The Pulse
Shortly after starting my job at Wyoming Medical Center, I recognized that the hospital needed a way to speak directly to patients and families. We had a great story to tell, but we relied solely on traditional news media and print advertising to get the stories to our customers. So, I created the hospital’s first content marketing strategy and news site, The Pulse.
Stories in The Pulse — about patients, employees, physicians, health topics and novel treatments — quickly became the centerpiece of our content marketing strategy. In 2015, The Pulse won a gold medal in the Aster Awards, “recognizing excellence in medical marketing in the United States, Canada and South America.” Fathom, a national digital marketing firm, recruited me to lead a 45-minute webinar about hospital blogging based on the success of The Pulse.
With The Pulse, the hospital defines itself, rather than wait for others to define it.
Physician profiles
Meet our Docs: Eric Cubin, M.D., blasts cancer tumors with hot and cold smart ‘bombs’: If he needed to, from a 3-mm nick in your skin, Dr. Eric Cubin could access most any system in your body. He could open a clotted artery in your brain, administer extremely high dose chemotherapy directly to a tumor in your liver, or freeze to negative 200 degrees Celsius a tumor in your kidney. He could follow your vast highway of blood vessels to get to an organ other specialists couldn’t reach. In some cases, you could walk into the hospital with cancer but leave without it. PDF
Meet our Docs: Mesha Dunn, M.D., welcomes patients of all ages at Sage Primary Care: In her approach to family medicine, Mesha Dunn, M.D., practices a version of the Golden Rule: “My philosophy is to treat patients like they are my own family, or to treat them like I would want my family to be treated by a physician.” PDF
Patient stories
The best team and the best facilities give doctors the best chance to save your life. Just ask Jennifer McGuire: Jennifer felt woozy. Her vision blurred. Dr. Smothers pressed hard on her abdomen, and several nurses seemed hyper-focused on her. She handed Ciernan back just before vomiting. Jennifer thought she saw rainbow-like halos floating over everyone in the room. Then she heard Dr. Smothers calling for blood. PDF
After deadly crash, woman reunited with beloved dog at Wyoming Medical Center: Babe was her husband’s dog, says Shelley Leigh, though they raised the yellow lab together for almost 11 years. It was Chris Leigh who took Babe hunting and Chris who Babe followed around like, well, a puppy. Chris, 71, hoped he and Babe had one more dove hunting season in them. Shelley had her doubts. PDF
'Like a miracle:' Douglas woman's stroke is case study for a fast, efficient system of care: “She truly is a miracle of modern medicine,” Dr. Bowkley said. “In the appropriate patient, this type of therapy is the gold standard. Without it, even a few years ago, Mrs. Renstrom very likely would not have left the hospital, or she would have gone to rehabilitation with significant residual deficits and had a markedly different course of events following her stay at Wyoming Medical Center.” PDF
Employee engagement
The Long Goodbye: From the laundry department to our Chief Nursing Officer, Julie Cann-Taylor retires after 43 years : To the young nurse, summoned to the top floor of the hospital’s parking garage, it looked a little like a meeting of mafia bosses: The CEO and the ICU’s medical director smoked cigarettes as they waited for her, each wearing long coats and gloves. Julie Cann-Taylor didn’t know what they wanted. The ICU charge nurse had never been to the garage’s top floor, and she didn’t understand the politics of hospital administration. PDF
Paper names Jennifer Gallagher, R.N., one of Wyoming’s top nurses: You could say Jennifer Gallagher, R.N., grew up at Wyoming Medical Center. She was born here. Her mother worked here, and she started working here while she was still in high school, on Feb. 22, 1992. She gave birth to her two sons with some of the people she now calls colleagues. PDF
Health stories
Pull on your high-legged boots to protect against rattlesnakes: At Wyoming Medical Center, we may treat zero rattlesnake bites one year and three to four the next. The most Dr. Eugene DuQuette has seen in a single season is eight, and that was during a wet spring that stayed wet late into summer. Wait a second ... Wet spring? Late into summer? Sounds a lot like 2016. PDF
Stopping by Wyoming Medical Center during cold, flu and RSV season? Be a good visitor: Wyoming is smack dab in the middle of cold, flu and RSV season, and that means we all have to do our part to prevent the spread of these and other illnesses – especially when visiting the hospital. Many of our patients already have weakened immune systems. They may be very young, or very old, or they may be here for an illness that weakens their body’s ability to fight infection. They also might have contagious illnesses themselves. If you're coming to Wyoming Medical Center for any reason in the coming weeks, please be a good visitor and follow these guidelines. PDF
The Pulse publications
Content created for The Pulse drives our advertising, social media, press releases and newsletters, and our quarterly print magazine.
The Pulse magazine: This quarterly, eight-page magazine is mailed to 10,000 homes and physician offices across the state as well as inserted into the Casper Star-Tribune for a total circulation of 30,000. I plan, write, edit and arrange photographs for each issue.
Summer 2017 PDF Winter 2019 PDF Summer 2019 PDF Spring 2016 PDF
News letters: Pulse content also drives the hospital’s e-newsletters. Shift Change is a weekly newsletter sent to 1,300 employees and volunteers; The Pulse is consumer focused and is emailed to 10,000 addresses every two weeks; and Med Staff News, our physician newsletter, goes to about 250 people once a month.
Hospital news site: In 2015, I led a redesign of the hospital’s website around The Pulse, increasing the site’s new users by 12 percent the first year, 51 percent the next and 186 percent in five years. The Pulse anchors the Wyoming Medical Center homepage while driving traffic, and patients, to our site.
