About Heather Stanley

Marketing Communications Manager

Heather writes and edits engaging articles, media releases, case studies, newsletters, Web content, white papers and more. She brings eight years of marketing experience to Geonetric most recently as a copywriter at The Whetstone Group and director of communications at the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce.

Is Your Future Site Headed Toward Responsive or Mobile-Optimized?

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Heather Stanley

Wondering what kind of mobile website you should build?

I’ve got some news for you. You already have a mobile site. Whether you think about it as mobile or not, the site your hospital has right now is being accessed by smartphones and tablets.

What kind of experience are those site visitors having?

If you’re not sure, it’s time to make mobile a priority. You have two main options for presenting online content to your growing mobile market. The first option is to create a mobile-optimized site that is separate from your main website. The second option is to have one website built using responsive design, which allows it to adapt to different screen sizes.

Both options are better than not having any mobile-optimized presence; but choosing one path for your mobile future is important.

Geonetric’s Vice President Ben Dillon gives you all the information you need to make this tough decision in his latest article “Choosing Your Mobile Future” which appeared in the March/April 2013 issue of Spectrum.

Ben goes into detail on the two options, explaining the advantages of each. He even showcases a great example of each – Methodist Medical Center of Illinois mobile-optimized site and Altru Health System’s responsive website.

So if you’re not sure how to choose your website’s mobile future, start reading!

The Majority of Consumers Don’t Need a Hospital

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Heather Stanley

Here at Geonetric we’re big fans of Chris Bevolo’s book Joe Public Doesn’t Care About Your Hospital. So I was excited when Ben reached out to Chris in his article Embracing Wellness Online featured in the July/August 2012 issue of Healthcare Strategy Alert! In the article, Ben and Chris explain how too often what hospitals market is sick care not healthcare – and they discuss how much of an opportunity there is for marketing wellness.

Ben goes on to discuss how to leverage the Web to build awareness for wellness programs and features case studies from a few of our clients, including: Owensboro Medical Health System, Owensboro, KY; Crozer-Keystone Health System’s Healthplex® Sports Club, Springfield, PA; Overlake Hospital Medical Center, Bellevue, WA; and Advocate Health Care, Oak Brook, IL.

From promoting fitness facilities to sponsoring 5Ks, these organizations are pros at using the Web, social media and even QR codes to connect with their communities. They’re establishing relationships with people that might not need a doctor or typical hospital services. And as an added benefit, they’re reinforcing their commitment to building healthier local communities.

Check out the article and learn how to leverage the Web and social media platforms to build awareness for your organization’s wellness initiatives.

Your Top Mobile Questions Answered

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Heather Stanley

The mobile landscape is changing fast. And I mean fast. New approaches will probably emerge before you even get done reading this blog post. Ok, maybe not that fast.

All teasing aside, it’s hard to know which way to go when it comes to mobile. Do you build a separate mobile site for your hospital? Should you look into this whole responsive design thing? And what about apps? Are they worth the time and resources to develop?

Not to worry – Geonetric’s Ben Dillon has the answers you’re looking for. In his latest article What are the Top Mobile Considerations Today? Published in the June 2012 issue of eHealthcare Strategy and Trends, Ben’s Ask the Expert column illustrates the shifts in the mobile landscape that have created this prefect storm and why it’s more important than ever to jump on the mobile bandwagon.

Through healthcare-specific case studies and interviews with digital strategists at Dean Clinic in Madison, WI, St. Vincent’s HealthCare in Jacksonville, FL and Atlanta Medical Center in Atlanta, GA, Ben also discusses how to select the right information architecture and content for a mobile site, how to market to mobile users, and when and how to use apps.

Be sure to check out the article soon and start planning your mobile plan of attack. Because as Ben points out, when it comes to mobile, change is the only constant!

Innovating, Geonetric Style

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Heather Stanley

To do lists. We all have them. And we all have those projects that – although really cool – seem to get pushed farther and farther down the list.

At Geonetric, we came up with an inventive way to tackle some of those projects. It’s called innovation time, and roughly modeled after Google’s famous 20 percent time and Atlassian’s ShipIt Days. But like everything we adopt here, we Geo-fied it a little bit.

Innovation time gives each team a set amount of time every quarter to focus on whatever we want. Pretty cool, right? Here’s eight hours. Go innovate.

So off go the project managers to bring efficiency to a process in need. Off go the designers to set up a fun photo shoot. Off go the interactive marketers to make infographics. And then everyone shares their innovation time deliverables at a company meeting and we all ohhh! and ahhh!

One of the best parts about innovation time is that cross-department collaboration is encouraged. I’m all for breaking down silos, so when I was invited to join our content strategists and content writers for their innovation time I said sign me up. And I’m so glad I did.

I think we’re kindred spirits because at our core, we’re all writers. But at the same time it’s a little like Jane Austen having lunch with Kurt Vonnegut. Content strategy and MarCom – where my background is – isn’t the same. We’re both all about engaging the reader and bringing order to the printed page… but while they’re talking content audits, I’m thinking about the benefits and features of content audits.

Continue reading →

Transforming Meaningful Use Check Boxes into Differentiators for Your Hospital

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Heather Stanley

There are a lot of reasons hospitals are embracing patient portals. And Stage 2 of Meaningful Use (MU), particularly the rule requiring hospitals to provide more than one-half of inpatient or emergency department patients with the ability to access admission information within 36 hours of discharge, is a certainly right up there.

But patient portals offer more benefits than just checking a box on a MU requirement.

That’s the focus of an article published in For the Record, the bi-weekly publication for the Health Information Management Association. Experts – including our own Ben Dillon – weigh in on the issue of effectively using patient portals to help patients take a more active role in managing their own healthcare.

The article, Patient Portals: A Window to Information details why portals appeal to patients and discusses how hospitals can market the availability of a portal, transforming MU requirements into a selling point.

Check out the article to learn more!

Do You Know The Three Levels of Online Personalization?

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Heather Stanley

If you read Ben Dillon’s latest article on how to create a more personal online experience you would! Enhancing the Online Experience appeared in the most recent issue of Healthcare Strategy Alert! (published by the Forum for Healthcare Strategists) and describes how to implement a gradual approach to personalization online.

The fact is, many healthcare organizations have the basics of a user-centric website in place – relevant content, user-friendly navigation and basic transactional capabilities – but can’t make the leap to an integrated portal. Ben argues it doesn’t have to – and shouldn’t! – be a leap. You can incrementally improve the experience for site visitors by gathering information about consumers and tailoring content to their individual needs.

If you don’t receive Alert! read the article on our website. And then consider joining Forum for Healthcare Strategists – in addition to being the publishers of Alert!, they are also the group that puts on the wildly-successful Healthcare Internet Conference every fall.

Tackling a Redesign? Don’t Forget to Consult Your Site Users!

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Heather Stanley

During a website redesign you need to remember one thing: you are not your audience.

This is just one insight shared by Geonetric’s Ben Dillon in a recent Ask the Expert Colum for eHealthcare Strategy & Trends. Ben answers the question, “why is it vital to incorporate user research during a website redesign?” and explains how research can improve the consumer experience and make your website a more valuable communications tool.

In the article, Ben interviews three healthcare marketers and discusses how they used research to influence their website development efforts.

If there’s a redesign in your future (even a few years out) read the article to learn why you need to conduct research, discover tools of the research trade, and get a step-by-step guide on how to begin.

Cover Story Features the Patient Portal – Where It’s Been and Where it’s Going

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Heather Stanley

Our own Ben Dillon and long-time client and patient portal advocate, Ken Croken, of Genesis Health System, teamed up recently to discuss patient-centric websites, and landed the cover of the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development’s (SHSMD) member newsletter, Spectrum.

Ben and Ken are no strangers to discussing patient portals together, having co-presented last year at H.S.I.’s Healthcare Internet Conference and slated to appear at SHSMD’s 2010 annual conference this fall. The reason their knowledge is so sought-after? While others are just embarking on patient portals, Genesis and Geonetric have been fine-tuning the health system’s portal for years.

The article not only showcases the evolution and success of Genesis’s portal, it discusses healthcare websites in general and how they’ve grown from being brochureware into a tool for connecting with patients in personalized ways. Ben and Ken also discuss their views on the portal of the future, and what healthcare marketers should start doing today to appeal to health consumers of tomorrow.

If you haven’t seen the July/August 2010 issue of Spectrum, check it out on our website. And if you’re heading to SHSMD’s annual conference in September, be sure to attend Ben and Ken’s session.

Hesitant About Building a Patient Portal? Think About It Like This…

Posted on May 25, 2010 by Heather Stanley

Hesitant about building a patient portal? Think about it like this… There’s no question patient portals are a hot topic right now. Not only are patients demanding more interaction with their healthcare providers, recent reform changes have left many organizations considering moving down the portal path sooner than expected.

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. Ben tackles the question “How Do I Start a Patient Portal without Breaking the Bank?” and discusses the benefits of creating a portal that isn’t tied to back-end systems as a first step for many organizations. Ben interviews industry thought leaders, including Private Health News’s Dan Ansel and TransforMed’s Terry McGeeny, and showcases Geonetric’s portal work at Genesis Health System.

If you haven’t yet, check out the article and learn more about the different ways organizations are approaching portal initiatives.

Mercy and Geonetric Get Creative, Get National Press

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Heather Stanley

Mercy and Geonetric Get Creative, Get National Press We knew our client Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids had something special going on when they developed a virtual open house to introduce their new Web presence to the community.

Marketing Healthcare Today, one of the premier creative magazines for healthcare marketing professionals, thought the idea was pretty inventive too, and featured the concept in their latest issue.

The article showcases Mercy’s new website and their virtual tour and open house. It also highlights many facets of their campaign including their use of direct mail, newspaper ads, social media, and even mall kiosks. Mercy went to a lot of effort to take an innovative concept and build a complete online-offline campaign around it. The community responded well, and so did the healthcare marketing industry.

Congrats, Mercy!

Exciting Q1 Webinar Series Announced!

Posted on January 12, 2010 by Heather Stanley

Exciting Q1 Webinar Series Announced! Everyone wants to keep their Web sites moving ahead, but a complete overhaul is usually out of the question (and budget)! That’s why our Q1 Webinar series shows you how to institute a redesign or move into patient portals by building on the investments you’ve already made in your online presence.

It’s not only the topic that has us excited for the upcoming Webinar series – it’s the presenters too! We enjoy presenting with clients and we have an impressive lineup of roundtable discussions and case studies to showcase. Attendees will hear real redesign success stories in January, a portal case study in February, and ideas for tackling integration issues in March.

This Webinar series is sure to provide tips and ideas you’re looking for – register now or check out the media release for more details!

Geonetric Client Receives Local Press for Embracing Web 2.0

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Heather Stanley

Geonetric Client Receives Local Press for Embracing Web 2.0 Most healthcare marketers are experimenting with Web 2.0 –but Geonetric client Southern Regional Health System is embracing it. The Atlanta Hospital News magazine recently featured Southern Regional’s cutting-edge efforts in its publication.

Read the article and learn how Southern Regional uses Web 2.0 technology to connect with their health consumers.

Online & Offline Marketing Strategy

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Heather Stanley

Ben Dillon, Vice President & eHealth Evangelist No doubt about it, hospitals are getting much more aggressive about their marketing, both online and offline. From utilizing campaign tracking, vanity URLs and microsites to social media, healthcare organizations are looking for ways to make their online resources effectively tie in with their traditional marketing efforts.

This topic was the focus of Ben Dillon’s article in the latest issue of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends. Ben writes about the evolution of online healthcare marketing strategies as they are applied to offline or traditional marketing efforts. He also interviews a variety of clients, quoting their opinions about how online efforts have changed how they work.

To learn more about the transitions healthcare marketing strategy has taken, the benefits of integrating online efforts into your marketing initiatives, and how social media is changing the evolution as we speak, take a look at the most recent issue of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends.