National Thought Leadership for a Regional Health System

Challenge: Catholic Health built strong relationships with local and regional media, but they sought a public relations plan that would elevate their position as a trustworthy health system beyond regional reporters to broaden Catholic Health’s presence at the national level.  ​

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Approach:​

• Built a media strategy that shifted focus from local/regional media outreach highlighting hospital expansion and patient story news to increasing focus on national/trade media outreach that emphasized Catholic Health leaders’ as industry thought leaders who could speak to national healthcare trends such as healthcare technology, medical advancements, and women’s health offering expert commentary to position the organization as an industry leader​
• Monitored the news for timely and relevant topics such as international IT outages (CrowdStrike) that impacted healthcare systems, or new breakthrough procedures (pap smear alternative) that improved patient care for Catholic Health experts to contribute commentary to​

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Impact:​

• Increased total media coverage by 56.3% YoY​
• Thought leadership placements nearly doubled (from 21 to 39) from the previous year and coverage in top-tier outlets like CNN and Fortune produced an impressive 7x growth (686% increase) in total unique monthly visitors​
• Built a strong pipeline of key national and trade reporters that had Catholic Health leaders on its radar​
• Local media took notice and began to place greater value on Catholic Health spokespeople and suggested areas of focus for coverage ​