What is Healthcare Public Relations?
Public relations in healthcare is simply the use of communications tools—such as press releases, social media accounts, and traditional media pieces—to spread a strategic message relevant to medicine or public health management. Although healthcare PR is defined as a subcategory of PR, and shows similarities to many other forms of PR, it also entails unique challenges and therefore calls for unique expertise. Rarely do communications plans in other sectors have the direct, widespread effect on people’s physical well-being that medical PR can have. This is made abundantly clear during health emergencies when communities, states or countries issue a swift and thoughtful educational communications strategy to keep people safe.
The increased power of healthcare public relations compared to other PR implies an increased duty of precision and foresight. But never fear. We will walk you through the basics of this niche so that your next public relations campaign can reach the right people, convey the right message, and achieve the right result. Just what the doctor ordered!
Why PR Is Crucial in Healthcare Today: Top 4 Reasons
It’s no secret that healthcare PR campaigns have a profound impact on healthcare consumer behavior. By using a suite of PR techniques to establish thought leadership in one or several specialties, medical facilities in the digital age are drawing patients from outside their practice areas; those patients usually sift through a number of options using narrow online searches before booking an appointment.
The days have passed when people, for lack of information, were more or less obliged to assume that one hospital, one doctor, was as good as the next. The ever-savvy, smartphone-brandishing consumer of 2024 devours testimonials, reviews, broadcast media placement, and other signals of distinction or trustworthiness, not just when seeking medical help but upon every occasion of consumption. The significance of this change for healthcare providers and public health entities is clear: either you come up with a medical PR plan, or your facility, practice, organization, etc., no matter how excellent, disappears from public view under a torrent of competing communications.
But here’s the good news. Public relations in healthcare does not have to be complicated to be effective, and it can bring about several benefits in the public’s relationship with you whether you’re a healthcare policymaker or provider. These benefits include:
- Education
- Trust
- Community
- Thought leadership
Let’s get into those in more detail.
1. Educates Beyond the Hospital
Whereas in strictly commercial contexts it might be a stretch to say mounting your PR campaign is a public service, with healthcare PR the line between public interest and commercial interest is blurrier. Healthcare PR, after all, often discusses medical developments, health problems, and health solutions that the public should know about. The opportunity for education inherent to this kind of PR makes it valuable for reasons beyond its impact on a company’s bottom line.
In a medical PR campaign you may choose a health problem or issue you deem pressing, synthesize the data that inform your position on the matter, and present recommendations to the public in a concise, potent way. Precisely how the public will receive your recommendations is unforeseeable (another lesson of the COVID-19 pandemic), but in any case through healthcare public relations you have a chance to promote the welfare of a community through an educational communications strategy.
2. Builds Trust
The medical realm abounds in arcane words, rituals, and philosophies. The layperson’s lack of access to these secrets may engender distrust, but healthcare public relations can restore public confidence in individual providers, medical techniques, or the healthcare system at large. Again, because medical PR messaging emphasizes unadorned language that will appeal to an audience without effort, a communications campaign has the power to break complicated points down to their essence and make healthcare consumers feel included in the conversation on their own terms.
An experienced PR partner can help your hospital or health organization build trust and promote community goodwill by drawing attention to your contributions to the field, your clinical results, and other people’s positive opinions of your work all at once.
3. Creates Community
Public relations in healthcare can bring people together by showing them that their lives are part of a larger tapestry. If you collect diverse patient experiences on a single platform like your blog, for example, or publish articles on health conditions that people struggle to find solid information about elsewhere, you can cultivate a sense of hope and togetherness that people tend to find compelling.
4. Grows Thought leadership
Public relations in the healthcare space helps organizations earn the recognition they deserve for their ongoing innovations and cutting-edge solutions and position them as thought leaders in their fields. Through strategic media coverage, relevant speaking engagements and savvy publishing, PR professionals can help medical and educational organizations show their expertise, tell their unique stories, and continue to respond to the needs of their audiences to solidify their leadership position in the industry.
Best Practices for Healthcare PR In 2024
With all that in mind, it’s time to discuss how you should approach your next healthcare PR endeavor. Our best practices for these types of campaigns are:
- Understand your audience and medium
- Engage press decision-makers
- Localize your story
- Proofread before publishing
- Check for HIPAA and FDA compliance
Understand Your Audience and Medium
This is the first commandment of all PR, not just PR in medicine. Imagine a COVID-19 vaccine billboard that reads:
“Vaccine effectiveness in recent studies ranges from 88.8% (95% confidence interval 84.6-91.8) to…”
What good would such a billboard be? The audience, even if they understand the material presented and wish to engage with it, are busy driving! The content and the medium are completely mismatched for one thing, and for another, the audience probably does not understand the material presented — and they certainly have no chance of getting there in a handful of seconds as they zoom past. The better you understand the people you’re speaking to, the better you’ll predict their emotional responses to what you’re putting out, and the sharper your decisions will be throughout your healthcare public relations campaign.
Engage Press Decision Makers
If you’re trying to get a healthcare story featured in traditional media such as newspapers or broadcast, propose the story to reporters and producers, the people who will actually grant life to the content you want publicized. Getting your pitch as close as possible to the ultimate source of the message ensures that the impact of your pitch isn’t lost in translation. Maybe read other articles the reporter has written, or do research about their preferred audience, and weave that reconnaissance into your proposal.
Localize Your Story
It’s only natural that people respond more strongly to news that concerns them, their families, and their communities than to news from far afield. A story’s proximity to the reader’s own life can change it from an interesting abstraction to a deeply emotional issue. You can harness this rule in your medical PR campaign, by highlighting the aspects of your PR pieces that hit close to home for your audience. But this of course requires that you understand your audience first (see above).
Proofread Your Press Release Before Hitting Send
Especially when it comes to medical information, accuracy is key. The last thing you want when health is at stake is to mislead people, overstate a point, or misinterpret a piece of scientific evidence in the public eye. Make sure your healthcare public relations plan includes a proofreading step for every item you put out; this will keep your campaign on track and prevent a communications crisis.
Beware of HIPAA and FDA Rules
One wrinkle in healthcare public relations is the requirement of keeping provider and patient information private. The HIPAA Privacy Rule sets out safeguards against unauthorized disclosure that you will need to comply with in your medical PR pieces. Generally, material defined as “marketing” under HIPAA criteria will require more steps in advance of publication to stay on the right side of the law.
Examples of Public Relations In Healthcare We Love
Looking for inspiration? These healthcare public relations examples speak for themselves when it comes to the power and potential of a well-crafted PR campaign.
Spring Health’s Data-Driven Strategy
Spring Health, a New York-based B2B behavioral health organization, is on a mission to eliminate barriers to mental health. They work to make mental healthcare accessible and achievable by leveraging clinically validated AI technology.
To secure a database of skilled professionals to meet the growing demand for mental health services, Spring Health leveraged marketing recruitment tactics and digital marketing efforts to attract providers who met their criteria.
Key Takeaways
Those Campaign efforts resulted in a 113% increase in provider-qualified leads and a 58% increase in official hires. What’s the key takeaway here? Data has an enormous potential to help you find, message and resonate with your target audience to achieve results.
Non-Opioid EXPAREL
A subsidiary of Pacira Biosciences, EXPAREL is a cutting-edge, long-acting non-opioid anesthetic that effectively manages postsurgical pain. Since its introduction in 2012, over 9 million patients have received EXPAREL as a safe and effective alternative to opioids.
When they wanted to create a PR campaign to increase high-quality traffic that converts to leads, they focused on user engagement journeys, conducting stakeholder interviews to better understand processes, needs and opportunities.
To achieve this, we defined audience targeting and user engagement journies. We conducted website analysis and stakeholder interviews to better understand processes, needs, and opportunities.
Key Takeaways
The campaign resulted in 307% more healthcare providers connected directly with EXPAREL to integrate into their practice, a 106% increase in direct traffic, and a 46% increase in organic sessions. Benefit-driven ad creative is an effective tool to educate and resonate with patients and providers.
Patient Stories (New York-Presbyterian Hospital)
One of the largest and most prestigious healthcare facilities in the United States, New York-Presbyterian Hospital is known for providing exceptional healthcare to its communities. To capture and share its patient-centered approach, the hospital launched a “Patient Stories” series, which showcased real-life patient stories to strike an emotional connection to its larger audience.
This commitment was evident in the “Patient Stories” series, which effectively captured the essence of the hospital’s compassionate and patient-centered approach. By showcasing real-life stories and experiences of patients who received care at the hospital, the campaign achieved its goal: to spark an emotional connection in its audience and underline the hospital’s commitment to providing exceptional healthcare services.
Key Takeaways
Personal narratives are incredibly powerful in demonstrating the bottom line — after all the research, technology, and medical innovation. Real, raw stories tap into an emotional response that elicits hope, raises awareness, and garners a positive impact.
Ready to take your healthcare public relations strategy to the next level?
Schedule a Consultation With Healthcare PR Pros
Communications Strategy Group (CSG®) has a wealth of experience in healthcare public relations. If you want advice on a campaign you’re pursuing or want to learn more about how we partner with experts in the healthcare space, reach out to us here.
Frequently Asked Questions About Public Relations in Healthcare
What is PR in healthcare?
Healthcare public relations uses communications tools—from press releases and traditional media to social media and digital marketing efforts—to spread a strategic message that resonates with target audiences in the healthcare industry.
What does a healthcare PR agency do?
Healthcare PR agencies partner with organizations through communication strategies and public relations tactics to help them achieve their overall goals — from building thought leadership and raising audience awareness to increasing leads and telling stories that resonate and affect change.
What is the role of public relations in nursing?
From earned media, content marketing, social media and more, public relations in the field of nursing can help connect information to the right audiences, garner thought leadership and share emotional stories that make a lasting impact.
What is PR in hospitals?
A spectrum of factors affect hospital PR — from digital reviews to in-person experiences. Every interaction a person has within the hospital matters, such as quality of services, cost of care, facilities, cleanliness, staff interactions, etc. Effective public relations is key to sharing your hospital’s message with every target audience.
What is the main aim of public relations?
Public relations informs the public — or key audiences or stakeholders — in a strategic way that compels them to maintain a positive lens about the organization, person, initiative, etc.
How is PR important in maintaining patient relations?
By consistently and thoughtfully telling a health organization’s message, public relations is vital to building trust, communicating information and developing successful patient relations.
