By Richard M. Obertots, MBA, NREMT-P (ret.)

REMEMBER THE BLACKBERRY? WHO CARES…WHAT MATTERS IS YOUR BEHAVIOR WHEN YOU ARE WITH CUSTOMERS (This graphic may be dated – the principle it evokes is eternal)

What could be more disrespectful to customers than to take a call, text or even look at your smartphone in their presence?

What could be more disrespectful when with peers (who are also customers) than to ignore them when they are physically present and take a call, text or react to your mobile device?

YOU MATTER

Think about the message it sends when you are with others and you suddenly act as if their time and their presence is a far second to your mobile device.

Are you signaling to others that, “YOU MATTER!”

Are you part of an organization with a culture of undivided attention? [Read more…]

For the holidays – do you really want to Outreach in a unique way that will astonish your peers and customers?

Hope so. Now you are going to learn about a wonderful holiday Outreach initiative that you could replicate or adapt – that is fun, highly engages your team with your customers and – could contribute to a worthy cause.

For 2018 – Come on – don’t do boring – do different… LET YOUR OUTREACH SING!

THE BACKSTORY; ADAPTING FROM THE ORIGINAL DYSRHYTHMICS ™

Some of you long-timers may recall a Medical Musical Comedy group called The Dysrhythmic’s™ and some may have witnessed their “World Tour” concerts in the USA or in Australia. Since their launch in “The 80s” many fake / copycat The Dysrythmics™ have emerged – but part of this story is about the Original group which also featured the comedy skits of the owners of “Vic & Vern’s EMS, STAT Rescue, Car Wash and Video Rental” – John Chamberlin and Rich Obertots (me.)

Our formula was to write satirical and humorous songs and comedy skits that we would perform at medical conferences throughout the USA and Australia. Our skits and tunes were “by Insiders for Insiders.” We also composed songs to inspire, validate and motivate those of us in the Critical Medical / Emergency Services field. [Read more…]

By Rich Obertots

(Photo of an Outreach Practitioner shortly after he has been informed that he’d better end his addiction to passing out T-shirts as his main strategy to earn and stimulate flight requests.) Below – he will be shown how. This is not you – right?

END THE HABITUATION: THERE’S A BETTER AND MORE ENDURING WAY

When Critical Medical Aviation began – for some reason flight programs used T-shirts, ball caps, pens, pins and pizza and other “SWAG” to try to earn and stimulate flight requests. This “tradition” continued and did one thing for sure; HABITUATED ALL CUSTOMERS TO EXPECT T-SHIRTS, BALL CAPS, PINS, PENS & PIZZA during every Outreach encounter – which also created a SWAG RACE – where flight programs in the same territory compete and escalate the give-aways thinking this really works to earn trust.

It continues unabated to this day – and it’s a mistake! Yes – we need branding items – and yes – with great discretion – items can be given away – ideally EARNED INSTEAD – however – for those that truly hope to EARN TRUST AND BE HIGHLY CRAVED BY CUSTOMERS – the act of giving stuff away – over time – (note OVERTIME) is minimally effective. [Read more…]

Many healthcare professionals nowadays have started to create videos as a way to advertise their services, provide useful advice, or build up a social media following. One of the aspects of video creation that you may have difficulty with however is choosing a format when you export your videos.

Video Formats: Containers and Codecs

Many people aren’t aware that the ‘format’ of a video actually has two parts: A container and a codec.

The container is the wrapping that holds together the video data and is easily recognized by the extension of the video, i.e. MKV, MP4, AVI, and so on. It also determines the additional features that may be in the video, such as subtitles, menus, and so on.

The codec, however, is the part that arranges the data and determines the compression that is used. Some of the more popular codecs nowadays include H.264, H.265 (HEVC), and MPEG-4.

When you choose a format you need to select both a container and codec – as they work as a pair.

[Read more…]

Thriving and maintaining a competitive edge in the healthcare industries requires active marketing on one’s part. A person would be mistaken to assume that it is beyond their scope, but with the information outlined here, adoption of the same will likely attract much-needed traffic to social sites and increased conversion rates. For one to thrive, it is crucial that they excel in their practice- word of mouth remains to be one of the most effective marketing tools today.

Create and regularly updates social sites

Whether a person is a doctor of osteopathic medicine (D.O) or in a specialized field at Regulatory Affairs Consultant New York-based office not being online means an individual or practice is losing business. A majority of persons first conduct an online search of a brand before interacting with them. One, therefore, fairs well ahead of the competition they have a website and social media channels they can disseminate information. These mediums should, however, remain updated and provide content valuable to their demographic; constant sales content proves to work against companies as it negates the human experience people wish to have with a business.

Open a blog

Blogs prove to be useful as they allow for the generation of content that patients and others find helpful. Posting once weekly information that patients receive once a week can ask as a reference point for them when discussing with others their learnings. Ultimately, blog posts improve search engine rankings especially when the same is shared on social media channels. Always remember, as in all your content, to use keywords and phrases patients tend to search. However, overdoing it would lead to search engines labeling the content spam. [Read more…]

Plan to Respond to Growing Number of Systemic Threats   

By Liam Collopy

Despite a rash of cyber attacks and other growing threats to the medical profession, many healthcare companies and organizations are ill-prepared when it comes to effective crisis communications.

Cause for concern is getting acute, as consumers are more skittish than ever about their protected health information (PHI) being compromised, due to high-profile breaches such as Anthem and Allscripts.

The recent RSA Data Privacy Report, which surveyed 7,500 consumers in the U.S. and Europe, showed that 59 percent of the respondents were concerned about their medical data being compromised, while 39 percent were worried that a hacker would tamper with their medical information.

This year might be the worst year for computer breaches yet, with 67 percent of CISOs saying a cybersecurity attack will happen to their organization this year, according to a recent survey from Ponemon Institute. [Read more…]

By Rich Obertots

EVER HAD THIS HAPPEN

You go to a workshop and you get inundated with information – all day. You are exhausted at the end but so excited about it. Then what usually happens?

You get back to work – become overwhelmed with tasks and before you know it – it’s a year later and you are enrolling in another workshop – knowing the same outcome (or rather lack of outcome) is inevitable.

You took in so much – like a huge breath before going underwater – you try to hold it all in – then you exhale and it’s gone like bubbles of CO2.

WORKSHOPS DON’T WORK 

When you go to a workshop – it is like one very intense deep breath. It will not support life-long learning. Who could live on one deep breath? Who could learn on one deep breath?

[Read more…]