The $1.2 billion sale of 22 Columbia/HCA hospitals to a consortium of non-profit entities last month brought on a wave of local uncertainty on what the new hospitals' status will be to the communities involved. Touted as being the largest purchase by non-profit healthcare organizations in the industry, this major shift is wreaking havoc at some hospitals and stirring optimism in others.
The consortium is comprised of eight non-profits in four states.
In markets like Louisville, Ky., and Raleigh, N.C., news of the non-profit transition was not as jolting as in Johnson City, Tenn. In this market the rumor mill had already churned out speculations of a buyout, and the community as well as employees were highly vocal about the implications - ranging from major job cuts and a hospital closing to the loss of a major tax payer base.
"This was huge news, especially from a small-town perspective; we've had to stress that we are still in business and that healthcare is an industry of change," says Barbara Deere, regional marketing director of the five Columbia hospitals in the market to be acquired by Johnson City Medical Center (JCMC).
Deere emphasizes change in this market because, ironically, a few years ago Columbia had made well-publicized advances to buy JCMC.
A few weeks before the formal acquisition announcement on May 18, rumblings of a buyout by JCMC had already begun, leaked by a Columbia physician in Nashville who was quoted in the Kingsport Times.
The purchase involves five community hospitals which have strong community ties: Indian Path Medical Center and Indian Path Pavilion in Kingsport, Johnson City Specialty Hospital and Northside Hospital in Johnson City and Sycamore Shoals Hospital in Elizabethton.
Managing the Guessing Game
A few days prior to the formal announcement, local news coverage in the area's major community newspapers conjectured that JCMC was the "mystery buyer" and had already captured quotes from employees who expressed angst about its new potential parent hospital.
Dennis Oerly, JCMC's director of marketing, knew the magnitude of the acquisition warranted outside communications expertise and pulled in the crisis savvy of Hill and Knowlton (Tampa, Fla., Office), a week prior to the formal announcement. The agency is still consulting with JCMC.
"We needed a solid communications plan because we had so many critical audiences to reach," says Oerly.
The main communications challenge -for which there is no real "strategic remedy"- was addressing the rumored acquisition with the media and employees while being muzzled by a confidentiality agreement with Columbia.
Once the announcement was made, the communications plan involved:
- special notices to corporate boards;
- using VP and directors to explain the acquisition's implications via personal visits to priority audiences; and
- limiting media messages to the acquisition's ability to reduce duplication of hospital services, improve coordinated care and retain market competition., (JCMC, Dennis Oerly, 423/431-6111; Northside Hospital, Barbara Deere, 423/854-2880; Raleigh Community Hospital, Karla Hollis, 919/954-3100)
Columbia's Non-Profit Transition Buyer # of Facilities Market New Hanover Regional 2 Supply and Wilmington, NC Novant Health 1 Charlotte, NC Pitt County Memorial 1 Tarboro, NC Alliant Health System 4 Louisville, KY Eliza Coffee Memorial 3 Shoals, Russellville and Florence, Ala. Baptist Health 5 Montgomery, Selma, and Prattville, Ala. Johnson City Medical Center 5 Johnson City, Kingsport and Elizabethton, Tenn. Duke University Health System 1 Raleigh, NC