In a political campaign, you know whether you’ve won or lost. You either got the votes you needed, or you didn’t. We believe every successful public affairs campaign must have a clear goal and clear results to call itself successful. The following case studies will give you a taste of how we approach our client campaigns.
Fire Fight | Download the PDF
A Community Hospital Calls “Code Blue” on Itself
The Problem
In a period of 10 days, a community hospital in a competitive Western market had its CMS funding pulled, Joint Commission inspectors roaming its halls in an emergency accreditation review and media poised outside the ER asking patients, “how bad is it?”
In a whirlwind of events, the hospital was losing patients, employees, referrals, revenue and its reputation.
The Solution
We were engaged to build and win a campaign to save the hospital. With no time for half measures, the hospital quickly launched a comprehensive and aggressive grassroots effort in which its leadership:
- Admitted mistakes and took responsibility for making things right.
- Assembled a Blue Ribbon task force of credible internal leaders to fix the problems and oversee the remedies.
- Assembled a kitchen cabinet and established a central “war room” to run the campaign.
- Identified key, credible clinicians to rally internal and community support.
- Reminded the community of the hospital’s historic value and of its vision for the future – and then called for their help and support.
- Walked the halls.
- Praised (and praised) their employees and physicians for their quality care under fire.
- Visibly sought (and received) the help of local and state-level elected officials in dealing with CMS.
- Went to the state capitol to meet directly with the Attorney General and key officials.
- Contacted their U.S. Congressman to interface with CMS on the hospital’s behalf.
- Organized minority-affairs and charitable groups to rally in support of their primary service hospital.
- Sought multiple public platforms to deliver its message – City Council meetings, civic clubs, church meetings, the media.
- Sought and attained resolutions of support from the City Council and the County Commission.
- Held emergency rallies in the hospital parking lot (and at the church next door).
- Aggressively communicated (almost) every key action, finding and decision related to the issue to its physicians, employees, volunteers and supporters.
- Used a variety of classic communication tools – emails, ribbons (royal blue ones), newsletters, flyers, letters to the editor, newspaper and radio advertisements, etc.
- Placed full-page ads in the local paper explaining the situation.
And more.
In short, with our help, the hospital launched a political blitz aimed squarely at protecting its reputation, at mobilizing internal and public support, and at pressuring CMS (and others) for a speedy resolution.
The hospital’s quick work – and the confidence presented by its leadership – gave every key audience the appearance of support, energy and momentum: all the ingredients of a winning campaign.
The Result
Victory. The hospital regained its CMS funding five days after it had been pulled. The Joint Commission was satisfied with an aggressive plan of correction. And, importantly, the employees and the community felt this was their victory – that their support had saved this community hospital.
It was more their hospital than ever before.
