When an award really, really matters.

Yesterday I was honored to have the opportunity to present the strategy we followed and the outcomes we achieved to successfully launch the Spectrum Healthcare Partners brand in 2017. To my surprise, people were very complimentary of the work that went into building that brand and were impressed at how successful we'd been in using data to achieve our goals and overcome some major obstacles to launch our brand. Why was I surprised? Because, healthcare marketing can be very challenging. In healthcare, physicians and leaders understand clinic operations, patient satisfaction and quality outcomes. They understand the need to recruit quality clinical staff and physicians pretty well. Often times, healthcare marketing is a bit misunderstood. We're often believed to be the keeper of the swag, the planners of events and posters of cute videos. What is very hard to articulate and put into a monthly dashboard are the relationships healthcare marketing professionals help to build between our communities and our organizations, the reputations we help to manage, and the strong brand foundations we lay which are required to build successful and nimble marketing plans. Our worlds move at lightning speed and slowing down to appreciate the roles we play is the last thing on my mind almost ever. Yesterday I had an opportunity to do that reflection and it is something I found to be very important at this conference.

A theme woven into so many of the presentations yesterday was the importance of culture and the need for engaged employees to provide a superior patient experience. I walked away with so many incredible ideas as to how our industry can continue to engage our employees to offer not just a better patient experience, but a safer patient experience. I have new ideas to infuse into our own Brand Mentor program at Spectrum, and I can't wait to share them with my team. All signs of a great conference.

I then had the opportunity to spend some time connecting with my peers about the things that keep them up at night as healthcare marketing professionals. One of the most colorful discussions was around the need to develop a best practice around marketing ROI. Something I believe we do need, but as one of my colleagues and I discussed - how do you measure building trust, how do you measure strong community relationships that are at the heart of healthcare?

The day ended with an awards ceremony. At which I was given the Top Hospital Marketer of the Year Award. Wow. Thank you to whomever nominated me for such an honor. Typically, I would quietly bring the award home, and I most certainly wouldn't share the picture. But today, I'm going to be proud for a moment. I have been in healthcare marketing almost my entire career - more than 15 years. For the last 8 years, I've had the pleasure to work for physician owners, who have always made my job easy by providing high-quality care. I'm proud of the hurdles we've jumped to achieve branding milestones, to become a health and wellness resource for our communities. I'm proud to have been one small piece of developing our PEAK experience program. I'm proud of our physicians who've taken the plunge into thought leadership in the last year or so, and can't wait to see the things they accomplish next. I'm proud of the network of healthcare marketing and communications professionals I have developed all over the country - ensuring that no matter how big or small my marketing team is, I've got resources beyond measure. I'm most proud to lead the team I lead. I'm proud of the work they do, and I know there are never enough hours in the day for them to feel they've accomplished their goals - they have. They are all learners, doers, and leaders in their own right and of that I am so very proud. I am honored and humbled to be recognized for having a career in healthcare marketing - a field I truly am so passionate about, a field that I love and put my heart and soul into. Thank you for the recognition.