Quality Awards Playbook
10 Strategies to Make Your Quality Achievements Work For You
Congratulations!
In the ultra-competitive world of healthcare, your hospital has a competitive advantage – an award recognizing your superior hospital quality. You worked hard for it, now let it work hard for you. These are 10 proven strategies that hospitals have used to leverage their achievements:
1. Use Your Website as Your Trophy Case
Your hospital website is a part of the patient’s digital journey and must provide the right information at the right time.
Your awards provide a competitive differentiator. Displaying them prominently on your site can help strengthen your brand and drive new patients to your hospital.
Here are some examples of how to display your awards throughout your website:
- Create a landing page to expand upon your achievements.
- Highlight patient stories and your organizational commitment to outstanding quality.
- Drive visitors to this page through social campaigns and other promotional efforts.
- Make the links trackable so you can determine the channels that are most successful in driving traffic.
- Add your awards to your service line pages to highlight your excellence in specific specialties.
2. Unleash The Power Of Social Media
Social media is a powerful marketing tool. When used strategically, it can make a huge impact on an online audience.
- Create a social media campaign about your awards.
- Link to the landing page you created and drive visitors to the site by using patient stories or quotes in your social text.
- #usehashtags.
- Share photos of your clinical teams, hospital staff and executives who contributed to your achievement.
- Ask your employees to be a part of the conversation and like, share, or comment on social posts to expand the reach of your message.
We are proud to be named one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for 2023 by Healthgrades for the 4th consecutive year.
— SJMCTowson (@SJMCTowson) January 17, 2023
We owe this recognition to our team members’ unwavering dedication to providing compassionate, high-quality care to all those we serve. https://t.co/xWjHbLCX8p pic.twitter.com/VK0iltv4L2
Added Tip
Your call-to-action (“CTA”) in social-media posts is very important! Be creative and try not to use short generic CTAs like “Learn more,” “Click here” or “Read more.” Instead, try “See how we did it” or “Look what we accomplished!”
Common Hashtags
#PatientExperience
#AmericasBest
#PatientSafety
#QualityMatters
#healthgrades
#(your hospital)
#ExcellencelnQuality
3. Share Your Success in Print and in the Press
A strong media campaign brings awareness to your hospital, influences patients to appoint, and adds credibility to your achievements. Get the best coverage by making it easy for the media to tell your story.
Your campaign should include:
- Press materials detailing the awards, what they mean and – especially – the level of clinical excellence required to achieve them.
- Layout-ready copies of the award medallions.
- Proud quotes from both staffers and executives.
- A history of your facility, including any mergers, acquisitions, or name changes.
- Details about upcoming patient seminars, classes, or other community events.
- Patient stories and testimonials speaking to the great care delivered at your hospital.
- Media contact name and phone number.
Be sure to create a Press Center on your website to make all of the information easily accessible.
The easier you make it for the media, the more likely you are to receive coverage.
4. Throw a Party!
Your achievements are cause for celebration. Take the opportunity to recognize the people who made it happen and treat them to a nice event.
- Create sophisticated printed invitations (emailed invitations aren’t tangible and can easily be ignored).
- Invite everyone who has an impact on your hospital’s quality. That includes doctors, nurses, hospital leaders, volunteers, all hospital staff, and local and state leaders. Think about the people who make a difference in patient safety and clinical improvement.
- Make sure the CEO and other high-ranking hospital officials are prepared with a speech to accentuate the importance of this event.
- Include your achievements in a black tie or fundraising event to drive increased awareness and giving.
- Invite the press and prepare a digital press kit that contains coverage of the awards, the story of your hospital’s achievements, and a quote from your CEO or Chief Quality Officer. Be sure to hire your own photographer and videographer to document your event so you can use your own images and footage in future promotions.
Methodist Hospital | Stone Oak celebrated its staff and their commitment to providing safe, quality healthcare after being awarded one of America's 250 Best Hospitals by Healthgrades for 2023! #ExpertiseMatters #CareLikeFamily #SAHealth #MethodistHealthcareSA pic.twitter.com/z2U3qo4m73
— sahealth210 (@SAHealth210) February 21, 2023
5. Spotlight Your Care Teams
Make your dedication to quality known to qualified job seekers in your market and give your staff a much-needed boost.
Your quality award is even more than a reason to celebrate: it’s a recognition of the lifesaving efforts that made this achievement possible and a powerful motivator for health care professionals who are looking to join a top-of-the-line care team. Find out how you can leverage your award in your hiring and retention efforts.
The Healthgrades celebration helped boost morale among our team and brought further notoriety to our services provided in our community.
Cindy Farrand, President, Annie Penn Hospital
6. Deck the Halls
And the walls, lobby, the outside of the building, even your vehicles.
Give your patients peace of mind, your staff a source of pride, potential patients a reason to put you on their short list, and the community a reason to remember you! Publicize your awards throughout your hospital. Here are some examples of how you can promote your award in a decorative way:
- Wall and window clings, wraps or decals.
- Pop-up displays (free-standing banners).
- Elevator wraps.
- Bus/van/car wraps and clings.
- Billboards.
- Digital scrolling messages.
- Plaques placed in areas of congregation.
- Flags and banners.
7. Wear Your Awards on Your Sleeve
Show your pride and showcase your awards beyond the trophy case. Having these awards in front of patients and visitors is a great way to spark conversations about strong quality outcomes at your hospital. Creative ways to wear your awards include:
- Hospital ID badges or lab coats.
- Lapel buttons.
- Shopping bags.
- T-shirts for your staff.
8. Do Good Deeds
Sponsor people, charities, and events that are making a difference in the community. Attaching your name to community events can raise the profile of the hospital by driving interest and earned media coverage.
Make sure your sponsorship is clear, for example: YOUR HOSPITAL, one of America’s 100 Best for Cardiac Care™.
9. Share Your Experience
Have patients, physicians, nurses, and hospital leaders share their experiences and stories. These stories can be shared through all marketing channels available including personal accounts of patient and physician stories.
Patients can tell a story about their care experience in a testimonial.
Nurses can describe how they help patients through their entire care journey and create positive outcomes along the way.
Physicians can talk about how the hospital supports their efforts to provide the best possible care and why they are affiliated with your hospital.
Hospital leaders can outline the organization’s commitment to quality with a focus on patient-centric care.
10. Drive Continuous Quality Improvement
Not all hospitals and service-areas are recognized for excellence and there are often opportunities for improvement. Even award recipients have opportunities to continually improve their outcomes, which is why Healthgrades recently launched the Quality Insights Platform, a self-service dashboard that helps hospitals quickly identify key drivers behind their negative outcomes and implement targeted improvement strategies based on their own clinical data.
See how Healthgrades’ Quality Insights Platform can help your hospital reduce administrative workloads, avoid preventable complications, and make quality improvement a strategic advantage.