Fellowship Paper
 

    IMPLICATIONS OF THE REVOLUTION

IN HOSPITAL ADVERTISING

        AN  EXAMINATION OF THE VARIED  ROLES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
        AND  MARKETING  IN THE HOSPITAL  ENVIRONMENT, AS DEFINED
        BY THE CHANGING ROLE OF ADVERTISING, WITH CONSIDERATIONS
        ON  THE  IMPACT  OF  THIS CHANGE ON  THE  PRACTICE  OF 
        HOSPITAL PUBLIC RELATIONS

A FELLOWSHIP PROJECT SUBMITTED BY

Ned B. Barnett, APR

                               May 1, 1984

Ned B. Barnett, APR
Regional Marketing Manager
Republic Health Corporation

 PREFACE—ABOUT THIS FELLOWSHIP PROJECT

     A revolution is taking place in hospital public relations, a revolution that reflects the changing nature of the hospital industry.  The traditional role of “public relations” in the hospital setting is being redefined almost daily--and in some cases, the function is being called into question by hospitals, and by hospital systems. This questioning of public relations has come about in response to a host of factors, including: The changes in the marketplace, with a concomitant increase in the emphasis on competition; the advent of the DRG-based Prospective  Payment System  and  other “all  payor”  or   incentive reimbursement  schemes,  with their increased emphasis on  productivity and  the  bottom  line;  and  the  growth in  the  number  of  hospital “marketing” departments being created in hospitals of all  sizes,  many of  which assume portions of--or overlap--traditional public  relations responsibilities and prerogatives.

      The trends towards “marketing” are  clear evidence of this change. Marketing  departments  are  being  created by hospitals  to  meet  the perceived  needs  of  the  changing  system;   in  the  course  of  the development of marketing departments,  the role of public relations  is being re-examined, or even subordinated.

      Often,  this change, at the institutional level, is first realized through  the medium (and the control) of advertising,  the natural  and functional  link between the traditional role of public  relations  (as practiced  in  the hospital setting) and the emerging role of  hospital marketing.   The  evidence of this change was brought forcefully to  my attention  through two disparate means. 

      First,  in  developing the Second Edition of the “Basic  Guide  to Hospital Public Relations” for the American Society for Hospital Public Relations (published in March, 1984 by American Hospital Publishing), I was  asked  to add just two new sections to the original format of  the First  Edition--sections on “marketing” and “advertising.”  Neither  of these  topics had been covered in the 1974 First Edition of the  “Basic Guide”;  both  were deemed worthy of inclusion in the  Second  Edition. 

Clearly,  these  related topics had come to prominence in the  hospital field in the ensuing decade between the First and Second Editions.

     Second,  in  conducting a formal “Environmental Assessment of  the Hospital Industry in Tennessee,  1983-1990” for my (then) employer, the Tennessee Hospital Association,  it became clear that advertising, as a tool  of public relations and marketing,  would have a major impact  on the changing face of hospitals through the balance of this decade.   As a  part of this Environmental Assessment,  which was first published in February,  1983,  I conducted two national surveys:   The first was  an anecdotal  survey  of  the  leaders of the  hospital  public  relations profession (50 randomly selected members of the leadership of ASHPR and the  54 Affiliated Societies).   The results of this  informal  process were  so  dramatic that I followed up with a second,  a more  rigorous, targeted  survey  of 100 randomly-selected at-large  members  of  ASHPR designed to quantify the first study. 

     While  the  results  of this second survey are  reflected  in  the “Environmental Assessment,” the specific results of this formal direct-mail survey are published here for the first time.  They correlate with parallel  studies,   conducted  independently  (including  the  studies published  in the April,  1984 issue of Modern Healthcare) that confirm my findings to a high degree.

     The conclusions I have drawn from this survey,  and from extensive reading in the literature (conducted for this Fellowship Project and as research for the “Basic Guide” and the “Environmental Assessment”) were initially  presented in April,  1983 in a talk I delivered to  the  St. Louis  Hospital Public Relations Society;  and in a different form in a presentation I gave at the fall conference of the Virginia Society  for Hospital   Public   Relations  in  October,   1983.    Both  of   these presentations  generated  or attracted substantial  further  (primarily anecdotal)  input  into the final research project,  and helped  me  to refine  my thesis and conclusions.   Both of these  presentations  were made  in  substantially different format than this Fellowship  Project; while  assisting in its development,  neither presentation  compromised the  integrity of the project as “first publication” of these  findings and conclusions.

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