Rural Health Archives - Dobies Health Marketing

Bringing the Rural Health Crisis Into Focus: Documentary Spotlights Dire Effects of America’s Healthcare Deserts

March 8, 2024/in Rural Health/by Dobies Health Marketing

As hospital closures increase in rural America, it’s critical that everyone – from patients and community members to providers, health plans, local business leaders and legislators – understand the devastating impact that ripples across the areas affected. While it didn’t ultimately receive an Oscar nomination, we are thrilled to know one documentary short film in particular almost made it as a finalist for this year’s Academy Awards.

It’s called If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis, and it’s a poignant piece casting a much-needed spotlight on the “healthcare deserts” of America’s small towns. It opens with the true story of an abandoned community hospital sitting empty. Once the center of health and life – where babies were born, injuries were healed and lives were saved – the building itself is now used by paranormal researchers who want to connect with ghosts…

Patient-Centric vs. Consumer-Centric: Strategy Becoming Key for Rural Hospitals to Thrive

November 15, 2023/in Consumerism, Rural Health/by Dobies Health Marketing

For rural hospitals and healthcare providers, understanding patients – who they are and how they interact with you, each other and your larger urban center competitors – is an important aspect of patient experience and marketing strategy.

While patient care is, of course, always the top priority, the goals of being patient-centric and consumer-centric are not mutually exclusive. In fact, evaluating your healthcare marketing strategy and viewing your patients as consumers can often bring to light areas that may require attention in your patient experience journey…

Three Ways to Strengthen Rural Health by Improving Health Literacy

October 9, 2023/in Rural Health/by Dobies Health Marketing

October is National Health Literacy Month – an important reminder to reflect on our roles in helping every patient and consumer understand the health options before them. Whether you provide care or promote those who do, communicating in ways that are clear for everyone can make a very healthy difference.

Because healthcare options are typically limited in rural areas, navigating patients through disjointed care delivery across varying geographies, locations and providers needs even more emphasis. Rural health patients often have fewer convenient, community-based options for assistance in making informed health decisions. That means health literacy efforts are among the many challenges that intensify for rural health providers, who already do so much with such limited resources…

The Making of “Corona Country” & Our Commitment to Rural Health

June 15, 2020/in Corporate Social Responsibility, Rural Health, Video Marketing/by Dobies Health Marketing

We understand the challenges rural hospitals face and the value they bring to America’s health. Through dhmstudio+, we are committed to advancing rural health by partnering with providers to meet their strategic marketing needs.

Recently, we had a special opportunity to combine marketing strength with social purpose by producing Corona Country: Solving the PPE Crisis in Rural America, a video that inspires action in meeting the PPE needs of rural hospitals. Through video production services and some in-kind support for strategy and logistics, we proudly contributed our time and talent to this cause. Watch as Ryan Antrim, our video producer, shares his experience throughout this meaningful mission:…

#Heart4Heroes & Rural Health: The Power of Social Purpose

June 15, 2020/in Corporate Social Responsibility, Rural Health/by Dobies Health Marketing

Rural health is in crisis, especially now in the face of ongoing PPE shortages. When providers struggle to deliver care safely, entire communities are thrown in jeopardy. Rural health providers need everyone’s support, and their stories must be told.

Welcome to Corona Country: Solving the PPE Crisis in Rural America, a powerful video from the Heart4Heroes campaign that supports PPE needs at rural hospitals. As the video’s producers and a proud in-kind supporter of this campaign, we were honored to contribute as part of our commitment to social purpose and strengthening rural health. Please share this story far and wide:…

Advancing Rural Health: Seven Steps to Service Line Marketing Strategy

September 25, 2018/in Healthcare Marketing Strategy, Rural Health/by Julie Amor, MHA

Over the last few weeks, we have been discussing market challenges for rural health providers, as well as opportunities for innovation that emerge from creating an ecosystem of health via community partnerships and an emphasis on the value of primary care. With primary care alignment supporting the rural health ecosystem, critical access hospitals and rural providers can concurrently focus on service line growth to meet the needs of rural and underserved areas that lack sufficient healthcare services.

Hospital CEOs likely have many questions about how to best prioritize marketing dollars based on service lines with the greatest profitability, growth prospects, operational readiness, recruitment capacity and more. The organization’s strategic plan may hold some, but not all, of the answers. To fully illuminate answers and achieve targeted service line growth for the organization, we suggest this seven-step, data-driven process to establish a comprehensive service line marketing strategy:…

Advancing Rural Health: Promoting the Value of Primary Care

September 18, 2018/in Rural Health/by Julie Amor, MHA

As we continue our series on Advancing Rural Health, we recognize rural Americans experience a unique combination of factors that create disparities in healthcare not found in urban areas. This market environment creates the need for innovative thinking and a strong connection with the community that fosters better health. In our strategy work with rural and critical access hospitals, we are continually reminded how primary care providers should be positioned as the catalysts for better health in rural communities. Studies show the comprehensive services provided by a primary care practice are associated with better overall health.

The shortage of physicians in rural communities is one of the most pressing concerns of the American healthcare system. As president of a strategy-first marketing firm that works with healthcare organizations of all sizes, including rural health providers, I often see clients place an unnecessary emphasis on the need, or perception of need, for routine access to specialty care. By contrast, our strategic advice is to reacquaint the community with the value of primary care and family medicine…

Advancing Rural Health: From Healthcare to Lifecare

September 10, 2018/in Healthcare Marketing Strategy, Lifecare, Rural Health/by Julie Amor, MHA

Rural health systems are fertile grounds for innovation – that’s the consensus reached by healthcare executives at the Health:Further conference last month, and we couldn’t agree more. With declining populations compounded by challenges associated with provider shortages, governmental influences and rapidly advancing technologies, rural health systems should recognize and seize the opportunity to reinvent the way they deliver health to their communities.

As discussed in our blog last week on Advancing Rural Health, market forces are driving transformation in the strategies deployed by rural and critical access hospitals. My colleagues and I envision successful innovation taking shape through “lifecare,” a consumer-centric ecosystem that offers integrated health-related services across the full continuum of consumer needs…

Advancing Rural Health: Addressing Market Challenges

September 4, 2018/in Consumerism, Healthcare Marketing Strategy, Rural Health/by Julie Amor, MHA

As we begin our September blog series on Advancing Rural Health, it’s helpful to think about the challenges faced by healthcare providers and patients in America’s small-town communities. As shown in the chart below, rural Americans experience a unique combination of factors that create disparities in healthcare not found in urban areas. Market forces such as changing demographics, continued provider shortages, governmental influences and rapidly advancing technologies are changing healthcare delivery. Rural hospitals and care providers encounter additional obstacles with regard to disparate socioeconomic factors, geographical location, consumer health and lifestyle behaviors, and aging patient populations with higher-than-average rates of chronic illness.

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Dobies Health Marketing Launches Division Focused on Advancing Rural Health

August 30, 2018/in Dobies Health Marketing News, Inside Dobies Health Marketing, Rural Health/by Dobies Health Marketing

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Dobies Health Marketing, a strategy-first healthcare marketing firm, has launched dhmstudio+, a new division focused exclusively on the unique marketing needs of rural and critical access hospitals.

To keep pace in an evolving healthcare industry, rural hospitals and clinics must focus on improving patient experiences, delivering better outcomes and optimizing revenue opportunities. Future sustainability also requires greater emphasis on keeping people healthy, as opposed to the traditional focus on treating illness and injury. However, most rural hospitals and clinics face significant roadblocks along this path, including restricted budgets, limited internal resources and even provider shortages that limit the access they provide…