My Experience Interning at Geonetric

By Katy Heater, Internal Projects Intern

I spent last summer and the start of this one working at a local tanning salon, giving an even tan to young teenagers.  I thought it was a good job but I was mistaken.  I was soon given the opportunity to work at Geonetric, which is on the opposite side of healthcare. Rather than potentially causing health problems by supporting tanning salons, I began working in an industry that makes people aware of how to fix health problems.  I had no idea how important this job was going to be to me. 

My only problem: I was terrible with computers.  I was granted the title of Internal Projects Intern.  I spent many days testing forms, adding content to Web sites, and answering phones.  Although my tasks seemed small, I feel like I helped a lot.  There are so many things to do and so little time to do it all.  Anything that would help, I signed up for.

Popularity: Who Needs It?

By Michelle LeCompte, Content Strategist

Although most of us figured out that popularity was overrated as soon as high school was over, now that we’re all hanging out on the social media campus, it may be time for a reminder.

A recent (paraphrased) Doonesbury cartoon made the point perfectly:

Teenage son: “Cool beans! I just hit 1000 followers on Twitter!”

Dad: “Uh-huh. And which of these pals will help you move or loan you money?”

While the teenagers at my house share the son’s perspective, I tend to relate more to the dad’s perspective. Yes, a big group of friends and followers casts a great social glow, but would you invite any of these amigos to dinner, a movie, a study date? Heck, how many would even know where you live – let alone expend the energy to get there?

Breakfast of Champions

By Kevin Barnes, QA Assistant

It’s well known that Geonetric is a uniquely great place to work. From free espresso and cereal, to the Geonetric walking club, I enjoy many perks that most companies don’t provide. These small extras eventually become routine, which makes it all the more impressive when Eric Engelmann, our CEO, manages to surprise us. 

I came into the office this morning to find my CEO cooking breakfast for the entire company, 64 people – that’s a lot to cook breakfast for.  It is no small task to cook pancakes, sausage and eggs for an entire company. That’s why Eric brought his 5-year old daughter Mallory to help. She counted the blueberries for the pancakes and cracked the eggs, while Eric cooked. In the end the food was fantastic, and having pancakes served by the CEO is a nice reminder of why Geonetric is a great place to work.

Practicing What We Preach…Finally

By Kelly Hidlebaugh, Online Communications Manager

New Geonetric.com site reflects how much we’ve changed

Bullet-proof project management. Strategic guidance. A world-class Web presence.

Geonetric promises all that – and more – to clients. But over the past four years, we’ve been growing too fast to make our own site live up to those standards.

When Geonetric.com was last redesigned in 2005, we had a few dozen employees and a handful of loyal clients – and no one had ever heard of Web 2.0 or “meaningful use.” Four years later, we’ve tripled in size, we have clients all over the country, we’re creating dynamic social media strategies, and we’re building patient portals that extend the doctor-patient relationship far beyond hospital walls.

During all that phenomenal growth, Geonetric.com struggled to keep up. The number of pages increased rapidly, but with no strategy and little oversight, our own site gradually descended into something resembling chaos.

Report Available: How Hospitals are Weathering the Economic Downturn

By Ben Dillon, Vice President & eHealth Evangelist

Healthcare organizations have been pinched by the economy in ways that they’ve not experienced in decades.  Shrinking service margins are causing overall caution in new investments in both marketing and information technology (I.T.).  Despite this caution, spending on online communications channels continues to grow.

These are the findings from our first eHealth Insights survey.  The full report is now available, “Proceeding with Caution: How Hospitals are Weathering the Economic Downturn”.

And keep your eyes open for our next eHealth Insights Survey on patient portals.

Social Media Strategy – Should You Develop One?

By Ben Dillon, Vice President & eHealth Evangelist

I’ve heard from several people as I prepare for this week’s Webinar “Building Real Relationships: Creating a Strategy for Your Social Media Efforts”, that I’m on the wrong path.  “You shouldn’t create strategies for a particular social network site,” intoned one co-worker, “strategies are for audiences.”

Of course, I understand this is the case, but I’m always fearful that once something is relegated to being “tactical” with little or no out-of-pocket cost to get started, it leads organizations to dive in without any plan whatsoever. 

A Farewell

By Ben Dillon, Vice President & eHealth Evalgelist

My buddy Craig died last week.

I spend a lot of time looking at the healthcare system at a macro-level. Statistics about how the system is a mess. How we’re failing to do right by our patients. Zooming out to this level allows one to be dispassionate about the situation. The unacceptability of what’s wrong with healthcare today. I’m reminded today that every statistic represents a real person dealing with the mess we’ve created.

Craig’s passing was a surprise and then again it wasn’t. He had a lot of years of hard living behind him and his body was paying the price.

Getting Into the Swing of Things

By Eric George, eBusiness Strategist

Geonetric recently organized a co-ed softball team – GeoSluggers – and the start of our season wasn’t pretty.  The rust build-up on everyone was quite heavy.  You could call it a comedy of errors during our first and only practice: bad throws, dropped balls, scrapes, bruises, etc., plagued everyone as we tried to get our softball legs under us.  It looked like it was going to be a very long season for the softball team.  Our fearless leader, Kevin Reiter, was doing all he could to rally the troops and get us all on the same page while remaining patient with many of us who hadn’t thrown a ball, for some, in years.

Southern Regional’s Web Site is Live

By Carol Doser, Senior Project Manager

We just unveiled the new Southern Regional Health System Web site. Why has this redesign been so exciting?

• This redesign, from the onset, was viewed as a strategic partnership to change the overall brand/perception of Southern Regional and was truly a collaborative effort between the Southern Regional and Geonetric teams.  Both parties were fully engaged and brought to the table creativity, enthusiasm, cooperation and a let’s-get-it-done attitude.  The end result is a rich, contemporary color palette and a very user-friendly design interface. In addition, multi-media players present technological advances made at Southern Regional.

Walking in the Rain Has Never Been So Much Fun

By Deb Rolfes, Market Development Strategist at Geonetric

Sticking with its tradition of supporting our community, Geonetric assembled a team of dedicated members to a cause that means so much to me. I lost my mom to cancer and  I miss her.   As a way to stay close to her and honor her memory, I started volunteering on the steering committee of the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life of Linn County. This year when asked to be a co-chair of the event, I said, “yes.” I knew the only way I could do it is with the support of Geonetric’s team! We had 15 members that showed up in the rain to do their part in the fight against cancer. I would like to recognize some of Team Geonetric that went above and beyond the call when asked.