Get expert advice from Geonetric's eHealth thought leaders, on everything from search engine marketing to crisis communications to selecting a vendor.
White Papers
The Future of Healthcare Delivery: How to Implement Technology that Positions Your Hospital to Succeed. 
Pressure to improve healthcare is coming from everywhere. Government stimulus funding is available for hospitals. Millions of new patients will soon be flooding the market. The U.S. population is getting older and sicker. Not to mention the U.S. spends more on healthcare than peer countries, yet we have worse outcomes.
This white paper explains why implementing information technology in healthcare organizations is critical to fixing the problems with our healthcare system. If you’re looking for insight into how technology can help you manage an aging population, control ever-rising costs and overcome care delivery challenges, this white paper is a must-read.
Download the The Future of Healthcare Delivery white paper.
Candid Conversations: A Compilation of Interviews with eHealth Executives
Over the past year Geonetric’s VP and eHealth Evangelist, Ben Dillon, had one-on-one conversations with more than 50 hospital leaders looking for feedback on their online strategy. And no matter how different their organizations are in terms of size, location and type of hospital, they all face the same core issues. From choosing a content management system, to implementing social media in a meaningful way to laying the foundation for patient portals, Ben covered about every topic in the book.
If you’re looking to sneak a glimpse into the challenges faced by eHealth professionals, and learn some tips and tricks along the way, check out our white paper.
Download the Candid Conversations: A Compilation of Interviews with eHealth Executives white paper.
How to Create Professional Videos on a Budget
In the age of social media, videos are becoming a staple to share important messages. Video sharing provides healthcare organizations a unique opportunity to showcase patient testimonials, highlight healthcare providers and offer patient education.
If you’re ready to jump on the video bandwagon or take your hospital’s video production in-house, this white paper will help you determine what equipment you need to get started.
Download the Professional Videos white paper.
A New Vision for Patient-Centric Communications
The world of online communications is growing and changing. Healthcare organizations now have a wide array of online marketing tools available ... from websites to patient portals to a variety of social media channels. Each tool has its place in an online communications plan.
Read Geonetric's white paper to learn an effective framework for selecting the right tools in your planning process to engage your target audiences and achieve your goals.
Download the Patient-Centric Communications white paper.
From RFP to Relationship: Choosing the Right Web Vendor for Your Hospital
A 36-page checklist of functionality. An Excel spreadsheet laden with technical jargon. A repurposed PowerPoint explaining why an organization is an early adopter of technology.
Requests for proposals (RFPs) come in all shapes and sizes. And in the 10 years Geonetric has been building online solutions for the healthcare industry, we've seen them all.
Some make us think, "wow, this organization knows what it wants." But many of them - like the 36-page checklist of functionality - make us wonder if the organization truly understands the goals for its Web site.
If you're searching for a partner to help build an online solution for your hospital, this white paper will help you determine how to develop an effective RFP and select the best vendor for your organization.
Download the "From RFP to Relationship" white paper.
Browse all articles and white papers in our document library
Recent Articles
Applying Gamification to Wellness
Wellness activities look and feel a lot like gaming activities.
So why is wellness so hard when games are so incredibly addictive? Enter the new field of gamification
– a new twist on behavioral economics using video games to test how
millions of consumers can be motivated to perform behaviors they
otherwise wouldn’t do.
Read the article.
When to Use a Microsite vs. a Landing Page
When promoting a campaign, when should you develop a microsite vs. a
landing page? This simple question has generated many conversations here
at Geonetric, especially as we work with clients to promote their
wellness campaigns online.
Read the article.
Wellness and Health Promotion with VitalSite
For healthcare providers,
wellness campaigns translate into increased revenue streams, improved brand
awareness, and ultimately, healthier patients. VitalSite users have a wealth of tools at your disposal to
make sure your wellness campaign is effective.
Read the article.
Promoting Wellness Instead of Illness
We’re seeing a revival of wellness and prevention services.
Healthcare reform changes the calculus for providers by making resources
available for preventive services while placing the financial
responsibility for outcomes on providers’ shoulders.
Read the article.
Creating Online Value for Site Visitors
As the saying goes, you never have a second chance to make a first impression. This has never been as true as it is for websites. The minute visitors encounter your site they’re making judgments: How credible is this site? How easy it is to complete my task?
Read the article.
Introducing... The New VitalSite 6
VitalSite 6 capitalizes on all of the great releases we've launched over the past few years. Each release has included improvements to the technical foundation of our software. With VitalSite 6, we wrap that solid foundation together in a redesigned user interface with more powerful content management capabilities.
Read the article.
Take Your Intranet to the Next Level
Most hospital Web teams focus almost exclusively on communicating with outside audiences – patients, consumers and the media. Web technologies can deliver value to employees as well.
Private websites for employees, also known as intranets, have been around for awhile. You’re probably even thinking, “We have one of those!”
Read the article.
Your Board of Directors Using the Web? Yes!
A board of directors plays a critical role in any organization. They’re responsible for determining an organization’s mission and purpose, overseeing the executive team, setting broad objectives, monitoring financial performance, planning, and allocating resources. Adding to those challenges, board members typically are not full-time employees and have other responsibilities. So it’s pretty critical to allow them to share confidential information from remote locations in a way that is easy, immediate, secure, efficient and financially responsible.
Read the article.
Go Green and Save Some Green: Deploy a Board of Directors Extranet
Paper. You have reams of paper. Each month, you turn your reams of paper into hundreds of documents and assemble those documents into heavy binders. You ship the binders off to your board of directors. They’re carried around for awhile. And finally they’re left to sit on a shelf forever. Sound familiar? This is likely the process your hospital’s administration team undergoes for every one of your board of directors meetings.
Read the article.
Building a Web Platform for Complex Organizations
This month we're focusing our webinar on how you can use your website to promote complex organizations. Many of our clients work in complex organizations, with multiple hospitals and clinics. Creating a site that aligns the user experience, business strategy and content for organizations in different markets with different branding guidelines and many internal politics can be challenging.
Read the article.
Make Consistency in Your Online Marketing Part of Your New Year's Resolution
Lose 10 pounds. Give more to charity. Create an integrated online marketing plan. Yes, it's that time of year again when we make that wish list known as New Year's resolutions. But when it comes to creating a consistent experience for your online site visitors, it can't just be a wish.
Read the article.
Just Because Your Organization is Complex Doesn't Mean Your Website Should Be
Healthcare organizations are messy and complicated. And with so many health systems merging, acquiring, extending their reach and employing physicians, it's only getting worse. So, why is the complexity an issue? Services are still being delivered, patients are still being treated and quality of care is generally good.
Read the article.
Is eHealth the Answer? How Technology Will Impact Clinical Outcomes
We all know the healthcare system in its current state is broken. It’s too expensive to sustain. It’s getting more costly every day. And its overall outcomes are subpar. Fixing any one of these problems could be accomplished with a fairly straightforward approach. Fixing all three concurrently requires a more fundamental re-engineering of the healthcare system.
Read the article.
The Best Never Rest: A Year of Software Upgrades in Review
Over the past year, we’ve made some major enhancements to VitalSite, our content management solution. Using our iterative development process we release a host of new features every 90 days – and over the course of a year that adds up to a lot of new developments!
Read the article.
Hospital Marketing and I.T. - Irreconcilable Differences?
The curtain rises to the scene of a psychiatrist’s office. Dr. Ben* leans back in his chair wearing a smoking jacket with an unlit pipe in his mouth. He ushers in a disgruntled looking pair, one fidgeting with a new iPad, and the other clutching a portfolio containing the creative concepts for the hospital’s new integrated marketing campaign.
Read the article.
Building the Right Tool for the Job
Visit any healthcare organization's website and you'll find much of the same functionality: information about care providers and services, addresses and directions to various facilities, and perhaps some upcoming events or news items. Geonetric's eHealth Benchmark Survey confirms this - more than 80 percent of respondents have the top ten site features on their sites.
Read the article.
Health Reform is Coming - Are You Ready?
As the saying goes, "may you live in interesting times." If you work in healthcare today, you certainly have interesting times ahead as we enter into perhaps the most dramatic period of change our industry has ever seen.
Read the article.
Browse all articles and white papers in our document library
Published Articles
How Can I Use the Web to Improve the Health of My Community?
As hospitals increase their focus on wellness due to health
reform, many are turning to the Web as a tool to promote and manage these
initiatives. In the July 2011 issue of eHealthcare
Strategy & Trends, Ben shares examples of healthcare systems that have
successfully utilized the Web to motivate, educate and build awareness of their
wellness programs to promote healthy behaviors in their communities.
Read the article. [pdf]
Dillon Shares Tips to Gradually Enhance the Online Experience
In the Issue 2, 2011 Healthcare Strategy Alert!, Geonetric’s Ben Dillon tackles the topic of online personalization. He discusses how healthcare is moving from a general online consumer experience to a more personalized experience, and presents a business case on why patient portals are the next logical step in the evolution. Check out the article to learn the three overarching levels of online personalization and how organizations can gradually move from one level to the next.
Read the article. [pdf]
Dillon Explains How to Use the Web to Manage Complex Organizations
It’s hard to know how to manage multiple Web presences for integrated systems. Should you have one site or many different sites that target different audiences? Geonetric’s VP and eHealth Evangelist Ben Dillon addresses this challenge in his Ask the Expert column in the March 2011 issue of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends. Ben explains how to approach this dilemma strategically by highlighting real-life case studies from Genesis Health System and Avera Health.
Read the article. [pdf]
Dillon Discusses the Importance of User Research in Redesigns
Hospital marketers redesign their websites for a number of different reasons – from changing Web platforms to rebranding initiatives. But no matter what motivates the redesign, it’s essential to incorporate user research into your plan. In the October 2010 issue of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends, Geonetric’s Ben Dillon provides insight on how to effectively incorporate user research into a redesign process. Check out the article to learn more.
Read the article. [pdf]
Geonetric and Genesis Discuss Patient Portals in Spectrum
Long-time client and patient portal advocate, Ken Croken, of Genesis Health System, and Ben Dillon team up in this Spectrum cover-story to discuss the transformation of the patient-centered website. They explain the evolution of healthcare websites and how they’ve grown from being brochure-ware to a tool for hospitals to connect with patients in personalized ways.
Read the article. [pdf]
Southern Regional's Mobile Site Featured in HealthLeaders Media
Mobile use is on the rise – according to ChangeWave Research, 42% of U.S. consumers used smartphones in 2009. To keep up with the increasing number of mobile health consumers, Southern Regional Health System recently worked with Geonetric to take its site mobile and its story is featured in an article by HealthLeaders Media.
Read the article.
Dillon Answers: How Do I Start a Patient Portal without Breaking the Bank?
More and more hospitals are beginning to implement patient portals on their website. What’s the biggest obstacle they face? It’s overwhelming. And expensive. Or at least that’s the perception. This is the topic Geonetric’s Ben Dillon presents in a recent Ask the Expert column for eHealth Strategy & Trends. Check out the article to learn more about the different ways organizations are approaching portal initiatives.
Read the article. [pdf]
Geonetric and Mercy Medical Center Featured in Marketing Healthcare Today
We knew Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids had something special going on when it developed a virtual open house to introduce its new Web presence to the community. Marketing Healthcare Today thought the idea was pretty inventive too and featured the concept in an article.
Read the article. [pdf]
Geonetric and Avera Health Showcased in Spectrum for Impressive Service Line Marketing Effort
In this article, Avera McKennan’s Kristen Townsend and Geonetric’s Ben Dillon discuss how they created a targeted online marketing campaign designed to establish Avera’s behavioral health service line as national player. The article covers how the campaign was implemented, the search engine marketing tools used, campaign results as well as lessons learned.
Read the article. [pdf]
Browse all articles and white papers in our document library
