To secure its state funding of $19 million, the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center in Morgantown, W.Va., went full speed ahead with its communications plan to become the health information leader for the state in 1989. Now the center is known as the state's leading authority and sounding board on pressing healthcare issues like Medicare, managed care and overall consumer satisfaction. And its state funding has swelled to $25 million.
Pulling off this behemoth communications mission required bringing under one roof the Center's 57 marketers and PR pros who hailed from its schools, hospitals, clinics and health plans. Also high on the agenda was forging strong informational relationships with the local media to the point of making paid advertisements a distant secondary goal.
"West Virginia is a poor health state with high [rates of] lung disease, diabetes, cancer and heart disease. To meet the state's needs, we had to change [the Center's] image of being Morgantown-based to serving the whole state's health needs," recalls Virginia Hunt, the Center's VP of planning and strategic initiatives.
These media relationships took six years to cement, requiring the communications department to possess a passion for jump-starting citizen involvement on health policy issues and training physicians on being media savvy.
"We try to make discussing health topics as painless as possible for the doctors," said Jay Caughlin, the Center's director of communications, whose staff has trained more than 100 doctors (two a week).
Making a Name for 'Dr. Bob'
Becoming the state's information leader required a savvy, credible medical spokesperson who could communicate the healthcare industry's most difficult issues like the Clinton administration health plan and managed care. And Dr. Robert D'Alessandri, one of the Center's most vocal internal medicine physicians, fit this tall order for the Center in 1990.
As a front-line health policy advocate, "Dr. Bob" (as he is known throughout the state) was already highly involved in shaping health initiatives as contributor to Clinton's health plan and regularly testifying in Washington and hobnobbing with key health legislators. So when WCHS, a top TV station in Charleson, W.Va., was looking for a medical reporter, Dr. Bob was a shoo-in.
"He made a commitment to learn about the broadcast industry," said Hunt, who, along with Caughlin, prepped the doctor for his live health commentary every Thursday for the station, a half-hour flight away. (His travel was picked up by the Center's private funding.)
For two minutes, Dr. Bob discusses the "disease du jour" that hits a health nerve throughout the state's 55 counties and with other regional media. His commentary evolved into two-minute TV segments on WTRF - Wheeling; and WDTV - Charleston.
This prime media exposure quickly led to other high-profile media partnerships such as:
Labor of Love
As hard as the Center's communicators work, they still get flack from hospital executives who want to know why they aren't seeing more of an advertising presence in the region (especially since one of its leading competitors, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, has a major statewide advertising presence). But Hunt counters this criticism by arguing that the Center's multiple, resource-rich communications programs (which spend $700,000 annually) would cost more than $9 million in advertising.
In terms of raising the state's health awareness levels, the Center can boast these recognition achievements:
- The TV commentaries and health reports generate 25 to 50 appointments a week.
- Dr. Bob is frequently greeted by the state's citizens who know him familiarly as "Dr. Bob."
- Dr. Bob is routinely asked to chair legislative committees on health policy.
(Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center, 304/293-7251)