Professional Communications
Project:
Referring Physicians’ Guide to Services
Award:
New England Society of Healtcare Communicators
Lamplighter Award Winner
Problem:
As part of their Physician Outreach Program, Northeast Health System (NHS) needed to promote, educate and build awareness about the capabilities of members of the medical staff and showcase their areas of expertise. They needed to give physicians easy access to specialists within the System. Their goal was to facilitate internetwork commerce and increase the volume of services performed by the System’s doctors. They also wanted to orient their new physicians to the capabilities and services available within the network. These areas of expertise were identified as: Ambulatory Service, Cancer, Cardiology, Emergency Medicine, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, The Lifestyle Management Institute, Nephrology, Oncology/Hematology, Ophthalmology, Orthopedics, Pain Management, Pediatrics, Radiology, Special Care Nursery, Surgery, Spine Surgery, Urology, Vascular Surgery and Wound and Hyperbaric Medicine.
Several problems presented themselves in achieving these objectives. First was a lack of man power in getting this daunting project completed. A second problem was a need for flexibility in preparing this information for its audience. It was clear that services and capabilities would change and grow over time. NHS did not want to have to update information about all services if services in only one specialty changed.
Strategy/Methods:
The NHS Marketing Department, along with Enrico Design, decided to develop this project in stages. They would use a three-ring binder as housing for tab pages and inserts, so they could easily add, change or update information in each specialty. This would also allow the physician outreach team to customize binders when necessary. They were only able to produce a few of the tab pages and inserts at one time since it was important of have providersin each department supply, approve and own content. They assigned writers to interview department heads and specialists to gather and edit text. Initially they produced three sections: Pain Management, Radiology and Orthopedics. As time and resources allowed, they completed additional sections. This approach made the project manageable with limited resources.
Solution:
Overall design of the binder used branding graphics and the color scheme developed for communicating with their physician audience. Content of each specialty insert was developed by the specialists themselves in conjunction with writers who were guiding the specialists for consistency between departments. Colors were used to advantage to frame and differentiate each specialty by assigning a main and accent color from the palette in changing combinations. This allowed each specialty to stand out from the others while integrating seamlessly with the whole. As they complete new tabs and inserts, they are delivered to physicians for inclusion in the reference binder.
Results/Evaluation:
Since beginning this program, NHS has been facilitating internetwork commerce and their volume is up significantly. The delivery of high-end community medical services has grown. Their Physician Outreach Program has documented an increase in vascular and spine procedures of 17% in the last year over the previous year. The approach of having each department involved in the production of their insert has proven to be a wise one since physicians report that these brochures contain the right level of technical information in order to make successful internetwork referrals.
Referring Physicians Guide to Services binder cover
Layout of first five tabs showing full color palette used in the binder and inserts
Front cover layout for the Spine Surgery Insert
“Great strategy to one of the chronic problems of the business of hospital communications – that things can become fast outdated.”
Judges’ Comment