Every issue of Spectrum, Rick Wade presents a scenario much like one you might encounter in your own organization and asks how you would handle it. Readers are invited to respond on the click poll to the left. Rick, formerly senior vice president for strategic communications at the American Hospital Association, works with hospital and health system leaders who are coping with change, innovation, or crisis.

A Skirmish? A Battle? Or a War?

If ever there was such a thing as friendly competition, the two hospitals in your growing city are the poster children. The pressures and upheavals of the past 20 years have come and gone, and somehow Community General and Memorial have emerged stable, financially strong, committed to the community, and blessed with reputations as caring, charitable, and high quality. They collaborate on community health outreach, do joint projects in schools and senior centers, and even coordinate their information technology efforts to create a common network. Both hospitals will face some real financial challenges thanks to the new healthcare law, and the competition is sure to get hotter. But the CEOs remain good friends and mutual admirers.

Sure, both hospitals do marketing and advertising, but it’s always about quality, patient experience, and educating the public on health … never about one claiming to be better than the other. You’ve been steering Community’s marketing and PR for 20 years. Your colleague at Memorial retired a few months ago after 30 years, and you miss her. Those monthly lunches, the many things you worked on together, and the warm community atmosphere were priceless.

Her replacement is young and frisky. Some of the ads and marketing have a little edge to them now. One new TV spot features some former patients—leukemia, heart surgery, hip replacement—with testimonials such as “Memorial’s the only hospital I’d ever want to go to” and “The best nurses around here are at Memorial.” It’s a good ad—real people telling their stories. Your CEO is a little ticked off, but you’re confident things will simmer down and be just the way they’ve always been.

Then, on a holiday weekend trip to visit your parents halfway across the country, your confidence is shaken. After the traditional family feast, you turn on the TV to watch football. Just before kickoff, an ad airs for a local hospital. Your eyes widen, jaw drops, and heart accelerates. It’s the Memorial ad that aired back home a few days ago … same patients, same stories. At halftime, you phone your counterpart at the local hospital—an old friend.

“You like the ad? It was so good our agency said we could probably make some money licensing it to hospitals in other markets—with a little tweaking, of course. Amazing what technology can do! We’ve had a lot of takers. What? Your competitor bought it? Aw, gee …”

Back home next week, the ad airs nightly before the local news. A print version is in the afternoon paper. It’s on their website and YouTube. Your own ad for Hypertension Screening Month looks, well, wimpy.

You have to do something. But what? The ads are deceiving. Viewers think they’re seeing real patients from your city. Surely, the station and the paper would pull them if they knew. Slowly, three courses of action take shape in your mind.

1. Go to your boss. Tell him what you know. Advise him to call his colleague and ask that the ads be pulled. Extract a promise to keep the competition fair. If diplomacy fails …
   
   
2. You have a terrific relationship with the health reporter at the city’s top daily paper. Leak the story, off the record. Let the chips fall where they may. Memorial’s CEO will certainly know who planted the story. So what? If the community thinks Memorial has duped them, well … better to nip this kind of stuff in the bud. Or …
   
   
3. Don’t call them on this one. Let it go. See what comes next. Meanwhile, get into the real world. Friendly competition is over. Fight fire with fire. Call your ad agency and tell them you want a campaign to give Memorial hives.

Your phone rings. It’s Gladys, the CEO’s assistant. “He’s left for a meeting, but he asked me to call you. He just saw a new Memorial ad in the morning paper. He wants to know if we’re on Facebook and Twitter.”

The next morning, you arrive at the office, get your coffee, and make a critical phone call.

Who answers the phone? Your CEO? The reporter? The ad agency president?

Comment on The Tightrope Walker
Spectrum November/December 2011

The scenario: As your health system’s new Senior VP for Strategic Planning, Marketing, Business Development, Physician Relations, and Communications, you’re heading a team to begin negotiations with potential physician ACO partners. Then you find out that, unbeknownst to you, your marketing director has hired a consultant to go mystery shopping at ten of the largest group practices in your market, including several you’ve been talking to. What’s worse, most of the physicians contacted left highly negative impressions. Should you keep the information confidential and use it only if needed? Or should you destroy it and maybe even fire the marketing director?

Rick Wade says: The new era we’re in is going to make situations such as this one harder to navigate. More than 40 percent thought the marketing director crossed an ethical line. Just under 30 percent said hang onto the information. My test: can you explain your action to your mother’s satisfaction?