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5 Must-Know Steps for Starting a Home Healthcare Business

5 Must-Know Steps for Starting a Home Healthcare Business


5 Must-Know Steps for Starting a Home Healthcare Business

Some people simply weren’t built for the daily grind of following a boss’s orders and fulfilling the agenda of a large medical conglomerate. Instead, these folks were born to be entrepreneurs. They were made to build a business and pursue their own dreams instead.

If that sounds like you, then you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll teach you how to take your medical industry expertise and apply it towards starting a home healthcare business. 

1. Incorporate Your Business

The first thing that you need to do when you’re trying to start a home health care business is to incorporate that business with the right legal structure. There are a few options for business structures to choose from.

An LLC, or limited liability company, is often the most popular structure of choice. This is because it protects the ownership’s personal assets while remaining a tax-free structure (you only pay taxes at the personal income level).

If you want to create a complicated ownership structure, then try using a C corporation. This structure allows you to issue stock and pay dividends, but do keep in mind that the taxation rates are much higher with corporations. 

2. Acquire Medical Licenses

The next step in how to start a homecare business is to acquire the right medical licenses. The medical industry is a very tightly regulated one. If you want to ensure that your business stays on the right side of the law, make sure to consult a lawyer so that you’re applying for all of the necessary licenses and permits.

3. Hire the Right Staff

Your employees will make or break the success of your homecare business. By taking the time and effort up front to find and hire the right staff, you’ll be able to provide a superior service to your customers.

And that superior service is what will keep customers engaged with your company and revenue flowing into your financial statements. Use home health care training services to ensure that your staff’s skills are up to the task.

4. Create a Marketing Strategy

Without a marketing strategy, it’s impossible for a brand new company to get started with acquiring customers. If you are trying to find patients but don’t have an established brand yet, consider using multiple different channels to get the word out about your company. 

Try digital marketing—create a website and optimize it for search engines. Take out advertisements in the local paper, and air commercials on television.

5. Build Medical Industry Relationships

Last but certainly not least, when starting a home health care business, you should definitely seek to build relationships in the local medical industry. Get chummy with doctors in the area so that they will refer their patients to you. That way, you can ensure a steady stream of patients from referrals.

Starting a Home Healthcare Business Made Simple

There you have it—with this knowledge under your belt, you should be far better equipped to embark on this journey of starting a home healthcare business.

For more business advice, check out the rest of the website!

Technology

Health and Headsets: The Future of Augmented Reality in Healthcare

Health and Headsets: The Future of Augmented Reality in Healthcare


Health and Headsets: The Future of Augmented Reality in Healthcare

It’s official. The future of augmented reality will have a major impact on the healthcare industry.

In fact, some of this technology has already transcended from science fiction to science fact. More and more, both healthcare professionals and patients are seeing the indispensable value of AR in the medical field.

For one thing, AR outperforms previous medical visual aids in terms of cost and effectiveness. And, for the most part, AR technology is cheap, accurate, interactive, and available to the general public. The applications are limitless!

To learn more about AR in healthcare, read this guide.

Healthcare Education

AR can be used as an excellent, interactive visual aid for education. For example, it can work as a simulated x-ray, showing patients specific parts of their internal anatomy. The AR lets them see how these parts work and how certain health problems, medications, or medical procedures affect their body.

This same type of tool is also beneficial for those training for a career in healthcare. Using AR, surgeons in training can practice on a dummy that looks like a living, breathing human.

AR in Practice

This same visual aid described above can help actual surgeons prep for real surgery. It gives them a virtual, three-dimensional look into the patient’s body before the incisions begin.

Thus, they can view the many layers of body tissue (veins, muscle, bones, organs) with great accuracy. This, in turn, improves the accuracy of surgical preparations, such as the size and location of necessary incisions.

Lower-level healthcare workers can use this technology to locate veins for bloodwork. An example of this that’s in use today is AccuVein.

Dentists could use AR combined with patient x-rays and dental history to display relevant, customized information during dental procedures. The AR display would pinpoint/label details of the patient’s dental information, such as cavities and fillings, overlayed over their actual mouth. Learn more here.

AR Healthcare Apps For Patients

Patients can download AR apps to help them learn and perform physical therapy exercises correctly. For example, an AR app can tell patients if they are positioned properly when doing the exercise.

Plus, such apps can measure the patient’s progress, like how much their range of motion in a certain joint has increased. This is hugely beneficial for encouraging PT patients and helping them reach their goals. 

It also makes PT more convenient. Since patients can monitor their own performance and track their own progress, they’ll need far fewer appointments with their therapist.

Beyond PT, patients can use AR apps to scan their immediate surroundings to locate medical services. AED4EU is one such app.

It overlays information over the user’s smartphone camera, directing them to the nearest automated external defibrillator. Users can get access to these life-saving devices the very minute the emergency occurs instead of waiting half an hour for first responders to arrive. 

The Future of Augmented Reality in Healthcare

The future of augmented reality will change the healthcare industry forever. Next time you have an appointment, ask your doctor how AR technology can help you.

Now, find more breaking healthcare news on our health blog.

Technology

A Healthy Website: Keyword Strategy Tips for Healthcare SEO

A Healthy Website: Keyword Strategy Tips for Healthcare SEO


A Healthy Website: Keyword Strategy Tips for Healthcare SEO

Are you a healthcare provider trying to keep up with SEO?

It can be difficult to understand the significance of optimization as a healthcare provider. Once you’ve made your way through the rigors of medical school, it seems unfair to have to educate yourself in the ways of digital marketing.

Unfortunately for you, SEO makes the internet world go ’round and if you aren’t privy to it, you can easily fall behind your better-prepared competition. But, it’s never too late to learn.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at SEO keyword strategy; tips and tricks to survive in the digital world. You don’t have to be a doctor to get your SEO in tip-top shape, but you do have to be diligent and stay on top of trends as they morph and change on a seemingly week-to-week basis.

Don’t be afraid, it’s only SEO. Let’s get started.

Why SEO Is Important to You

First, let’s talk about the importance of SEO for your practice’s website. It used to be that you would just go to the nearest healthcare provider when something felt wrong. You either have a family practitioner or you go to the walk-in. That’s all changed.

Now, when illness strikes, the first thing someone is going to do is hop on Google and search for what their symptoms mean. Once Web MD’s convinced them that they’ll die if they don’t see a doctor, they’ll google healthcare providers near them.

If you’ve posted up in a smaller town where you’re one of only a few healthcare providers, then maybe you can rely less on your web presence. If you’re in a larger place, your web presence means everything.

Think about what we talked about earlier. The potential patient is going to Google which healthcare providers are near them. This is where your website’s SEO comes in. Knowing which keywords to use to optimize your site is what will bring the patient to you instead of another provider.

SEO Keyword Strategy For Your Practice

The keywords that you use will act as the bait for the new patients. If you treat these potential patients as customers, then you’ll realize that SEO for your healthcare office is similar to SEO for any other kind of young company.

When someone uses a search engine to find out where they should seek help, they might type in what their symptoms are, their location, and what they’re looking to find. You, as the healthcare provider, need to appeal to these search terms by answering the questions before the searcher asks them. 

By using keywords that tell Google where you’re located and what your specialty is, you’ll rise up the search rankings. If you’re a chiropractor in Denver and someone types “back pain Denver” into Google, you want to be on the first page of results. Use appropriate keywords on all of your landing pages to satisfy the search terms.

Local SEO

Local SEO is a relatively new concept. In the last few years, especially with the rise and continued development of smartphones, we’ve seen more people use localized search terms on their phones to conduct map-based searches for things that are near them. 

Local SEO Keywords

To optimize your local SEO, you need to focus as much on the location part as you do on the keywords that bring in traditional users. Your keywords should include your location down to the intersection, your contact information, your hours, and what you do.

These keywords should always appear in your link title and the meta description of your link. The meta description is essentially a free advertisement that Google provides you to appeal directly to the user on the SERP.

Other Local SEO Help

Using Google My Business will help you appear on map-based searches. Fill out all of the required fields stating your information (business name, business type, location, etc.) and your business will always show up when someone’s looking for a healthcare provider with their map app.

Appearing in local search directories will help out your local SEO as well. If you rank highly on online review listings, then you’ll rise up the ranks on the SERP. Directories like Yelp go a long way with bringing in customers, so try to maintain a good rating and promote your positive reviews.

Content Creation

You can really grow your healthcare business by creating and linking to engaging content relating to the healthcare field. This is a great way to use relevant keywords to draw in future patients. Once they arrive at your blog, then you can direct them to book an appointment at your practice.

Blogging continues to be one of the best ways to improve traffic on all sites, healthcare-focused ones included. They allow you to display your personality and establish yourself as an authority on the subjects that you have expertise in.

Researching appropriate keywords with an online keyword tool will help you out, especially in the beginning when you’re still figuring things out. Keyword tools let you know the average number of times that keywords are searched and how many other sites are using them on their blogs. 

It’s good to mix in a healthy amount of buzzworthy keywords in with some more unique phrases. Bring people in with your keyword usage and keep them there with the useful info in your engaging articles.

You don’t want to get in the habit of “overstuffing” your articles with keywords. These are still humans that are reading them, so you should focus on writing creative and helpful content.

Get More Patients Today

Getting your website in good standing should be a high priority for your healthcare practice. If you’d rather stay out of the digital marketing side of things, then you should hire a professional to take care of it for you.

Always consider the fact that many patients are searching online for medical help before they contact a healthcare provider. Having a good keyword strategy for your SEO is super important, as is mastering location-based searches and having a content-driven blog. 

Once you’re seeing more and more patients coming in your doors, you’ll be happy that you sorted all of this out.

Sign up with us for help with digital marketing and writing or visit our blog for more articles on the importance of SEO.

Business

7 Amazing Healthcare Content Marketing Tips Professionals Use

7 Amazing Healthcare Content Marketing Tips Professionals Use


7 Amazing Healthcare Content Marketing Tips Professionals Use

80% of Internet users search for health information online. As a healthcare company generating and distributing useful health content should be a top priority.

But getting your content in front of potential customers to build this trust takes strategy.

Let’s explore what you need to know to build an effective one in healthcare content marketing the way professionals do.

1) Get a Written Plan

Studies show that nearly 40% of companies try to implement content marketing without any written plan.

They end up picking random topics. They don’t have clear objectives or goals. They think they’re just going to publish a blog or two a week and see them “take off”. They share them on FaceBook. They don’t consistently measure results.

Then they wonder why “content marketing doesn’t work”.

Get a plan and get ready to execute a healthcare content marketing strategy that gets results.

2) Follow the Plan

The great thing about a plan is that it has clear benchmarks, methods, who’s responsible for what, etc.

You can look back to see what’s working and where you need to make changes. You can identify if things are going as expected and if everyone’s on task.

Follow the plan that you have established for your healthcare content marketing.

Through this, you can answer the question: Is it the plan that needs to adapt? Or is the team simply not staying on task to execute your healthcare marketing strategy.

3) Be Clear on Your Target Audience

If you’re in private practice, you want more patients. We get it. But who are your ideal patients? Some healthcare companies market too broad. They don’t want to exclude anyone. This seems like the right and ethical thing to do.

But the success of any healthcare content marketing strategy is dependent on its ability to connect with people. You can’t connect if you don’t have a clear vision of who you’re trying to connect with.

In content marketing, you may have 5+ distinct targets. But each piece of content that you create and distribute should have a single target in mind.

4) Do a Competitive Analysis

On average, search results account for 51% of a website’s traffic. One of the goals of content marketing is to increase your ranking in searches so that you earn more of this organic traffic through SEO.

92% of traffic goes to page one results so this is where you need to be.

Evaluate who’s appearing on page one in your local market for key phrases people would use to find your website.

Take a close look at their sites. What kind of content are they creating? Where are they focusing their social media efforts? What is their domain authority?

How many links do they have from other sites? You can invest in tools that will help you gain a clearer understanding of what the competition is doing to earn page one spots.

5) Generate Shareable Content Topics

An effective strategy needs two primary types of content topics — evergreen and trending. They serve different purposes and work together to help you achieve your goals.

Evergreen Topics

A portion of your topics should be evergreen. They should be timeless topics that people are always looking for. They may be the answers to common healthcare questions in your niche or other tips and tricks that your target finds helpful.

You can keep the ideas flowing by listening to your industry. Stay active on social media sites to keep your finger on the pulse of the industry.

Talk to your sales department and patient support services teams. Find out about commonly asked questions and concerns. Address them in evergreen content.

You can actually cut patient support costs by making these resources available online.

Mayo Clinic is an example of healthcare company that produces great evergreen content. They address everything health and are one of the top resources that people turn to when they have a health question.

Trending Topics

And some of your content should be on trending topics likes relevant news stories. Whenever you can find a way to integrate a trending topic into your specific healthcare content marketing niche do so.

Not only does this demonstrate that you’re current, it helps drive traffic because you have a topic that people are very actively looking for.

Get creative. The news doesn’t have to be exactly in your niche. In fact, the more you can bend the content to fit into your niche, the more original piece of content you’ll create.

Whether you’re creating content for addiction recovery or a power wheelchair company, you can find trending stories to fit into your niche.

6) Get a Personality

People don’t get behind a business. They get behind the people behind that brand. The more you can humanize your brand, the more easily you’ll connect with people.

You may have noticed the recent Gillette commercials where they’re doing just that. Founded over 120 years ago, this shaving company is having to adapt to changing consumer behavior.

Instead of commercials with flashy images and slogans, they’re placing their employees prominently in the commercials. It gives the company a human face.

A 2nd example, Saint Thomas Hospital Systems in Nashville, isn’t alone in its attempt to give its impersonal hospital brand a makeover. For the past several years, they’ve been creating content that tells the stories of their patients — with permission of course.

These heartfelt pieces connect with people going through similar health struggles. You can’t do that with a how-to video or 11 quick tips article.

7) Measure Everything

You can’t optimize your healthcare content marketing if you don’t know what’s working best for you. Use free tools like Google Analytics to evaluate how people are interacting with content.

How much traffic is it getting? Do people stay on the page?

Does it encourage people to click on another page to continue to browse the site? Schedule an appointment? Or buy something?

When you know what to measure and consistently measure it, you know where to go for more info when your strategies aren’t working.

Don’t be in the dark. Leverage this data to improve your strategies.

Healthcare Content Marketing

To get results with content, you need a written plan. Lay out how you will create, curate and distribute content.

Follow your plan. Create content that people are looking for and love.

Show your human side. Measure your results.

For more tips on leveraging content in your industry, follow our blog.