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2011 National Health IT (NHIT) Week:
10 Ways to Celebrate NHIT Week in Your Hometown

With partners across the U.S., National Health Information Technology Week is a virtual event with various activities in communities from Maine to California. This document contains some suggestions on how you can celebrate NHIT Week in your hometown.

As a partner driven event, we envision NHIT Week to be somewhat similar to Breast Cancer Awareness Month where participants leverage the opportunity to raise awareness and help the collective cause by holding celebrations in their communities.

To this end, we’ve put together 10 ways you can celebrate NHIT Week in your hometown. Feel free to use one of our ideas or come up with one on your own. And tell us what you have planned and how the event turns out so we can share your success with other NHIT Week partners.

1. Distribute a news release. NHIT Week organizers have prepared a “Swiss cheese” release. Fill in the blanks and distribute the release to local healthcare and IT reporters, editors, and broadcast producers in your city.  Add the NHIT Week logo next to your own to show this is about more than just your organization. Encourage stories about local health IT projects and investments. If you need help creating a media list, NHIT Week can help.

2. Write an op-ed. Draft an op-ed (700-800 words) to place in your city’s newspaper. The op-ed should focus on NHIT Week and discuss why all healthcare facilities from doctors’ offices to emergency rooms benefit from healthcare IT.

3. Conduct a tour of your facility. Another idea is to hold a tour of your facility for local and state officials, such as your Congressional representative, state legislators, or state health IT coordinator. If you are in a healthcare facility, such as a hospital, you may want to conduct a tour to illustrate how technology, specifically EHRs, are simplifying and improving the delivery of medical care in your facility.

4. Reach out to reporters. Include reporters in your NHIT Week efforts by arranging one-on-one appointments with journalists to brief them at their desks.  Or, brief several reporters at one time by holding a media session. Serve snacks or a light meal to help entice journalists to attend the event.

5. Host a NHIT Week seminar. Gather state policy experts, healthcare IT professionals, and other stakeholders to hold a seminar where you provide the very latest information about healthcare IT. Invite internal employees, elected and appointed officials, the public, the media and other stakeholders.

6. Proclaim NHIT Week. Working with the mayor or governor’s office, proclaim September 12-16, 2011 as NHIT Week in your city or state. Be sure to publicize the proclamation for maximum benefit.

7. Promote NHIT Week internally. To communicate with your internal stakeholders, display the NHIT Week poster in elevators, hallways, offices, cafeterias, on vending machines, bulletin boards, etc. Another way to communicate with your internal audiences may be to place an article in your organization’s employee newsletter or intranet.  (Please note: NHIT Week posters, logos, web buttons, and customizable newsletter articles are part of this toolkit.)

8. Develop a NHIT Week social media strategy. To help get the word out about NHIT Week, use your existing social media outlets, or establish new ones. Post a blog, tweet about NHIT Week, and highlight NHIT Week on your existing Facebook account, website, and other digital media outlets.

9. Incorporate NHIT Week into an upcoming activity. If your organization has an upcoming announcement or event, plan to hold it during the week of September 12-16. That way you can celebrate NHIT Week as part of the festivities. Submit your event to the official NHIT Week calendar at www.healthitweek.org by emailing nhitweek2011@gmail.com.

10. Promote NHIT Week in your existing communications. Add the NHIT Week logo to your email signatures and your organization’s internal calendars. These are simple ways that pack a big impact to let your network and colleagues know that your organization is celebrating NHIT Week.