An advertising war going on between not-for-profit hospitals in the Atlanta metro is a case in point that more than ever, such hospitals have to use hard-line commercial techniques if they want to attract financially-sound patients to counterbalance their charity care load. Competitors in the region include Emory Healthcare, which has been running a radio advertising campaign touting $150 CT scans. The area's Northside Hospital runs a campaign promoting its OB/GYN service, Piedmont Hospital pitches its new Heart Institute, and Gwinnett Medical Center its convenient location close to 750,000 consumers. The hospitals are spending on a broad range of traditional media, including broadcast media, billboards, web sites, newspapers and magazines. Observers say this is a sign of the times: while not-for-profits certainly have been advertising in the past, such tactics likely will become more common as indigent care costs keep mounting.
To learn about the dynamics of Atlanta's hospital advertising market:
- read this Atlanta Journal-Constitution article