Ahava Leibtag gave this presentation at Health Stat 2.0 on September 20,2012

1. Hospitals: Is your content putting your
patients to sleep?
5 Rules for Avoiding BORING Hospital Content
Ahava Leibtag
Principal
Aha Media Group, LLC

2. Who is coming to your website?
Patients Family Members
And… job applicants, potential employees
and visitors to the hospital.

3. RULE #1: WHAT DO PATIENTS
REALLY CARE ABOUT?

5. 4 Questions Patients Ask
1. What’s wrong with me?
2. Who is going to fix it? And how?
3. Who is going to pay for it?

6. And #4: Is there free parking?

7. RULE #2: WORK FROM A POSITION OF
STRENGTH, I.E. “TELL THE TRUTH”

9. What does the truth look like?
• We’re small, so you don’t feel like a number.
• We’re big so we can take advantage of the
latest research and technology.
• We are in a suburban setting, so you get free
parking and you don’t have to walk very far.
• Our doctors are fellowship-trained, which
means they’re the best.

10. RULE #3: CREATE “WHAT TO
EXPECT”, “STEP-BY-STEP” GUIDES

11. What to Expect Guides
• What to expect on your day of surgery
• What to expect the day of your mammogram
• How should I prepare for a CT scan?
• What should I bring to my first appointment?
• For Patients and Visitors: Where you can find
the ATM, cafeteria, etc?
• Overnight stays: hotels near-by, tourist
attractions, places to eat

12. RULE #4: DON’T FORGET—CONTENT
ISN’T JUST TEXT YOU’VE WRITTEN

13. Use social media, resources, patient
testimonials to augment textual content

14. And let’s not forget 1,000 words…

16. RULE #5: STOP THE BLAH, BLAHING
AROUND

17. How do you stop the blah, blahing to
avoid the blahs?
1. Take a good look at your analytics
2. See where your users are bouncing off
3. Cut through the crap and put stuff up there
that really matters
4. And consider asking patients what they want:
o In lobbies
o Survey software
o By talking to the administrative staff

18. You MUST read this:
http://www.health.gov/healthliteracyonline/

19. Review
1. Ask yourself: Do my patient/friends/family
members care about this content?
2. Tell the truth-who you REALLY are is
important.
3. Create what to expect, step-by-step guides
using photos, videos, text, slideshows.
4. Content is more than text so use it all.
5. Stop the blah blahing around and give your
users the content they really want.

20. Ask me questions
Ahava Leibtag
Principal, Aha Media Group, LLC
301-452-5331
ahava@ahamediagroup.com
Twitter: ahavaL
Blog: Online it ALL Matters