With the world's eyes on the soccer competition in Brazil, healthcare organizations are jumping at the chance to use the tournament's momentum to promote their services and positive population health messages.
Viewing party at Mount Sinai Hospital |
The US national team's strong showing at the World Cup invigorated the country this summer, sparking widespread soccer fever not often seen stateside. And, like other popular sporting events, the momentum generated by World Cup hype provided savvy healthcare organizations with a unique opportunity to promote their services.
Several hospitals are riding the World Cup wave to engage folks internally and externally. I've heard of several organizations that hosted viewing parties for US matches that took place during the day, providing big screen TVs and snacks for employees who were able to spare a few minutes to watch.
Some hospitals and health systems have taken it a step further, opening World Cup viewing parties to the community in an effort to reach potential patients. Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, NY, tweeted an invite to community members to stop by its facility to watch the game on July 1 and receive a free skin cancer screening while they're at it.
Other organizations got involved by connecting their physicians with media outlets to provide expert advice and commentary regarding related health concerns. For example, Shukri David, MD, cardiologist at St. John Providence Health System in Michigan, told a local CBS station that some World Cup viewers should be aware of an increased heart attack risk due to unhealthy game foods combined with the stress and excitement of watching the match.
Of course, the most popular way for hospitals to leverage World Cup fever was promote their wellness, orthopedic, and sports medicine programs.
Take East Jefferson General Hospital in Louisiana, which cleverly posted a photo of a US striker Clint Dempsey on Facebook with the caption, "World Cup athletes have to be in their best shape to play in this fast-paced sport. The Wellness Center offers strength training and nutrition counseling to help you achieve your optimal health. For more information, call the Wellness Center at 503-6868."
Turning Goodwill into Bad PR
Unfortunately, with every celebration comes the unavoidable stick in the mud.
Hospitals in Vancouver cut streaming World Cup access to workers due to concerns that they were spending too much time watching the games and neglecting patient care.
"We have seen periods of excessive congestion on the internet feed during game times. This has the potential to directly impact patient care areas that rely on the network for their delivery of clinical care," reads a memo Canadian health officials sent to hospitals. "In order to mitigate any further risk, we are taking the proactive step to disable access."
Of course patient care is paramount, but the way administrators handled the situation reflected poorly on the hospitals and certainly did not help employee satisfaction. The edict raised a few eyebrows in the media regarding the staff's work ethic and I'm sure there was plenty of grumbling around the water coolers after the video streaming was cut off.
As an alternative, Vancouver hospitals could have asked workers not to watch any livestreams during their shift and instead provided a viewing party for people to stop by during their breaks.
Takeaways for Healthcare Orgs
As the World Cup draws to a close, the key takeaway for hospitals is to remember to incorporate these positive, promotional strategies into their annual marketing plan. And if this burgeoning soccer fever sticks around, as I suspect it will, it might be worthwhile for organizations to look into partnering with their local Major League Soccer team and youth soccer programs.
The World Cup only comes every four years, but the marketing strategies used during the 2014 tournament should become permanent fixtures in your healthcare organization's PR toolkit.
Marianne Aiello is a contributing writer at HealthLeaders Media.