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Hospital Develops Online Program to Support Population Health Efforts

By The SHSMD Team posted 09-11-2018 01:28 PM

  
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As health care continues its rapid transformation, a growing number of hospitals are expanding their efforts to improve the health of the communities they serve. How can marketing and public relations practitioners help their organizations make a measurable difference in population health? At Onslow Memorial Hospital (OMH) in North Carolina, Amy Cain-Sousa, senior vice president of public relations/marketing, has found that creating an online community dedicated to wellness can be an effective first step.

Initiative Promotes Healthy Weight Loss. Located in a region with a high rate of obesity, the 162-bed hospital has made a commitment to improving the health of the community. “Eastern North Carolina has high rates of cancer, heart disease, and stroke—and being overweight or obese is a risk factor for all of these conditions,” noted Cain-Sousa. “Lighten Up Onslow” (lightenuponslow.org) includes tips and tools to help educate and inspire people to make positive lifestyle changes.”

In 2010, OMH hired a health care marketing agency to help the hospital launch the outreach program, which utilizes the vendor’s turnkey website platform with fitness tracking tools. The hospital kicked off the program by conducting its first weight-loss challenge, which remains a key element of the population health initiative.

The weight-loss challenge is promoted via traditional and digital channels as well as a partnership with the local media. Twice each year gift certificates are awarded to the individuals and four-member teams that track the most weight lost over the previous six-month period. In addition to invitations to the kickoff and celebration events, participants receive weekly emails with health and wellness information.

Move More. Eat Better. Stress Less. While weight loss (and the team competition) is an important part of the program, Lighten Up Onslow has evolved to include links to free resources ranging from healthy recipes to relaxation techniques. According to Cain-Sousa, key to the program’s success is linked to collaborations with local businesses and community organizations, including the city council and chamber of commerce. Sponsors support the hospital’s efforts to make the community healthier and are featured prominently on the website.
Although OMH does not have a customer relationship management tool to measure return on investment, growth in services or referrals is not a principal part of the strategy. “At OMH we believe it is our social responsibility to support initiatives that are beneficial to our community—even if they don’t generate dollars for the hospital,” Cain-Sousa said. “This outreach program supports our mission to care for our community.”

Encouraging Results. Since its inception, more than 4,000 individuals have participated in the weight-loss challenge. Many have registered to take the challenge multiple times. Moreover, each year thou-sands of people visit the website for the free physical activity, nutrition, and stress-reduction tips and tools.

In addition to increased community awareness of the importance of seeing your doctor for regular check-ups, making healthier food choices, and setting exercise/weight-loss goals, OHM has documented positive outcomes from the initiative related to participants’ weight loss, improved body mass index, lower blood pressure and lower total cholesterol.

To learn more...
SHSMD members, read the full article “Hospital Develops Online Program to Improve Community Health and Wellness” in the Spectrum newsletter.
Nonmembers, for more content like this, join SHSMD.
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