Linda Birch

November 3, 2023

Grateful for Seniors

October 9, 2023

Use Chat GPT to Streamline Community Clinic Content Creation

In today’s fast-paced digital age, content creation plays a pivotal role in marketing. Especially for community clinics that need to engage with their local audience, updating social media, websites, print materials, and other digital assets is crucial. One of the biggest challenges? Consistently producing high-quality content. Enter ChatGPT, a sophisticated language model designed to assist in various content creation tasks. Here’s how this revolutionary tool can save time and elevate your content game, especially for a community clinic:

1. Instant Content Generation

Instead of spending hours brainstorming topics, writing drafts, and editing them, ChatGPT can help you instantly generate content. Provide it with a topic or a brief, and within seconds, you have a well-structured piece, be it a social media post, a blog for your website, or content for your print materials.

2. Consistent Voice and Tone

Ensuring consistency in voice and tone across different platforms is essential for brand recognition. ChatGPT can be trained to emulate your clinic’s specific voice, ensuring that every piece of content feels familiar and in-line with your brand.

3. Diverse Content Formats

Whether you need a catchy tweet, an in-depth article, or even a script for a promotional video, ChatGPT has you covered. This versatility means you can cater to various audience segments and platforms without needing multiple content specialists.

4. Tailored Responses and Interactions

Beyond traditional content, ChatGPT can help answer queries on your website, engage with users in real-time, and even provide health tips or appointment reminders, enhancing user experience and fostering trust.

Example Content Plan for November for a Community Clinic:

Week 1:

Social Media: “November is here! As we approach the end of the year, it’s the perfect time to check in on your health. Schedule your annual check-up today! 🍁🏥”
Website Blog: “Top 5 Health Tips to Stay Healthy This Fall”
Print: Brochure content highlighting the clinic’s services with a special section on “Staying Healthy During Flu Season”.

Week 2:

Social Media: “Did you know? Over 60% of adults miss their yearly check-up. Don’t be part of the statistic! Book now.”
Website Blog: “Understanding the Flu Vaccine: Why It’s Essential”
Print: Posters promoting flu shots available at the clinic.

Week 3:

Social Media: “Happy Thanksgiving week! 🦃 We’re thankful for our wonderful community.”
Website Blog: “Healthy Thanksgiving Recipes for the Whole Family”
Digital Assets: A themed email template wishing patients a Happy Thanksgiving.

Week 4:

Social Media: “With winter around the corner, make sure you’re prepared. Check out our latest blog on winter health tips. ❄️🌨”
Website Blog: “Winter Health Hazards and How to Avoid Them”
Print: Leaflets on “Cold Weather Safety Tips”.

This is just a glimpse of what can be achieved with ChatGPT in the realm of content creation. By tapping into its potential, community clinics can not only save valuable time but also enhance their marketing efforts to engage and educate their community better. The future of content is here, and it’s automated, efficient, and impressive!

August 10, 2023

Tacos, treats and free car seat checkups

July 19, 2023

Building a Better Health Center at Lennox

July 14, 2023July 14, 2023

Senior “Summer Fun” Series in South Los Angeles

Escape the summer heat and join a series of cool “Summer Fun” events!

July 22, To Help Everyone (T.H.E.) Health and Wellness Centers is hosting FREE Bingo Games where local seniors can play for prizes. August 19 brings relaxation and rejuvenation with soothing Meditation and invigorating Chair Yoga sessions. And September 16, folks can unleash creativity and visualize dreams at the Vision Board workshop.

Mark your calendars and join T.H.E. for a bit of laughter, learning and wellness. Events happen from 10:00 am to 11:30 am.

Call 455-338-1860 option 3 to learn more.

November 17, 2022

Breakfast Bingo

Happy Fall Y’All

“Breakfast Bingo” Senior Appreciation Events are happening as the holidays get going. South Los Angeles seniors are invited to join T.H.E. (To Help Everyone) for a little fun and learning.

These casual gatherings are your opportunity to:

Ask questions about services at T.H.E
Learn about your Medicare options and ways to save money
Enjoy a little Bingo (for prizes)! And Breakfast, too!!

Every senior gets a gift and a chance to win a door prize.

TIME: 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM

DATES: November 22, November 29, December 6

PLACE: T.H.E. Western Health Center – basement, 3834 S. Western Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90062

Seating is limited, so reserve your spot now by calling 323-730-1920, ext. 3. Do let us know if you will require transportation so we can make arrangements.

We hope to see you there!

July 31, 2022August 13, 2022

Monkeypox

One of the challenges of messaging for a community health clinic is striking the right balance of disseminating correct information without needlessly alarming people — or further stigmatizing marginalized groups. Enter…monkeypox and Los Angeles which is always a hotbed of activity.

When it comes to monkeypox, my go-to health resource will be, of course, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. But when it comes to graphics, I need something a bit more than what I have been seeing. It is time to create my own bit of video, using their information. So now I am using this blog post to create a script to add into a Lumen5 video to-be. Stay tuned.

This information below is from the Los Angeles County Health Department

1. What is monkeypox and how does it spread?

Monkeypox is a disease caused by infection with monkeypox virus.

Monkeypox can spread when a person has close contact with a person infected with monkeypox virus or when a person comes in contact with materials (e.g., bedding, towels) that are contaminated with the virus.

Symptom onset ranges from 5-21 days.

The monkeypox virus can spread by:

Touching monkeypox lesions on a person’s skin
Touching contaminated objects, fabrics (clothing, bedding, towels), and surfaces that have been in contact with someone with monkeypox
Coming into contact with respiratory droplets or secretions from the eyes, nose and mouth from a person with monkeypox

2. What does monkeypox look like and what are the symptoms?

Early signs may include fever, muscle aches, headache, swollen lymph nodes, exhaustion, and sometimes cough or sore throat. A rash may develop often beginning on the face and spreads to other parts of the body.

3. Steps to help prevent monkeypox include:

Avoid contact with materials, like bedding, that has been in contact with a sick person infected with this virus

Keep infected patients away from others

Wash hands with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer after contact with infected humans.

There is a vaccine that can prevent monkeypox and can be used, under certain circumstances, for the protection of people who are at high risk of exposure to this disease. If you have concerns about monkeypox exposure, please speak to your provider. If you do not have a regular provider, call 2-1-1 for assistance. In addition, people that have developed a rash can access services at Public Health’s Sexual Health Clinics.

For more information relating to monkeypox, visit publichealth.lacounty.gov/monkeypox

UPDATE: Using Lumen5 and the above “script” from Los Angeles County ‘s website to generate text, Lumen5’s AI did indeed generate a video. However, it did put forward a video with traditionally ominous scary music that I replaced with more gentle music. We have all had enough of scary background music!

Still, there something wasn’t quite right with this messaging either. Somehow the AI made monkeypox too much about touching clothes and bedding — which is almost as scary a public threat as bad, vague messaging is. Sigh. Back to the drawing board.

Update: I conquered the AI and inserted the key notes. Somehow it had omitted the fact that monkeypox was transmitted by direct contact of lesions/sores. You can see how that version of the video could be kind of frightening. Here is the finished the product — with a watermark because it is free and a lower resolution than I might like…but then it was free, while I was testing it out. It was a rather nifty tool to have in the toolbox.

November 28, 2021July 21, 2022

Upselling and Happier Patients: Why Your FQHC Should Use Its Own In-Clinic Digital Network

Is your FQHC still relying on bulletin boards to inform in-clinic patients of various programs, services or events? It’s time to come in from the cold and go digital. Here’s why:

Maintaining bulletin boards is not cost-effective. To keep them updated requires precious staff time and they never are as up to date as they should be. Not really.
Unless you have a bulletin board on every single wall in the line of sight of patients, most won’t see your important update.
If you serve patients who prefer to speak languages other than English, you need to add those to the walls space. This adds more paper clutter to your walls and at the same time reduces efficacy of messaging because visually you are competing with yourself against your other flyers/posters. And they still may not be seen by your patients due to point #2.
All those flyers on the wall? They are not truly “seen” by most patients except as an unpleasant distraction in the waiting room (where patients don’t want to be in the first place). Even pretty flyers on a wall, when surrounded by other random not-so-pretty flyers, will detract from the patient experience when you could have something aesthetic for people to enjoy while waiting to see a care provider. Again, per rule #2, unless you have plastered your flyers everywhere, they just won’t be seen in detail on a consistent basis other than being “wall clutter” of their own.
Meanwhile, if you are showing anything other than your own soothing programming (with your services info on the side) you are missing the best way to enhance the patient experience in your clinic while upselling services, which leads us to point #6.
Prospective customers are nice and all, but guess who your most important customer is? The ones you have in your clinic. You have already succeeded in attracting them and for a fraction of the cost of other advertising, you can inform these very real patients of additional services at your clinic while they are being entertained at one or your locations. A busy mom with kids seeing their pediatrician may not be aware her FQHC has added optometry and the ease of scheduling a visit until she learns about it in-clinic.

With that in mind, I recently reviewed three different in-clinic digital networks to replace current programming for an FQHC that somehow got stuck years ago with a service which provides stale information with content that does not even reflect the patients that we serve. The services I looked at were Everwell, UpShow and ItsRelevant. All of them work with a small, dedicated USB type box that connects to your clinic televisions (like a Roku). They were all delightful in their own way, but there was one clear winner from an FQHC point of view.

All three providers allow for integrating with your social media or other graphics to allow for messages and QR codes that can be scanned by patients with smartphones, leading them to surveys or programs. So, your patients can enjoy programming you put together with side messages promoting services of choice. Additionally, all three options reviewed here provide for a way for your FQHC to generate revenue to offset costs if desired by selling ad space to your own vendors or partners if you so choose. In theory, you could make your in-clinic network its own source of income. At the end of this post, I will let you know which digital network provider stole my heart. For now, here is an overview of these three digital infotainment providers.

Everwell has an impressive look and a huge library of content to program from, which is no surprise once you learn it is/was connected to AccentHealth. Now it is a brand of MediVista Media. If you like polished health-themed content, this might be the ticket for you. I personally am not a big fan of “health videos” in-clinics (for cultural and language reasons), but one of Everwell’s plusses is its access to soothing webcams across the world. Nature and animal video channels are a brilliant way to entertain diverse patients who may all speak different languages. Meanwhile, with rotating multilingual messages on the side of the universal webcam, you can reach all your patients in the language of their choice in a very subtle way. Everwell also offers other exciting programs, but when it comes to medical type videos, they have a deep library. To find out their costs, you will need to do a demo with their sales representative.

UpShow is a service I checked out three years ago when it was a fledgling company offering a way to bring social media posts to screens in clinics. I liked it then…and I must confess I have totally fallen in love with it now that it is all grown up with added entertainment. Even better, it interacts with your Canva accounts to seamlessly deliver your unique content. Like its counterparts, UpShow has different professional entertainment options you can pick and choose from based on the tier system you buy into. What sets it apart is the ability to niche program from TV screen to TV screen. Any FQHC which has a general waiting room, a pediatric waiting room, a women’s health waiting room, a dental waiting room, an EITP waiting room and so on – well, you can see why you can use in-clinic programming with different screens for different patients being served. Another bonus? You can scale up if you decide to go digital signage in all your exam rooms. And why wouldn’t you? If flyers in your waiting room are a waste of time, space, and patient experience, guess what? They are also missed opportunities in the exam rooms. To check out pricing, visit this link. But really you will have to schedule a demo to get the actual price for what you truly need if you are an FQHC with social media.

ItsRelevant says it combines the best aspects of TV, digital signage, and social media: “We keep the TV on your TV, letting you attract the attention of your visitors with programming they’ll enjoy, and gently deliver your messages to them.” Indeed, Its Relevant TV is uniquely able to filter out inappropriate content with both general and super specific keywords that can be defined by your medical practice. Its infotainment/news focus is to be lively without being divisive. Like the other channels, you can display social media automatically. They do provide a lot of family-friendly entertainment, as they license over half a million TV programs, and they continue to add to that. You can check out their pricing at this link.

Bottom line: The winner in my book? UpShow, hands down. Its interface with Canva for programming combined with the ability to scale up to deliver digital signage to all your exam rooms – each with its own programming – makes this an easy choice. Bonus: it was the least expensive option up front for multiple locations and waiting rooms. For these reasons, the rose goes to UpShow.

November 27, 2020November 27, 2020

924 Days Later…

It feels like a lifetime ago since I last posted here 924 days ago. In a way, it has been a lifetime. Forgive my absence, but my beloved partner of 20 years died 209 days ago, after a long and chronic illness which at times overwhelmed us both. A bit of an optimist, for the first 14 years we were together, I was certain Ruben was going to get better “in the next two weeks.” Except, something always happened. A blister, turned into an ulcer, followed by weeks and months or years of off-loading that usually were successful — but sometimes not – leading to a couple of amputations of toes. Then it was his eyesight, followed by kidney failure and dialysis. After a transplant in 2013, I was sure we were on our way to living a normal life. Except, we weren’t.

In 2014, I adjusted my hopes. I thought, if Ruben didn’t recover “in the next two weeks,” then perhaps we could just maintain things as-is forever. His diabetes, blood pressure and kidney function were all great. The status quo was my big plan. But then 2017 came along and stripped me of hope courtesy of Facebook reminder pics which began popping up, sharing images of Ruben past and present on my timeline. The difference was shocking. Even I could see we weren’t maintaining things, we were losing. His nephrologist gently suggested we should work on his Advance Directive.

I didn’t have a name for what was wrong with Ruben, I just knew he was dying ever so slowly before my eyes and there was nothing I could do about it.

Since April of 2018, everything just got harder every day even as I loved Ruben more and more as he struggled with physical impairments that day by day robbed him of so much. Meanwhile, I was deep in the weeds of being a caregiver, and I didn’t even know it. In retrospect, I did many things the hard way before reaching out for resources which saved me, including a caregiver support group through USC and beginning a daily meditation practice.

My Ruben passed away at home on April 30 as the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic was unfolding. The lockdown in March did speed up his demise, as we were unable to access feeding tube services which would have extended his life for a few more months. I had always thought I would be with Ruben near the end, but to my horror I couldn’t be with him at the hospital when he was there for about 10 days until they sent him home for hospice which lasted less than a day when he was not really conscious. There was no memorial service to bring closure with his friends and family. Like so many others around the world during this dark time, I was all alone in grief. He was my world, and then just like that he was gone.

For the record, I hated every single day in May this year, and didn’t have a very high opinion of June or July either. Luckily, I had good old girlfriends to re-connect with virtually, and I found an online grief support group through reddit where people didn’t try to “fix” others’ grief – they just listened or shared — which was exactly what I needed. Strange, how a mix of real friendships, family and random strangers on the internet can get you through a bad spot.

Nothing will ever be the same again, but I will go on. Now I have time to pick up some creative things I left behind – like this blog — and to start writing new work that has been left undone for more than two decades while I was looking after my beloved. I miss him so very much. I don’t know why I thought everything would go on forever, but I did. Clearly, it doesn’t.

So here is what I know now:

Ruben and I had a very complete and thorough love. It was crazy at times, but it was magical and unconditional and unbreakable. It continues.
Life is short. Seize the day!
Be active. Eat right and be healthy.
Create – -whether it’s people or art or whatever your talent is, use it while you are here.
Love is the most important thing you can do in life, so love the people you are with. Love your friends and family and even random strangers on the internet. They might save you one day.

To learn more about my wonderful Ruben or hear a few of “our” songs, check out this link.