The Affordable Care Act (ACA) includes a provision that requires non-profit hospitals to conduct community health assessments every three years. I recently attended a community health needs assessment (CHNA) briefing where I learned from Debbie Thompson of Strategy Solutions that hospitals should have completed their first assessment mandated by ACA.
Hospitals should now be in the implementation phase – putting in place strategies to address identified needs. Results of the assessment are supposed to be posted on hospitals’ home page or one click from it. I did a quick search of four community hospital web sites in our region. Two of them made clear how to get to the results of their CHNAs; two didn’t.
Heritage Valley Health System (HVHS), a two hospital-system in the Pittsburgh region, did an excellent job of reporting the hard work it did in assessing its community. Its summary report is thorough at 50 pages, filled with meaningful information that outlines a smart process, and it’s punctuated with graphs. It’s professional, but not over-produced, unlike another CHNA report I read. (Spending thousands to produce high-gloss, four-color reports of what ails your community doesn’t seem to send the right message, does it?
The HVHS report is a treasure trove of information and should be a centerpiece of a strategic communications strategy to share the hospital’s story. A one-time publication or token article in a hospital magazine or newsletter won’t do for CHNA, because CHNA is more than an IRS requirement. It may be a lifeline. In fact, in a marketplace highlighted by extreme uncertainty, fueled by decreased reimbursement and pressure from government to demonstrate community benefit in lieu of taxes, I’d suggest it should be the strategic communications strategy, the story.
So what better story for a hospital than the one that ends with a community living healthily ever after?
A healthcare organization’s Story, which is broader and deeper than its “brand,” provides a more robust, authentic and useful framework to engage patients and other stakeholders. It provides context. It is authentic. The institution’s story enables its leaders to showcase the true value of what they do in ways that do not have to be shoehorned into oversimplified brand “hooks,” tag lines or other premises. Although the details of the story of each community hospital can be different, the overarching theme of the story should be improving the health of the community.
In the 21st century digital age of transparency, hospitals are being asked what they’ve done for their community lately. Patients are asking why they should get their care there, beyond the standard marketing claims about the region’s greatest heart care or orthopedics team, or the most advanced women’s health center, or the speediest emergency room. They go online to rate doctors, nurses and hospital systems. Their deep conversations about the value of a health care institution have nothing to do with the tagline or traditional branding tactics such as logos and colors. And payors are asking for a story of economic and clinical value that goes far beyond a snappy catchphrase.
Logos, taglines and jingles permeate brochures, websites and television spots. Unfortunately, none of these worn tactics tell a cohesive story or demonstrate how a specific community benefited from its hospital’s services, and none of them carry much, if any, credibility.
Once a month or once a quarter – I’m not sure, because it’s an insignificant piece of mail – I get a “magazine” from a community hospital trying to expand its market south of its traditional stronghold to where I live. I admit, I do flip through the pages, but I’m left asking myself, “Is this the best you got?”
The magazine has your standard grip-and-grin photos of the CEO at the annual foundation fundraiser, and it introduces the next great heart, hip or head surgeon, or primary care doctor. There might even be a short piece on a new program aimed at meeting a community need.
But in a time of constant change, isn’t it time for a change in how health systems approach marketing communications?
If so, why, then, do I continue to get the sense when I attend briefings on CHNAs that hospitals have little interest or urgency in communicating these types of things – what the assessments have revealed, what hospitals are doing to address them and, at the appropriate time, the effect those remedies have had on the community – beyond what is required?
I would think that even administrators who loathe the CHNA as an unfunded mandate would see the communications value in this. And I understand they’re resource-strapped. So forego the magazine. Scrap the billboards that tout your ER wait times. Put your money and your people to a better use than a full-page ad promoting your recent recognition to such-and-such list of hospitals. Do something meaningful: here’s our recommendation.
I spent some time working full-time in the public relations department of a community hospital. Maybe I’m too far removed today, and my perception is misguided at best. If that’s the case, if I’m missing something, enlighten me.
_____
Jason Snyder is a senior vice president for WordWrite Communications.
