Glacial Ridge Health System

Situation:

Glacial Ridge Hospital, a part of Glacial Ridge Health System, is a not-for-profit, 19-bed Critical Access Hospital located in the city of Glenwood, Minnesota (population about 2,600). Despite reputation of providing “heartfelt care”, the hospital was losing local patients to hospitals in nearby metropolitan areas due to a perception that a “small-town” hospital would not have the expertise to provide state-of-the-art care.

Task:

Perform a quantitative analysis to clearly understand patients’ impressions and attitudes about Glacial Ridge Hospital, their awareness about an increasing menu of services, and their likelihood to embrace their neighborhood hospital.

Action:

Developed and executed patient satisfaction and perception surveys. Utilized statistical models to gather business intelligence and revamped marketing mix and strategy. Focused on determining optimum frequency and media to reach various demographic groups and evaluated which service lines were under-achieving and needed additional resources to boost awareness and performance.

Results:

We achieved a 35% response rate for the patient satisfaction and a 28% response rate for the hospital perception survey. Analysis confirmed some pre-existing notions but was an invaluable source of data to understand how patients viewed services offered by Glacial Ridge in the context of its competitors. The information led to a re-allocation of resources and shifts in messaging and targeting to better serve the community. The result was an increase in total patient visits by 12% in the first year. There was an increase in surgical procedures performed by 63% and visits to the ER by 25%. There was a clear shift in how the hospital was perceived culminating in a 5-Star rating for patient experience from CMS, placing it in top 5% in the nation.