Baby on the Way
- Identify an innovative strategy to market the unique services of your hospital.
- Describe techniques to promote interactivity between the Program Facilitator(s) and the audience.
- Discuss potential outcomes from providing a program to your community such as Baby on the Way.
Baby on the Way is an innovative approach to highlight the unique services of your hospital to expectant couples within your community.
Proposed change:
Designed by hospital leadership and the marketing team, it was created to be fun, informative, and interactive. The end goal is to recruit new patients to the hospital with subsequent conversion of their insurance to the hospital’s health plan.
Implementation, outcomes and evaluation:
The Program begins with a presentation of available services and is followed by a question and answer period from a panel of experts from throughout the hospital. Questions from consumers are anonymously submitted on note cards and are answered by the panel. Participants next enjoy an in-depth hospital tour by Childbirth Educators before the Program concludes.
Baby on the Way has had a positive affect on our hospital’s Strategic Plan in several arenas. Written evaluations are collected at the end of each Program yielding the following outcomes:
Quality: The expert panel illustrates the high level of clinical expertise available within the hospital. Attendees hear accurate, evidenced-based information regarding their pregnancy and delivery experience.
Service: The hospital overview and tour showcase the variety and depth of available services that distinguish our hospital as the best place to receive obstetric and neonatal care.
People: An average of 71 expectant couples are impacted in just 2 hours. Baby on the Way is also a new patient recruiting tool for the physicians participating at the event.
Finance: The return on the investment of this Program makes it fiscally viable with the recruitment of new patients to the hospital system and possibly the health plan.
Growth: Since the Program started, 44% of the attendees have changed their delivery plans in order to birth at our hospital. This is tremendous growth for the hospital and system as a whole.
Community: Baby on the Way has been so successful that this Program is being used as a best-practice within the rest of our hospital system and even by our competing hospitals in the city.
Implications for nursing practice:
In today’s hard economic times and with the looming unknown repercussions on hospitals from the pending health care reform, innovative strategies must be deployed in order to keep programs and hospitals viable. Baby on the Way is an excellent demonstration of such a program that has resulted in positive outcomes.
Keywords:
Marketing
Program Development
Patient Education
Hospital Growth
