Success in project comes from commitment at top
Gain support with business arguments
The genesis of the Creating a Healthier Macomb occurred in the summer of 1994 during a discussion between Ralph LaGro, MHA, FACHE, and Robert Beyer, MBA, FACHE, the respective chief executive officers of Mount Clemens (MI) General Hospital and St. Joseph's Mercy of Macomb Hospital and Health Services in Clinton Township, MI.
"They got excited about doing something that would help the institutions as well as the community," says Lee Holmberg, MA, CPHQ, administrative director of quality and resource management at Mount Clemens.
Their goal was much more altruistic than capitalistic, in that they were not specifically looking for marketing opportunities or methods to lower costs, Holmberg says. They saw an opportunity to pool resources to make an impact on the health status of people outside the walls of the hospital, he says.
Mobile clinic sparks interest
Initial efforts were small; a mobile outreach clinic was established. Collaboration grew, and an institutional hand was extended to the other two hospitals in the county. Community members and local businesses then got into the act.
The mobile outreach clinic led to further discussions with community members and the other two hospitals in the county.
Holmberg says he feels fortunate to have the origins of Creating a Healthier Macomb project start at the top. Throughout the project, it has had high-level administration support, which makes the difficult tasks involved more achievable.
For example, Joyce Hennigan, CPHQ, clinical decision support analyst for St. Joseph's Mercy, takes one day every two weeks to compile the data from all four hospitals in the community health improvement project. Her activity has the blessings of her bosses.
During periodic meetings regarding Creating a Healthier Macomb, hospital leaders are more apt to give their OK to tasks related to the project, rather than raise questions and objections, Hennigan says. She points out that her department is still expected to maintain the quality of its regular work, but eyebrows are not raised when she puts time into the community health improvement project.
If other hospitals around the country are contemplating similar community health care initiatives, Holmberg suggests that organizers make getting CEO support their first priority.
"[Without their support], you'll end up hitting your head against everything," Holmberg says. To gain the favor of top administrators, organizers must find a way to show how much more the community benefits when different segments of the health care community work together instead of against each other.
Appealing to CEOs' business sense
If appealing to a CEO's sense of community does not work, Hennigan says organizers may want to present the long- and short-term business opportunities a community health care project can offer. Such programs have clear financial benefits that may well be the answer for a hospital's survival in these days of pressure to downsize or even close, says Holmberg. Responding to the community's agenda of health needs ties the hospital much more closely to the community, and results in referrals, physician participation, increased political clout, greater marketing visibility, direct contracts with employers -- many benefits beyond simple altruism. Those healthier community campaigns have an appeal that is compelling to both communities and hospital staff that can make a critical difference in hospital survival, Holmberg says.
As yet, the four hospitals have not explored the marketing possibilities, but Hennigan sees obvious opportunities. For example, the upcoming campaign to get children to wear helmets and protective gear when they bicycle or skate will have the names of the participating hospitals associated with it in advertisements and promotions.
Beyond improving the public's awareness of the hospitals' activities, Holmberg says managed care is forcing medical centers to make it their business to be concerned about the health of those people not in the hospital. "If we are going to survive in the health care business, we have to think of ourselves beyond the acute care setting," Holmberg says. "We have to think of ourselves in the whole continuum of care if we are going to survive in the managed care world."
If hospitals cannot address concerns of the community before they have to enter the hospital or after they leave, Holmberg says they will be out of business or severely underfunded. *
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