Becker's Hospital Review

9 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP OSU Wexner's marketing chief on creating a humanized hospital brand By Naomi Diaz S kip Hidlay, chief communications and marketing officer at Colum- bus-based Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, created a collab- orative culture and expanded its strong partnerships with physicians, patients and digital marketing to make its brand suc- cessful, according to an interview brand- ing agency Monigle shared with Becker's. In partnership with the American Hospital Association and Society for Health Care Strategy and Market Development, Moni- gle surveyed more than 28,000 consum- ers who weighted hospital's brands on their performance in delivering a human- ized experience. This list for 2022 included 200 hospitals and health systems, with the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center as No. 2 on the list, with three of Ohio's health systems making the top three spots on the list. Below are key insights Mr. Hidlay shared with Monigle on how Ohio State Univer- sity Wexner Medical Center makes its brand successful: Question: What made the Ohio State brand successful? Mr. Skip Hidlay: We produced a half-doz- en new TV spots with our internal video team during the pandemic. All of them featured our physicians, nurses and oth- er staff promoting vaccine safety, tele- health, safe in-person care, the need to get timely screenings for cancer and oth- er life-threatening illnesses. We played these new spots on the highest-profile TV events — the Super Bowl, the Olympics, March Madness and, of course, Ohio State football. I think this showed the community we were there for them no matter what the pandemic threw at us. Q: What advice would you give to health- care brands that struggle with leadership buy-ins? SH: That we've had an infusion of new senior leadership at Ohio State, and we all have great relationships. We get along and we focus on moving the organization forward together. Everyone's opinion is respected. We all share the awareness of how important brand experience and pa- tient experience is, and our senior leaders value strong marketing and communica- tions as a way to create trust and deliver human experiences. We've made sure everyone is aligned. Our physicians know our brand and value it. Q: How have you approached content and communications strategy this year? SH: People don't remember facts and fig- ures — they remember great stories that connect with them emotionally. I've tried to break down silos between the market- ing, communications, PR and digital strat- egy disciplines. Most places I've worked have been very siloed when I began, but I see my role as fostering integration and creating a collaborative, creative culture where everyone is focused first and fore- most on identifying great stories. I believe great marketing campaigns are built on a foundation of powerful owned media sto- rytelling on the web and social platforms. Q: How does your health system stay tapped into what's happening in the world? SH: We have a team that listens to trend- ing questions on Google and on social media, so that we can build content that answers the questions that consumers have in real time. That helps us meet people in that moment. We also partner with our physicians when sharing content, which adds credibility and builds trust in our brand. Q: How has data influenced your what type of storytelling the health system does? SH: Over the years, I've found from analyz- ing website traffic that the best perform- ing pieces are about physicians, includ- ing FAQs with physicians as the source or byline, or any content about research advancing care at the bedside. The es- sence of what we are after is explanatory, informative storytelling, with a humanized angle. That is the content we've found people are looking for: quick health an- swers based on what's trending, and then deeper, detailed content based on physi- cians and their medical research. n at stake. Make no mistake, if we lose that hard won buy-in from clinicians, our efforts will be in jeopardy. ere are also concerns about the range of per- spectives that are collected with a paper survey. Generational differences and concerns about healthcare equity need to be factored into the survey tool and the modes for survey admin- istration. Patient advocates around the country have been very vocal about these issues. An updated tool and process is needed to harness all voices. ere is also the risk to the work of patient experience itself. e visibility that HCAHPS gave to the importance of patient experience as a quality and business imperative has been critical to harnessing precious resources — especially hospital budgets — to support im- provement. is investment helped us improve the critical interactions that are essential for patients and the care team to achieve the out- comes we all desire. Advances have also been made in related areas such as patient engage- ment, diversity and inclusion and the caregiver experience. A body of knowledge has grown around these and other key issues and areas of focus. As I have said, all these advances were hard won. e credibility of data from surveys such as HCAHPS is foundational to all of the above and must be preserved. In recent months, I've seen several articles in the literature that are questioning HCAHPS, and, to some degree, the importance of pa- tient experience work itself. ere is a danger of conflating the importance of the work with the survey tool itself. We must be clear about the distinctions here, and we must update the source data that drives so much of the work. CMS has already undertaken an effort to eval- uate and update the HCAHPS survey tool and modes. In fact, testing of these items is under- way. I laud CMS for doing this. But the pace must be accelerated. e factors I have already mentioned threaten to overtake what has been accomplished in recent years. We need a more relevant survey in multiple modes, and we need it as soon as possible. n

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