1. National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization Palliative Care Resource Series KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR BRANDING AND MARKETING YOUR PALLIATIVE CARE PROGRAM Stan Massey Chief Branding Officer Transcend Hospice Marketing Group

2. INTRODUCTION
Your palliative care program can offer a variety of advantages to patients, families and your organization alike. Palliative care not only relieves the symptoms and stress of living with a chronic serious illness – contributing to a higher quality of life – it also presents a prime opportunity to build relationships with patients and their families early in the progression of an illness or disease. Marketing your palliative care program, however, presents a variety of challenges and opportunities…

3. A LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF THE TERM “PALLIATIVE CARE”
Challenges:
Many consumers are still unfamiliar with the word “palliative”
In surveys conducted by Transcend Hospice Marketing Group and the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), 70% or more admitted they were “not at all knowledgeable” about “palliative care”

4. A LACK OF DISTINCTION BETWEEN HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE
Challenges:
Those who are familiar with palliative care, including physicians, can’t distinguish it from hospice care
In the CAPC study, focus groups of physicians said they associate palliative care with “hospice” or “end-of-life” care

5. A GROWING NUMBER OF HOSPITALS SAY THEY PROVIDE PALLIATIVE CARE
Challenge:
About 1,500 hospitals have a palliative care program, including 63% of hospitals with more than 50 beds*
Competition for palliative care patients may be stiffer than you think
*Source: “Today’s Hospitalist”

6. THE NEED FOR ADEQUATE REIMBURSEMENT FOR PALLIATIVE CARE SERVICES
Challenge:
Hospice organizations may refer to their palliative care program as a “loss leader”
Need to build relationships with patients earlier and convert to hospice care when appropriate

7. OPPORTUNITIES PROVIDED BY A PALLIATIVE CARE PROGRAM
Promote a fuller continuum
Encourage earlier engagement
Experience services without ending curative care

8. CHALLENGE: DISTINGUISHING YOUR PALLIATIVE CARE PROGRAM FROM OTHERS
Define your scope of services
What are the exact services provided?
Who are the staff? What are their credentials? How are they differentiating in your market?
Are you offering palliative care in patients’ homes, hospitals, community clinics or all of these?

9. RECOMMENDATION: DISTINGUISHING YOUR PALLIATIVE CARE PROGRAM FROM OTHERS
Establish and market palliative care as a distinct medical specialty
Position your services as complementing, not competing with, care from other providers

10. BRANDING YOUR PALLIATIVE CARE PROGRAM
THE BIG QUESTION Should you associate your palliative care brand with your hospice brand or separate them?

11. BRANDING YOUR PALLIATIVE CARE PROGRAM
CHALLENGES:
“Hospice” comes with baggage of negative connotations to imminent death
Supporting two brands with separate identities and the costs that go along with them (logos, letterheads, website, etc.)
A connection should exist between the respective service lines to reinforce conversion

12. “PALLIATIVE CARE” VS. “SUPPORTIVE CARE”
“Palliative care” is an unknown term to many, and physicians still equate it to hospice
A growing number of healthcare organizations call their palliative programs “supportive care”, saying it is:
More descriptive
Language is familiar
Provides a platform to educate services support both patients and families

13. “PALLIATIVE CARE” VS. “SUPPORTIVE CARE”
Others believe sticking with “palliative care” because that’s the clinical name of the specialty
Proponents feel people should be educated about what “palliative” means and how to pronounce it

14. RECOMMENDATION: ESTABLISH A TRUE UMBRELLA BRAND
Umbrella brand: A single, unified name that is modified with
descriptors to denote separate products or services.
Position palliative care as part of a service portfolio under umbrella brand
Reposition/redefine the service lines with the same cohesive brand identity

15. RECOMMENDATION: ESTABLISH A TRUE UMBRELLA BRAND
Stick with “palliative care” as the service line name; it’s the clinical specialty and education continues to familiarize
See next slide for an example

16. RECOMMENDATION: ESTABLISH A TRUE UMBRELLA BRAND
Before
After

17. PROMOTING YOUR PALLIATIVE CARE PROGRAM
Patients and Families
Market palliative care as a distinct medical specialty to families, listing the benefits to patients
Educate patients that palliative care can be a great supplement to curative care, relieving side effects of treatment
Emphasize palliative care is for any serious illness, any age, any stage
Let families know you can help them navigate their options

18. PROMOTING YOUR PALLIATIVE CARE PROGRAM
Referrers
Position services as complementing, not competing with, the referrer’s care plan
Communicate that palliative care does not automatically require a conversation about the end of life
Inform that palliative care can be received in conjunction with curative care

19. PROMOTING YOUR PALLIATIVE CARE PROGRAM
Hospital C-suites
Partner with hospitals and healthcare organizations
Gather data to show how palliative care can play a major role in preventing ER visits and hospital re-admissions
Collecting financial data to show cost savings/cost avoidance is a must

20. PROMOTING YOUR PALLIATIVE CARE PROGRAM
Hospital C-suites
Analyze where hospitals are struggling and where your program can help
Suggest participating in a research trial to measure how their patients do with or without palliative support, and how palliative care can impact costs
Hospital performance data is available through Medicare

21. HOSPITAL C-SUITES
Prepare a branded presentation on the proposed advantages of your palliative care program
Call the hospitals CEO and/or CFO and ask to make an appointment
State a quantified goal as an outcome (such as a realistic dollar amount of potential savings)
Specify a short time frame (such as 15 to 20 minutes) for the initial discussion

22. SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY
Recommendation: Start on a smaller scale to fine-tune successful methods for promoting your palliative care program and for controlling the demands of your services

23. SUMMARY
Differentiate your program by explaining exactly what services you offer, who provides those services, and where you provide them
Establish an umbrella brand for continuity across all service lines
For patients and families, explain palliative care in down-to-earth language and emphasize it’s for any serious illness

24. SUMMARY
For referrers, reinforce collaboration and promote palliative care in addition to curative treatment
For hospital C-suites, arm yourself with data that quantifies positive clinical outcomes and clear cost savings/cost avoidance
Start your palliative care marketing on a small scale to
fine-tune your methods and control the number of patients