Let's face it, there's a time and a place for the "before and after" bariatric surgery campaign. That time isn't now—at least not for the team at St. Joseph Health System. St. Joseph, located in Lexington, KY, saw the before and after approach and thought, "been there, done that." Setting out to find a more effective approach, they discovered just how touching, truthful, and successful the emotional side of bariatric surgery could be.
The lesson came straight from St. Joseph's patients. "With candidates for weight loss surgery, it's not just something they decide to do overnight," says Steve Castle, vice president of St. Joseph's agency, D S Tombras in Nashville, TN. "What we found through the interview process is that people really just wanted their lives back. This campaign focused on the wants that they couldn't fulfill anymore because of their weight."
The multi-media campaign, coined the "I want campaign," is based on testimonials about the wants and needs of a bariatric patient. The messages, particularly in the TV spots, are simple and relatable.
"We had an amazing turnout at our casting call and were able to learn from the actors we featured as well," says Bill Seymour, senior vice president at D S Tombras. "Sometimes we just let the talent speak on their own about how they felt about their current situations. It's rare that you end up taking creative direction from the people that you're casting which is an indication of how enthusiastic people were about the message."
The day after the launch of the campaign, St. Joseph had 20 walk-ins—up from the one or two they had been seeing each month.
To support the campaign, St. Joseph set up informational seminars—all of which were filled and some of which required increased capacity based on the positive jump in response.
The campaign was also used for facilities across six different markets, including Los Angeles, Houston, Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix, and Nevada. In each market, the campaign tracked 3–5 times more responses that the facilities had previously seen.
"This campaign got great results," says Castle. "It was almost like people felt like they were supporting a cause. They had voice."
Kandace McLaughlin Doyle is an editor withHealthLeadersmagazine. Send her Campaign Spotlight ideas atkdoyle@healthleadersmedia.com. If you are a marketer submitting a campaign on behalf of your facility or client, please ensure you have permission before doing so.
I've been doing a lot of research about the newly revised IRS form 990H lately, trying to gauge how prepared healthcare organizations and marketers are for the latest government push to take transparency to yet another new level.
I've found there are many different ways that hospitals are getting ready. And a few reasons why they haven't yet developed a strategy.
There seem to be four main excuses:
1. "I'm a marketer, so I don't have to worry about 990H—it's a finance thing (and I was told there wouldn't be any math)."
Most experts and professional organizations—including the American Hospital Association, say that healthcare marketers should be working together with finance and other departments to gather the information that's required on the form, which includes a new open-ended essay question.
As I wrote in the January issue of HealthLeaders magazine (see A Story to Tell) finance might be the best department to compile and report numbers. But marketing is the department best equipped to tell your organization's story. You'll need both skill sets to fill out the newly revised IRS Form 990H.
2. "The IRS is never going to revoke a hospital's tax-exempt status based on this form—not anytime soon, anyway."
The IRS has said flat out that this is true—for now. But they are going to be compiling the data on the forms and creating a benchmark based on what all tax-exempt hospitals are doing. The results will likely be distributed along a bell curve—and you don't want to be on either of the low ends.
3. "We don't have to file the form until 2010—we have plenty of time to get ready."
Again, experts and associations say hospitals should start getting ready now in order to be prepared when it counts. "Actually, yesterday would be preferable," Patsy Matheny, a Sugar Grove, OH-based community benefit consultant, told me for the magazine article. "Since community benefit activities happen throughout the organization, it takes quite a bit of time to ferret out all the activities."
4. "We're not a tax-exempt organization—so there's no reason for us to gather this information."
First, it's true that only tax-exempt hospitals must fill out form 990H. But all hospitals must communicate the good they are doing in they're community. Are you really going to let your tax-exempt competition crow about all they do for the community without responding in kind?
Second, in the current economy, cities and towns and states across the nation have started to take a good look at tax-exempt healthcare organizations, asking: "What have you done for us lately?" It's only a matter of time before the reporters and advocacy groups in your community start asking you the same question.
There are many hospitals that are ready for form 990H. They've been promoting their community benefit activities for years and they have a plan in place for this new government mandate. But there are too many that are not ready, that don't have a clear plan, that haven't even decided what role marketing will play in the process.
Remember in elementary school when your teacher told you not to leave that big project till the last minute? Don't be the kid who was up to his or her elbows in wet paper and glue the night before the papier-mâché volcano was due.
The Mayo Clinic wasn't sure what to expect from social media when it gave it a test run four years ago, but it has come a long way in just a few years since adding a Facebook page with more than 3,000 friends, a YouTube channel with videos of doctors talking about illness, treatments and research, a health blog for consumers and another for media to improve the process of medical reporting. It's also creating "secret groups" on Facebook to connect patients to others with similar illnesses, an area it hopes to expand in the future. But that's just the tip of the iceberg in the brave new world of Health 2.0. as more providers use social software and its ability to promote collaboration between patients and the rest of the medical industry.
Kettering Health Network has named Roy Chew president of Kettering (OH) Medical Center, the hospital announced. Chew, formerly president of Grandview and Southview Medical Centers, replaces Fred Manchur, who was promoted to president of the network. Richard Haas, senior executive officer of the Sycamore Medical Center, will replace Chew as president of the medical centers.
Brookwood Medical Center, St. Vincent's Health System, and Select Specialty Hospitals are opposing Birmingham-based Trinity Medical Center's plan to move. January 20 was the last day for healthcare providers to oppose Trinity's application to spend $280 million to finish and move to a former HealthSouth hospital on the U.S. 280 corridor in Alabama. The opposition means it will be many months before the State Certificate of Need Review Board will vote on Trinity's application to move from its current facility. The case now goes first to an administrative law judge, who will hold a trial and hear evidence from all sides.
The St. Bernard Parish Council has officially offered to take over the task of building the parish's first post-Katrina hospital from the five-member public board appointed in late 2007 to oversee the project. Councilman Wayne J. Landry, the council's liaison on the hospital issue, said the move should not be viewed as council-board infighting but as a signal that the council and the parish are willing to come forward with the expertise needed to fast-track the project.