For the first time in three years, Graceville-Campbellton (FL) Hospital is operating in the black. After being overrun with debt, the hospital made a complete turnaround and has managed to pay off all its vendor debt. To complete the turnaround, hospital officials brought in new equipment to add to the services they provide. As a result, it decreased the number of patients transferred to other healthcare providers.
In 2007 the Radiology and Mammography Department at Fort Campbell, KY-based Blanchfield Army Community Hospital was ranked among the top 10 percent of hospitals in the United States--civilian and military--in screening measures. Some of the credit for the ranking can be attributed to a women's initiative campaign on the importance of mammograms and self-examination. In 2007, the Radiology and Mammography Department performed about 5,300 mammograms.
On the advice of its political consultants, the board of directors at Oceanside, CA-based Tri-City Medical Center took no action at its regular meeting to place a third hospital bond on the June primary ballot. The board informally directed its political consultants to keep doing their homework to better understand what it would take to get voters to support a bond. Tri-City faces a state-mandated deadline of 2013 to repair or replace two of its oldest buildings because the buildings do not meet updated earthquake safety standards.
Because consumers have the desire and ability to control what information they receive and how they receive it, marketers have a more difficult job than ever trying to reach them. For Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora, IL, an established positive brand image allowed their marketing team to focus their recent campaign efforts on what really matters to patients: themselves.
"Marketing and advertising is increasingly getting more difficult for all businesses today," says Mary Zokan, director of marketing for Rush-Copley Medical Center. "Consumers are controlling their information, music, movies, and media in ways we've never seen before; they want to interact with it. That level of sophistication has given rise to a 'You' movement that hospitals, we believe, must embrace."
Being patient-focused was important for Rush-Copley, but that hadn't been reflected in their marketing. To change that, the organization thought about healthcare from the patient perspective and devised a campaign strategy and message that asked, 'What Kind of Patient Would You Be?'
The various campaign elements, which focused on three different service lines using a multi-integrated approach, asked that question of consumers while pinpointing various emotions. One campaign piece starts with the question, "If you had a heart problem, what kind of patient would you be?" Copy accompanying an image of an older woman reads: "Surprised? Some people are surprised to learn of a heart problem." The ad goes on to describe what Rush-Copley can provide to educate patients and help them through their conditions.
What's distinctive about this strategy is that Rush-Copley is not only providing the consumer with a thought-provoking question to draw them in, they're also giving them a persona (with the imagery) and an emotional state within the campaign message that they can easily identify with.
"We worked to get into people's heads, because after all, choosing healthcare can be a very emotional decision," says Emily Calvo, a co-creative director on the campaign. "We used emotional states to acknowledge real feelings that the audience can relate to. Then we [showed] how Rush-Copley's services benefit each type of consumer."
Though the campaign is still running, current results show that the campaign has been well received leading to increased call volume, referrals, and Web traffic. The campaign message, as Zokan says, "embraces the very essence of consumerism in a simple, relatable, and effective way."
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.
Healthcare marketers have a wide variety of responsibilities on their plate, from conducting market research to launching multimedia campaigns to proving return on investment. Marketing to physicians, which is a new focus for many hospitals, is one more large and complicated task to add to the mix. But sometimes a small change can make a big difference. Here are seven ways hospitals can improve physician relations, shared by speakers at a physician strategies conference held this week in Los Angeles. Most of them don't require a lot of time or money to implement, but one of them might have a big impact at your organization.
1. Add interactive services. New technology can keep physicians loyal to your healthcare organization, said Kathy Divis and John Eudes, president and executive vice president of Greystone.Net. One suggestion: Put interactive physician profiles on your Web site that include short video clips of the physicians introducing themselves and describing their philosophy of treatment. When a patient can see the doctor speak and watch his or her gestures and facial expressions, the physician seems much more human and approachable, making it easier for patients to make a decision.
Another idea: shoot short videos of specialists discussing hot medical topics. Set up an interview with an anesthesiologist to talk about the rarity of the phenomenon of patients who are aware of what's going on during their surgery, as depicted in the movie "Awake," for example. Embed the videos in online or e-mail press releases, helping to get more media attention for your physicians.
2. Give physicians what they want. "Don't assume that everyone knows how to use a computer," said Douglas Backous, medical director of the regional clinicians program at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, WA, at a session on physician referral and outreach. His department was thinking of discontinuing a physician newsletter, but the docs asked them not to give up on it--they loved the publication. "We really have built our program around what our physicians need," he said. And so the newsletter was saved.
3. Organize by location. Marketers should reach out to physicians by region, not service line, Backous said. That way, physicians don't get hit with visits from several different people from your organization in one week. "That's a good way to look like a drug rep," he said.
4. Customize your services. Backous also noted his organization is looking to do more online for the physicians in his vast region, which spans different time zones. One possibility under consideration is offering continuing medical education online and on demand. Physicians don't live and practice in Alaska so they can get up at 6 a.m. to earn their CME credits, he said.
5. Make docs the stars. It's not exactly a state secret that physicians, especially surgeons and other specialists, can have a bit of an ego. One way that you can play to that and engender loyalty is to include physicians in your advertising campaigns. That's what Florida Hospital in Maitland is doing, says C. Josef Goshen, vice president for strategic planning there.
The physicians were engaged and involved in creating the campaign, Goshen reports. And they were thrilled with the resulting ads. "I don't have to tell you what happened to their volumes," Goshen said. "No one had to work on them anymore after that."
So how does Goshen choose which physicians to feature without snubbing anyone or causing hard feelings? He doesn't. He leaves that up to a panel of physicians. They recruit volunteers and pick the participants. "I don't get involved," Goshen said. "It has to be a very collegial environment.
6. Simplify the numbers. When you're reporting trends and results to senior leaders, they don't want to look at big, complicated spreadsheets crammed with data, said Sean Duffy, physician liaison at Geisinger Health System in Danville, PA. A simple chart or bar graph is much more effective. "And as long as it's going up, everything is great," he added.
7. Show up uninvited. When physician relations reps at McLeod Health System in Florence, SC, first began eating lunch in the doctor's lounge, the regulars there wondered why their space had been infiltrated. But Catherine Lee, McLeod's corporate chief of staff, announced that someone from her department would henceforth be joining the docs for lunch to make sure someone was always present to answer questions and address concerns. Plus, she told them, the food was better than in the cafeteria.
It took about two months, but eventually the doctors would notice if someone didn't show up--and sometimes even call to ask someone to come down. "It sounds like the simplest thing, but what we did was create a consistent presence," Lee said.
So it turns out you don't have to spend a ton of money to forge inroads with physicians. From playing to their egos to simply listening to what they want, you can improve relations, increase referrals, and engender loyalty. Have any physician relation tips you want to share with other readers of HealthLeaders Media Marketing Weekly? Send me an e-mail or leave a comment about it, below.
California nurses at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center campuses in Berkeley and Oakland and at San Leandro Hospital have voted to give their union the authority to call a 10-day strike. The union says that the key issue in the strike is "Sutter's refusal to schedule RNs to care for patients when nurses are on legally mandated meal, rest, or bathroom breaks." Nurses at 11 Sutter hospitals held two-day walkouts in October and December 2007.