Fauquier Health is a 97-bed facility in a rural community outside Washington DC. Since 2000, the hospital worked to evolve its culture to increase patient satisfaction, and adopted the Planetree philosophy of patient-centered care. As a result, HCAHPS scores improved dramatically on several levels.
However, positive patient experiences weren’t translating into positive market share gains. In fact, Fauquier’s market share was actually declining in several key geographic areas where the population was growing.
Fauquier had a choice: Tout wellness and clinical excellence like every other hospital or define its own niche. Research showed that larger, more established hospitals were perceived to have better skilled doctors, better technology and more advanced procedures. As much as clinical excellence was important, Fauquier could not compete in this brand space with the giants.
Research also confirmed that the public did see a place for community hospitals such as Fauquier, and were more likely to seek out their services for basic care, especially in birthing.
To help differentiate Fauquier Health, we developed a messaging strategy that built on its strength and exposed its competition’s weakness: Personal, individualized care.
Being a small community hospital, Fauquier Health didn’t have the big media budgets that their larger competitors had. In fact, Fauquier was being outspent dramatically.
To ensure that Fauquier’s messages didn’t get drowned out, we had to use our media dollars creatively. We needed to give the impression of “big” without spending “big.” We needed to bring the Fauquier brand story alive to the community. And we needed to send a signal to internal staff that a superior patient-centered experience was a priority.
Even with limited resources, Fauquier was not ready to concede its market share to its encroaching competitors. In fact, senior management was charged with demonstrating to their board that they needed to make a marketing investment that would deliver measurable results.
For the folks footing the bill, the relatively small budget was still a big commitment. And results in terms of increased market share and awareness were expected.
“Be Yourself.”
Everyone’s goal in life is to be normal. We want to be healthy. We want to live life according to our own routine. We want to pursue our hobbies and passions without roadblocks along the way.
Yet, for those who are admitted to a hospital, life is anything but normal.
For starters, their health isn’t normal. And then, once they are admitted, all aspects of a normal life are thrown out the window. From the times they can eat to the clothes they can wear. In essence, they go from being an individual to being a cog in the system.
The message of our inaugural campaign: Fauquier will make your life as normal as possible. In a health sense and a personal sense.
Under the theme, “Be Yourself,” this campaign allows us to meld messages of individualized care and clinical excellence seamlessly by simply saying that when you come to Fauquier you can get back to being yourself.
The goal of the campaign was to build mass awareness of Fauquier Health’s patient centered brand and induce trial for key service lines, while extending with interactive opportunities to drive deeper engagement with consumers as they search for health care information online.
Over the course of the past several years, we helped Fauquier turn around their declining market share. From 2006 to 2009 they experienced a 6.7% increase in market share.
Key service lines experienced even greater growth. From 2006 to 2009, obstetrics enjoyed a 22.5% increase in market share, while the ed and senior services also experienced gains.
Our team of marketing professionals is uniquely qualified to provide expertise in strategy, patient experience, insight mining, advertising, media and analytics to improve ROI and position healthcare organizations for success. Now and for the long term.
We helped Fauquier Health move from high HCAHPS to higher market share. We’re ready to do the same for you. Contact Mark Goren at (866) 979-5822 or mgoren@pointtopoint.com.
