Children's Hospital in Omaha, NE, found itself in an unusual predicament. The facility had been in the market for a while and had good community brand awareness. Now what? Deciding to take advantage of a unique situation, Children's chose to move beyond basic, local, messaging for the first time in order to highlight specific patient stories in new ways.
"We were utilizing existing creative, we had been in the market for a fair amount of time and we needed something new," says Martin W. Beerman, vice president of marketing and community relations for Children's Hospital. To obtain "something new" Children's needed to move beyond its prior institutional focus to a message that was a little more personalized. "We decided to tell the stories of the [the children] that we have helped," says Beerman.
In order to meet its primary campaign objective, featuring its patient's stories, Children's looked to its agencies (Bendtsen & Company and Daake Design) for assistance. With a full team and a central concept in mind, the next step was to find the children to showcase and get their stories. "Children are funny, dramatic, heroic, and never boring," says Jeanette Bendtsen, president and creative director for Bendtsen & Company. "With the children featured, all of them, there was a natural heroism that kind of inspired us all."
Though traditional media options were used to ensure coverage of local outreach, Children's was ready to take a leap. "Being pediatric our prime audiences are younger women with children," says Beerman. "For that [target audience] the Web is the fabric of their lives and we knew that because of that Web very much had to be a part of this campaign." "Marty is a savvy marketer," says Bendtsen. "Internet advertising is the newest frontier in this market and it's growing exponentially. Marty was a leader in tying in the advertising and traditional media we do into the Web."
The Web portion of the campaign included banners and skyscraper ads, and a Web site redesign that incorporated the overall feel of the campaign into Children's Web site. According to Beerman, going forward with the Internet portion of the campaign wasn't the real challenge.
"The challenge has been in deciding where the right placement spots are to reach our target audience. We've tried placing banner ads on media outlets' sites, local TV station Web sites, and newspaper sites. So far the World Herald has had the most traction," says Beerman.
Due to the response thus far, and a sense that the public would like to know more, Children's has incorporated longer versions of each child's story on its Web site, www.ChildrensOmaha.org, along with "outtake" photos from the photo shoot.
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.
Those who make their living composing news releases say there is an art to strategic word selection. This easily dismissed craft can catapult an announcement about a study, a product or a “breakthrough” onto the evening news instead of to its usual destination—the spam folder or circular file.
The story of needless errors being committed at hospitals around the country is not news to healthcare marketers, but many have probably never considered that they are partly to blame. Hospital marketers are so concerned about damage control that they rarely take the time to share their hospitals' successes.
Chemotherapy patients have not lost access to care despite federal legislation that has reduced reimbursements to their doctors, according to researchers at the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Critics feared the passing of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 would make treatment more difficult, but investigators found little difference in the distance chemo patients traveled to be treated and the time between diagnosis and start of treatment.
NASHVILLE—Scripps Health, Griffin Hospital, Lakewood Health System, Bangkok Hospital Medical Center, CareSource Management Group, and HealthTexas Provider Network are the winners of the 2008 Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare awards program, which recognizes the best leadership teamwork in hospitals, health plans, and medical group practices.
The HealthLeaders Media Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare program, sponsored by Cejka Search, CIT Healthcare, HealthGrades, and Pershing Yoakley & Associates, is designed to celebrate the outstanding teamwork that occurs in healthcare organizations each day, to share what makes top leadership teams successful, and to encourage other healthcare leaders to learn from the best practices of top leadership teams. Winners are judged on the leadership teams' overall leadership culture, their ability to overcome challenges, and their ability to demonstrate successes that result from outstanding leadership teamwork. Only one winner per category receives this national honor each year.
The 2008 honorees are:
Large Hospitals and Health Systems—Scripps Health, San Diego. Scripps Health, with five hospitals and some 2,600 affiliated physicians, has seen a turnaround in financial performance, physician satisfaction, and patient satisfaction in recent years under the direction of Chris D. Van Gorder, who has been CEO since 2001. One of the foundations of outstanding teamwork created by Scripps was the Physician Leadership Cabinet, an advisory group of physician leaders. Since the cabinet's founding, 100% of its recommendations have been accepted. Leadership teamwork is further enhanced by the Scripps Leadership Academy, a management training program that encourages understanding among managers of different units within Scripps.
Community and Mid-Sized Hospitals—Griffin Hospital, Derby, CT. Griffin Health has been on an ambitious journey to become a model for community hospitals. Under the direction of CEO Patrick Charmel, the longstanding leadership team has led Griffin Hospital from a declining facility in the 1980s to a hospital that is nationally-recognized for its patient-centered Planetree model. Griffin has been among the top hospitals in the nation for patient satisfaction and has received numerous awards for clinical quality initiatives.
Small Hospitals—Lakewood Health System, Staples, MN. Lakewood Health System has grown from a small community hospital to a regional health network that includes a 25-bed hospital, a 100-bed care center, a 40-apartment senior service facility, and a senior behavioral health unit. Under the direction of President Tim Rice, the leadership took a community-centered approach to the design and functions of a new $42 million facility that opened in 2006. In order to reach benchmarks for construction of the new facility, the leadership team had to increase new income by 300% to ensure long-term financial viability in an economically challenged area.
Global Hospitals—Bangkok Hospital Medical Center, Bangkok, Thailand. The inaugural winner of the global hospital category for the Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare program, Bangkok Hospital Medical Center has four hospitals with a combined 550 beds. Under the direction of CEO Chatree Duangnet, MD, Bangkok Hospital Medical Center has been on a journey of transformation with a core value of "work well together."
Medical Group Practices—HealthTexas Provider Network, Dallas. HealthTexas Provider Network consists of more than 450 physicians providing care at more than 100 practice sites, and is the physician employment organization for the Baylor Health Care System. HealthTexas has taken an active role in bringing the community chronic disease management and preventive health services. By investing in the tools to collect data—including an electronic health record system—HealthTexas physicians can better manage patients with chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and coronary artery disease.
Health Plans—CareSource Management Group, Dayton, OH. CareSource Management oversees public sector healthcare programs in Ohio and Michigan. The nonprofit organization is the fourth largest Medicaid HMO in the United States, managing the healthcare services for approximately 600,000 members. Under the direction of CEO Pamela Morris, the CareSource Management Group leadership team has been able to create a medical services model that includes comprehensive medical care, dental care, and home healthcare.
HealthLeaders Media Editor-in-Chief Jim Molpus says the 2008 Top Leadership Teams share a commitment to make their leaders mutually accountable for reaching high measures in areas from patient satisfaction to financial performance. "Healthcare is moving toward an era where transparent results will become increasingly crucial for survival," Molpus says. "Those leadership teams who are already preparing for that era in their own culture will have an advantage in the times ahead."
The 2008 honorees of the Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare will be featured speakers at the annual Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare Conference and Awards, to be held Oct. 16-17 at The Drake Hotel in Chicago. Along with the winners, more than 40 healthcare chief executives and team members will share their secrets of teamwork success in focus areas including financial strategy, quality improvement, technology, and physician relations. For more information, visit www.topleadershipteams.net.
About HealthLeaders Media:
HealthLeaders Media is the premier publisher of information resources for senior-level healthcare executives, reaching more than 100,000 healthcare decision-makers nationwide every month. In addition to its flagship monthly journal, HealthLeaders magazine, HealthLeaders Media distributes relevant industry information, practical advice, case-study solutions, and innovative strategies through newsletters, e-mail publications, live events, and state-specific healthcare business news services.
The interim CEO of Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital has a two-year, $1.2 million contract that was put in place shortly before a new hospital board was formed with a mission that included selecting a new chief executive. The new board has announced the four finalists to lead the hospital. The interim CEO, Pam Stephenson, had applied for the position but was not among the finalists. News of the contract has raised questions as to what happens to Stephenson when the new CEO comes on board, which is expected to occur by the end of summer.