Weekly Probe » Headline

Hospital uses focus group to drive changes to surgical procedures

Sid Vicks — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:04:15 +0000

After finding success in using focus groups to evaluate advertising campaigns, Sheepherd Hospital has applied the consumer research tool to its surgical suite. In September, a focus group consisting of four community members, three former patients and a ventriloquist from a traveling circus provided feedback that led to significant changes in the hospital’s open-heart surgery program.

“We have had a long history of success using focus groups to improve our advertising,” said Sheepherd CEO Jerry Feeble. “They have consistently provided invaluable advice, like how our ads should include more doctors in them, or how the logo should be much, much bigger. One person said she liked seeing lots of different fonts in each ad, so now we try to use at least 12 fonts in every ad! As targets of our marketing, they obviously have tremendous marketing expertise. So we thought, as patients of our clinical care, they would have the same tremendous expertise on surgical procedures. QED.”

The heart surgery focus group started with a 20-minute presentation from a cardiovascular surgeon on how open-heart surgery worked. Feeble said that while the surgeon initially complained that he would never be able to explain such an extraordinarily complex procedure to average people, let alone in less than an hour, the participants seemed to get the idea fairly quickly.

“You could tell from the blank stares on their faces that they were in deep thought, their minds racing with how to improve on our approach,” said Feeble. “As soon as we started asking questions, they provided feedback, which proves they know what they’re talking about.”

Feeble said that a number of the ideas stemming from the focus group will become policy at Sheepherd, such as having surgeons on roller skates for a more “fun” hospital experience, and enabling patients to begin the anesthesia process at home so they can go directly from the car to the operating room.

“Look, these folks may not have any medical expertise, but they happen to live in our market, and they give opinions when asked” said Feeble. “That makes them experts in our book.”

Ad Kudos of the Week: Honesty is the best policy

Jim — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:43:02 +0000

Transparency is one of the hottest trends in healthcare right now. At Neptune Hospital, they’ve fully embraced transparency with a new advertising campaign titled “We’re really trying.” (See sample ad after story.) The 330-bed hospital has suffered from more than two decades of poor clinical care, awful customer service and horrible mismanagement. In 2002, an orthopedic surgeon performed knee joint replacement surgery on a patient’s shoulder. (The same error was repeated in 2004 and again in 2005 before the surgeon retired.) In 2006, the hospital opened a $20 million medical spa called “Facetastic” on land behind the hospital. Unfortunately, the land covered a deteriorating portion of the city’s sewer system, and the facility was closed and condemned one year later. The system constantly ranks in the lower percentiles of quality, safety and customer service in national studies. Obviously, it was time for a change.

“We heard about this idea of ‘transparency’ at a national conference, and we liked the idea of airing all of our dirty laundry,” said vice president of marketing Tom Teynah. “Clearly, trying to fix all of this was out of the question. But we thought, hey, let’s go with this honesty thing.”

The hospital says it’s too early to report overall results from the campaign, but anecdotal evidence is already piling up.

“I spoke with my 65-year-old neighbor the other day, right after she waited more than 2 hours to see her primary care physician,” said Teynah. “Boy, was she pissed. She said she wished she seen the advertising earlier, so clearly it’s making an impact on people.”

Sample campaign ad: “CEO/Pricks”

New study: ‘Board certification’ now most compelling hospital message

Roman — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:40:23 +0000

For the first time in 20 years, the hospital message “we care” has been usurped as most valued message from a hospital. The new champ? “Our physicians are board certified.” That’s according to the annual consumer survey conducted by the Center for Research About People. Each year, it randomly polls 10,000 adults between the ages of 37 and 38 in the U.S., and asks them the following question: “Which message is most likely to get you to abandon the physician you’ve seen for years, drive 100 miles out of your way, or otherwise choose a hospital service you ordinarily would never consider?”

In 2008, the five most popular responses were:

1. Our physicians are board certified.
2. We care.
3. We’re ranked #1 in (fill in the blank).
4. We’re high touch and high tech.
5. We care a lot.

While there was a new number one response this year, study director Louden Swain expects that to change soon.

“With virtually every hospital claiming a number one ranking in at least one area, there’s no doubt that will be the message to watch,” said Swain