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CHILDREN’S MERCY HOSPITAL
The problem was a particularly vexing one.
Children’s Mercy Hospital is the Kansas City area’s only health care provider dedicated exclusively to the needs of pediatric patients. It serves a broad geographic region throughout the Midwest, and its clinical accomplishments are the stuff of legends.
Yet, most of the area’s health insurance plans actually discouraged the use of Children’s Mercy except in the most serious cases. Parents of children whose conditions were somewhat less serious found themselves with much more limited benefits if they chose to take their children to Children’s Mercy. This situation hurt both the patients and the hospital, which needed its fair share of the less severe cases to make up for the costs incurred in caring for more serious conditions.
The solution? Send out teams consisting of civic leaders who support Children’s Mercy and actual Children’s Mercy physicians to visit CEOs of major corporations in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Their message? This situation hurts your employees, hurts Children’s Mercy Hospital and, in turn, hurts our community. The request? Please make certain that your employee benefits program includes health insurance that allows complete access to Children’s Mercy Hospital.
Ken DeSieghardt helped train the teams, created all the program support material, and supervised the coordination of 40 visits in the first year of the program, and 20 in the second year.
The results were immediate. Teams reported that the CEOs they visited pledged to “never offer a health insurance plan that didn’t include Children’s Mercy.” The hospital’s CEO credits the program with bringing about changes in health insurance, and in opening the doors of Children’s Mercy to many, many more patients.
Want to know more? Contact Barbara J. Mueth, APR, Vice President of Community Relations, Children’s Mercy Hospital.
CHILDREN’S ALLIANCE OF KANSAS
It’s the call every advertising or public relations agency person likes to get. “I have $200,000, and I need to do some television commercials – right away!”
The caller was Children’s Alliance of Kansas, the organization that facilitates the foster care system in the state. The impetus behind the desire to advertise? The need for more foster families to enter the system to serve the ever-increasing number of children in need of care.
But, this was not a message that could be easily told in a 30-second television commercial. After all, becoming a foster parent meant a lifestyle change for the entire family. This is not an impulse decision.
As such, the recommendation was made to prepare a 30-minute documentary on the subject of foster care, for airing on PBS, and for use in discussing the subject of foster care with civic, church, and community groups throughout the state. Ken DeSieghardt coordinated a weekend where six foster families and their children answered questions, discussed the merits of foster care, and enjoyed some fellowship time.
The documentary – “No Place to Call Home” – appeared on television stations across the state and became the theme used in supporting print materials on the subject. Once the documentary had completed its initial run, the film was edited into shorter versions for use by foster care agencies, and into television commercials to support the agencies’ efforts.
The result? Response to the documentary was overwhelming, and the targeted number of new foster families in the first year was achieved – and exceeded. Today, some five years after the documentary was completed, it is still being used to tell the foster care story.
Want to know more? Contact Bruce Linhos, Executive Director, Children’s Alliance.
LEE’S SUMMIT R-VII SCHOOL DISTRICT
The communications challenge was significant.
The Lee’s Summit R-VII School District needed to secure voter approval for two very different proposals, each designed to serve the needs of this growing district.
One proposal was a no-tax increase bond issue that would fund construction of new schools and renovation of older, existing campuses. The other, was a tax levy increase that would be essential to having the necessary funds to staff these new buildings, as well as keep district teacher salaries competitive. Support for one proposal – but not for the other – would put the district at risk of having new buildings it could not afford to staff, or having competitively paid teaches, but not enough classroom space for students.
Working with another local agency, Ken DeSieghardt created a comprehensive telephone survey that dissected the opinions of voters on the district’s performance, the key components of the proposals at hand, their level of tax tolerance for the levy increase, and who they turn to for news about the district. The data from the survey (which was paid for by a local company that donated this service to the school district) was used to create a communications strategy that helped deliver this complicated message to district patrons.
The result? Passage on both measures, and a brighter future for students and staff in Lee’s Summit.
Want to know more? Contact Janice Phelan, Community Relations Director, Lee’s Summit R-VII School District.