The Forum for Healthcare Strategists is committed to helping you meet your needs for information on proven, customer-based marketing strategies. Let us know what topics you’d like to hear more about, whether through our monthly Webinars, our Healthcare Strategy Alert, or our discussion groups on Linked In. We also welcome your ideas for other products or services that can help you in your position. Leave a comment below, email the Forum at contact@healthcarestrategy.com, or call Judy Neiman at 312-440-9080, x24.

And, don’t forget that you can still benefit from the valuable information shared by your peers at the Fourteenth National Forum on Customer Based Marketing Strategies by ordering the conference CD-ROM. The CD-ROM includes audio plus handouts from the keynote and concurrent sessions. Use the Registration Form, or call 312-440-9080, x23, to order. (Cost is $110 for CBM attendees and $440 for non-attendees.)

Posted by Daniel Fell

If you’ve spent any time listening to NPR (National Public Radio) lately, then you’ve probably heard the recent underwriting messages from Angie’s List touting the web site’s wide range of professional reviews from contractors to healthcare providers. It’s just one more example of how popular healthcare ratings have become and how quickly the industry is changing.

Two other recent events include the introduction of Nursing Home Compare, a new five-star rating system for nursing homes by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, and the release of the first-ever list of “Highest Value” Hospitals prepared by The LeapFrog Group.

And, in an ongoing effort to keep up with the public’s insatiable appetite for all things healthcare quality, the American Hospital Association has joined with The HealthCare Leadership Council to help launch Healthcare in Focus, a web site highlighting what the healthcare field is doing to improve care.

If all this makes your head spin, you can take solace in knowing you aren’t alone. Healthcare executives across the country are feeling overwhelmed with the sheer number of third-party rating agencies, clinical and operational reporting responsibilities, and newly formed lists to be on (and those not to be).

One thing is clear however – providers will increasingly feel the pressure to compete on quality. Whether you take a proactive approach in building and promoting your quality messages or a reactive stance in positioning against competitors who tout theirs, the race to convince potential employees, health plans, and patients that you deliver high-quality care at a reasonable price is just getting started.

Oh, and did I mention that foreign hospitals can now apply for accreditation through the new Joint Commission International program? Guess Tom Friedman was right about that flat world thing after all.

Daniel Fell is Executive Vice President with Neathawk Dubuque & Packett. He will be presenting “Healthcare Quality: Meeting the Marketing Challenge” at the Fourteenth National Forum on Customer Based Marketing Strategies on Thursday, February 5, at 9:45am. 

We know that budgets are tight this year, and wanted to share a cost-saving strategy with you.  You can reserve rooms at Caesars Palace for less than the Forum’s negotiated room rates for the CBM conference.  However, the lower rates are only available on the Internet through Caesars Palace Hot Deals.

The rates will vary according to the day/time; the hotel controls the inventory based on total occupancy.  Today, for example, a Classic Room is available for $150, as compared to our rate of $229.  The Palace Tower Deluxe room is available for $210, as compared to our rate of $289.  NOTE: the meeting rooms are in the Palace Tower , so the Palace Tower rooms are closest to the meeting rooms.

Again, these rates are only available online, and are not available through the “call in” reservations number.  Therefore, if you are successful in obtaining the lower rates online, and if you have already reserved a room online, you will need to call and cancel your other reservations.  The number is 800-634-6661.

We understand that this is not “ideal.”  The hotel, however, has little experience with conference rates that are more expensive than the Internet rates.  Our conference, unfortunately, is one of the first to encounter the situation.  So, they won’t allow us to lower our conference rates.  As the Internet rates fluctuate, they are hoping that the total hotel occupancy will be high enough soon so they can increase their Internet rates.

So ACT FAST for the best rates!

Since 1996, the National Forum on Customer Based Marketing Strategies has identified important healthcare marketing challenges and tackled them head-on. The 2009 Forum continues this tradition.  Practical “how-to” sessions provide solid strategies for addressing the essential issues that occupy the thoughts and time of today’s healthcare marketing executives.  The Fourteenth National Forum on Customer Based Marketing Strategies, February 4-6, 2009, in Las Vegas, is your opportunity to examine the winning strategies from leading healthcare organizations while networking with your colleagues.

In today’s difficult economy, it’s more important than ever for marketers to make the case that marketing matters.  This conference is a great opportunity for healthcare marketers to gain practical knowledge to help their organizations weather the storm.  The conference agenda includes a mix of keynote sessions and more than 30 concurrent sessions that balance the skills and knowledge marketers need today with what they must know to prepare for “tomorrow.”

View the pages at the right for details on the sessions and speakers.  And leave comments below to let us know your thoughts before, during, and after the conference.

As always, this year’s Customer Based Marketing Forum features a broad array of proven case studies from leading health care organizations.  Here are just a few of the exceptional organizations you’ll be hearing from:

Baylor Health System (Dallas, TX)

BJC-Progress West HealthCare Center (O’Fallon, MO)

Carolinas HealthCare System (Charlotte, NC)

Cleveland Clinic Canada

Dartmouth-Hitchcock (Bedford, NH)

Henry Ford Health System (Detroit, MI)

Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN)

Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston, SC)

MedStar Health (Lutherville, MD)

Memorial Herrmann HealthCare System (Houston, TX)

NorthShore University Health System (Evanston, IL)

Saint Francis Medical Center (Cape Girardeau, MO)

San Juan Regional Medical Center (Farmington, NM)

University of Michigan Health System (Ann Arbor, MI)

View details on the Schedule pages at the right.