Memorial Health is looking at ways to connect with the younger generation.
At a meeting of the health system’s board of trustees this week, CEO Chip Hubbs said catching the attention of millennials who are searching for health care is both a needed an attainable goal for Memorial.
“I know this is an itch, collectively, we’ve wanted to scratch,” Hubbs said.
The CEO explained that many other industries are already marketing their products and services to younger consumers, but health care organizations are falling behind. Hubbs said many forward leaps in medical services don’t make sense for Memorial embrace in the early stages, but this path of progress is different.
He said Memorial’s ability to market itself, coupled with the rapidly expanding population of Union County, make this a movement where the local health system can lead the way.
The trustees viewed a presentation on catching the attention of millennials in areas they care about – such as responsiveness, personalization and transparency. The presentation differentiated between advances Memorial could carry out now, in the near future and down the road.
On its digital platform, immediate changes could include promoting discoverability on search engines, enhancing maps and local reviews and maximizing or developing Memorial’s presences on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin. An overall marketing campaign targeting younger consumers was also listed.
Near future goals included creating a mobile-first website, adding text communication and creating a self-service center. Long-term goals in the digital realm involve enhancing an online “Patient Portal” and additional digital device integration.
Immediate goals in the area of responsiveness included use of strategic locations for services and promotion of digital resources such as online bill pay. In the near future the system may also look to create trackable wait times online as well as extended service hours and additional focus on telehealth, which delivers virtual medical, health and education services.
Long-term plans for improving responsiveness for the younger generation would include online scheduling, building an online communication platform, digitizing post-care instructions and creating a family health management system.
In the arena of personalization, such items as expanded services and continuous patient careplans were listed.
In becoming more transparent for millennials, the system would add online physician profiles and reviews, add service reviews, create a cost-of-care estimator, document outcome statistics and promote low cost care options.
To meet the needs of connecting with younger health care consumers, Memorial is considering adding a full-time employee each of the next two years.