A central theme is emerging from a number of disparate sources, including emails from several colleagues across the U.S., - consumers are increasingly confused by the messages healthcare communicators put out.
Consider these recent clips from the business and trade press:
- "When Stanford and UC-San Francisco Medical Centers merged two years ago, it was to be a union of giants that would deliver to Northern California a world-class blend of cost-effective, high quality care. The dream has since turned into a titanic disappointment... the merger is sinking."
- "One of the messiest mergers occurred at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where many anesthesiologists recently resigned en masse, several prominent surgeons have quit.... administrators reportedly spent weeks negotiating with the two separate surgical teams whether surgery would start at 7:30 or 8 a.m."
- "The American Medical Associ-ation's vote late last month to form a doctor's union may trigger some unforeseen consequences."
- "Drkoop.com's shares jump on AOL link."
- "Calling on doctors in Cyberspace. Bring your own magazines."
- "On hospital credit ratings, the news is tough and tougher - what many industry watchers call a capital crisis in the making."
- "Auto industry focuses talks on soaring health care costs."
Given this confusing collage of news coverage, what's a consumer to think? Miracle mergers falling apart. Doctors join unions and cyberspace (Dr. Koop as a dot com). TV commercials educate patients. People on Medicare getting dumped. And healthcare costs are rising again.
One national healthcare poll reported in the media got a handle on what consumers are thinking and feeling.
"Almost 90% of Americans surveyed would support legislation to improve the quality of health services, lower out-of-pocket costs and assure individual freedom to choose a doctor."
But industry experts/watchers/pundits/experts/analysts, know that having better quality, more access, increased freedom of choice and lower costs is completely impossible.
Avoid Overpromising
So why don't consumers get it? Perhaps because the healthcare industry, and its various sectors and organizations, have overpromised to the point where consumers simply can't get it.
They're left to sort out the headlines about new research findings on what to eat and not eat, to pore through literature about why Health Plan A is better than Plan B, to ponder what the merger of their community hospital will mean to them. They're expected to make these pressing decision often without context, candor or straight talk.
In the zeal to get the story out, with the strongest possible message, have we succeeded to the point where we've convinced consumers that they really can have it all, at bargain prices?
If the answer is yes, even partially, then it's time we seize the opportunity to use these same PR skills to help rewrite some of the headlines.
As communicators providing counsel to healthcare and medical organizations across the U.S., we can make a difference, in a number of ways:
- By encouraging organization CEOs and leaders to be candid and honest, when talking about the benefits of mergers, acquisitions and system development.
- By encouraging, in all possible venues, dialogue between consumers and healthcare professionals and business leaders and legislators, on the real issues. These discussions should highlight what we want versus what we're willing to pay, the need for universal access versus telling lawmakers to cut costs, etc. Hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, physician associ-ations and other organizations can, and in fact, must, facilitate this kind of dialogue on an ongoing basis, at community forums, small group briefings and employee meetings.
- By providing a real-life context for consumers when we present "research finds new way to be healthy" information.
- By tempering our urges to promise the world, especially when what we're promising may confuse, confound or simply coerce consumers into believing that there's no price tag attached - either a dollar price for all the great healthcare they want or a personal price for giving up on seeking a healthy lifestyle.
The stakes are huge. If we don't change the current informational environment, the net result will be consumers who no longer believe or trust anything we tell them.
Kathy Lewton recently joined Fleishman Hillard as SVP of the healthcare/biotechnology division in New York. Before joining FH, Lewton was director of Porter Novelli's national healthcare practice in Chicago.
She is author of Public Relations in Health Care: A Guide For Professionals. She can be reached at 212/453-2447, email: [email protected].