Friday, July 24, 2015
Hospital Advertising
Some years ago I participated in a discussion of marketing
strategy at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston. I mentioned that many patients came to that
institution because they believed it offered the best chance for a good
outcome. I asked if they were correct, suggesting
that if they were, their belief could be an effective marketing theme.
After a rather embarrassed silence, one of the physicians
said that they did not know, but that they should.
Well, they now know more than they did. I’ve received a document from the Hospital
titled “A pledge from New England Baptist, your Orthopedic Hospital.” After some narrative describing the
hospital’s dedication to quality care, there are three pages of quality-related
statistics.
Some of it is a little opaque, including a number described
as “Statistical Prediction of Infection” attributed to a Massachusetts CY2013
HA/Data Report and something called Post-op DVT, which is undefined. So there is room for improvement, but the
accomplishment is real.
The hospital has good reason to be proud of its numbers. However, it has not gone so far as to include
them in its advertising, so far as I know.
Fifty years ago it was considered unethical for a hospital to advertise
at all. That is no longer the case, but
there seems still to be a reticence to make overt claims to clinical
superiority.
