Public relations in health and medicine: using publicity and other unpaid promotional methods to engage audiences.

BACKGROUND: Public relations-a marketing communications method involving the use of publicity and other unpaid promotional methods to deliver messages-historically has served as the communicative workhorse of the health services industry, representing the predominant pathway over many decades by which health and medical facilities conveyed stories to the public. While other components of the marketing communications mix, perhaps most notably that of advertising, have now captured a significant portion of interest, attention, and use by healthcare establishments, public relations remains a valuable communicative avenue when deployed properly. DISCUSSION: As an unpaid method of promotion, public relations is uniquely positioned among its counterparts in the marketing communications mix which require direct expenditures to reach audiences. Typically effected by preparing and submitting press releases to news media firms in hopes that they, in turn, will present given stories to their audiences, limitations are somewhat obvious as transmission control rests with external entities. But overcoming limitations is possible with prudent strategies. This article presents Willis-Knighton Health System's associated strategies, along with a range of public relations insights from decades of deployment experience. CONCLUSIONS: Prudently deployed and led by guiding strategies, public relations offers health and medical organizations opportunities to engage audiences in an efficient and highly credible manner. Courtesy of its unique properties, public relations capably can complement other marketing communications, operating synergistically to help healthcare institutions achieve their conveyance goals, fostering exchange and bolstering market share. Careful operationalization of this marketing communications avenue can help healthcare establishments realize their full communicative potential.

Direct marketing in health and medicine: using direct mail, email marketing, and related communicative methods to engage patients.

BACKGROUND: Direct marketing-the delivery of messages via mail, the Internet, and similar routes directly to consumers-is used extensively by healthcare organizations to attract and inform current and prospective patients of health and medical offerings and opportunities. Examples of direct marketing include direct-mail marketing, telemarketing, and Internet marketing, with routes being selected on the basis of their ability to reach desired audiences. The various avenues offered by direct marketing afford options to address most any sought group. DISCUSSION: Direct marketing is one of the most recognized forms of marketing communication, thanks in large part to its widespread use and direct engagement of consumers. While some applications clearly have the potential to irritate consumers (e.g., junk mail in post boxes, spam in email inboxes), direct marketing can be deployed in manners respectful of recipients and, in such cases, it can prove to be a helpful communications asset. To aid others in understanding this particular conveyance method, this article presents an overview of direct marketing and shares deployment insights and experiences from Willis-Knighton Health System. CONCLUSIONS: Direct marketing provides a useful communications pathway, permitting health and medical institutions to educate and enlighten desired audiences. Given instances of overuse and misuse by organizations, however, great care must be taken to design and deploy direct marketing initiatives inoffensively. If well designed and respectfully implemented, direct marketing affords significant communications utility, earning a valued place in the marketing communications arsenals of healthcare establishments.

Advertising in health and medicine: using mass media to communicate with patients.

BACKGROUND: Advertising-a marketing communications method involving the paid use of mass media to deliver messages to desired audiences-represents one of the most common and effective avenues for engaging current and prospective patients. Although late to proliferate in the health services industry due to tradition, the medium of communication is now firmly established and routinely deployed by health and medical organizations far and wide. Despite widespread use, healthcare providers must take opportunities, when and where possible, to stay abreast of the latest details concerning advertising and its associated applications, increasing the likelihood of successful audience engagements. DISCUSSION: Maintaining an awareness of current developments in health services advertising can be facilitated by acquiring operational perspectives and practices from peer institutions. Most any healthcare provider can benefit from experiential views as they can shape and hone advertising approaches. Gaining such insights can be difficult, given competitive sensitivities, but occasionally healthcare institutions are compelled to share knowledge in published accounts, with this particular article following suit. Specifically, insights and experiences from Willis-Knighton Health System's extensive and historic use of advertising are shared, bolstering the experiential accounts available in the literature and supplying operational guidance for health and medical providers. CONCLUSIONS: Advertising, if well devised and deployed, offers healthcare providers opportunities to dramatically improve their fortunes by successfully engaging current and prospective patients, hastening exchange and building vital market share. In pursuit of advertising excellence, health and medical establishments can bolster associated endeavors by tapping into the experiences of other healthcare providers, permitting insights which might potentially be incorporated into communicative pathways. This account sheds light on the advertising operations of a major health system, supplying food for thought for the advancement of advertising acumen.

Sales promotion in health and medicine: using incentives to stimulate patient interest and attention.

BACKGROUND: Sales promotion-the use of incentives to encourage patronage-is a staple of marketing communications in the health services industry. Sales promotion applications commonly used by health services organizations include free samples, free trials, coupons, contests, and loyalty programs. These avenues engender goodwill, appreciation, and attentiveness; they also serve as small, but powerful promotional mechanisms by reminding recipients of healthcare institutions, compelling particular actions, encouraging repeat business, or prompting some related desirable in an effort to hasten exchange and bolster loyalty. DISCUSSION: Sales promotion offers myriad opportunities for healthcare providers to connect with audiences. While limited in their power to attract broad audiences when used in isolation, sales promotion avenues used in tandem with other marketing communications create helpful engagement synergies which amplify conveyance initiatives. This article presents an overview of sales promotion and notably shares deployment insights and experiences from Willis-Knighton Health System, permitting peer healthcare establishments to view associated pathways, reflect on their own sales promotion efforts, and potentially bolster initiatives with the perspectives supplied herein. CONCLUSIONS: Sales promotion offers healthcare providers a complementary communications avenue, helping to reinforce other elements of the marketing communications mix, affording opportunities to develop better connections with patients. In formulating associated communication plans, health and medical establishments should be reminded of the benefits offered by sales promotion and especially strive to effect creative applications that build interest and attention. By doing so, opportunities to bolster patient volume and increase all-important market share abound.

Response hierarchy models and their application in health and medicine: understanding the hierarchy of effects.

BACKGROUND: Successful patient engagement pursuits naturally require healthcare providers to possess a detailed understanding of their target audiences, with one of the most important processes to comprehend being the manner in which they learn about particular establishments and decide to extend their patronage. While health services patronage pathways vary between and among consumers, general patronage patterns exist which can provide enlightenment regarding this important process. Achieving knowledge on this front can help healthcare providers maximize opportunities to engage audiences and acquire all-important market share. DISCUSSION: The discipline of marketing, in part, focuses on customer engagement practices and, in describing the patronage process, it often uses what are referred to as response hierarchy models. Also known as hierarchy of effects models, these representations can help healthcare providers to understand the course through which individuals become customers of given establishments, aiding them particularly in devising appeals that can accelerate the patronage process. This particular article describes response hierarchy models, presents examples, and discusses the benefits that they offer healthcare institutions in their efforts to engage patients. CONCLUSIONS: As institutional viability and vitality are predicated on abilities to successfully attract and retain patients, healthcare establishments must direct keen attention toward developing associated skills. This necessitates that health and medical providers possess a detailed understanding of their target audiences, notably including the stages through which they pass on their way to becoming patrons. Response hierarchy models present the patronage process, depicting given stages, permitting insights which can assist healthcare providers in their quests to hasten desired exchange and capture market share.

Personal selling in health and medicine: using sales agents to engage audiences.

BACKGROUND: Personal selling-the use of sales agents to personally deliver messages to target audiences-is often not the first conveyance pathway that comes to mind when thinking about marketing communications in the health services industry. This is not surprising given that sales force roles are not as public and prominent as other promotional avenues, such as advertising and public relations. Further, the titles held by those in sales-oriented roles in the health services industry are usually more discreet, carrying designations such as community liaison, business development officer, and the like. Regardless of title, sales roles involve personally interacting with desired audiences to compel some sort of action, adding a vital form of communication that bolsters engagement opportunities. DISCUSSION: Personal selling plays a critical role in the promotion of health services organizations. Perhaps most obviously, it is distinguished from its counterparts in the marketing communications mix by its use of people to deliver messages to desired audiences. Associated titles, duties, and expectations vary widely between and among those healthcare entities which make use of personal selling, as there is no pat formula for deployment within health services environments. To shed light on personal selling, this article presents an associated overview through the lens of Willis-Knighton Health System, sharing practical insights and experiences which can assist peer healthcare establishments in understanding, shaping, and honing sales roles within their own facilities. CONCLUSIONS: Taking advantage of the utility afforded by direct, personal interactions with audiences, personal selling provides a helpful communications resource that better enables healthcare providers to connect proficiently with target markets. It supplements other forms of marketing communication, operating synergistically to help healthcare institutions achieve their conveyance goals. Prudent deployment of this unique marketing communications method affords health and medical institutions with a capable conveyance asset that can provide great assistance in achieving communicative ambitions.

Reflecting on "Marketing communications in health and medicine: perspectives from Willis-Knighton Health System": understanding the big picture.

BACKGROUND: Willis-Knighton Health System's special supplement in BMC Health Services Research, "Marketing communications in health and medicine: perspectives from Willis-Knighton Health System," focuses on advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and related communicative avenues, associated theory, and more. Across the supplement's articles, insights from the institution's experiences are presented, addressing the components of the marketing communications mix, foundational elements of communication, the patronage process, and the necessity for integrating marketing communications. DISCUSSION: As an understanding of the big picture is crucial in marketing communications, especially given that many of its components must be effected simultaneously, this particular article takes the insights provided in the supplement and presents them in an operational framework, demonstrating the marketing communications process. This framework concisely summarizes the facets profiled in the associated articles, permitting readers to see how these pieces work in concert with one another in health and medical settings, providing a basic communications structure which healthcare establishments can use to advance their patient engagement initiatives. CONCLUSIONS: Health and medical providers must ensure that they possess a detailed understanding of core marketing communications facets, but as they acquire associated knowledge, they also must direct attention toward understanding the interrelationships between and among these facets, permitting a global perspective of communicative operations. This particular article summarizes insights from Willis-Knighton Health System's special supplement in BMC Health Services Research, providing a pathway toward realizing big picture marketing communications perspectives.

Integrated marketing communications: a strategic priority in health and medicine.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare establishments portray themselves to their patient populations using many communicative mechanisms. Perhaps the first avenues that come to mind are the outward conveyances of the marketing communications mix, including advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing. But other prominent communicators also exist, including the people employed by healthcare institutions, the places in which services are delivered, and the brands that represent given establishments. This wide variety of communicative mechanisms is somewhat of a mixed blessing, affording myriad options, but also necessitating extra care and attention in developing associated marketing communications. DISCUSSION: Now more than ever, health and medical establishments have at their disposal communications options capable of addressing most any conveyance want or need. The marketing communications mix, once somewhat limited due to industry tradition, is now fully accessible and widely used in the health services industry, providing immense opportunities to connect with patients. Options for signage, building designs, servicescape amenities, employee uniforms, and the like also are teeming, providing myriad avenues for making positive impressions. But burgeoning options while beneficial also intensify obligations for ensuring that marketing communications are properly integrated, with this particular article describing this imperative need and its implications for communicative success in the healthcare industry. CONCLUSIONS: By integrating marketing communications, health and medical providers are able to create synergies between and among selected conveyance mechanisms, amplifying performance and increasing the likelihood of reaching communicative goals. Achieving such cohesion requires devoted planning in an effort to coordinate verbal and visual manifestations to express desired imagery and appeals to target audiences. As extensive benefits are derived from integrated marketing communications, healthcare establishments should consider associated pursuits to be a strategic priority.

Foundational elements of communication in health and medicine: avenues for strengthening the marketing communications mix.

BACKGROUND: When one thinks of opportunities to engage patients, the marketing communications mix often is the first thing that comes to mind. Its five components of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing represent tried and true pathways for establishing productive dialogues with customers of healthcare institutions. But in formulating and deploying the marketing communications mix, health and medical establishments must not neglect foundational elements which play vital communicative roles, impacting the perspectives of patients and influencing associated patronage. DISCUSSION: Many things communicate on behalf of healthcare organizations, including the people employed by them, the places in which they deliver services, and the brands that represent them. As foundational elements of communication, these must be addressed prior to formulating the marketing communications mix, as they influence and impact an institution's entire communicative potential. Their initial development, however, is just the beginning, as these elements must be managed and maintained continually over the course of organizational life. This article profiles foundational elements of communication and discusses their importance in healthcare marketing, generally, and marketing communications, specifically, providing useful insights for maximizing communicative synergies. CONCLUSIONS: Given the importance of engaging current and prospective patients, healthcare establishments must take steps to ensure exceptional prowess in this area, with communicative skills and abilities being of paramount importance. Proficient deployment of the marketing communications mix is essential, but healthcare providers must also be certain to direct attention toward foundational elements, ensuring that given institutions realize their full communicative potential.

Marketing communications in health and medicine: perspectives from Willis-Knighton Health System.

BACKGROUND: Communications prowess is a key ingredient of productive healthcare delivery pursuits, with associated successes clearly positioning health and medical establishments for growth and prosperity. Many conveyance mechanisms are at the disposal of healthcare providers, permitting numerous opportunities for engaging current and prospective patients. For the best communicative outcomes, all must be considered when formulating marketing communications initiatives, with consideration first, of course, requiring that healthcare providers acquire an understanding of communications options and associated fundamentals. DISCUSSION: In pursuing knowledge of communications options and related guidance, healthcare providers can benefit greatly by gaining operational perspectives from peer institutions. Over many decades, through scores of deployments, Willis-Knighton Health System has acquired significant communications prowess, prompting development of this special supplement in BMC Health Services Research, entitled "Marketing communications in health and medicine: perspectives from Willis-Knighton Health System," with this particular article supplying a brief profile of the contents included in the associated supplement. Across the pages of the collection of articles contained in the supplement, attention specifically is directed toward the components of the marketing communications mix, foundational elements of communication, the patronage process, and the necessity for integrating marketing communications. CONCLUSIONS: Establishing an effective dialogue with current and prospective patients is an absolute necessity for healthcare organizations, warranting intensive efforts to master marketing communications. Given the imperative for excellence in marketing communications, it is hoped that the light shed by this supplement and its collection of articles will help healthcare providers better understand marketing communications and deploy associated initiatives successfully, affording greater patient engagement opportunities.

Formulating productive marketing communications strategy: a major health system's experience.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare establishments serve as key community resources, bringing into locales a wealth of resources aimed at enhancing and improving health and wellness. Without effective communications, current and prospective patients will remain unaware of available offerings, foiling opportunities for mutually beneficial exchange. Today, healthcare organizations engage audiences by selecting from among the components of the marketing communications mix, but this wasn't always the case. There was a time not long ago when communications options were limited due to industry traditions, creating associated challenges. DISCUSSION: Willis-Knighton Health System faced a communications dilemma in the 1970s when, as a small healthcare provider desirous of growth, it could not achieve a satisfactory media presence via the usual and customary route of the day: submitting press releases to news media organizations, requesting conveyance of associated stories to their audiences. This forced the institution to explore other possibilities, ultimately leading it to experiment with and embrace advertising at a time period when its use was generally shunned in the industry. Willis-Knighton Health System's pioneering deployment of advertising helped the institution achieve its intended promotions goals, supplying mutual benefits and affording insights which influence its communications approach to this day. CONCLUSIONS: Deploying advertising years in advance of its widespread acceptance and use in the healthcare industry, Willis-Knighton Health System forged new pathways and acquired experience which fostered provider-patient engagement initiatives, affording an enduring marketing communications approach. Challenging situations are quite common in the healthcare industry and the one faced by Willis-Knighton Health System was no exception, but it supplied an immense opportunity to innovate, leading to communications prowess, resulting growth, informed audiences, and lasting mutual benefits.

Target marketing in the health services industry: the value of journeying off the beaten path.

BACKGROUND: Target marketing, a practice used to more effectively address the wants and needs of customers, involves three interrelated activities: market segmentation, targeting, and product positioning. The practice follows a perfectly logical process. For a given offering, healthcare institutions select a desired group to pursue and arrange service characteristics and related attributes in a manner to entice that particular group to forward patronage and become customers. Pursuits often focus on heavily-traveled routes teeming with competitors, but occasionally an off the beaten path can be identified to amplify target marketing efforts. DISCUSSION: In an earlier chapter of its history, Willis-Knighton Health System identified and pursued an off the beaten path in its bid to capture market share in pediatric healthcare services. The direct route-targeting current and prospective parents-was heavily pursued by competitors, prompting the institution to seek a unique approach; a road less traveled which would reach the same audiences but do so via a different route. Children, as direct care recipients, supplied one such route, and while their ability to influence associated parental decisions was unclear, the institution viewed developing a bond with them to have great potential. Painstaking efforts yielded Willis-Knighton Health System's Pediatric Orientation Program, fostering an affinity between the institution and children, which in turn influenced parents, affording opportunities for enhanced patronage in pediatric medicine and beyond. CONCLUSIONS: Willis-Knighton Health System's decision to look off the beaten path for an avenue capable of amplifying its target marketing initiatives resulted in a novel pursuit which distinguished the institution from its competitors and set the stage for achieving its goal of providing healthcare services for a greater percentage of children in the marketplace. Additional spillover effects bolstering share in other areas also were afforded. This unique initiative addressed desires to pursue an increasingly important road less traveled to reach prime audiences. When roads less traveled can be identified, opportunities abound for better connecting with customer groups, warranting investigation and pursuit.

Am I seeing things through the eyes of patients? An exercise in bolstering patient attentiveness and empathy.

BACKGROUND: Modern marketing thought heavily emphasizes the need for healthcare providers to possess a customer orientation, placing patients at the focal point of attention within health and medical establishments. This has motivated significant investments in tools and techniques that foster outstanding service, attention, and support. Such investments in isolation, however, offer no guarantees that a true customer orientation will emerge. Proper implementation also is required-and that falls on the shoulders of health and medical personnel. DISCUSSION: The most innovative and expensive of customer-oriented tools and techniques mean very little unless they are placed in the hands of capable individuals possessing the ability and desire to serve patients well. But the rigors of industry life complicate matters, resulting occasionally in lost focus, compromising the patient experience. One of the simplest and most effective methods for encouraging patient attentiveness rests with a reflective exercise that encourages staff members to see themselves and their actions from the perspective of patients. Asking the operative question, "Am I seeing things through the eyes of patients?" serves as an effective reminder of priorities, building empathy and motivating personnel to continually deliver their very best. CONCLUSIONS: Viewing one's actions from the perspective of patients can be very revealing, opening eyes wide and permitting opportunities for any necessary improvements, making for a simple but powerful learning experience. The "Am I seeing things through the eyes of patients?" reflective exercise helps well-intentioned staff members avoid tendencies which can lull them into states of complacency, ensuring that they remain focused on those in their care.

Driving brand equity in health services organizations: the need for an expanded view of branding.

BACKGROUND: Branding-the assignment of names, logos, slogans, and related elements of identity to institutions and their product offerings for the purpose of conveying desired images to target audiences-is of paramount importance in the health services industry. Associated initiatives traditionally have centered on developing verbal and visual brand expressions, but opportunities abound to drive brand equity by supplementing traditional pursuits with new, different, and unexpected expressions that afford highly memorable experiences. DISCUSSION: Willis-Knighton Health System has possessed an expanded view of branding for decades. While the system has directed thorough attention toward traditional brand expressions, additional identity opportunities outside the bounds of traditional branding thought have been pursued vigorously. There perhaps is no better illustration of Willis-Knighton Health System's expanded approach to branding than that of Willis the Bear, the institution's iconic teddy bear mascot developed to promote labor and delivery services. This article presents the origins and development of this brand expression, particularly emphasizing the need to address nontraditional elements of identity for purposes of driving brand equity. CONCLUSIONS: Given the importance of brand management and extraction of associated value, health services organizations must diligently direct attention toward branding initiatives. Traditional approaches, when executed well, deliver excellent results, but enhanced value can be derived by addressing nontraditional brand elements which afford unique opportunities to differentiate given establishments from their competitors, facilitating institutional viability and vitality.

Healthcare establishments as owner-operators of digital billboards: making the most of excellent roadside visibility and high traffic counts to better connect with patients.

BACKGROUND: Given the importance of communicating effectively with current and prospective patients, healthcare institutions must direct considerable energies toward achieving associated excellence. Pursuits usually center on addressing the marketing communications mix properly, but in order to maximize communications prowess, attention also should be directed toward incorporating emerging communications innovations, when and where possible, to bolster opportunities to connect with patients. DISCUSSION: In pursuit of communications excellence, Willis-Knighton Health System's executives reflected on campus dynamics in the context of modern outdoor advertising technologies, namely, digital billboards, which present electronic advertisements on-demand, around-the-clock. They surmised that, with Willis-Knighton Health System's campuses being positioned in highly-visible fashion along highly-transited roadways, the institution could deploy this relatively new roadside advertising innovation to better engage audiences. This particular train of thought ultimately led to the installation of digital billboards at several of its locations. This article profiles the development of Willis-Knighton Health System's new marketing communications asset and offers advice for healthcare establishments desirous of placing digital billboards onsite to better connect with patients. CONCLUSIONS: Opportunities affording enriched communications with patients should continually be sought by health and medical entities. Digital billboards, institutionally-owned and operated, supply one such opportunity, pairing a state-of-the-art, uniquely-capable advertising medium with the excellent locational characteristics possessed by many healthcare establishments. As Willis-Knighton Health System has observed, digital billboards offer an exceptional mechanism for engaging audiences, affording mutual benefits which ultimately foster patronage and prosperity.

Catalyzing marketing innovation and competitive advantage in the healthcare industry: the value of thinking like an outsider.

BACKGROUND: Marketing arguably is the most critical administrative responsibility associated with the pursuit and realization of growth and prosperity, making prowess in the discipline essential for any healthcare institution, especially given the competitive intensity that characterizes the industry. But in order to truly gain an advantage, healthcare establishments must tap into innovative pathways that their competitors have yet to discover. Here, thinking like an outsider can pay tremendous dividends, as health and medical organizations tend to focus inwardly, limiting their exposure to externally-derived innovations and advancements which often can supply differentiation opportunities. DISCUSSION: Some years ago, during a formative period in preparation for expanding its footprint, Willis-Knighton Health System opted to think like an outsider, peering beyond the walls of healthcare institutions in search of tools and techniques that would allow its growth ambitions to be realized. Associated pursuits and subsequent successes created a culture of challenging status quo perspectives, affording innovations and resulting competitive advantages. Marketing advancements, in particular, have been fueled by this outsider mentality, benefiting the institution and its patient populations. This article profiles several of these advancements, discusses the dangers of insular mindsets, and suggests avenues for encouraging broad perspectives. CONCLUSIONS: Due to extreme competitive intensity and ever-increasing patient needs, health and medical establishments must perform at optimal levels, with marketing efforts playing a critical role in the achievement of such. By shedding status quo perspectives and peering beyond the walls of healthcare institutions, health and medical providers have opportunities to discover new and different marketing approaches for potential use in their own organizations, affording mutual benefits, including all-important competitive advantages.

The hub-and-spoke organization design: an avenue for serving patients well.

BACKGROUND: The healthcare industry is characterized by intensive, never-ending change occurring on a multitude of fronts. Success in such tumultuous environments requires healthcare providers to be proficient in myriad areas, including the manner in which they organize and deliver services. Less efficient designs drain precious resources and hamper efforts to deliver the best care possible to patients, making it imperative that optimal pathways are identified and pursued. One particular avenue that offers great potential for serving patients efficiently and effectively is known as the hub-and-spoke organization design. DISCUSSION: The hub-and-spoke organization design is a model which arranges service delivery assets into a network consisting of an anchor establishment (hub) which offers a full array of services, complemented by secondary establishments (spokes) which offer more limited service arrays, routing patients needing more intensive services to the hub for treatment. Hub-and-spoke networks afford many benefits for healthcare providers, but in order to capitalize fully, proper assembly is required. To advance awareness, knowledge, and use of the hub-and-spoke organization design, this article profiles Willis-Knighton Health System's service delivery network which has utilized the model for over three decades. Among other things, the hub-and-spoke organization design is defined, benefits are stipulated, and applications are discussed, permitting healthcare providers essential insights for the establishment and operation of these networks. CONCLUSIONS: The change-rich nature of the healthcare industry places a premium on incorporating advancements that permit health and medical providers to operate as optimally as possible. The hub-and-spoke organization design represents an option that, when deployed correctly, can greatly assist healthcare establishments in their quests to serve patients well.

Peering beyond the walls of healthcare institutions: a catalyst for innovation.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare providers operate in a unique industry characterized by pursuit of perhaps the most noble of missions: the delivery of vital health and medical services to those in need. Distinguishing features abound, differentiating the healthcare industry from others, with such facets having the potential to compel those serving in health and medical establishments to focus exclusively on their selected industry. But directing attention solely within can result in missed opportunities, especially regarding innovation. Many innovations which are well suited for healthcare establishments emerge externally, making at least some exposure beyond the healthcare industry essential for institutions desirous of operating on the innovation frontier. DISCUSSION: True innovation emerges from broad worldviews, allowing healthcare providers to comprehensively understand the current state of the art. With such an understanding, novel tools, techniques, and approaches, regardless of industry of origin, can be examined for their potential to elevate the status and stature of efforts within health and medical establishments. It is this very open, inquisitive mindset that permitted Willis-Knighton Health System to identify and incorporate a range of innovations which originated outside of the healthcare industry. Its embracement of and associated successes with the repurposing approach known as adaptive reuse, the delivery of complex medical services via centers of excellence, and the structuring of operations using the hub-and-spoke organization design, for example, would never have occurred had executives not directed attention externally in search of innovations that could be used within. CONCLUSIONS: Innovations offer key pathways for healthcare providers to enhance the depth and breadth of health and medical services offered in their establishments and communities. By peering beyond the walls of healthcare institutions, providers amplify opportunities to discover novel methods and approaches that potentially can be transferred into their own organizations, benefiting themselves and their patient populations.

Centers of excellence in healthcare institutions: what they are and how to assemble them.

BACKGROUND: Centers of excellence-specialized programs within healthcare institutions which supply exceptionally high concentrations of expertise and related resources centered on particular medical areas and delivered in a comprehensive, interdisciplinary fashion-afford many advantages for healthcare providers and the populations they serve. To achieve full value from centers of excellence, proper assembly is an absolute necessity, but guidance is somewhat limited. This effectively forces healthcare providers to pursue establishment largely via trial-and-error, diminishing opportunities for success. DISCUSSION: Successful development of a center of excellence first requires the acquisition of a detailed understanding of the delivery model and its benefits. Then, concerted actions must be taken on a particular series of administrative and clinical fronts, treating them in prescribed manners to afford synergies which yield an exceptionally high level of care. To reduce hardships associated with acquiring this rather elusive knowledge, remedy shortcomings in the literature, and potentially bolster community health broadly, this article presents information and insights gleaned from Willis-Knighton Health System's extensive experience assembling and operating centers of excellence. This work is intended to educate and enlighten, but most importantly, supply guidance which will permit healthcare establishments to replicate noted processes to realize their own centers of excellence. CONCLUSIONS: Centers of excellence have the ability to dramatically enhance the depth and breadth of healthcare services available in communities. Given the numerous mutual benefits afforded by this delivery model, it is hoped that the light shed by this article will help healthcare providers better understand centers of excellence and be more capable and confident in associated development initiatives, affording greater opportunities for themselves and their patient populations.

Advancing indigent healthcare services through adaptive reuse: repurposing abandoned buildings as medical clinics for disadvantaged populations.

BACKGROUND: Challenges abound for healthcare providers engaged in initiatives directed toward disadvantaged populations, with financial constraints representing one of the most prominent hardships. Society's less fortunate typically lack the means to pay for healthcare services and even when they are covered by government health insurance programs, reimbursement shortcomings often occur, placing funding burdens on the shoulders of establishments dedicated to serving those of limited means. For such charitably-minded organizations, efficiencies are required on all fronts, including one which involves significant operational costs: the physical space required for care provision. DISCUSSION: Newly constructed buildings, whether owned or leased, are expensive, consuming a significant percentage of funds that otherwise could be directed toward patient care. Such costs can even prohibit the delivery of services to indigent populations altogether. But through adaptive reuse-the practice of repurposing existing, abandoned buildings, placing them back into service in pursuit of new missions-opportunities exist to economize on this front, allowing healthcare providers to acquire operational space at a discount. In an effort to shore up related knowledge, this article profiles Willis-Knighton Health System's development of Project NeighborHealth, an indigent clinic network which was significantly bolstered by the economies associated with adaptive reuse. CONCLUSIONS: Despite its potential to bolster healthcare initiatives directed toward the medically underserved by presenting more affordable options for acquiring operational space, adaptive reuse remains relatively obscure, diminishing opportunities for providers to take advantage of its many benefits. By shedding light on this repurposing approach, healthcare providers will have a better understanding of adaptive reuse, enabling them to make use of the practice to improve the depth and breadth of healthcare services available to disadvantaged populations.