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Case History: PR Spurs Community to Action
R&J
Helps Good Samaritan Hospital Win Cardiac Surgery Approval
from New York State
The statistics were
alarming: Despite an incidence of cardiovascular disease
that was actually less than the national average,
people in New York’s Rockland, Orange and Sullivan Counties
were dying from heart disease at a far greater rate than the
national average. |
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Good Samaritan Hospital
in Suffern, NY set out to do something about that – to put
together a comprehensive cardiac program that would serve
the health needs of this growing population center. They
had the doctors. They had the expertise. They had built a
solid program based around their success at performing
life-saving primary angioplasty. They had private funding
locked up from their national parent organization. |
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The only thing holding
them back? The program first required New York State
Department of Health approval, but the Department was under
heavy pressure from the largest health delivery system in
the state – New York Presbyterian Healthcare System – to
deny the application. Why? Because New York Presbyterian
was intent on funneling these New York patients to its
affiliated heart program in Bergen County, New Jersey.
New York Presbyterian
had power, influence and money on its side. They had hired
a former United State Senator with ties directly to the New
York Governor’s office to act as their lobbyist in Albany. |
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Good Samaritan had
something stronger on its side: They were on the right side
of this issue. Good Samaritan turned to R&J to help them to
formulate a plan to energize the community to bring pressure
on the state to approve this application to allow them to
save the lives of people within their community.
Working with hospital
leadership at the highest levels, R&J developed a plan of
action to get the word out about what this program would
mean to the community. We approached it from almost every
side imaginable – from the highly-personal human impact, to
the economic impact to the community and the local business
community, to what it would mean to the people of New York
State as a whole. |
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And we developed
relationships with the people and groups that could best
help to bring this important issue across the finish line –
local and statewide politicians, senior citizen groups,
National healthcare experts, the medical community, public
employee unions, and, of course, the press. We left no stone
unturned in reaching out to anyone and everyone who might
have a stake in our success in bringing this program to
Rockland County.
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With battle lines drawn,
we launched our campaign. Editorial meetings were arranged
with the newspapers, who came out firmly and decisively on
Good Samaritan’s side in a series of editorials. R&J
produced a ten-minute video which featured people whose
lives were saved by cardiac surgeons at Good Samaritan, as
well as people who had to be transported – and nearly died
in the process – because Good Samaritan was prevented from
performing cardiac surgeries. We organized a “grass roots”
organization of volunteers to take these videotapes to be
shown to community groups, business groups, and to senior
citizens. We produced and ran public awareness ads for the
local newspapers. In all communication, we asked the public
to contact the Governor and the Department of Health, to
voice their support for Good Samaritan’s application. |
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And we pitched the New
York City news stations. First, NewsChannel 4, WNBC-TV,
came out to the hospital and shot a 2-minute segment on the
need and the community action being undertaken. Following
that, The Fox 5 “I-Team” investigators produced an extremely
hard-hitting, 5-minute piece that was shown on both the
10:00 News as well as the next day’s mid-day news show. |
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As the date of the hearing
in Albany that would decide the issue approached, we turned up the heat
even more, with additional press stories, editorials,
letters-to-the-editor, and a supporting piece from a
prominent newspaper columnist. Fox 5 sent the I-Team
again to do a follow-up on the status of the story. |
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On the day of the
hearing, we chartered busses to take doctors, elected
officials, hospital leadership and, significantly, every
practicing cardiologist in the County, to attend the hearing
in Albany.
The result? The next
day’s headlines in the Journal News read “Good Samaritan
Wins Cardiac Surgery” and “Community Put Heart in Cardiac
Plan.” We had won an important victory for the people of
Rockland, Orange and Sullivan Counties in New York. Lives
will be saved.
Above all, this program
shows the power of a well-coordinated and well-executed
multi-tiered and multi-dimensional public relations
initiative. We never lost sight of the fact that this was
about saving lives, and positively impacting the health of
the community.
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