A New Focus on Women’s Health Needs : In a Competitive Market, Hospitals Gain Business by Treating Them With TLC
One South Bay hospital has launched a newsletter specifically for women. Some are offering classes in breast-feeding, weight loss and aerobics. And still others are hosting meetings for expectant mothers and ushering them on tours through mauve-colored maternity wards.
Here and nationwide, hospitals have discovered women--and they are busily competing for their business. The reason: Studies show that women make 60% or more of a family’s health-related decisions. Moreover, experts say, women use health-care services more than men.
“You have to be attuned to treating women,” said Mary Schnack, a spokeswoman for Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood, which two months ago reopened its long-closed obstetrics ward and has begun mailing out a newsletter titled “Regarding Women and Healthcare.”
Experts say the emphasis on women’s health began blossoming during the 1980s at hospitals across the country and is similar to Detroit’s efforts to win over women, whose car-buying power has been growing steadily and who now account for half of all new-car purchases. So just as car makers run glossy advertising in women’s magazines and consider power-lumbar seats for pregnant women, medical marketing experts are looking to cultivate the loyalty of women.
And loyalty is especially important for hospitals in today’s hotly competitive hospital market.
The theory goes that if a woman begins relying on a certain community hospital, she will be more likely to choose that hospital for her son’s tonsillectomy, her aging mother’s cancer surgery or that late-night visit to the emergency room for her own sprained wrist.
“They pick the doctors, they pick the hospitals, they pick the insurance plans,” said consultant Sally Rynne, president of Women’s Healthcare Consultants in Evanston, Ill., which assists hospitals looking to enhance women’s services.
The hope is that “if we can provide excellent services for women . . . she’ll refer the rest of her family’s care here,” said Pam Solomon, marketing director at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance.
Research has shown that women not only choose hospitals but also use them. A 1990 report by the Chicago-based American Hospital Assn. cited surveys showing that women are hospitalized 15% more than men, that operations unique to women account for 11 of the 20 most frequently performed surgeries and that 58% of pregnant women choose a hospital before a physician.
The same report listed obstetrics and women’s health services as an important factor in whether hospitals secure contracts with health maintenance organizations, or HMOs.
In response, a growing number of hospitals have opted to open women’s centers, a specific area for treating and educating women. Nearly 20% of the hospitals responding to a 1990 AHA survey reported that they provide a women’s center, up from 9.4% in 1986.
In the South Bay, Little Company of Mary and Torrance Memorial hospitals now have so-called “women’s pavilions” that consolidate obstetrics and gynecological services. At Torrance Memorial, the entire third floor is devoted to female patients--whether they are delivering a baby or facing breast surgery.
“The staff there is tuned in to listening to women’s needs,” said Kirsta Colburn, women’s health resources coordinator at Torrance Memorial. The hospital even offers a two-session class for teen-agers learning to baby-sit. As the hospital’s women’s health coordinator, Colburn fields questions from women about services and decisions.
t San Pedro Peninsula Hospital, officials designed the “Full Life” lecture series for women, with topics ranging from stress management to personal finance.
Inglewood’s Centinela Hospital Medical Center opened a women’s medical center in Manhattan Beach in 1989, offering some of the same services found in the offices of obstetricians and gynecologists. The staff is primarily female, said Chris Kishida, hospital director of marketing.
“(Patients) feel women can understand these problems, what’s happening with their bodies,” she said.
The center also recently began publishing a series of pamphlets, titled “40-Plus, For a Healthier Midlife,” dealing with issues that are of fast-growing interest to female baby boomers, such as skin care and menopause.
Experts say this kind of health care information is useful in winning the loyalty of women. According to the AHA study, 25% of the women polled regularly read articles about health care, compared with 11% of men.
Studies have also shown that “women are more apt to read health magazines. They’re more interested in tracking down and pursuing information if they’re given a diagnosis,” said Bonnie Connors Jellen, a specialist with the AHA section for maternal and child health.
With marketing experts reporting that a hospital obstetrics unit is often a young family’s first introduction to hospital services in its area, it is not surprising that hospitals have begun to promote their obstetrics units heavily, offering tours and seminars. San Pedro Peninsula features an evening “Stork Club” at which pregnant women can ask questions, tour the maternity unit and receive free gifts.
There are other perks as well.
Torrance Memorial sends new mothers home with a wicker “maternity basket” stuffed with Gouda cheese, crackers and a bottle of nonalcoholic sparkling cider. Little Company of Mary, meanwhile, plans to produce a child-care video to give to maternity patients.
Still, some critics complain that hospitals have to go even further in providing comprehensive medical care to all women.
Cindy Pearson, program director for the National Women’s Health Network, a Washington-based advocacy group, said some new women’s centers promote unnecessary health services and target only women who have health insurance.
“If you don’t have income and health insurance, you’re not on their list,” she said.
Experts say the burst of interest in the women’s market came at a time of increasing consciousness that health care for women had fallen short of men’s in areas ranging from research to treatment.
And some say the new clout women enjoy is helping change the medical world for good.
In the early days of this focus on women, “many providers just repackaged themselves and left it at that,” Jellen said. “But I don’t think that’s the program that really survived.”
SUZANNE STATES / For The Times
