Florida International University's new medical school is still a year away from opening, but more than 1,600 students from around the country have applyied for the 40 slots in its inaugural class. More than 300 students from South Florida have applied, and FIU has received almost enough applications from its own ranks to fill the first class. Florida is badly in need of new physicians, and FIU hopes the doctors they educate will practice in South Florida, said Sanford Markham, MD, the medical school's dean of students.
Thinking that much of healthcare advertising tends to look the same, Amy Speagle, marketing & public relations director for The Medical Center of Aurora (CO) & Centennial Medical Plaza, looked to Weise Communications in Denver to create something out of the ordinary.
"I am a firm believer that you need to stand out in the crowd," Speagle says. Along with standing out, there was also the challenge of generating awareness about Centennial Medical Plaza's ER and a newly formed relationship with Kaiser Permanente's patients.
The medical center sponsors a local family sports center so the creative team headed over to look for some inspiration.
And they found it—the trip turned out to be a catalyst for creativity.
While visiting the sports center, Travis Parker a copywriter for Weise, wondered, "What if a hockey puck flew through the glass?"
That thought led to the idea of showing sports-related mishaps in the ads, says Tracy Weise, account supervisor for the campaign and president of Weise. "Everyone loves bloopers—so we asked ourselves, what kind of things could happen here that we could portray?"
The team placed ads in each area of the sports center that corresponded to the sport played in that area. For example, an ad in the hockey rink shows a player falling over the boards. All you see are the player's legs with the campaign message, "Just in Case," and the facility's logo on the rink's boards.
Another ad, placed at the soccer field, shows the image of a player diving for a ball over a real trash can. And at the driving range, a bucket of balls can be seen overhead with actual balls appearing as if they're falling down over visitors at the range.
"Hopefully, the underlying message is that healthcare doesn't have to be scary," says Speagle. "I firmly believe the message needs to be clean, short, and people need to get it right away. I think, anecdotally, we've gotten a great response. Anyone who has seen it says it's sticking in their minds—which is important."
Kandace McLaughlin is an editor with HealthLeaders magazine. Send her Campaign Spotlight ideas at kmclaughlin@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.
A few factors work against executives in small rural hospitals when they need advice. First, there may be no one around to ask within their organization—this is especially true for independent facilities that don't have a larger system of support backing them up. Money is also a top concern. Rural hospitals often don't have the $25,000 that's required to hire a consultant to come to their hospital. In addition, some rural leaders simply don't know where to look for advice and information, while others don't want to ask for advice, because they don't want to be told how to run their business by an outsider.
I can't help too much with the last one. But if you need advice, here are some places to start:
1. State resources. State hospital associations or state rural health centers often have a variety of expertise that rural hospitals can access for free or at a nominal cost. For instance, the Arkansas Hospital Association gathers all of the state's critical-access hospitals together to discuss different issues that are unique to them, says Chris Kuhlmann, the chief financial officer for Howard Memorial Hospital in Nashville, AR. But some rural hospitals don't get too involved, he says. "They don't see the need or aren't real aware of what you can find out by collaborating with other facilities—especially larger facilities across a diverse geographic area."
2. Healthcare associations and networks. Hospitals are often members of various organizations like the American Hospital Association, VHA Inc, or a rural hospital network. These organizations offer support on a variety of topics like quality, safety, materials management, pharmacy, nursing, recruitment, reimbursement, and legislation. So use them. Some networks even have listservs where individual questions can be posted and colleagues can respond. According to industry experts, most healthcare leaders are generous in taking the time to respond to these inquiries.
3. Web-based tools. While not free, a number of consulting companies and healthcare organizations are providing information through Webinars, Webcasts, and audioconferences. These tools are often a cost-effective way for small rural hospitals to receive information without breaking the bank. These tools cut out the travel expenses and registration fees required for attending conferences, and they are often much more affordable than having an onsite consultant. For example, Howard Memorial takes advantage of the expertise provided by its management company's Web-based seminars and mentoring program. "We have the ability to call and get an answer to just about anything we want on a whole myriad of issues, whether it is HR, or finance and reimbursement, or related to a new government regulation," says Kuhlmann.
And for those leaders who need information but don't want a lot of oversight, good news: You don't have to be managed by these organizations to access many of their Web-based seminars. "It provides a lot of guidance, but what it doesn't provide is heavy-handed oversight. That is what I love. I have access to the same resources as if I was working for a 60-hospital chain, but I still have the autonomy to make my own decisions that are applicable to my market," says Kuhlmann.
4. Peers. Perhaps one of the easiest ways to get advice is to ask your colleagues. Even if you're not part of a larger system, you can still search out best-practice hospitals and ask them for advice. Or consider asking five colleagues what they would do in a certain scenario or where they might look for answers. Leaders should establish a professional network that they can turn to for advice, experts contend. Don't feel limited to a phone or e-mail conversation, either. Sometimes you can arrange a site visit at a best practice hospital, as well, says Steven Simonin, the CEO of Wright Medical Center in Clarion, IA. "If you see something you like or something that intrigues you in another setting—doesn't have to even be healthcare—call them and ask," he says.
When all else fails, you can always try Google. Just remember: When searching the Internet, it may take a while to sort through the useless information until you find something useful.
Carrie Vaughan is editor of HealthLeaders Media Community and Rural Hospital Weekly. She can be reached at cvaughan@healthleadersmedia.com.
Note: You can sign up to receive HealthLeaders Media Community and Rural Hospital Weekly, a free weekly e-newsletter that provides news and information tailored to the specific needs of community hospitals.
As if local patient dumping weren’t enough of a PR nightmare for the U.S. healthcare system: Now hospitals are being called out for patient dumping on an international scale.
The New York Times tells a heart-wrenching story of a 35-year-old uninsured illegal immigrant, so injured in a car accident that he is unable to care for himself. The wheelchair-bound man, who has the mental capacity of a child because of his brain injury, was sent back to the impoverished hills of Guatemala where he has only his elderly mother to care for him.
It was not the government that deported him, but a community hospital in Florida, acting on its own.
The story paints hospitals—community hospitals in particular—as uncaring, money-grubbing, underhanded, and corrupt. And the article doesn’t just focus on the Florida hospital—it gives examples of international patient dumping from hospitals across the country, including some with religious missions.
“The only people who don't realize how inhumane our health care system has become are those fortunate enough to have good insurance, or Medicare . . . or who have never run up against the wall that says, ‘You can't pay for this, so go,’ ” one reader commented.
How much does bad PR cost?
It begs the question: How much is good PR worth? Or, more to the point in this case, how much is it worth to avoid bad PR?
Martin Memorial, a not-for-profit hospital in Stuart, FL, did a lot for this patient. Not only did they save his life—twice—but when they could not find a long-term care facility that would take the uninsured 35-year-old, the hospital took him in and cared for him to the tune of $1.5 million before it leased an air ambulance for $30,000 returned him to his home country.
Should the hospital have spent another $1.5 million to avoid an article such as this one? Three million? Six? How much is enough?
Multiply those numbers by the millions of uninsured in the U.S. and the negative return on avoiding bad publicity is clear.
It seems vulgar to weigh the pros and cons of caring for a patient, of measuring the cost to the hospital’s bottom line versus the cost of bad publicity. But those within the healthcare industry know that without money, there is no mission.
Was the bad PR all that bad?
I’m not saying “there’s no such thing as bad PR.” In this case, I think, it’s pretty clear that Martin and the other hospitals named in the article got a serious whooping.
But, as usual, there’s more to the story. For example, buried in the article is the fact that the man’s legal team, comprised of a lawyer, a paralegal, a priest, and a bioethicist, visited him in his home in Guatemala and found that there was no compelling reason to return him to Florida and that his quality of life is better than it would be in a U.S. nursing home.
And, as is it turns out, many of those who weighed in on the Times article—more than 500 at last check—seemed to understand that the blame should not lie on the hospital alone.
One reader, for example, blamed the federal government and noted that the burden of paying for the uninsured falls unfairly on urban hospitals, hospitals in communities with large immigrant populations, and hospitals in poorer rural areas.
Some were outraged that the hospital had to spend as much as it did on the uninsured patient. The $1.5 million, they said, could have gone to much better use caring for those who need help right here at home.
Others pointed out that if more Americans were insured, the burden of paying for the uninsured would not fall so heavily on public hospitals.
Still others blamed the employer who hired the illegal immigrant and the driver who hit him. Shouldn’t they be responsible for the cost of his care?
Yes, some readers railed against the hospital’s insensitivity. But for the most part, they seemed to understand that there’s a schism between the ideality of charity and the reality of the bottom line. What matters most, of course, is that the hospital’s internal and external stakeholders also understand that. It’s up to the hospital to make sure they do.
Gienna Shaw is an editor with HealthLeaders magazine. She can be reached at gshaw@healthleadersmedia.com.
Note: You can sign up to receive HealthLeaders Media Marketing, a free weekly e-newsletter that will guide you through the complex and constantly-changing field of healthcare marketing.
Marketing is important, but it has a different function in healthcare than it does with auto sales and credit cards. Marketing a health service is simply the process of letting those in your community know what your hospital have to offer.
The recent ABIM Foundation Summer Forum focused on patient-centered care . . . and who could be against that? asks Bob Wachter in this entry for The Health Care Blog. But, he asks, is patient-centered care just a healthcare MacGuffin?