Company: United Regional Health Care System, Wichita Falls, TX
Company Description: United Regional is the only comprehensive health care system in a 9-county area. In 2014, in an effort to improve the health of our community, we implemented a multi-media campaign entitled "Partners in your good health" which educated consumers on disease management & prevention & health screenings to identify diseases at their earliest stage when most treatable.
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Categories - Industry
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Campaign of the Year - Healthcare - Disease Education & Awareness
Tell the story of this nominated marketing campaign for the judges (up to 650 words). Describe the genesis, planning, execution, and results to date of your campaign. If applicable, remember to describe what's unique or innovative about your campaign:
Our President and CEO often asks the senior leadership team, "Are we a health care system or a sick care system? And what are we doing to focus on prevention as we do about treatment?" This was the inspiration for our 2014 multi-media prevention health campaign. We used TV, infographic direct mail, community education seminars, social media, web site and internal employee publications to provide persons with the resources to prevent diseases/conditions and screenings to identify diseases at the earliest stage when they can be more successfully treated for the best outcomes. A different topic/condition was featured each month.
We used our community health needs assessment to help select the disease/condition topics to feature. We evaluated what diseases and conditions could be impacted the most with preventive measures, screenings and lifestyle changes. We got input from physicians and other clinicians regarding information for scripting and had our Chief Medical Officer review all direct mail copy for medical accuracy.
This was the only health care system campaign we implemented. There were no promotions of medical service lines, advanced technology, surgical specialties, etc. We were singularly focused on helping to improve the health of our community. We decided on a multi-media approach so that we would reach the most people, including our 2000 employees. Infographics were used for printed communication so that the messages would be understandable for any socio-economic group and education level. We used television, print, community education seminars, Facebook, internal employee publications and web site posts.
The campaign has been well received by our community. We've had especially good comments on the use of infographics for direct mail pieces. We are continuing the campaign in 2015, adding additional topics on Childhood Obesity, Preventing and Managing Type II Diabetes, and the Importance of Taking Medication Correctly. We are also pleased that we saw an increase in screening colonoscopies and mammographies at our outpatient facilities and increased visits for primary care and OB/Gyn in our employed physician group, United Regional Physician Group. Our goal was to increase annual physicals, pap smears, colon cancer and breast cancer screenings to help our community members prevent related diseases or identify the disease early when treatment is most effective. Additionally, we wanted our community members to recognize the symptoms of stroke and heart attacks and to quickly call 9-1-1 for an ambulance transport to our ER so that we could minimize post-event disability. Our door-to-needle time for stroke and our door-to-balloon time for heart attack were both better than the national benchmark and national average.
Our health care system wants to help our community members avoid ER visits, hospitalizations and readmissions by giving them the information and tools to improve their health and by reminding them to get needed screenings and immunizations. The Partners In Your Good Health campaign was a good start.
In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief features and results of the nominated campaign (up to 150 words).
1. provided book on the screenings needed by men, women and children and when to get these
2. addressed heart health/heart disease/AMI, stroke, colon health, back pain, joint pain/dysfunction, women's health, breast health, importance of getting a flu shot and an annual physical, men's health
3. included education about the diseases/conditions, how to prevent them, how to manage them and what screenings are used to prevent these
4. the campaign also told what to do if you think you are having a heart attack or a stroke to minimize physical damage and reduce disability
5. multi-media used - TV, direct mail, social media, free education seminars
6. same physicians were used in education seminars
7. saw increases in mammographies, colonoscopies, visits to our employed primary care physicians and OB/Gyns
8. door-to-balloon time was much better than the national average/benchmark
and door-to-needle time better than national
