Evolved Brand Management on Law Talk Radio

Our own Jeanne Frazer was featured last night in a one-hour episode on Law Talk Radio. The session was titled Evolved Law Firm Brand Management, but has tips and ideas on branding for all businesses. The session was recorded and is available on demand. Listen to Jeanne's tips on Evolved Brand Management. If you have feedback or questions, please let us know and we'll do our best to answer them!

What Everyone Should Know About Medical Mistakes

By Thomas Sheridan

Thomas Sheridan, founder of Sheridan & Murray, and respected Philadelphia personal injury lawyer discusses the facts about medical mistakes.

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine released a seminal study titled “To Err Is Human”. This study concluded that as many as 98,000 people die in American hospitals each year as a result of medical mistakes that are preventable. Ninety-eight thousand deaths per year is a staggering statistic. More people are killed each year by medical mistakes than car accidents. Medical mistakes account for more deaths every year than breast cancer, and medical mistakes account for more deaths each year than AIDS. Simply stated, health care in the United States is not as safe as it should and must be.

Nevertheless, hospitals, doctors, and medical insurance companies continue to bombard the public with claims that tort reform is necessary to “fix the healthcare system in American.” The medical and insurance lobbies contend that frivolous lawsuits have driven up the cost of medicine in the United States and are a significant cause of increasing healthcare costs. This is simply not true. The real problem with the healthcare system in America is that patient safety is not paramount.


Hospitals and doctors have failed to take any significant action to improve patient safety in America. Among the common medical mistakes that are preventable are improper blood transfusions, surgical injuries, operating on the wrong part of the body, adverse drug events, falls, mistaken patient identities, and burns. Significant error rates are commonly found in intensive care units, operating rooms, and emergency departments.

In 2010, the Office of Inspector General of the US Department of Health and Human Services reported that 1 in 7 hospital patients experienced a medical error. Of these medical mistakes, 44% were preventable. These medical mistakes cost Medicare $4.4 billion each year. These Medicare cost estimates do not include the additional costs associated with follow up care following medical mistakes. This important study concluded that since most medical mistakes are preventable, the need and opportunity for hospitals to significantly reduce the incidence of mistakes is significant.

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Buzzworthy Lawyers

Buzzwords become buzzwords because they strike a cord. While they’re hot, phrases like “win-win,” “think outside the box,” “convenient location,” “free consultation,” all make the advertiser appear to be on the “cutting edge.” But what happens when you are using a buzzword past the expiration date?

You lose clout and become part of the incessant background noise and not the hype buzz you’d wanted. Attorneys, for example, are egregious over users of the phrase “free consultation.” It is hard to think about other ways to impart this benefit—especially if you are using pay-per-click or other advertising with limited space, but when you do find other ways to invite people “to learn more about their rights for free” results will increase.

Your advertising is supposed to make you stand apart and tell the story of why you are different. It should not make you blend into the crowd because you are mimicking other competitors. Attorneys are very good at looking within their own industry and following the lead of the big dogs-the problem is it creates an environment of sameness, almost inbred advertising.

If you are going to use a buzzworthy term, be the first to do it so you set the standard. Look to other industries for a fresh approach. Better yet, stop writing “ad copy.” Really analyze who you are and what you do best. Make sure it matches the reality of what your clients like about you, then find a way to include words that your clients use and understand. And make sure you monitor your ads to avoid “ad fatigue”—change them based on what you learn works best through your testing. Online ads need more updates, but television ads can and should run for a longer time frame.

We all want to be different, but actually having the guts to do it is another thing. Are you up for being truly buzzworthy by creating your own path?