Finding the Compelling Stories Hiding Within Your Health System

08 Apr Finding the Compelling Stories Hiding Within Your Health System

You have incredible stories happening in your hospitals or clinics, right this minute. Your providers, procedures and treatments are transforming lives. Every day, these stories are right under your nose, you just don’t know about them! Let’s change that. When you learn how to find those stories in your health system, and tell them well, you’ll build your brand and build a connection with potential patients, donors and team members.

Healthcare is about people. Nothing your providers do truly matters if it doesn’t impact a person, a family, or a community. Finding the people most helped by what you do, and telling their authentic stories, makes your marketing relevant and dynamic. Neuroscience has proven, time and again, that emotional storytelling captures attention and drives decisions.

Let’s say you want to showcase your new surgical robot or cutting-edge treatment. People might care about your cool equipment – a little bit. But pair the gee-whiz of your new thing with a compelling story about a person who can now do something they couldn’t before, and suddenly that piece of equipment or treatment– and your team, by extension – is the hero.

Strategic storytelling starts with a good story. Here are simple steps to find those stories in your health system, create a storytelling culture within your organization, and set up systems to keep the hits coming.

Monitor Social Media and On-line Reviews

As marketing and communications experts, you’re likely already keeping an eye out for problems that might pop up on your social sites. But also look for those posts and comments that clue you in to a potential story that could be just below the surface. When people take the time to leave a raving review or positive comment, they’re usually very loyal and passionate about their experience with you. Follow up on the hints they leave to see if there’s a patient testimonial or follow up story that could beautifully showcase a service line or provider. It might not be something you need to jump on right away, but making that contact, and building a list of potential patient experiences to tell key stories, will come in handy when you’re tasked with bringing a campaign to life.

Find Storytelling Ambassadors

While you’re probably already keeping in touch with your main clinical leaders about what’s new and exciting in their world, go deeper. Sometimes, those at the admin level can’t see the forest for the trees. Your front-line caregivers are often the first to spot a good story. Ask around and find those people who are intuitive, sensitive, and perceptive. Some people just “get it” when it comes to getting to the heart of someone’s story. Nurses tend to connect with patients and families at a deeper level. It could be anyone, though – care coordinators, patient care assistants, nurse techs – seek out those who are interested in contributing in this way.

You can also recruit. Send out an invitation to find those who want to be a storytelling ambassador. This doesn’t mean they would publicly share the stories – just that they’d make your team aware of them. Of course, you’ll want to reiterate your HIPAA policies, and carefully plan the information flow, to be sure everyone is adequately protecting patient privacy. It’s ok to grow this ambassador team slowly, if you don’t yet have something like this in place. Rather than launching it institution-wide, focus on a few priority areas. For instance, you might search for those storytelling partners within your orthopedic or neurosurgery departments, to start. Find a handful of people in a few areas, and as your system gets in place, you can roll it out more broadly.

Equip Those Ambassadors

Come up with a simple one-sheet of what you’re looking for in a story. Better yet, include some links to videos or written pieces that emulate the kinds of stories you want to tell, so your ambassadors can better learn to identify them. List prompting questions for them to keep in mind: What are you seeing around you that demonstrates our mission and values? What’s the most interesting case you’re working on, and what sets it apart? Who or what who has you most excited about your work right now? Tell us what has warmed your heart? What’s the most rewarding thing that’s happening right now on your unit or in your department? Has anything made you laugh, lately? Which patient will you never forget, and why? What is currently making you proud to work here? Specific guidance makes it much easier for those outside of MarCom to find stories in your health system and have the confidence to bring them the your attention.

Make it Easy to Submit Story Ideas

Set up a special email box for story ideas. Newsrooms have tip lines. You can, too. Have an easy-to-remember email address (something like StoryIdeas@YourHospital.com) of which your whole team can monitor and respond. You can keep it simple, especially at first, but you could also create a fill-in form for submission with the basic facts, contacts etc so you can hit the ground running if the tip is time-sensitive and worth pursuing. Again, keep the process HIPAA compliant so these tips can be safely shared without compromising patient privacy.

Be Responsive to Story Ideas

Some stories have to be jumped on quickly, so commit to checking that email box often, and send timely responses. Yes, I know this takes time and you’re already busy, but it will pay off. That’s another reason to start small and build as you can manage it. Sometimes the payoff is huge, with a national, “viral” story. Other times, it’s the makings of a nice little blog post, Instagram photo or tweet. Maybe it’s just worthy of an internal newsletter or bulletin board, but those things all matter. If there’s a nugget in there, use it. Be gracious. Thank them for the tip. Educate them about how to make them even better. Encourage them to keep them coming.

Reward all Ideas

Dangle a carrot. Every month, give out a coffee gift card, hospital-branded hat or box of donuts to the person who submits the best story idea or tip. Make a big deal out of it, and others will want to get in on it, too. Seriously, people are competitive! Have fun with it, maybe even pit one department against the other for submitting the most, or best story idea submissions. Friendly competition or a ten-dollar prize can really sweeten the pot and give people a reason to keep their eyes peeled for good stories. Use the announcement of the prize as another opportunity to remind people what you’re looking for, and why.

Work Your Beat

One of my jobs as a TV newsroom intern, many years ago, was to make beat calls right before each newscast. We’d call the local law enforcement and fire public information officers just to make sure we hadn’t missed something. Do this same kind of thing regularly with your ambassadors. Check in with a quick call, an email, or stop by face to face. Ask those prompting questions about the good work they’re doing or observing. If they’re moved by something, or proud of an outcome, chances are there’s a story there.

The first few times you check in, there might not be much. But if you do this consistently, not only will you get to know these ambassadors, you’ll be on their minds. They’ll start looking for these things, in anticipation of you asking.

Expect Some Duds

A lot of the story ideas will be what we lovingly refer to as “Nothing Burgers” – no meat, not very appetizing. Again, thank the tipster, educate them, and maybe find a place for their tidbit, if you can. Consider these early attempts teachable moments. The first step is to get people thinking about the stories that surround them as something of value. As the tips come in, you can help these ambassadors develop those ideas, as well as their ability to spot the best stories. Don’t be discouraged if the first few weeks or months are missing the mark. If you stick with it, and fine-tune your communications about this endeavor, it will happen. And it will be worth it!

Share the Wins

When you strike gold, and an exceptional story grows out of a tip, tell everyone. Share the story internally, and pull back the curtain on the process that made it happen. Document the success this story idea eventually brought to your health system, and definitely shine a spotlight on who sent you the idea, and how they did it. Not only will the original tipster get recognized, but exposing the process will educate and inspire others to do the same.

Those are a few ideas for starting to mine these storytelling treasures from within your organization. Put them into practice and soon you’ll have an enthusiastic team helping you find stories in your health system that will bring your mission to life and attract potential patients to your brand. Few things get the Healthcare Video Edge team more excited that good stories. Please reach out if we can help you tell them, powerfully, with video!