By: Deborah Johnson Wood
As health care becomes more competitive and patients have more choices, the 90-year-old North Ottawa Community Health System (NOCHS) will use a newly created position to help strengthen community awareness of the hospital’s services. Jen VanSkiver is NOCHS’ first-ever chief communications officer and director of external affairs, charged with developing growth strategies and strengthening the system’s core competencies.
NOCHS employs 750 throughout the system: the 81-bed hospital at 1309 Sheldon Road in Grand Haven, the attached Harbor Dunes professional building, nearby Heartwood Lodge with its 8-bed Hospice Care center, an urgent care center downtown, and labs and physical rehabilitation sites throughout the area.
“Our talent and services are competitive with not only lakeshore hospitals, but larger health systems in surrounding cities,” says Shelleye Yaklin, president and CEO. “Bringing communications leadership to North Ottawa enables us to tell our story at the same level and with the same intensity as our competitors.”
To support NOCHS’ focus on effective communications, a new user-friendly web site helps patients find answers to their health related questions and become leaders of their personal health care plan.
“We have to be communicating regularly with new information; it’s absolutely a critical tool in patient care,” VanSkiver says. “Hospitals are looked to as portals of information, centers of technology. The web has influenced that and patients looks at themselves as the leaders of their health care. There are more choices than ever before, so for a neighborhood hospital that was founded based on proximity, we have to evolve.
“Putting marketing and communications in the room when decisions are being made recognizes that communications is a key component of health care,” she adds.
Source: Shelleye Yaklin, Jen VanSkiver, North Ottawa Community Health System
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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