Hospital's Successful Community Outreach Thwarts Harmful Gov't Plan
In many ways good will with a local community is like having reserve resources in the bank. The value of the reserve only becomes apparent when you need to draw on this reserve.
Last year, a rural Pennsylvania hospital found that its lack of community ties required a major blitzkrieg outreach program to build goodwill when local government officials made decisions harmful to the healthcare facility.
Fortunately, Southern Chester County Medical Center, West Grove, Pa., was able to rally public support through intensive grassroots efforts.
While the effort ultimately came to a satisfactory conclusion - the events that transpired offer a lesson in the many twists and turns that can characterize working with government officials.
It all began in the early 1990s, when the hospital found it needed additional sewer capacity to handle growth at the facility - a retirement community it was building, and the local YMCA - whose building was on land leased from the hospital. When the local township government declined to build a new treatment plant, the hospital went ahead with plans to build its own.
In 1997, township officials signed a contract with the hospital, agreeing to purchase capacity from the plant to serve the needs of a number of local residents whose septic systems were no longer working properly.
Local Government Keeps Changing Mind
Without warning, a newly constituted board of supervisors voted unilaterally to cancel the Township's contract. This presented the hospital with a major liability, so it sued.
In March 1998, the board did another flip-flop, announcing that it was considering purchasing the plant.
As the negotiations on this latest proposal were moving ahead, the board on July 15 suddenly announced a public hearing at which condemnation of the plant was the main agenda item. And while condemnation proceedings normally involve paying fair value-the board said it would pay only for the land-not the treatment plant.
With this latest turn of events, the hospital faced the prospect of a multi-million-dollar liability. The hospital's PR director, Stephanie Harnish, realized a massive public outreach effort was needed immediately to help rally public support behind the hospital. To help drive the program, she hired PR firm Anne Klein & Associates, Marlton, N.J.
...Outreach Program Launched
The hospital and PR agency together conceived a grassroots program that involved multiple channels:
- in-person visits to homes
- community meetings
- mailing of background material and news releases to the media
- placement of newspaper advertisements making the hospital's case and inviting township residents to attend the Sept. 3 township meeting and a regular meeting of the board of supervisors.
The hospital also asked all of its staff to attend the township hearings and the community meetings at the hospital, talk to friends and neighbors about the dilemma, and call state and national legislative representatives.
The effort began to catch the attention of local residents. In late August, more than 50 local residents came to the hospital to attend a town meeting on the sewer system dilemma.
Local newspaper editorials came out favoring a town settlement with the hospital that would fairly compensate it for its investment in the treatment plant.
A letter supporting a settlement beneficial to the hospital, submitted by a local resident who had been informed about the hospital's position, also was published in the local papers. An overflow crowd attended the township meeting.
Supervisors Come Back to the Table
As a result of the show of support for the hospital, the board of supervisors chose not to condemn the plant at the Sept. 3 meeting, and came back to the bargaining table.
In a September 10 meeting of township supervisors and the Medical Center's board of directors, a compromise was worked out whereby the township purchased the plant and gave the hospital nearly $3 million in credit toward future sewer expenses that it otherwise might have had to pay to the new operator of the plant.
Though the PR outreach was successful, Anne Klein says the effort was challenging. First, because of the incredibly short time period-about five weeks-available to rally support before the supervisors' meeting.
The second major hurdle was the lack of any community associations that could have simplified contacting local residents. "You hope [for such a program] that there are some organized community groups. There was nothing. We drove our cars through the whole county to distribute information and meet with residents," she explains.
(Anne Klein, 856/988-6560; Stephanie Harnish, 610/869-1000)