Insight

notes F R O M T H E E D I T O R ©2017 True North Custom. All Rights Reserved. Healthcare Insight is published quarterly by True North Custom, 5600 Brainerd Rd., Suite 1, Chattanooga, TN 37411. Postmaster: Send changes of address to Healthcare Insight, P.O. Box 4449, Chattanooga, TN 37402. PROUD MEMBER OF All material submitted to Healthcare Insight becomes the property of Healthcare Insight magazine. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent of True North Custom. Call 800-624-7496 for more information. True North Custom is not responsible for claims made by any advertising appearing in Healthcare Insight. Direct editorial correspondence to Editor, Healthcare Insight, 5600 Brainerd Rd., Suite 1, Chattanooga, TN 37411; for return, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. HEALTHCARE INSIGHT JIM HOBSON Senior Executive Editor JASON SKINNER Editor-in-Chief KAYL A ANDERSON Executive Editor LISA PRICE Senior Managing Editor KATY MENA-BERKLEY AND TREVOR WILLINGHAM Creative Services ERIC JACKSON VP, Creative Services ASHLE A ROARK Creative Director CL AY PRICE Production Manager TRUE NORTH CUSTOM JIM HOBSON President & Chief Executive Officer JASON SKINNER Chief Marketing Officer ERIC JACKSON VP, Creative Services JESSE THOMPSON Editorial Director SANDEE CURRY Content Director KAYL A ANDERSON Marketing Manager Dear Colleagues, jhobson@truenorthcustom.com LE T 'S FACE IT: You and your company's CFO don't often speak the same language on a day-to-day basis. That's OK because your direct daily goals are different. However, because your overarching goals for hospital success align, it's important for you to get on the same page. The CFO and his or her colleagues spend years understanding the mechanics of a hospital's business model from a financial perspective, and they focus on understanding how to make their hospital be most successful. To understand the business model from a marketing perspective, it's important to know which service lines are successful and why. What is it about the economics of that particular service line model that creates challenges or success at a reasonably detailed level? If you understand those moving parts and pieces, you're going to be more effective at moving volume that helps produce the best economic results. One of the main questions CFOs often ask is, "We're spending money on this—are we getting measurable and meaningful results?" Similar mind-sets apply when creating a business planning model for service line development and creating service line marketing campaigns, and these similarities allow opportunity for communication between the two departments. To do that, however, marketers need to know how to use hard data when talking about marketing success, rather than what you hope to achieve or what you feel you have achieved. Many hospital budget processes begin with a consistent set of global stats, including the number of admissions, surgeries, patient days, ER visits, and doctor's office visits. Then, to some degree, those stats are broken down by service line. From a marketing perspective, it's always important to have the numbers and projections tracked back to the same model so everyone has the same reference point and is speaking the same language. This allows everyone on the team to look at the data and draw conclusions about cause and effect, which allows you to connect your marketing campaign to the results. You can then use that information to determine the economic impact your marketing campaign is having. When everyone is on the same page from the start, success is more likely to follow. As always, we hope you find this publication useful and welcome feedback that can inform future issues. 4 INSIGHT V13N1 TRUENORTHCUSTOM.COM

• Cover