Commonwealth Medical Group, one of the largest remaining independent physician groups in the Milwaukee area, is breaking up and its 31 physicians are joining Wheaton Franciscan Medical Group or Aurora Advanced Healthcare. Commonwealth Medical Group employs about 200 people and has clinics in seven Wisconsin municipalities. Its physicians all specialize in family-practice or internal medicine. Seventeen of the group's doctors are going to work for Wheaton Franciscan Medical Group and 14 of them are going to work for Aurora Advanced.
The Florida Board of Medicine has decided to drop a fee increase for consumers to get copies of their medical records from doctors. The proposal would have let doctors charge $1 per page, up from the current fee of $1 for the first 25 pages and 25 cents per page after that. A patient needing 100 pages would have paid $100, up from $43.75 now. The rejection of the fee increase comes after 10 months of study, and protests from consumer groups.
North Carolina's state-regulated hospital industry was allowed this year to bid for 41 more patient beds in Wake County, and now three competing hospital groups are vying for regulators' approval. WakeMed, Novant Health, and Rex Health have delivered multi-million dollar plans to the Certificate of Need section of the NC Department of Health and Human Services, which will determine which competitor gets the beds. The contest for the beds will be the first time new hospital capacity has been available in Wake County for the past three years.
It's pretty rare that I have a hard time forming an opinion on any given topic, but I'm conflicted about the latest healthcare marketing controversy. At issue: Should newspapers and hospitals team up to provide healthcare content? A number of arrangements have drawn fire of late—including a newspaper that "sold" its health section to a local hospital, which then provided content for the section, and a TV station that had an exclusive arrangement to run stories that one of its local hospitals suggested.
Now two journalism trade groups have condemned the practice. The Association of Health Care Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists are urging media outlets to avoid arrangements with hospitals that improperly influence healthcare coverage, calling such partnerships unethical and saying they interfere with independent news coverage of healthcare.
I've been on the fence about this one for a while because I can see both sides so clearly. As a reporter, I cringe at the thought of allowing any organization to influence editorial content, especially if there's money involved. As a reporter who covers healthcare marketing, I think sponsoring a special section on health in the local newspaper is a smart idea.
And it's not like this is anything new: Local newspapers run "advertorial" content all the time. Those wedding, parenting, real estate, and vacation inserts are a vehicle for businesses to promote their services. The articles in those sections aren't hard-hitting news; they're thrown together to make money for both the newspaper and its advertisers.
Apparently, it's OK for florists, baby furniture salesmen, Realtors, and travel agents to make money. But hospitals and health systems are supposed to be above all that. Newspapers, too.
In fact, newspapers and healthcare organizations have a lot in common. They're each a business that has to pretend it's not a business and both industries are struggling financially.
Newspapers and hospitals are both viewed by the public as altruistic organizations that exist first and foremost to serve the public. They shouldn't be in it for the money—hospitals should be saving lives and newspapers should be exposing corruption. They should not be wasting their money on such vulgarities as marketing, advertising, and public relations.
It's as if the public has no notion that it costs money to run a hospital (or a newspaper, for that matter). If no one signs the checks and pays the bills, lives go unsaved and corruption goes unexposed.
So where is the line between right and wrong, here? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers.
You'll probably never convince the public that a hospital is, in fact, a business. But you can't stop marketing and just hope the patients will wander in on their own, either. You can't stop paying the bills and hope the lights stay on.
While I'm figuring it out, I suggest you start being a little more careful with your ad buys. And transparent in your relationships. And go on pretending that your hospital doesn't need money to operate.
Gienna Shaw is an editor with HealthLeaders magazine. She can be reached at gshaw@healthleadersmedia.com.
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NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Brad Coleman, of the No. 27 Ford Fusion Kimberly-Clark car, received 27 helping hands during the Kroger 200 at O'Reily Raceway Park.
The event marked the 10th year of a partnership between Kroger Central Division, sponsor of the race and owner of food stores, pharmacies, and fuel centers in the Mid-Atlantic States, and Riley Hospital for Children (located in Indianapolis). To celebrate, Kimberly-Clark worked with Riley Children's to orchestrate painting handprints representing 27 Riley patients and their families onto Coleman's race car.
"We've been the beneficiary of Kroger activities in the past," says Jason Mueller, communications manager for Riley Children's Foundation. "This awareness event supported an annual fundraising event that Kroger hosts for us—the 'Race for Riley' go-cart event. So, this partnership with Kimberly-Clark was just one way to branch off and further our relationship."
The handprints were a change from the typical sponsor-driven paint scheme and were done with multiple colors and with the children's names in them. Across the car's hood read the slogan, "Making a difference, hand in hand."
"The kids represented on the car were current and past patients that we knew would appreciate the opportunity of having their names on the race car," says Mueller. "It was one way to get their minds off treatment while enjoying one of their interests."
Riley Hospital hosted a 'NASCAR party' the day before the race so that Coleman could visit with the children who would be featured on the car. "It is very inspiring to have these children featured on our race car . . . I'm thrilled to be a part of such a one-of-a-kind program," Coleman said in a statement.
For Riley Hospital and the patients and families involved the event was especially meaningful. "We are very excited that these children will be a part of such a memorable event," Mueller said. "I know these families have been through a lot and are grateful for the opportunity."
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.
One thing that community hospitals have in common—at least if they want to be successful in the years ahead—is a strong tie to the community. Most of these facilities exist because the community built them. That connection is what helps keep many of these small-town hospitals open amid declining reimbursement rates and the rising ranks of the uninsured. What the community thinks matters. And many communities place a high value on local autonomy because they are invested—either through taxes or donations—in the local hospital. They want to ensure that their hospital has their best interests at heart.
But maintaining independence is becoming increasingly difficult for smaller community hospitals. One of the biggest threats in today's market is increased competition from larger health systems that are expanding their reach into suburban and rural markets. This competition is forcing some community hospitals like Northern Hospital in Mount Airy, NC, and Hugh Chatham Hospital in Elkin, NC, to compete with larger hospital systems. Northern Hospital, which is spending $22 million to more than double its space for operating rooms and outpatient care, and Hugh Chatham, which is spending $41 million to increase capacity in its emergency room, are expanding their facilities so that they can treat more patients locally (complex cases will still be transferred to nearby tertiary systems).
Not all community hospitals have the resources to expand or modernize their facilities. Still, viewing a merger or affiliation with a large system as strictly a last resort may not be the best strategy. I've spoken to many hospital executives who say that independence is a state of mind. They maintain that it really doesn't matter if you are independent, partnered with a management company, affiliated with another hospital, or part of a hospital system, as long as you are meeting the needs of your community. What matters is that you have the resources required to update your facility, invest in new technologies, improve quality, or expand services.
If you can maintain independence and still meet the needs of your community, great. But if you are struggling financially and watching patient volumes slowly decline, you may want to think about joining or partnering with a health system sooner than later.
Not all partnerships are created equal. Some affiliations allow the community hospital to maintain a local board with reserve powers and independent decision making, while others do not. Waiting until you need a system to save your hospital from closing is not a good position to be in. It limits your choices and makes it more difficult to find a system that is a good fit for your facility and community.
Regardless of what option you choose to strengthen your hospital financially, experts contend, community support is a must. You need to maintain that connection to the community. Craft an elaborate communication strategy so that members of the community understand what is going on and why. And above all, try to build a consensus in the community that the path your hospital is taking is the best one.
Editor's note: This is my last column for HealthLeaders Media Community and Rural Hospital weekly. I'd like to thank all of the readers for the great feedback. I'll be taking over our leadership newsletter, HealthLeaders Media Corner Office, starting Friday. John Commins will be writing the Community and Rural Hospital eNewsletter.
Carrie Vaughan is editor of HealthLeaders Media Community and Rural Hospital Weekly. She can be reached at cvaughan@healthleadersmedia.com.