It’s Personal: How One Woman’s Story Helped Spread the Word About a Community Hospital’s Oncology Services

// By Lisa Ellis //

“I have breast cancer. I need a mastectomy. Possibly more. I found out earlier today, and my mind is still reeling …”

These words are from the journal of a 38-year-old woman named Megan, who lives in Lawrence, Kansas, and recently went through a roller coaster of emotions after being diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoing treatment through The Oncology Center at Lawrence Memorial Hospital (LMH).

Taking a Personal Approach to Marketing Services

Megan recently had a unique chance to share her experiences through an award-winning campaign called Megan’s Journal: A Personal Journey through Breast Cancer Treatment and Triumph. The 13-week campaign, which incorporated digital, newspaper, billboard, and radio spots, grew out of a collaboration between LMH and its agency of record, Dobies Healthcare Group.

Through this public journal format, Megan revealed her deepest hopes, fears, and experiences throughout her ordeal with breast cancer, and talked about the extraordinary care and support she received from LMH. She also used this platform to encourage other women to be proactive in following recommended screenings for early detection.

Janice Early, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Lawrence Memorial Hospital

As a 173-bed, community-owned, not-for-profit facility founded in 1921, LMH has a long-standing reputation for putting the needs of patients and the community first, according to Janice Early, the hospital’s Vice President of Marketing and Communications. That’s why the concept of letting patients tell their own stories resonated with the organization’s missions and goals. In fact, this was not the first time LMH used patient testimonials to spotlight its services. Yet Megan’s Journal was quite a departure from prior efforts, Early says. She points out that past testimonials had been simple snippets about a patient’s experiences, but in the case of Megan, the hospital decided to magnify its approach, sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly with LMH’s target audience and allowing readers to follow her journey from her first suspicions of cancer through to the end of her treatment and return to life as “normal.”

A Winning Concept Is Born

Of course, sharing her experience in such a large forum was the last thing on Megan’s mind when her cancer journey began in the fall of 2013, when she first discovered a breast lump during a self-exam. Ironically, the lump was not cancerous, but three surrounding nodules turned out to be cancer. So began the fight of her life at LMH as she struggled to go from breast cancer patient to breast cancer survivor.

At about the same time Megan was going through treatment at LMH and “kicking cancer’s butt” (as she later proclaimed in one journal entry), LMH was looking for a striking way to raise awareness about the fact that breast cancer patients could access all of their diagnostic and treatment services locally.

The timing to spread this message was especially critical since a large academic medical center about a half-hour away was aggressively marketing its oncology expertise, and the administration at LMH was concerned that this facility could attract LMH’s patients. In addition, one of the most popular breast surgeons at LMH was retiring, and the hospital wanted people to know that exceptional expertise remained in the community.

Early says the hospital wanted to respond to both challenges by doing something significant that would call attention to LMH’s great oncology staff and comprehensive services so people would truly understand the expertise they could rely on close to where they lived and worked every day.

Carol Dobies, President, Dobies Healthcare Group

“We needed a campaign that would be very emotional, provide evidence of multidisciplinary care for oncology, and ultimately compel people in the service area to choose LMH for their cancer care,” says Carol Dobies, the president of Dobies Healthcare Group.

The campaign had to be centered on someone who was comfortable sharing her personal information and others could relate to. Megan’s oncologist, who had grown to know her well throughout the course of her diagnosis and treatment, believed Megan was the perfect fit to share her story with a broader audience and, in the process, provide some important education about LMH’s services and staff, and about breast cancer in general.

Megan had no hesitations about stepping up for this role, agreeing to share her story in the form of a series of online journal entries, which started with finding the lump and proceeded through the treatment and recovery process. Megan already had a CaringBridge site and was very comfortable sharing the personal details of her cancer fight, making her an ideal candidate for the role, Early says.

Megan’s Journal

Yet Early also admits the hospital had some hesitations about using Megan, mainly because she was still in treatment, so there was concern about sharing her story in case her outcome wasn’t positive. But the oncologist felt confident that Megan’s prognosis was excellent. This reassurance was enough for LMH to move forward.

“We knew Megan’s story was very impactful. She is a younger woman, a single mom, very articulate, and she has a good sense of humor,” Early says. “All of these things made her a great fit for this campaign.”

Megan worked closely with Diane Morgan, Content Development Manager at Dobies Healthcare Group, who helped capture the full impact of Megan’s experiences and present them in a way that would resonate deeply with readers.

“She was so open and trusted me to tell her story,” Morgan said, admitting that some of the journal entries—particularly the last one, which was dedicated to Megan’s 12-year-old son—even brought Morgan to tears as she worked with Megan on the copy.

Outcomes of the Campaign

While the campaign has officially ended, Early says the momentum it started continues to live on in many ways. For instance, Megan’s Journal was so effective that it drove more women to get mammograms at LMH, exceeding the hospital’s target during the campaign period by 4 percent. In addition, traffic to the hospital website increased by 22 percent during the duration of the campaign, while click-through rates on digital campaign components were also impressive, exceeding national averages.

Megan’s Journal and ad campaign touched an emotional chord in the community.

Overall, the concept was so successful that LMH is now using Megan’s Journal as the model for a new brand campaign, called Stay for Life, which features patients and their providers telling authentic, real-life stories to illustrate for area residents that they can stay in Lawrence and receive advanced, life-saving care. The hospital launched the first phase of this campaign earlier this year with patient stories from the LMH Heart Center and cardiovascular service line, which has also received a lot of local attention.

Lessons Learned

For other hospitals that want to take a personal approach to marketing their services, Early says a few key lessons learned can help guide their efforts. Start by having the physicians and clinical specialists on board and making sure they are involved in the patient selection process, she recommends. “They need to buy into it and be a part of the campaign,” she says. In addition, hospitals need to have the backing of their leadership and management team, and they have to be able to go with the flow, since there’s no way to know exactly what will happen during the span of the campaign, especially if the patient is still in active treatment. Therefore, the marketing team has to be able to respond to a host of different scenarios, if needed. (Happily in Megan’s case, things went well overall, and today she is a cancer survivor!)

Beyond these details, though, is the most crucial factor: selecting just the right patient for the role, someone who, like Megan, will be able to touch others with her experiences and, in the process, will shine a bright light on the organization’s services and dedicated staff.

Lisa D. Ellis is the Editor of Strategic Health Care Marketing. She is a is a journalist and content development specialist who helps hospitals and other health care providers and organizations shape strategic messages and communicate them to their target audiences. You can reach her at editor@strategicHCmarketing.com.