NPC Blog

Kurt Waltenbaugh’s road to healthcare heroism began in retail.

That’s right. Retail.

Waltenbaugh is the CEO of Carrot Health, the company he co-founded in 2014 that uses data to help enable a future with no barriers to better health for everyone. But it was a conversation many years ago  with a data scientist about shopping data and credit card spending that lead to Waltenbaugh’s eureka moment.

Be it financial, emotional or physical, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected just about everything over the past year.

What can’t be overlooked, however, is how the virus has impacted the patient-matching crisis that has long plagued the healthcare industry. And it is a crisis. According to a 2016 report, 86% of health professionals witnessed or know of an error caused by patient misidentification, and a 2017 study conducted by the American Hospital Association reported that patient data that was inaccurate, incomplete or erroneous costs the average healthcare facility more than $1 million per year.

Since the rollout began in late December, roughly 130 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been given, and nearly 45 million Americans — about 14% of the population — are fully vaccinated. President Joe Biden recently announced all Americans will be eligible for the vaccine no later than May 1, making it likely that people will be able to gather in small groups for the 4th of July — a big step forward considering health experts begged Americans not to congregate for holiday or Super Bowl parties over the winter.

This is the best news regarding COVID-19 since the pandemic was declared last March. However, there are still some people wary of getting vaccinated and others who are refusing to take it, believing it went through testing way too fast and concerned about safety. This, of course, is a personal choice entirely up to the individual — but we thought we would turn to some of our expert clients to shine a light on the COVID-19 vaccine.

There’s a popular bumper sticker floating around with a picture of a dog that asks, “Who Rescued Who?” Because while shelter dogs benefit from adoption, their owners receive a great deal in return, too — and our innovative client, Carrot Health, has provided the data to back up that sentiment.

As businesses continue to reopen and people start returning to work in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, one tool that can help limit spread is contact tracing. While contact tracing may be done manually with a pen and paper for small businesses with a handful of employees, it becomes much more of an arduous task for those with hundreds of workers who hail from different communities and are spread across many different floors and departments.

Super Bowl LV kicks off Sunday at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. It will be historic in more ways than one —capacity will be limited to 25,000 fans, including 7,500 vaccinated healthcare workers admitted for free, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be the first team in history to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having an effect on more than just the number of fans in the stands.  Anheuser-Busch isn’t hosting the 600 people it typically sends to the game each year. Bridgestone has also cancelled its annual hospitality events.  Sleep Number is leaning toward not sending its usual 20 to 30 people to run consumer booths, while the USAA, which usually gives 1,000 active military members, veterans and their families a chance to interact with players and coaches the week of the game, will likely host virtual chats with players instead.

When putting together a tip sheet for people new to public relations, Jered Martin of onepitch.co reached out to professionals with a proven track record in the industry and asked what they wished they knew before starting their careers.

That includes our own Liz Goar, founder and president of NPC Creative Services with nearly 30 years of experience in the business.

Check out what helpful advice Liz and others had for those about to embark on their PR journey

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HIMSS Annual Conference is the largest health IT event in the industry. With nearly 38,000 people in attendance at last year's conference in Orlando, it's once again time to explore the value of health IT through education, networking and solutions. Each year healthcare professionals, clinicians and executives from around the world gather to discover new ways to advance innovation, make a greater impact and improve outcomes.