32M IMPRESSIONS
establishing the groundwork to propel our clients to the forefront of the news
With over 25 years of healthcare marketing expertise, The Point Group has served as the voice for multiple hospital systems and medical practices. Entrenching ourselves in the industry to maintain our expertise in terminology, industry trends, and innovations in medical research and breakthroughs, we are able to understand the nuances of multiple service lines and the importance of HIPAA compliance. Armed with our expertise in crisis public relations, community relations, and media relations, we served as an extension of the marketing team. Located in Houston’s Medical Center, CHI St. Luke’s is home of the Texas Heart Institute (THI), eight hospitals and eight emergency centers. CHI St. Luke’s Health focuses on enhancing community health through high-quality, cost-effective care. Initially brought in to serve as an added resource for CHI St. Luke’s internal public relations team, our role expanded to become the 24/7 outsourced PR department serving as first response for media inquiries, media liaison accompanying media on-site, a member of the Crisis Communication Response Team and providing event planning support for initiatives driven by the Texas Heart Institute and Baylor College of Medicine.
Our role was to serve as an extension of their internal PR team. We managed all aspects of crisis communications from FDA recalls to employee relations issues to patient situations involving law enforcement. The challenge we faced was in securing local media coverage and facilitating national placements in a competitive market that had been dominated by Memorial Hermann and MD Anderson. We knew that the only way to be successful on the local and national stage, we needed a commitment from the service line directors and influential physicians to share in a common vision and agree to participate as ongoing resources for the media. Our strategic approach for proactive outreach included key milestones, clinical studies and trials, patient stories, localizing national trends, latest technology and awards and recognition.
Within the highly competitive healthcare mecca of Houston, we knew we needed to stand out from the sea of choices Houston residents had for medical care. We recognized that MD Anderson would be the first contact for anything relating to oncology. Rather than compete for airtime, our strategy was to focus on CHI St Luke’s innovations in neurology.
This helped to gain notoriety in a service line that warranted as much newsworthy attention as cancer research and innovations. Giving reporters something new to cover and provide new news for their readers and viewers, we were able to gain ground and shift attention to CHI St Luke’s. We also focused on cardiology to increase credibility in the market and bring focus to the specialties offered at CHI St Luke’s. We then overlaid the plan with national health observances (e.g. Minority Awareness Month, Heart Health Month), seasonal health topics (summer heat, back-to-school physicals, etc.) and localized national health news with CHI subject matter experts. Being on call 24/7/365 is a daunting task we were prepared to take on and we bcame deeply embedded in the CHI St Luke’s infrastructure.
Crafting a communications strategy that blended patient stories with specialty physician thought leadership gave us an ongoing content cadence that put CHI St Luke’s on the radar for local and national medical reporters. Over our six-year relationship, our multi-faceted, multi-dimension, and cross-platform strategy garnered more than 32 million media impressions and secured 20 national broadcast segments. Through it all CHI St Luke’s was able to grow its market presence and establish a pristine reputation for medical research and advancements in neurology, cardiology, and patient care with positive outcomes.
