Palomar-Pomerado Pitches Services in Ad Campaign

The television commercials began appearing Thursday. In one, the off-camera announcer talks about “an effective healing technique” that involves “no drugs . . . no machines . . . and costs very little to maintain.”

The camera pans the hospital bed to a golden retriever, looking ever so cuddly and adorable as it offers its own brand of bedside therapy: huge brown eyes and a soft coat that beckons for a stroke.

Several hundred people who recently previewed the commercial at a cocktail reception oohed and aahed their approval. It was clearly the favorite, more so than the TV spot depicting the little girl recovering from an automobile accident, or the nurse learning the outcome of her own breast biopsy, or the commercial showing the delivery of a newborn--from the baby’s point of view, and with the use of some animation as the infant heads down the birth canal to anxious parents.

Sponsor of the television commercials is not a health insurance company or a private hospital catering to the rich and famous.

It’s the public Palomar-Pomerado Health System,

which is embarking on a three-year campaign, with the help of a golden retriever, to establish itself as the health care provider of choice in inland North County.

By some figuring, the public hospital system shouldn’t need to promote itself. Palomar Medical Center is, after all, the granddaddy of hospitals in inland North County and operates the area’s only trauma center.

But surveys by the district indicate large numbers of inland North County patients are bypassing Palomar Medical Center in Escondido and Pomerado Hospital in Poway in favor of hospitals farther away.

Moreover, Kaiser Permanente and Scripps Memorial Hospital are planning to build new hospitals in North County, and other hospitals and medical clinics in North County are expanding their services.

Directors of the Palomar-Pomerado Health System have decided to fight back, not unlike a Detroit auto manufacturer losing business to the Japanese and regrouping with a new marketing strategy. The hospital has bought $300,000 in television air time on three local network affiliates and local cable companies to run six commercials a week on each station for eight weeks.

In an industry in which it takes months if not years to develop public good will, some say Palomar-Pomerado’s campaign has come just in the nick of time. The district may have a home-field advantage but doesn’t want to lose any more of its market share to the competition.

So, for the first time in its history, the district is embarking on a full-fledged advertising campaign with television and radio commercials and newspaper advertisements carrying the tag line: “We see health care differently.”

The campaign, which will cost about $500,000 through the balance of this year, was unveiled at a series of cocktail pep rallies for hospital district officials, rank-and-file employees and civic leaders earlier this month. It has four target audiences:

* The region’s residents, many of whom have just recently moved to North County from San Diego but are maintaining their physicians in San Diego, or who have moved here from outside the county and might be prone to overlook Palomar-Pomerado and select doctors who staff the more recognized hospitals in San Diego.

* Doctors, considered “gatekeepers” among hospitals because they generally can direct patients to specific hospitals.

* The insurance companies, who steer entire groups of patients to particular doctors and hospitals. The Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation estimates that 53% of the county’s population is served by health maintenance organizations (HMOs) or preferred provider organizations (PPOs). In contrast, only about 7% of the county’s population has medical insurance that allows them to go to any doctor or hospital for care.

* The hospital district’s own employees, so they might feel better about where they work.

The television commercials will promote Palomar and Pomerado hospitals as compassionate, yet state-of-the-art medical care providers, and the newspaper and radio campaigns will promote the hospital district’s new physician referral service, called The Health Source, so newcomers to the area in need of a doctor can find one. Those doctors, of course, are on the staffs of Palomar or Pomerado.

“We don’t see much need for people to leave this area,” says Bob Edwards, chief executive officer of the hospital district. Many of the district’s residents don’t appreciate how the two hospitals have matured over the years and perceive them as second-best to hospitals in San Diego, Edwards said.

“It’s like raising a child that everyone thought was no good, but now that he’s grown up, he’s pretty darn good. We want people to feel good about who we are,” Edwards said. “We can play in the big leagues, too.”

Palomar-Pomerado’s campaign is based on three “health care realities,” said Bob Johnson, senior vice president of the advertising agency Ketchum/Mandabach and Simms in Oakland, which handles hospital campaigns around the country.

“Reality No. 1 is that the doctor manages the patient. So part of the campaign is to give the community a good feeling about us, so more patients will go to our doctors. That’s the best way to build up your patient volume.

“Reality No. 2 is that more and more patients are taking an active role in influencing where they go. They’re seeking out doctors for a particular hospital or, if the doctor has privileges at several hospitals, telling the doctor which hospital is your choice.”

“Reality No. 3 is that HMOs (health maintenance organizations, which provide medical care for their health plan enrollees, typically under contract through their employers) have contracts with specific facilities.” And, although Palomar-Pomerado is accepted by most plans, HMOs are consolidating hospitals under contract. The leverage of offering large numbers of potential patients allows HMOs to negotiate cheaper per diem hospital rates.

“As HMOs consolidate, we don’t want to be left out of the picture. We’re looking towards that future,” Johnson said. “If you wait too long (to establish yourself as a hospital of preference among HMO enrollees) you’ll find yourself out of the picture.”

Said Tony Noronha, senior vice president for finance at Palomar-Pomerado: “The medical care business deals in fixed overhead costs, so it’s a volume game. If a hospital has the quality image out there, more people will want to come to it, and that decreases the cost per unit. That’s what we’re after.”