Connected Thinking Blog - NACHRI Conferences

Phoenix Children's Wins PR Impact Award

NACHRI awarded its second Impact Award recognizing excellence in strategic public relations and marketing campaigns to:

Phoenix Children’s Hospital – “Handprints” Campaign
Debra Stevens, Director, Marketing/Communications
Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Phoenix, AZ

Fundraising with Text Giving - Lessons and Tips

Mark Miller, Director, Philanthropic Marketing & Communications at Children's National Medical Center and Jim Manis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officers at Mobile Giving Foundation presented this session. 

Mark discussed a partnership with The Washington Nationals Major League Baseball team.  The Nationals are helping to raise money for the Washington Nationals Diabetes Care Complex.  They decided as part of this partnership to hold Children's National Day at Nationals park.  They arranged for the usual promotional tools, but decided to do something beyond the norm.

Mark and the Nationals team decided to try text giving - no other professional sports team had used this way of fundraising at the time.  Fans could text NATS to 90999, then receive a confirmation message asking if they wanted to donate $5 to Children's National.

The Children's National team wanted to be sure that all fans were aware of the opportunity to give and wanted to be sure they understood the concept. 

They:

• Sent news releases to sports, philanthropic and technology media
• Sent messages to their Facebook fans
• Distributed pamphlets at the ballpark explaining the concept
• Created t-shirts for volunteers that read "Ask me about text giving"
• Created stickers for ushers
• Created a testimonial video that was shown before the game
• Created an ad focusing on the ask for the back page of the game day program

During the game, the announcer repeated the call to action, kids threw out the first pitch, pulled the bases and clowned around with the Nationals' mascot.

They determined that they raised $10,000 including text giving, percentage of ticket sales and a donation during the promo week.

Mark said they were pleased with the visibility for their diabetes program and the national recognition Children's National received as a fundraising innovator (USA Today, Washington Business Journal, etc).

Lessons learned include:

• Timing - pre-game not best time for video because of activity
• Repetition - should repeat video again during game
• Emotion - they will focus next time more on the ask and will ask a player to participate
• Invest less - in materials and volunteers

Jim stressed the importance of the Children's National team being willing to be the first to try this technology.  He discussed the 18-34 demographic and how they have embraced this concept.

The most successful text giving needs to have a personal call to action. Phones are so personal, Jim said that you need to have a trusted person making the ask.  Consumers still need to be educated about this concept. 

Text giving campaigns have the potential to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and high visibility in the right circumstances. 

Check out the Mobile Giving Foundation for more information about text giving campaigns.  Great presentation today.

Creating Physician Partnerships for Media Relations Campaigns

I really enjoyed hearing Wini King and Meri Cozart explain how the Cook Children’s Medical Center media relations and neuroscience teams worked together to gain national media attention for the hospital’s pediatric deep brain stimulation.

Wini shared that she was tasked with getting national media attention for her hospital’s neuroscience program, but wasn’t sure how to reach that goal. After attending the 2008 Creating Connections conference and hearing a presentation from my colleagues at Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center, Wini started to develop a plan. Our hospital granted the Memphis daily newspaper full-access to a week in the life of the hospital’s pediatric surgical brain tumor program. The result was a three-day series.

I was impressed with how Wini established her plan and how confident she was that she could reach her goal. She approached the local NBC affiliate and asked for a 30-60 minute television special, a story in the local newspaper on a Sunday and help taking the story to the network. Wini’s dream was to take a family to New York to appear on the Today Show.

Here are some things that Wini did to make this happen:

1. She granted the TV station and newspaper exclusivity to the story and full access to the hospital. She focused on the reality feel to the story which was appealing to the TV station.
2. Cook Children’s focused on media training with the physicians. Wini brought in a trainer from out of town. This created a sense of importance with the physician and made sure that the hospital’s PR staff members weren’t the bad guys. After the training, the physicians got real life media experience with other smaller stories the hospital was pitching to other local media outlets. This built trust with the physicians. They bought into the hospital’s goal.
3. She created a strong partnership with Meri, the neuroscience service line director. Meri buffered Wini from the physicians. They thought that the doctors could vent their frustrations to Meri and then be ready to stay on message with Wini and the media. 
4. Wini screened families to find the best candidate. She selected a 12-year-old named Sam because he was talkative, had a great sense of humor, and was candid with what he was thinking and feeling.

The results were amazing. The 30-minute TV special aired twice (once on Christmas day) touched a 10.5 million audience, the newspaper story had a 1.3 million readers, web hits doubled and the total media value was $5.1 million. And there’s still a Dateline NBC special still to come.

I’m encouraged by Wini and Meri’s presentation. Their confidence and clear goals helped them reach outstanding results and build great pride among their employees.

 

-Jennifer Parris, Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center

Safety Stores--best practices in PR & Marketing

Greetings to all who are interested in getting the word out about your safety stores.  I led an interactive, workshop-style session, immediately following the panel discussion of hospital-based safety stores.  Children's Hospital of Orange County is one of 10 NACHRI hospitals augmenting their injury prevention education by selling child safety products.  Since our program is in its embryonic stages, I wanted input on best practices.  We approached the topic with a communication plan structure.  Following are our thoughts from the session, and I invite you to add to these.  Jan Lansing, CHOC

Communication Objectives

• Generate traffic
• Encourage staff interaction

We also discussed a few risks that might accompany wildly successful promotion of the safety stores:

• Overwhelmed with interest and traffic
• Giving the impression that the hospital safety store = typical retail (it's definitely not)
• The location might not be readily accessible to customers
• Sales and education may put the hospital at risk (financial and reputational) due to inaccurate education and product recalls.  And, the store may be a financial drain (poor margins and high volume exacerbates the problem)

Target Audiences

We can reach out and communicate to:

• Daycare centers
• Schools
• CPR centers
• Hospital staff
  • Trauma staff
  • Residents/fellows
  • Nurse practitioners
• Baby Registries
• Birthing centers
• Physician educators

Communicate in multiple languages, of course.

Messages/Tactics

We agreed that since injury prevention education is so crucial, the sale of products needs to always link to that education.

Here are some of the tactics we discussed--ways you can leverage the distribution and promotion of the stores within your hospital:

• Be mobile within hospital – flex your locations to Ortho clinic or the ED, for example
• Use plasma screens around the hospital to promote
• Use your website, of course

Then, consider these external opportunities:

• Partner with Scholastic magazines & books, Babies R Us
• Birthing centers/adult hospital
• Integrate with Prenatal Education at those birthing centers.  Provide a "prenatal binder" that includes injury prevention/safety messages with other education, and promote the store there.

Final note:  We agreed that safety stores should not carry a separate brand.  Use the hospital brand to maintain the masterbrand's consistency and integrity.

Teaching Weight Management on a Slim Budget

With obesity front and center as public enemy number one -- at least in most media coverage of child health issues -- it's amazing how hard it can be to implement a weight management program to help guide children into a healthy lifestyle. The problem of course is money. Insurance isn't paying for obesity prevention or obesity management efforts, and few hospitals have the resources to feed money into a program that seems "optional" and is almost certain to lose money.

At Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk, VA, Barbara (Babs) Benson took it upon herself to put together a low-cost weight management program back in 2001. Her strategy for keeping costs low has been to do most of the work herself on a 30-hour-a-week salary, and to borrow everyone else as needed from other programs in the hospital.

She spends a lot of her time and energy to network, network, network. It's been her key to succeeding and growing the program. She serves on community boards related to children's health, volunteers through her program role to help at YMCA events, nurtures relationships with local media, and anything else she can think of to build mutually supportive relationships within the community. She has established herself -- and her program -- as community experts on child health and weight management, and that has created a lot of unexpected opportunities.

Babs teaches the 10-week weight management program to children ages 8-11 in sessions twice a week -- one lifestyle class and one exercise class -- and parents are required to attend. Getting parents involved has been one of the most successful aspects of the program, because it helps teach the entire family about better health and helps children see their parents are invested in improving their lives; the parents often lose weight, too.

Approximately 900 children have participated in the program since it started in 2001. The program has an annual budget of ~$100,000, which it meets. Thanks to early successes, Babs was able to bring on a half-time licensed clinical social worker to help her -- they are the only two paid staff.

Thirty-five percent of students are regular enrollees, charged the full $350 fee; 50 percent of enrollees are from families on Medicaid and are charged only $35; the remaining 15 percent of enrollees are charged an intermediate amount, based on need. Historically, about 75 percent of enrollees fulfill their financial obligation -- the 25 percent who default are never penalized (though this policy is not made public to students). Through experience, Babs learned it was necessary to charge Medicaid families some amount of money to ensure their commitment to the program -- when they offered it for free, more than half the students didn't show up.

Babs -- through her first-hand experience -- has a lot of solid advice to offer and a lot of proven success. The program has received a $60,000 grant to replicate itself in nearby Williamsburg, VA, and a $25,000 grant to fund a publication helping educate children on successful weight management. Babs says, "It's not about money, it's about doing what is right for our children."

The biggest drawback to the program has been its lack of any long-term metrics or follow-up studies to show the efficacy of the program. Short term, patients have seen small, but statistically significant improvements in the body mass index (BMI), but there is no evidence to show that they continue to make improvements after they complete the program. Babs has had trouble convincing people to return after the program for follow up assessments.

When the major focus of weight management education is enabling children to live healthier lifestyles, hopefully forestalling long-term health problems of diabetes, hypertension, joint injury, heart and liver disease, etc., there needs to be an evidence-based case that shows that education has a long-term effect on children's health. Because it will take evidence-based, long-term studies to make the case for other hospitals to implement similar programs and for insurance companies and government legislation to provide incentives for prevention and early intervention.

Listen to the audio recording. (MP3, 57 MB)

What do you think? What weight management initiatives exist in your area and what results have you seen that will help make the case for early intervention and prevention of childhood obesity?

Crisis Communications in the Blogosphere

The members who joined us in our Crisis Communications session this week at Creating Connections got some great advice from Tom Gonzalez, News Director of WSVN-TV (Fox) in Miami, and from Marcia Diaz de Villegas, Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Miami Children's Hospital.

Marcia reminded us of the importance of comprehensive "fore and aft" work - good planning with the right teams before the crisis strikes, and good follow-up with all involved after the crisis is over.  She used the examples of several recent hurricanes for great illustrations of the importance of that process, and its value for the next time.

She also talked about the incredible importance of keeping staff informed and secure - much of the face our hospitals show to the world are the faces of the folks who work with us.  They need to be on the team as ex-officio members, as well.

Tom Gonzalez let us know a frightening, if true fact:  we cannot hide from the media - he has reporters who will stand on the sidewalk outside until they get a quote from people exiting the hospital, and for pictures, he has a helicopter that can zoom in to the smallest details on the ground.  He urged us to be straight, be honest, and be frequent - make certain we talk to reporters, rather than issue once-a-day press releases.  He also promised he would reciprocate by being honest with us - and checking facts to make certain they are right.

Finally, my main points in the session were that the world of news dissemination continues to change, and sources of news about what's happening in a crisis doesn't neccessarily come from the major media outlets any more.  Blogging - hey, that's what this is - has more readers each day that the ten top newspapers in the U.S. Also, the fact that every cellphone is a still or video camera opens the door to wider exposure and less control over it during a crisis.  The cure:  there isn't one - just methods to manage the crisis to keep the flames down (more light, less heat) and the admonition that more allies outside your usual circle  of friends will come in handy when the storm breaks.

The obvious lesson here is that information will get out - it is in our hands to shape and deliver that information to generate perspective and understanding.

Overall, Creating Connections was a great opportunity to meet so many of you and hear your stories.  It was a fast and powerful education for me.  I learned so much more about the people, places and purposes of our NACHRI members.  Thank you all for that!

Jackson Bain
Vice president, Public Affairs, NACHRI

Risking PR Success

Have you ever skipped reading a whole book, instead going right to the last chapter to find out how it ends? Well, that's how I felt going into this session by Sara Burnett and Kristy Johnston of Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in Nashville, TN. You see, I knew the ending of their case study but I gained so much by understanding the significant risk the hospital took. Let me explain.

In 2002, Sarah began pitching Le Bonheur's Neuroscience Institute and the physician at the forefront of this center of excellence to the Commercial Appeal. Mary Powers, medical writer, was interested and conducted multiple interviews, but no story came of it. Fast forward five years! Mary called Le Bonheur to say she had figured out an angle to the neuroscience sotry. She wanted to write about the day in the life of a busy brain tumor program. She wanted full access to patients and families and Le Bonheur granted it. Mary took up residence at the hospital March 5-9, 2007. The week was selected not knowing how many surgeries would occur or which families would agree to be intereviewed.

Three patients emerged as features and Mary's compelling and emotional three-part series, "The Last Best Hope" was published April 30, 31 and May 1, 2007. The series was a tremendous success. It generated three days of letters to the editor and an outpouring of community support...financially too.

Smartly, Le Bonheur's marketing team, led by Kristy, decided to leverage the series and developed a well-designed piece that incorporated the stories and importantly, the amazing photographs. The piece was distributed widely internally to strengthen the great pride hospital staff take in Le Bonheur. The piece also went to referring physicians, donors and elected officials. In all, 12,000 pieces were printed. The price tag--$25,000.

So now that you know the happy ending, pretend you don't. Would your hospital have taken the risk? Some patients die. Some families get angry with hospitals and retaliate through media. What led Le Bonheur to take the risk?

• the brain tumor program had one of the highest survival rates in the country
• the physicians bought in
• the hospital trusted and respected the medical writer
• the families and their wishes always came first
• leadership supported the effort

Risk was assessed and benefit weighed. Le Bonheur made the right decision, further enhancing its regional reputation.

Congratulations Le Bonheur!

Listen to the audio recording. (MP3, 47 MB)

LeBonheur PR Campaign Honored with New Impact Award

LeBonheur Children's Medical Center, Memphis, TN, was honored today at the Awards Luncheon with NACHRI's first Impact Award to recognize excellence in campaigns for public relations, communications or marketing of children’s hospitals and child health programs.

The award was designed to recognize and reward commitment to improving quality of health care, highlight best practices and stimulate cross program planning among public relations, communications and marketing staff.

LeBonheur won for its entry "A Common Thread of Exceptional Care." As part of the award, the hospital will be featured in an upcoming NACHRI Communicator Conference Call. Watch the NACHRI Web site PR section and Event Calendar for an annoucement on date and time.

NACHRI received 17 award entries and 10 were selected to exhibit at the conference.

View Impact Award Finalists