The Power of Good Reputation in Healthcare

Can you provide a brief background on yourself, including your journey and current role and responsibilities within your organization?

I am a professional in healthcare communications, currently serving as the Vice President of Reputation and Communications for Nemours Children's Health. Our organization is among the largest pediatric healthcare providers located across several states in the US and has a diverse patient population. Our mission is to foster the healthiest possible future for children, and we believe that accomplishing this goal involves promoting value-based care and addressing social determinants of health.

Recently, we rebranded Nemours Children's Health with the tagline "well beyond medicine," reflecting our conviction that health outcomes are influenced by a wide range of factors beyond healthcare. As a result, we are committed to promoting healthcare more broadly, with a focus on impacting key stakeholders through strategic public relations efforts. Backed by two decades of experience working in healthcare communications, I have previously held positions with other children's hospitals and international research organizations.

Can you explain the distinction between brand and reputation, and why they are both significant individually as well as in conjunction with each other?

In August 2021, we launched a new brand with the mission and vision of creating the healthiest generations of children.  Brand and reputations are like peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They can stand independently, but they make an even better sandwich when they're pushed together. A brand is the experience that an organization creates for its customers, and it encompasses the promise conveyed to them through its products and services. In healthcare, there is both a rational and emotional connection that patients, vendors, and community members have with an institution, which makes it crucial to create an experience that fuels brand affinity.

At the same time, an organization's employees also play a crucial role in building and maintaining a brand's reputation, serving as its most prominent ambassadors. As such, it is crucial to prioritize their needs as an organization builds its brand.

Reputation, on the other hand, is also how others perceive an organization's delivery on its brand promise. It can be influenced by various factors such as word-of-mouth publicity, online reviews, social media comments, media coverage, and an organization's own content.

Managing reputation is critical not just for building a positive image but also for crisis planning. In today's fast-changing world, where unexpected crises can arise at any moment, and damage an organization's hard-earned reputation, having a solid crisis communication strategy in place is essential for reputation management.

What are some effective strategies for building and managing reputation through an earned, owned, and omnichannel approach?

In order to enhance an organization's reputation, there are various strategies that can be employed. These strategies can be classified as earned, owned, and paid media. Earned media involves getting third-party endorsements, such as a news story that positively covers an organization's products or services. Owned media includes channels such as website, e-newsletter, and social media channels, through which organizations can disseminate its message to its target audience. Paid media, on the other hand, involves advertising, such as TV commercials, digital ads, and sponsored content.

A successful reputation-building strategy requires a mix of these three media types, which should be implemented thoughtfully, considering the target audience, the organization's value proposition, and the call to action.

The Nemours Children's Health System, for instance, has two target audience categories: consumers and patients, and change-makers. 

The former group seeks information to take care of their children, while the latter includes healthcare leaders, philanthropists, and legislators who are committed to improving children's health.

To enhance our reputation, we employ an omnichannel approach to provide information and resources to our target audience. We have a strong online presence through our website and social media channels, as well as a popular medical library, kidshealth.org, which is a trusted source of pediatric information. Additionally, we have launched a new podcast for thought leaders called Well Beyond Medicine.

Through these efforts, we aim to become recognized as a leader in the field, a trusted source of information, and a preferred partner for collaboration among healthcare leaders, legislators, and philanthropists.

Could you explain the technology and methodology used to measure reputation and impact, as well as how the output informs reputation strategy?

The success of any business strategy depends on having an effective way to measure its impact. Without such a tool, it's difficult to know how well the company is doing or where there are opportunities for improvement. With this in mind, we conducted extensive research and invested in a company called RepTrak to track our reputation.

RepTrak is a national survey tool that provides us with a score on a scale of zero to one hundred, measuring our company's reputation among those who are familiar with Nemours Children's Health. However, it's not just about having a score to communicate to the board. We also need to understand the drivers of our reputation, which RepTrak surveys across seven different areas: products and services, innovation, workplace, conduct, citizenship, leadership, and financial performance.

By measuring these drivers, we can identify where we are doing well and where there are opportunities for improvement.

Can you explain the significance of reputation in achieving business goals and provide examples of how investing in reputation has benefited healthcare organizations?

In the healthcare industry, there are numerous priorities that require attention and investment. These can include critical areas such as research, patient access, and improving healthcare outcomes. However, it is also important for healthcare organizations to prioritize reputation management.

A healthcare organization's reputation is crucial in achieving its business goals, whether it is growing patient volume for a particular service line, increasing philanthropic donations, or advocating legislation that supports its mission. Strong reputation is tied to revenue, which is essential for an organization to maintain profitability. Therefore, reputation building should be considered as a critical business strategy.

Unlike other industries where consumers actively research and shop around for products or services, individuals usually don't actively search for healthcare providers until they need them. When they do, a strong reputation ensures that the organization is top of mind when they're considering their options.

In the past, it was believed that the quality of their services would do the talking, making it unnecessary to indulge in marketing or reputation-building efforts. However, present times demand that healthcare organizations prioritize investing in reputation-building strategies to differentiate themselves from competitors, take charge in their industry, and thrive in their business pursuits.