement efforts, the Healthgrades Quality Solutions Team is here to help.
Promoting your Healthgrades quality awards reinforces your commitment to quality care, builds trust, and attracts more quality-conscious patients. Healthgrades’ trusted hospital rating and award system is based on the industry’s most scientific and comprehensive outcomes-focused data. Healthgrades analyzes and rates the clinical performance of approximately 4,500 hospitals nationwide across more than 30 of the most common procedures and conditions, empowering patients with the information they need to identify and select a top-performing hospital.
Even award recipients have opportunities to continually improve their outcomes, which is why Healthgrades recently launched the Quality Insights Platform. This self-service dashboard helps hospitals quickly identify key drivers behind their adverse outcomes and implement targeted improvement strategies based on their own clinical data. Schedule a free demo today to see how Healthgrades’ Quality Insights Platform can help your hospital reduce administrative workloads, avoid preventable complications, and make quality improvement a strategic advantage.”
To keep patients coming back, don’t take quality for granted. Contact with our team today to see how your hospital’s quality of care measures up and learn what you can do to keep striving for excellence.
1 Statistics are based on Healthgrades’ analysis of MedPAR data for years 2021 through 2023 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only.
