Marketing campaigns that promise "satisfaction guaranteed or your money back" are risky, but often effective. I saw this first-hand in college delivering pizzas for Domino's, which had recently launched a campaign that guaranteed customers would get their pizza for free if it wasn't delivered within 30 minutes. People rarely got a free pizza but everyone knew about the promotion and business thrived.
Now, a group of specialty hospitals in Texas is using a similar program to promote emergency care. Emerus Hospital Partners, a five-hospital network with facilities in the Houston and Dallas areas, has a program that guarantees free care for emergency department patients if they don't see a doctor within 15 minutes. The clock starts ticking as soon as patients complete their paperwork to check in.
"So far, there have been only 17 occasions where we didn't meet the deadline and those patients were low-acuity because we still operate on a triage system," said Randy Park, MD, chief medical officer for Emerus. "So we've failed to meet the deadline in less than one percent of our cases and those patients were very happy to receive their care for free."
Emerus operates specialty hospitals that provide a full suite of emergency care, including CT scans, ultrasounds, x-rays and on-site lab and pharmacy services. The 24-hour emergency hospitals are staffed with experienced emergency department physicians, which Park says makes a difference in delivering results.
"Part of the reason we're able to do this is because we've been able to recruit great people who are really interested in providing this level of care."
Emerus began testing the program at its Craig Ranch and Aubrey hospitals in the Dallas area in early 2010. After the pilot showed promising results, Emerus rolled it out to its three facilities in the Houston area in October. Early on, Emerus promoted "15 minutes or it's free" with fliers to patients but has since launched a major marketing campaign that includes billboards, TV commercials and print ads. "During the first few months, only a few people were aware of it but now, everybody knows," said Park.
And it's helped generate higher patient volume. Park said it's too early to tell how well the promotion is working in Houston but they've seen solid results from its hospitals around Dallas. "We've seen a 35% to 40% increase in patient volume since we started the pilot program last year," said Park.
Park said he's not sure who came up with the idea for the campaign but said long waits – especially for emergency care – have long been one of the top problems patients bring up when evaluating the healthcare system.
"We were looking at what we were doing and what we could do to differentiate ourselves in the market," said Park. "And we decided the best way was to provide a better level of care than people were accustomed to and, so far, it's worked pretty well."