When the going gets tough, the tough get going. For the well-advertised, however, the going looks quite a bit easier. Hospitals these days are learning to take advantage of unique marketing opportunities to find innovative ways to advance their brands. Here are six notable examples of hospitals using unusual marketing techniques to attract patients and engage with their communities.
Chiefs Fantasy Camp at The University of Kansas Hospital (Kansas City). The University of Kansas Hospital's role as the official healthcare provider of the Chiefs began in 2012, when the organizations signed a 10-year partnership. It kicked off with the 2013 opening of The University of Kansas Hospital Training Complex, the renamed Chiefs Training Facility, in which the hospital began offering a sports medicine clinic to the public.
This year, the partnership continues with the inaugural Chiefs Fantasy Camp May 15-16, 2014. The camp invites participants to walk in a Kansas City Chief's shoes by meeting Chiefs players and coaches and experiencing a modified version of a day in the lives of the athletes. The event's co-directors include Trent Green, a Chief's quarterback from 2001 to 2006, and David Gentile, president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shied of Kansas City. The event has 100 spots, and proceeds from the $2,000 tickets (half of which is tax-deductible), will go to The Center for Concussion Management at the hospital.
"As a once-in-a-lifetime experience for fans, we expect the Chiefs Fantasy Camp to be a huge success," says Amy Metcalf, director of marketing at The University of Kansas Hospital. "Participants will be helping to fund community concussion awareness and prevention, with proceeds enabling us to educate more players, parents and coaches across a variety of sports to encourage safe play."
Healthcare Transformation MotorLab at Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City). This 22-hospital system has created a touring sampling of cutting-edge patient care technology. New in 2014, the MotorLab is a travelling RV equipped with technologies Intermountain and Cerner are using throughout of the continuum of care, including the patient hospital room, the intensive care unit, outpatient clinics and patient homes. The project is designed "to take new technologies across the nation and engage healthcare leaders in meaningful discussions about transforming healthcare," according to a statement.
The RV debuted at HIMSS 2014. It features a telemedicine display demonstrating Intermountain's telemedicine capabilities and interoperability, intensive care unit surveillance cameras, programs on physical therapy and infection control and self-care apps and tools for patients in home settings. Later this year the MotorLab will travel Utah to coordinate with the system's implementation of Cerner's EHR and revenue cycle system in its hospitals and clinics.
Nantucket Native Reunion at Nantucket (Mass.) Cottage Hospital. Located on the island of Nantucket, 30 miles southeast of Massachusetts, this 19-bed hospital highlights its unusual setting and fosters a sense of island community through its Nantucket Native Reunion, an annual gathering of children born at the hospital.
The event, for kids 12-years-old and under, includes crafts, games and lunch. This year the event tied in to the Sochi Winter Olympics. The hospital also uses the opportunity to engage with other rural healthcare providers. Polished Dental, a Nantucket dental practice, was also invited to the 2014 event. Courtesy of NCH and the Rotary Club of Nantucket, all attendees were eligible for free oral health screenings and fluoride varnishing.
"The event is an opportunity to reconnect with the families of children born at the hospital who already have a special relationship with us," says Kate Bartleman, the NCH development coordinator and lead organizer of the event. "Not only does it build goodwill for NCH in the community, but it also allows us a chance to promote our services and educate island residents about the campaign to build a new hospital."
Online physician matching service at UNC Pardee Hospital (Hendersonville, N.C.).
The 222-bed hospital features a website for physician-patient matching modeled on popular dating websites. The website is a solution for mitigating the difficulty accessing physicians that patients were experiencing as a result of UNC Pardee's rapid acquisition of physician practices, which were looking to join the hospital because of declining reimbursements. Practices were being acquired so rapidly that it was difficult to homogenize the UNC Pardee brand, according to Rick Prudhomme, director of creative marketing and communications at the hospital.
The website solves both patient branding issues. When prompted, it asks prospective patients about personality attributes and medical needs and suggests a set of physicians from which the patient may choose. Physician profiles are linked to a brief video interview with each physician on their approach to providing care. According to the hospital, the site drove 12 percent volume growth for the hospital's network of physician practices during its first year, 2013.
Tweeting orthopedic surgeries at Raritan Bay Medical Center (Old Bridge, N.J.).
In 2011, this 501-bed medical center became the first hospital in the tri-state area to live-tweet an orthopedic surgery. To raise awareness of its orthopedic surgery program, it recruited a high-school senior to tweet a 20-minute knee surgery with the help of its marketing partner, Verasoni Worldwide. Surgeon Jonathan Pine, DO, who performed the surgery, dictated the procedure and answered questions, which the student then tweeted.
The event attracted most regional papers and two major television outlets in the tri-state area, and the hospital estimates the value of the event at about $500,000. In addition, Dr. Pine, who has since left the state, has reported new patients at his office as a result of the Twitter campaign. The hospital also reported positive feedback among its physician community for some time following the event.
Pro football-sponsored gym at HackensackUMC (Hackensack, N.J.). In March 2014, this 1,140-bed hospital advanced its community health initiatives through the official opening of HackensackUMC Fitness & Wellness Powered by the GIANTS, a gym opened in collaboration with the New York Giants. The gym is part of a larger focus on population health for the hospital, according to CEO Robert C. Garrett.
The 112,000-square-foot gym offers both fitness programs and health and wellness facilities for its members, alongside a health food café, a spa and child care. Giants' trainers help coordinate athletic workouts in a sports performance center in the gym. On the medical side, the center includes the Debra Simon Center for Integrative Medicine, which houses physical therapy, diabetes management education, nutritional counseling, a cooking studio, behavioral health services and women's health.