Gienna Shaw recently authored a story for HealthLeaders Magazine that has brought to light a recent dispute between to competing hospitals in New Jersey.
Shaw begins his story by focusing on environmental factors that are causing healthcare providers to turn-in traditionally passive advertising campaigns for those that aggressively aim to steal market share from their competitors.
Shaw cites some of the cutthroat activities hospitals are engaging in by stating:
“A smattering of hospitals put up billboards within view of other hospitals’ front doors. Hospitals started creeping into new territory—opening freestanding clinics and critical care units within spitting distance of their competitors’ facilities and expanding their referral share by gobbling up physician practices. Hospital CEOs started arguing in the local press about quality claims and awards, telling reporters that the data was meaningless, flawed, or bought and paid for.”
Furthermore, Shaw discusses a recent legal dispute between Virtua Health and Cooper Health System. In short, Virtua claimed that the most “Top Docs” are at their hospital. Cooper took them to court and won an injunction that required Virtua to pull the advertising.
Ultimately, both organizations created a lot of buzz online, but not the kind they wanted. According to Shaw, “Online comments on news sites and blogs were uniformly negative—bordering on nasty—toward both organizations.”
I think that Cooper did the right thing by challenging Virtua’s advertising. However, I don’t believe they needed to take Virtua to court. Cooper obviously had the data to back up their position on Virtua’s claim, and I think that a well-crafted campaign could have saved Cooper from the negative comments about their organization.
Cooper should have focused their time identifying and creating a dynamic campaign centered around their strengths/unique selling point.
Has your hospital encountered a situation like this? How did you handle competitor attacks and what was the end result?
Please share your thoughts with us.
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