St. Joseph's Mercy

Health Experience Reform


The Challenge

Partially due to economic influences, St. Joseph’s Mercy was experiencing a dramatic rise in non-emergent cases in the Emergency Department. There was an 11% increase in ED volumes in just four months and non-emergent cases increased to 34% of total cases. While St. Joseph’s wanted to be true to its mission and faith-based heritage in caring for the poor, it became evident that something needed to be done to counter the misuse of the Emergency Department for minor ailments of uninsured patients. Given the fact that it costs 30% less to treat a non-emergent cases at alternative access points, the goal was to divert such cases to more cost-effective urgent care and primary care settings. This meant behavior change for both co-workers and the community.

The Response

First, we established a cross-functional team of doctors, nurses, administrators, communicators and mission leaders to ensure that the program considered all points of view. Next, we created a Customer Experience Strategy to clearly document the impact a new ED policy would have on the patient experience, making sure that there was a seamless transfer of information from the Emergency Department to the urgent care clinic or assigned primary care physician. Finally, we crafted an internal and external awareness campaign called “Know Before You Go” - a fully-integrated strategy that emphasized the importance of the patient’s role in helping to reduce healthcare costs by utilizing the right avenue for care.

The campaign comprised:

  • Public Relations, including radio and print
  • Online Communications, educating the community about the right point of access for the right condition
  • Advertising in local newspapers, fully integrated with the message
  • Signage in the ED, urgent care and doctors offices
  • Scripting for co-workers on the front lines

The Results

St. Joseph’s Mercy was able to take a thought leadership position on health experience reform while countering any potentially negative perceptions of its new Emergency Department policy. Non-emergent cases to the ED declined by 10% and valuable resources were saved by diverting patients to more appropriate access points. In addition, the program helped a significant number of patients find primary care physicians.

Services Utilized

  • Outsourced VP of Marketing
  • Customer Experience Management
  • Branding & Messaging
  • Public Relations and Newsmaking