Junto ("june-toe") is sponsored by Franklin Street, a branding and full service advertising agency specializing in health and wellness. We call the blog Junto in homage to Benjamin Franklin, who created the first "Junto" brainstorming group, which established the first American public hospital.
According to a study from Deloitte, 80% of people will travel outside their community for perceived higher quality of health care.
Many community hospitals are challenged with the perception that they are good for the common illnesses and broken bones, but can’t handle the major stuff.
Satilla Regional faced a similar quandary when they asked for our help in marketing their cardiac services program. Despite outperforming 75% of all hospitals nationwide in the emergency treatment of heart attacks, many locals believed they needed to go out of town for heart needs.
Using research on how and why consumers choose and evaluate healthcare providers, we developed a solution that spoke openly and honestly to Satilla’s audience. When it comes to your heart, use your head, became the campaign theme.
We featured one of Satilla’s cardiologists as a spokesperson for the campaign. Based on research we’ve conducted in markets all over the country, we knew physicians can be excellent spokespeople for hospitals, creating a halo effect for providers. Consumers feel that physicians can choose to practice medicine at many hospitals, so if they are choosing this particular hospital to practice, it must be of high quality.
We also featured testimonials of former cardiac patients and the life-saving care they received at Satilla. Television and web videos wove the softer, more emotional factors that lead to trusting Satilla for cardiac services.
We’re still tracking results for the campaign, but early numbers suggest the campaign is reaching our audiences’ hearts and minds.
What’s your take on using physicians as spokespeople? Curious about our clients’ take on STARK laws? Drop us a line — we’d love to hear from you.
The Stark law is a monster that strikes fear in the hearts of many hospital marketers. Guidance from your Compliance Department can be murky because there’s no case law precedent, and the various statutes that comprise Stark were enacted over time, building on prior regulations. The result is a murky mashup of gray areas that don’t apply to what most hospital marketers do on a daily basis.
Many hospitals avoid putting physicians in their campaigns because of Stark concerns. But physicians can be powerful spokespeople for your hospital. Featuring your physicians (employed and affiliated) is a great opportunity to grow your hospital’s brand.
In our research in markets across the country, physicians are often rated higher in credibility and trustworthiness than hospitals among consumers for delivering quality, technology and expertise messages. According to consumers, if a physician chooses to practice at and represents a hospital, then the hospital must be good. (Otherwise, the physician wouldn’t choose to practice medicine and send patients there.)
To help you build the case and comfort level for using your physicians in campaigns, here are some rules of thumb to keep in mind:
1.The cap on non monetary compensation for each physician is $355, so keep an eye on all those catered lunches you bring in to meetings, which many marketers say is the best way to get the physicians’ attention.
2. You can feature non-employed physicians in your advertising, provided you don’t put the doctor’s office practice phone number or office web address in the advertisement — otherwise, you’ll be advertising for the physician and not your hospital.
3. You should be more concerned about political fallout when featuring physicians in campaigns than being in Stark compliance.
Many hospital marketers feel overwhelmed at the thought of paring down which physicians to feature in their campaigns. One approach to sidestepping political land mines is asking one physician from each practice affiliated with your hospital to be featured in your campaigns. (For example, if you’re doing an ortho campaign, feature one orthopedic surgeon from every practice affiliated with your hospital.) By giving equal representation to all your physicians, you are likely to keep all your physicians happy. (Or, at least content!)
4. Review your hospital’s medical director contracts. Most of these contracts stipulate that the physician must assist the hospital with specific communications outreach, such as speaking to rotary groups or as part of overall communications campaigns. Because there are contractual agreements in place for these physicians, they can be the “go tos” for your campaigns and can also help build consensus.
Following is an example of new TV spots we filmed recently for Memorial that feature their physicians (employed and affiliated) to promote Memorial’s new Novalis cancer-fighting technology. The physicians were champions of this campaign thanks to our wonderful client’s extensive process of achieving buy-in, and also because we gave them the opportunity to share the good news about this new technology in their own words.
Tell us: what are your Stark and physician marketing challenges? What are your work-arounds? Do you find your physicians are advocates or antagonists of your marketing campaigns?
