Client Experience Overview
Ned Barnett
Barnett Marketing Communications 

Hospital and Hospital Company Clients

Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) – and Columbia-HCA: Several assignments, including: Focus groups with key internal audiences for the marketing department; testing and developing of surgical suite and dental surgery product lines; creation and implementation of PR launch for the C/HCA website, the first and most successful hospital corporation website.

Onlsow County Hospital (and Foundation): Developed and implemented a full-service, multi-media strategic repositioning and aggressive marketing campaign for a hospital just coming into the managed care world in the late 1990s.  Over a two-year period, exceeded all targeted goals for image management, volume growth and revenue enhancement.  Services included promotion and marketing of the hospital; the medical staff (with the hospital in an aggressive managed care move); a network of community clinics; a non-profit community Foundation, one linked to independent CHIP programs; a dynamic hospital promotion website; and, a volume-driving multi-target affinity program.

Clarian Medical Center: Developed a strategic plan (and tactical launch/promotion plan) for this Indianapolis multi-hospital medical center’s strategic marketing website.  This plan later became a case-study template for hospital website best practices.

Other Hospital and Hospital Company Clients

·        Bristol Regional Medical Center: A campaign to support the move from an established hospital to a new facility, including PR, collaterals, an early website (1995) and key-group special campaigns.

·        Glenbeigh Hospital Company:   Provided strategic planning, PR and Advertising support, as well as sales direction for the corporate office and for three Glenbeigh hospitals, in West Palm Beach, Orlando and Jupiter

·        Community Health Systems:  Provided acquisitions and strategic planning services for the company’s half-dozen hospitals

  •          Lubbock Medical Center:  Strategic planning and marketing evaluation for this west Texas town’s hospital

  •          Bullhead City Medical Center –Acquisition and transition support for this Northwest Arizona hospital 

·        Monte Vista Hospital:  Strategic plan and tactical marketing and promotion for this Las Vegas psychiatric and substance abuse treatment hospital, once owned by HCA but in the process of being spun off while I was providing a new stand-alone strategy for them

 ·        Kingsport Regional Medical Center  Strategic Plan and consulting for this regional heart center in the Tennessee Tri-Cities area 

·        Mary Black Hospital:  Collaterals supporting the hospital’s competitive initiatives vs. their Spartanburg competitors

·        Marshall Health Systems:  Collaterals to support the merger of two community hospitals in rural Alabama 

·        Republic Health Corporation: For two years, Eastern Division (18 hospitals) Marketing Manager and Corporate (90 hospitals) New Business Division PR and Marketing Trouble-shooter.  Exemplary hospitals include:

  •               Decatur Hospital Site of Nation’s first successful marketing-driven hospital product lines – Cataract surgery, plastic surgery

  •               Coral Gables Hospital  Niche-marketed to Cuban-American market, built census at the expense of direct competitors (earned $10 million pre-tax in an aging 1928 facility)

  •               North Miami General Hospital  Niche-marketed with “Kosher” unit for largely Orthodox clientele – a unit that stayed full, with a waiting list – plus Diabetes product line ($50k/month pre-tax profit for a previously closed wing)

  •              Community Hospital, Oxnard, CA – Created a strategy to win regulatory approval for building a replacement facility.

  •              Seven successful/profitable adult or adolescent Substance Abuse hospitals kept filled by referral-development and direct advertising marketing efforts

·        Created Facility Strategic Planning template and Marketing ROI system adopted for all 90 Republic hospitals

·        Created physician practice-building marketing plan to enhance physician loyalty and hospital volume

 

·        AMI First Florida Region (12 hospitals) then Southeastern Region (23 hospitals) Marketing Director, including:

·        Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah – first successful AMI contract for HMO/PPO services that significantly increased census at the expense of direct competitors

·        North Shore Network Ran three hospitals in Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and North Miami as a supportive network, building census at all three while reducing the hospitals’ aggregate ad budgets by $275k

·        Tampa Bay Network  Ran four hospitals and five clinics in Tampa, Clearwater, New Port Ricthey and St. Petersburg as a supportive network, boosting census while reducing aggregate marketing costs

·        Created cost-effective shared marketing promotion programs and implemented updated/revised versions of Republic Strategic Planning and physician practice-building programs, adapted to the differing needs of AMI hospitals

 

·        Hurley Medical Center (Flint Michigan City Hospital): I was the first Marketing/PR VP for Hurley, brought in to rescue a hospital running seriously in the red.  I quickly took over Development (fund-raising), too – exceeding goals there though starting mid-Fiscal Year, while generating nearly three million dollars in bottom line “profits.”  It’s a non-profit hospital, but “loss” remains a four-letter word.  Did this by effectively marketing product lines – In-Vitro Fertilization, a membership-funded Fitness Center and high-tech cancer and neo-natal programs.   After leaving the hospital, I became (and remain) a free-lance consultant, producing collaterals supporting radiology and affirmative action programs.

·        Desert Springs Hospital (Charter Hospitals, Inc) in Las Vegas  Created successful product lines – Chest Pain Center, “ask a nurse” type programs, others – that were adopted for all Charter acute-care hospitals nationwide.

·        Lexington County Hospital (and Lexington County Health Education Foundation) in suburban Columbia, SC   Created and refined PR and marketing programs for this growing community hospital – the red-headed step-child of the highly-competitive state capital hospital market – focusing on OB, industrial medicine and superior amenities to build census at the expense of the more established and reputable older downtown hospitals

·        St. Mary’s Hospital, West Palm Beach As first VP/PR-Strategic Planning I built image, census and volume by promoting LDRP birthing options for women with insurance or cash, underwriting free care for indigent births – supported fund-raising efforts that underwrote cancer center, other superior facilities

·        Tift Medical Center – Positioning and strategy for this South Georgia regional medical center

 

  

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